Category: READING COURSE

I hope you have tried understanding the vocabulary words given in the passage. However, it is possible that you might have got stuck in few of them. You need not to worry anymore, given below is the list of words with their meanings that were given in the passage. So, go on, learn new words and find out how many of the words you got correct and how many you learnt!

AVATAR

An incarnation, embodiment, or manifestation of a person or idea:

MINISTER

a head of a government department

DECLARED

Openly or formally asserted or announced

ILLITERATE

Unable to read or write

OFFENSIVE

Causing someone to feel resentful, upset, or annoyed

OFFENCE

A breach of a law or rule; an illegal act:

DEFENCE

The action of defending from or resisting attack

COMMENDABLE

Deserving praise

PERSONA

The aspect of someone’s character that is presented to or perceived by others

ALOOF

Not friendly or forthcoming; cool and distant

BENEATH

In a lower place, below

BUTT

To hit or push against with the head or horns

SEXIST

relating to, involving, or fostering sexism, or attitudes and behavior toward someone based on the person’s gender

BURBS

a short form of suburbs

COMMENTS

a remark, observation, or criticism

PARLIAMENT

the legislature of Great Britain, historically the assembly of the three estates, now composed of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal, forming together the House of Lords, and representatives of the counties, cities, boroughs, and universities, forming the House of Commons.

CIRCUMSTANCES

a condition, detail, part, or attribute, with respect to time, place, manner,agent, etc., that accompanies, determines, or modifies a fact or event; a modifying or influencing factor

RALLYING

the sport of driving in automobile rallies.

ENDURED

to hold out against; sustain without impairment or yielding; undergo

CONTROVERSIES

a prolonged public dispute, debate, or contention; disputation concerning a matter of opinion

DIGNIFIED

characterized or marked by dignity of aspect or manner; stately; decorous

AMBITION

an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment

GODFATHER

any male sponsor or guardian

INVENT

to originate or create as a product of one’s own ingenuity, experimentation, or contrivance

IMAGINARY

existing only in the imagination or fancy; not real; fancied

CLOSENESS

Being near in space or time

POWERFUL

having or exerting great power or force.

PATRON

a person who supports with money, gifts, efforts, or endorsement an artist, writer, museum, cause, charity, institution, special event, or the like

POLITICS

the science or art of political government.

CONTEST

a race, conflict, or other competition between rivals, as for a prize./dd>

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A group from IIT which went to meet her in the avatar of HRD minister had this to tell: the minister declared at least “seven times” that she was not illiterate. She was somewhat offensive, said one of the members, as she had perhaps decided that offence was the best form of defence. For if Smriti has had to cover a thin skin behind a thick hide, so to speak, she has done a commendable job of it. She has developed a persona of being aloof and indifferent. Says a woman leader from the BJP, “Smriti has also beneath butt of sexist burbs and comments in parliament and under normal circumstances we should all have been rallying around her.” Still, to Smriti’s credit, she has endured those controversies involving sexist remarks well, eventually giving it back in a dignified manner. For instance, when Sanjay Nirupam of congress called her a ‘thumkewali’, she just took him to court.

“The problem in Smriti’s approach to politics,” says a BJP insider, “for which she has the talent and the ambition, is that she has found it necessary to seek godfathers, and if they don’t exist, to invent an imaginary closeness to powerful male figures.” Her first patron in politics when Smriti jointed the BJP in 2003 was the late Pramod Mahajan. Just a year into the party, she wanted to contest a high profile election from Mumbai or Delhi.

Source : Outlook; April, 20, 2015

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Learning vocabulary is very essential if you want to score high in IELTS. However, no matter how many words you know, you surely cannot learn the entire dictionary (unless you are Eminem), given the short time you have. So, what is the trick?? Take a phone with internet in it during exam or take the entire dictionary in the exam?? Well, if you do either of them, you are surely going to be at a great loss ( you will be thrown out of the exam). Well, the trick is to understand words sometimes. Rather than learning the dictionary meaning, you need to figure out what words you understood just by reading the entire sentence.

For instance –

“A group from IIT which went to meet her in the avatar of HRD minister”. What possibly could avatar mean?? Just go few words back and few words ahead of avatar in the sentence. Read it and read it again. Once you have done reading, you would understand that it means, in the form of HRD minister. Avatar’s dictionary meaning is surely not form, but then, you can get a bit of idea by the sentence.

Let us take another example – For if Smriti has had to cover a thin skin behind a thick hide, so to speak, she has done a commendable job of it.

When you read this sentence, do you think in any ways the person is trying to bring Smriti in bad light? No, she says that if we talk about covering a thin skin behind a thick skin she did a commendable job. This means a good job.

Obviously, this understanding the vocabulary comes once you have read a lot of material and you have developed a habit of understanding the text. When you have reached the level, those small high vocab words, whose meaning you don’t know won’t annoy.

Even more, this trick if for those people who have their exams nearing up and can’t seem to have a hold of the reading section.

By the way, what is going to happen with the words you just read? Well, don’t worry, you can find the meanings of the words HERE.

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[PARA 1 ]

London has been named the most googled ( to type the words into the search engine Google in order to find information about somebody/something) city in the world for its art galleries (a room or building showing works of art, especially to the public), performing arts and innovative (introducing or new ideas new ideas, ways of doing something etc.) designs. The research (a careful study of a subject, especially in order to discover new facts or information about it), which was carried out by London and partners, found that the city’s museums make up the top three most googled museums in the world with science museum leading the results. It stated that the natural history museum was the second-most searched for and the British museum was third.

[PARA 2 ]

“London is without a doubt (a feeling of being uncertain about something or not believing something) the cultural (connected with arts, literature, music etc.) capital of the world. Tourists( a person who is travelling or visiting a place for pleasure) are flocking(to go and gather somewhere in large numbers) to our great city in ever-increasing numbers, drawn by our exceptional(unusually good) cultural attractions(an interesting and enjoyable place to go or thing to do) and landmarks(building or a place that is very important because of its history, and that should be preserved)”, says London Mayor Boris Johnson said.

[PARA 3 ]

“Our world famous museums, galleries, theatres and performance venues have done a terrific(excellent, wonderful) job creating and attracting the blockbuster(something very successful, especially something a very successful book or film) exhibitions(the act of showing something for example, works of art to the public) and events that form this spectacular(very impressive) autumn (the season of the year between summer and winter, when leaves change colour and the weather becomes colder) season of culture in London.

[PARA 4 ]

If you are planning to travel in months ahead, London is a city not to be missed”, he said.
Figures showed that London’s theatres also generate more searches than those in any other city and the British capital is the most searched for city in the world to visit. The New York metropolitan museum of art and the Smithsonian in Washington DC are ranked 4th and 5th respectively.
Source – The Hindu

QUESTION TIME

Match the words with their meanings

WORDS	MEANINGS
1.Googled	a.a feeling of being uncertain about something or not believing something
2.Innovative	b.a room or building showing works of art, especially to the public
3.Cultural	c.excellent, wonderful
4.Flocking	d.the act of showing something, for example, works of art to the public
5.Attraction	e.the season of the year between summer and winter, when leaves change color and the weather becomes colder
6.Terrific	f.building or a place that is very important because of its history, and that should be preserved
7.Exhibition	g.introducing or new ideas new ideas, ways of doing something etc.
8.Autumn	h. to type the words into the search engine Google in order to find information about somebody/something
9.Spectacular	i.connected with arts, literature, music etc.
10.Landmark	j.a person who is travelling or visiting a place for pleasure
11.Exceptional	k.to go and gather somewhere in large numbers
12.Blockbuster	l.an interesting and enjoyable place to go or thing to do
13.Doubt	m.unusually good
14.Gallery	n.Very Impressive
15.Tourists	o.Very Successful

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ANSWERS

1. h
2. g
3. i
4. k
5. l
6. c
7. d
8. e
9. n
10. f
11. m
12. o
13. a
14. b
15. j

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