Exercise 4. Read the text and correct errors underlined.

The study showed that local police can play an important role in crime prevention. It makes a strong case of boosting the numbers of community police officers although it warns against increasing police presence on the streets at an alarming degree. Its methodological was based on a range of interviews asking members of the public for their views in how best to prevent crime. Unfortunately, how to implement this recommendation was out of the scope of the study but at least it serves a useful purpose in raising awareness to the issue.

                                                                                        

Exercise 5. Look at these titles of academic books (A-H).Then match them to their subject areas (1-8).

A The Nature of Democracy                   1 economics

В The Significance of Dreams                2 education

С The Features of Glaciated Landscapes 3 literature

D The Assessment of Language Skills   4 history

E An Approach to Free Verse                5 geography

FThe Identification of Bees                    6 psychology

G Perspectives on Modern Taxation     7 politics

H New Perspectives on Cleopatra          8 zoology

                                                                                

Exercise 6. Match the beginning of each sentence with the most appropriate ending.

1 The study revealed a regular                       

2 The research focuses on one particular      

3 The writer makes a powerful             

4 The writers take an original                                          

5 Until recently there was little                                         

6 I think you should broaden the                                 

7 To date, there has been little research                          

8 There are many important                                             

 

a) scope of your research

b) awareness of the problem.

c) issues facing the world today.

d) into the environmental effects of nanoparticles.

e) approach to their theme.

f) aspect of modern society.

g) pattern of changes in temperature.

h) case for restructuring parliament.

Nouns and prepositions

Exercise 1.Consider the table of groups of related nouns sharing prepositions and fill in the missing prepositions.

 

nouns	preposition(s)	example
book, article, essay, lecture, dissertation, project, assignment	About (for more general subjects), on ( for more specific, detailed works)	In 1978, Da Silva published a book about  the history of emigration. She wrote a dissertation on teenage slang in New York.
research (see also B), investigation, inquiry	into	Kelly (1969) conducted an investigation into the origins of international terrorism.
analysis, examination, exploration (see also B), study	of	The article offers an analysis of the potential impact of the H5NI Avian Flu virus.
problem, difficulty	of, with	He gave a lecture on the problem of global warming. One difficulty with this approach is that a set of results may allow different interpretations.
reason, motivation, rationale (see also B)	for	Economists have recently questioned the rationale for government spending.

 

1.  One difficulty __________ the class questionnaire was that some students had already left the course and could not be contacted.

2.  She wrote a dissertation __________ wild flower conservation in Finland in the 1990s.

3.  The book is an exploration __________ the origins of the economic crisis of 1997.

4. The rationale __________ the present research is the need to better understand the process of agreement in international law.

5.  Research __________ spoken language has been considerably assisted in recent years by the availability of computerised databases or 'corpora'.

6.  Prippen's (1984) book was an inquiry __________ the foundations of nationalism.

7.  What is Kazuo Matsui's book __________? Have you read it?

8.  He did a study __________ the problem __________ side-impact automobile collisions.

 

Exercise 2.Consider the table of nouns commonly associated with particular prepositions and correct the mistakes in the use of prepositions in these sentences. There may be more than one mistake per sentence.

 

nouns	preposition	example
look, attempt, point, age	at	An attempt at integration of economic and psychological theories of consumption
changes, differences, increase, decrease	in	Gender differences in risk-taking in financial decision ­ making
insight, inquiry, research, investigation	into	An investigation into sleep characteristics of children with autism
work, research, influence, emphasis, effect	on	Genetic influence on smoking - a study of male twins
basis, idea, part, lack, exploration, means	of	A computerised clinical decision support system as a means of implementing depression guidelines
need, reason, basis, case, preference	for	Assessing organisational culture: the case for multiple methods
relation, approach, response, attention	to	Communicating with strangers: an approach to intercultural communication
attitude, tendency, move, progress	to/towards	Progress towards sustainable regional development
principle, rationale, assumptions, logic	behind	Questioning the assumptions behind art criticism
relationship, difference, distinction	between	The relationship between educational technology and student achievement in mathematics

1.  Her dissertation produced some interesting insights to how young children develop a visual sense of the world and the age in which development is most noticeable.

2.  The reason of the unwillingness of the people involved in the demonstration to be interviewed was fear of being arrested later.

3.  Hierstat's approach at the analysis of solar phenomena is different from that of Donewski. He questioned the assumptions under much of the previous research.

4.  Changes of the rate of growth of the cells were observed over time.

5.  A lack in funding led to the cancellation of the project, and social scientists blamed the negative attitude of the government on social science research.

6.  Jawil's article puts great emphasis into the need of more research and argues the case of greater attention on the causes of poverty rather than the symptoms.

 

 

Exercise 3.Match each noun with the preposition that usually follows it.

Nouns: attitude, difference, effect, emphasis, insight, preference, principle, rationale, reason, relationship, tendency

 

Prepositions:    behind between for into on to/towards

 

Exercise 4.Underline typical academic noun + preposition combinations

 

The possible ecological effects of climate change are often in the news, as is the matter of whether the potential impact can be predicted. New work on a migratory bird, the pied flycatcher, takes things a stage further by showing how a climate-related population decline was actually caused. Timing is key. Over the past 17 years flycatchers declined strongly in areas where caterpillarnumbers peak early, but in areas with a late food peak there was no decline. The young birds arrive too late in places where caterpillars have already responded to early warmth. Mistiming like this is probably a common consequence of climate change, and may be a major factor in the decline of many long-distance migratory bird species.

 

Key verbs

Exercise 1. Read the examples of tasks which students have been given and note key verbs for structuring academic assignments. How the underlined words can be reworded by the following ones:

1) which are part of/included in

2) organise and do

3) draw something in order to explain something

4) accepting something to be true

5) discover by calculating

6) judge the number or amount of something and adding, multiplying, subtracting or dividing numbers

7) recognise someone or something and say or prove who or what they are

8) show, make clear

9) give

10) questions whether it is true

11) look at or consider carefully and in detail

a) Discuss some of the problems involved in investigating attitudes to diet and health. Write a critical review of an investigation you have read about, or describe an investigation you yourself could conduct. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of different methods.

b) Starting from rest, an aircraft accelerates to its take-off speed of 60 m s~' in a distance of 900 metres. Illustrate this with a velocity-time graph. Assuming constant acceleration, find how long the take-off run lasts. Hence calculate the acceleration.

c) The fact that nations agree to follow international law demonstrates that we can identify ideals that are trans-national and trans-cultural.' How far is this statement true? Critically analyse any recent event which supports or challenges the statement.

d) Examine how industrial growth has affected any two developing countries. Provide statistical evidence where necessary and include a discussion of likely future trends.