Ishikawa Entrance English: Vocabulary and Word Knowledge

Vocabulary and Word Knowledge

In Ishikawa Entrance English, Vocabulary and Word Knowledge tests meaning in context, word families, collocations, prefixes and suffixes, synonyms and antonyms, and connotation. The exam favors words that look familiar but shift meaning in context, so a dictionary first sense is often a trap.

Core rules

• Use the whole clause, not the single word: restatements after semicolons, dashes, or that is often define the target.
• Identify the part of speech before choosing: a noun blank cannot take an adjective form.
• Learn collocations as chunks (make a decision, take responsibility, heavy rain), not as isolated translations.
• Use word families: economy, economic, economical differ in meaning and grammar.
• Check connotation: childish and childlike share a root but differ in attitude.

Worked example

Sentence: “The committee's decision was unanimous; not a single member objected.” Question: What does unanimous mean? Reasoning: The semicolon introduces a restatement. “Not a single member objected” means every member agreed. Therefore unanimous means fully agreed, not merely “official” or “final,” which are plausible but unsupported.

Traps that cost marks

Choosing a familiar but wrong sense; ignoring grammar (adjective versus adverb); confusing similar forms such as economic and economical; treating a synonym as interchangeable when its connotation differs; and picking an extreme word when the context is neutral.