Vocabulary and Collocations Flashcards

The proposed tax reform met with ___ resistance from small-business owners, forcing the government to rethink its timetable.

Answer: stiff

'Stiff resistance' (also 'stiff opposition' and 'stiff competition') is a fixed adjective + noun collocation meaning strong and determined. 'Steep' goes with prices, slopes and declines. 'Dense' goes with fog or forest, and 'thick' with smoke or accents. None of these three go with 'resistance'.

Since the disastrous merger, the company's share price has taken a ___.

Answer: nosedive

'Take a nosedive' is a fixed expression meaning to fall suddenly and sharply. 'Plummet' is mainly a verb (prices plummeted), so it does not follow 'take a'. 'Decline' is a noun, but English says 'go into decline' or 'suffer a decline', not 'take a decline'. 'Downslope' does not collocate with 'take' at all.

The two witnesses gave accounts that were ___ opposed, so the jury could not reconcile them.

Answer: diametrically

'Diametrically opposed' is a strong adverb + adjective collocation meaning completely opposite, like two points at either end of a circle's diameter. The other adverbs also sound mathematical, but none of them combines with 'opposed' in natural English.

Which sentence contains a verb–noun collocation error?

Answer: They did a huge effort to finish the project on time.

'Effort' collocates with 'make' ('make an effort'), not 'do', so option C is wrong. 'Pay a compliment' and 'make a contribution' are standard. 'Take a decision' is correct in British English, where it sits alongside 'make a decision', so it is not an error.

Anonymous online reviews should be taken with a ___ of salt, as many are written by competitors.

Answer: pinch

The British idiom is 'take something with a pinch of salt', meaning to be sceptical about it. American English uses 'a grain of salt'. 'Sprinkle', 'dash' and 'spoonful' are all real ways to measure small amounts in cooking, but the idiom is fixed and does not accept them.

After the factory closed, many residents could only barely ___ out a living from seasonal farm work.

Answer: eke

'Eke out a living' is a fixed collocation meaning to earn just enough to survive, usually with difficulty. 'Scrape' is a strong distractor because 'scrape a living' and 'scrape by' are correct, but 'scrape out a living' is not idiomatic. 'Wring out' is used for wet clothes or concessions, and 'squeeze out' for liquid or rivals. Neither combines with 'a living'.