Vocabulary and Word Usage
Vocabulary and Word Usage tests whether you know what words mean and whether you can choose the word that fits a sentence in meaning, form, and grammar.
Meaning questions
Synonym questions ask for the closest meaning; antonym questions ask for the opposite. Read the whole sentence first, because a word can have several senses. Then eliminate options that are only loosely related. Watch for degree: warm and hot are related but not synonyms.
Context clues
Writers leave clues: definitions after a dash or comma, examples after such as, contrasts after but or unlike, and cause-effect links. Use these clues to work out an unfamiliar word instead of guessing from its sound.
Confusable words
Learn pairs that sound alike or look alike: affect (verb) and effect (noun); their, there, they're; its and it's; advice and advise; loose and lose; principal (head, main) and principle (rule); stationary (still) and stationery (paper). Check word forms too: a noun slot needs a noun, so 'the decision', not 'the decide'.
Collocation and idiom
Some words go together by custom: make a decision, take a seat, do homework, heavy rain, strong wind. Idioms cannot be understood word by word: 'a piece of cake' means easy, not food.
Worked example
'The heavy rain had a bad ___ on the harvest.' A. affect B. effect C. affective D. effectively Reasoning: The slot follows 'a bad' and must be a noun, because 'have a ... on' needs a noun object. Affect is a verb, affective an adjective, and effectively an adverb. Effect is the noun, so B is correct.
Traps
Choosing a synonym that fits the topic but not the sentence; confusing part of speech; forgetting that some words have two meanings (bank, light, spring); and picking an antonym when the question asks for a synonym.