This week, I’ve chosen to create a gap filling exercise for you, since the cost of living is such a topical subject.
Exercise 1
Grab a piece of paper and a pen (or the computer equivalent!).
Set a timer for 5 minutes.
Write down all the words and phrases you can think of relating to the cost of living crisis.
I’ll share my answers at the end, otherwise they might give you too many hints for the gap filling exercise!
Gap filling
Close to a third of single parents have _______ __________ meals to __________ because of __________ food costs, according to research revealing the household types worst _________ by the cost of living crisis.
Three in 10 single parent households surveyed said they had missed meals as a consequence of _________ food prices. That compared with one in seven parents in couples and an overall figure of 14% in the poll by the consumer group Which?
“Our research has found that families across the UK are ______ with the rising cost of living, with single parents most likely to be skipping meals or ________- food banks to make ends meet,” said Rocio Concha, its director of policy and advocacy.
Which? wants supermarkets to ensure prices are easy to compare and that budget food ranges are ______- available.
The most recent official data showed food price inflation _____16.4% in October – its highest level since 1977 – because of big increases in the cost of ________- such as milk, butter, cheese, pasta and eggs.
Which? said households experienced different rates of inflation, with single parents and pensioners ______ hit because they spend a greater ___________ – 30% – of their budget on food, energy and fuel. For couples with children this drops to about a quarter. However, all households are spending significantly more of their income on essentials than they did a year ago.
In another ___________ sign, almost a fifth of single parent households and one in seven couples with children said they had ___________- a vital bill payment, such as their mortgage or rent, in September and October. On average, the missed payment rate was 8%.
Close to a third of single parents have resorted toskipping meals to make ends meet because of rising food costs, according to research revealing the household types worst hit by the cost of living crisis.
Three in 10 single parent households surveyed said they had missed meals as a consequence of runaway food prices. That compared with one in seven parents in couples and an overall figure of 14% in the poll by the consumer group Which?
“Our research has found that families across the UK are struggling with the rising cost of living, with single parents most likely to be skipping meals or turning to food banks to make ends meet,” said Rocio Concha, its director of policy and advocacy.
Which? wants supermarkets to ensure prices are easy to compare and that budget food ranges are widely available.
The most recent official data showed food price inflation hit 16.4% in October – its highest level since 1977 – because of big increases in the cost of staples such as milk, butter, cheese, pasta and eggs.
Which? said households experienced different rates of inflation, with single parents and pensioners badly hit because they spend a greater proportion – 30% – of their budget on food, energy and fuel. For couples with children this drops to about a quarter. However, all households are spending significantly more of their income on essentials than they did a year ago.
In another worrying sign, almost a fifth of single parent households and one in seven couples with children said they had missed a vital bill payment, such as their mortgage or rent, in September and October. On average, the missed payment rate was 8%.
resorted to: you could also say ‘have started skipping meals’, or ‘have had to skip meals’, ‘have been forced to skip meals’
skipping meals: you could also say ‘missing’
to make ends meet: something else that would fit here is ‘to save money’ or ‘to make savings’
rising food prices: there are lots of options for this: skyrocketing, spiralling, ever-increasing, escalating, soaring or just ‘high’. And of course, you can use ‘runaway’ food costs, which comes up a few lines down, or ‘out of control’.
worst hit: could also be ‘worst affected’
struggling: the preposition ‘with’ doesn’t leave you many options. You could try ‘grappling with’ or ‘having problems with’.
turning to: you could use ‘resorting to’ or ‘using’, ‘making use of’, or ‘relying on’.
widely available: there aren’t many adverbs that collocate well with ‘available’. The best options are ‘readily’ or ‘easily’ (according to the dictionary, but I’m not keen on ‘easily available’).
hit 16.4%: you could also say ‘reached’
staples: also ‘basics’, ‘essentials’, or just ‘foods’
badly hit: this is a bit like ‘widely available’. There aren’t many options, other than ‘hard hit’ and variants thereof, e.g. ‘particularly hard hit’
proportion: also ‘percentage’ or ‘share’
worrying sign: ‘bad’, ‘disturbing’, ‘ominous’. Nowadays people also use ‘concerning’.
missed: ‘skipped’, ‘failed to make’
Brainstorming suggestions
Here are a few of my ideas.
spiralling costs
soaring fuel prices
rising fuel prices
fuel poverty
to go without
heat or eat
to be sparing, frugal, thrifty
to watch your spending
to keep an eye on outgoings
to make ends meet
to tighten your belt
to cut back on
to cut down on
spending on luxuries
shopping habits
wasteful
to cope with
to put food on the table
to make savings
non-essential spending
discretionary spending
necessities
money-saving tips
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Interested in more material like this to help you boost your retour? Why not join my monthly membership site, Rock your Retour, with tailor-made written materials and weekly live group classes (online)?
Sophie Llewellyn Smith, writing as The Interpreting Coach, is a coach, interpreter trainer, conference interpreter, designer of online teaching materials, and creator of Speechpool. Follow the blog to pick up tips on how to improve your interpreting skills.
A RyR member was asking me about these two words recently. In particular, she was wondering whether we say ‘a society’s collective remembrance of events’, or ‘collective memory’ (the answer is memory).
Here are some more thoughts about memory vs remembrance.
The first and most important distinction to remember is that remembrance describes an act or behaviour.
Remembrance and commemoration
Remembrance is the act of remembering and showing respect for someone who has died, or a past event.
For example:
A church service was held in remembrance of the victims of the arena bombing.
Here are some examples from the press:
Every year, walkers from all over the north join members of the Fell and Rock Climbing Club on a trek up Great Gable in remembrance of those who have lost their lives in conflict.
If you wear a red poppy this year, it will mean something different. The Royal British Legion has said that the symbol that has long represented remembrance of the UK’s armed forces will also stand for civilian victims, not just of war, but terrorism too.
The 11th November is called Remembrance Day in the UK.
If you want to talk about a ceremony or ritual to honour and remember someone, use the verb commemorate. Commemorations are often held on the anniversary of someone’s birth or death; or they can honour an event, like a war, in which case they are often held on the anniversary of the event (or its beginning or end).
Memorial
A tangible way to honour a famous individual or remember an important event is to erect a memorial.
A memorial is a large object, often made of stone, dedicated to the person or event you wish to remember.
Many villages in the UK have a war memorial, for example.
Here are a few adjectives that are often paired with the word memorial:
a lasting memorial
a permanent memorial
a fitting memorial to…
We talk about building a memorial to the fallen/those who have disappeared etc.
The word memorial is also used as a shortcut for ‘memorial service’, i.e. a ceremony to remember someone who has died, usually taking place after the burial.
Memory
Memory means two things:
the ability to remember
something you remember from the past
Let’s talk first about the ability to remember. We use memory, in this sense, with the preposition for:
I have a terrible memory for names.
Here are a few typical adjectives that go with memory. Some of them are clearly more colloquial than others:
good
excellent
outstanding
prodigious
bad
poor
terrible
awful
unreliable
Exercise 1
Let’s say you take your children to a fair, and you suddenly pass a truck selling candyfloss. This reminds you of all the times your parents took you to fairgrounds as a child.
Do you have a pen and paper? You have two minutes to write down all the verbs and phrases you can think of that carry this meaning of ‘reminding you’ of the past.
Here’s what I came up with:
it jogged my memory
it brought back memories
the memories came flooding back
it conjures up memories
I also thought of ‘it evokes memories’. This is more formal, though.
Here’s what I came up with:
it jogged my memory
it brought back memories
the memories came flooding back
it conjures up memories
I also thought of ‘it evokes memories’. This is more formal, though.
Now let’s look at a memory as something you remember from the past.
Exercise 2
Can you think of four adjectives that go with the word memory and that mean the opposite of ‘transient’?
The adjectives I had in mind were:
lasting memories
abiding
enduring
lingering
Exercise 3
How many other adjectives can you list that go with the word memory (meaning ‘something you remember’)?
How about
vivid memories
distant memories
dim
hazy
vague
affectionate
fond
good
happy
lovely
nostalgic
pleasant
precious
sweet
warm
wonderful
bittersweet
bad
disturbing
embarrassing
painful
sad
traumatic
unhappy
unpleasant
childhood memories
Recollection
Recollection is a more formal word than memory, but it has the same two meanings.
something you remember:
I have many pleasant recollections (=memories).
The following example illustrates the difference in register:
I have no recollection of the incident.
A less formal version would simply be ‘I don’t remember what happened.’
2. the ability to remember
His powers of recollection are second to none.
Note that when we mean someone’s ability to recall information, we talk about their powers of recollection and not simply their ‘recollection’. So where we would say ‘He has an excellent memory’, we don’t say ‘he has an excellent recollection’, but rather ‘he has excellent powers of recollection’.
You can use the same adjectives with recollection as with memory: clear, distinct, vivid, dim, hazy, vague, faint…
Finally, a useful idiom: ‘to the best of my recollection’.
Exercise 4 – idioms
This exercise has two versions, one easier than the other.
For the harder version, I will give you definitions/explanations/paraphrases of several idioms. You have to try to come up with the idiom. Hint: they all contain the word memory.
if I remember correctly
let’s talk about something that took place in the past, let’s go back in time
to have an excellent memory
an event that has taken place recently or within someone’s lifetime
I will never forget this event
to have a terrible memory
‘if memory serves’, or ‘if my memory serves me right/correctly’. This is a very useful idiom in meeting situations. Personally, I use ‘if memory serves’, because it’s shorter and you’re less likely to make mistakes!
let’s take a walk/stroll/trip down memory lane
to have a memory like an elephant
within living memory (or within recent memory). For example: ‘He actually apologised?! That hasn’t happened in living memory!‘
This event is engraved/etched on my memory
to have a memory like a sieve
Easier version of exercise 4
Match the idiom to the explanation or paraphrase.
if I remember correctly
it is etched on my memory
let’s talk about something that took place in the past, let’s go back in time
to have a memory like a sieve
to have an excellent memory
if memory serves
an event that has taken place recently or within someone’s lifetime
in living memory
I will never forget this event
let’s take a trip down memory lane
to have a terrible memory
to have a memory like an elephant
if I remember correctly
if memory serves
let’s talk about something that took place in the past, let’s go back in time
let’s take a trip down memory lane
to have an excellent memory
to have a memory like an elephant
an event that has taken place recently or within someone’s lifetime
in living memory
I will never forget this event
this event is etched on my memory
to have a terrible memory
to have a memory like a sieve
Exercise 5
Can you rewrite this short text in a more formal register?
I have lots of happy memories of Blackpool, but last time I went there something awful happened. A car ran me over. I don’t remember what happened at all, but everything that happened afterwards, including my long hospital stay, will stay with me forever. Now every time I smell fish and chips, it brings everything back.
There is no single answer, but here is one suggestion:
I have many pleasant recollections of Blackpool, but on my last visit, something dreadful occurred. A car knocked me over. I have no recollection of the incident, but the aftermath, including my long hospital stay, will remain etched on my memory forever. Now the smell of fish and chips always evokes bad memories.
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Interested in more material like this to help you boost your retour? Why not join my monthly membership site, Rock your Retour, with tailor-made written materials and weekly live group classes (online)?
Sophie Llewellyn Smith, writing as The Interpreting Coach, is a coach, interpreter trainer, conference interpreter, designer of online teaching materials, and creator of Speechpool. Follow the blog to pick up tips on how to improve your interpreting skills.
We so often hear of something having a negative impact, yet there are many more idiomatic ways of expressing this idea.
You can often use a verb or adjective instead, which allows you to be more precise or more colourful. Another option that often works is using a verb and modifying it with an adverb.
Here are some options for you.
Verbs
Instead of has a negative impact, try some of the following. Of course, your choice will depend on context.
damage
weaken
undermine
hurt
hit
affect
cause harm to…
Add adverbs to modify the verbs, especially if you want to make them stronger. Seriously, badly, and severely are usually safe choices.
A few idioms:
to leave a mark on
to play havoc with
to take a toll on
to deal a blow to (you could add adjectives: ‘a crushing blow’, ‘a severe blow’, ‘a serious blow’)
(informal) to do a number on
Adjectives
Instead of saying X has had a negative impact on the economy, you can use adjectives.
Either replace negative with something more descriptive, or say that the effect of X has been…(insert adjective).
Using adjectives allows you to play with register and emphasis, since some adjectives are much stronger or more formal than others.
unfortunate
destructive
damaging
harmful
detrimental
(formal) deleterious
dangerous
adverse
Stronger options:
catastrophic
disastrous
devastating
crippling
dire
Synonyms
Remember, there are a few words that have a similar meaning to negative impact. As always, they may or may not be suitable for the context:
drawback
disadvantage
downside
You could also choose to use a synonym of impact, along with a different adjective. For example:
damaging ramifications
undesirable consequences
adverse effects
an unfortunate outcome
catastrophic repercussions
Exercise
Here are some headlines (hence the missing verbs) and sentences taken from the press. All of them could have used the term negative impact.
See if you can come up with a different phrase. There are many possible solutions.
Pandemic’s negative impact on mental health of women and young people is most serious.
In France, nearly half (47%) of people aged 18 to 24 said the pandemic had had a negative impact on their mental health.
Half of people aged 18-24 in the UK say the pandemic had a negative impact on their mental health.
Lockdown may have a negative impact on mental health
The negative psychological impact of coronavirus in Britain – a visual guide
Anxiety levels double and 80 per cent of people report negative impact of living with pandemic threat
Pandemic hits mental health of women and young people hardest.
In France, nearly half (47%) of people aged 18 to 24 said the pandemic had taken a toll on their mental health.
Half of people aged 18-24 in the UK say the pandemic badly affected their mental health.
Lockdown may have a number of negative consequences for mental health
The psychological toll of coronavirus in Britain – a visual guide
Anxiety levels double and 80 per cent of people report devastating effects of living with pandemic threat
Interested in more material like this to help you boost your retour? Why not join my monthly membership site, Rock your Retour, with tailor-made written materials and weekly live group classes (online)?
Sophie Llewellyn Smith, writing as The Interpreting Coach, is a coach, interpreter trainer, conference interpreter, designer of online teaching materials, and creator of Speechpool. Follow the blog to pick up tips on how to improve your interpreting skills.
I’ve created a short reformulation exercise to help you work on your English – whether it’s a passive language in your combination, a retour language, or your mother tongue.
I’ve given a short speech about Shell and the windfall tax (see video below), but left gaps (silences) in the sentences.
if English is your mother tongue, pause the video when there’s a gap, and see if you can find 3 or 4 possible solutions.
If English is your B language, try shadowing the speech, repeating what you hear, and filling in the blanks as you go along (you’ll need a decalage of a few words in order to do this).
If English is one of your C languages, interpret the speech in simultaneous into your A language. Can you compensate for all the gaps and deduce what I must have said?
This is an exercise I created for members of my Rock your Retour group for English retourists. They have access to the original text of my speech, as well as suggestions for filling in the blanks in different ways (and in different registers).
Here is something a bit different for you – a cloze, or gap, test.
The idea is to listen to the speech and fill in the gaps with one or more words that are grammatically correct and match the content and style of the piece.
This is a good exercise for many reasons:
it helps you with anticipation. You won’t be able to fill in every gap before hearing the following few words, but some of them can be guessed immediately because they’re part of a collocation, set phrase, or idiom, or because they make sense in context.
it helps you work on reformulation: some of the gaps have many possible solutions. How many can you think of?
it’s a good listening exercise. You need to concentrate really hard to follow the speech’s thread, so that you can fill in the blanks.
it’s a good reminder that we work at the level of ideas, not words. Imagine if you were interpreting the speech from English into your A language: you could make a good guess at the missing words; so if they were unknown words, you would still be able to follow the meaning in most cases.
Audio file – Islamic art
This is quite a challenging text. You will need to draw on your background knowledge and logic, as well as your English skills, to fill in the blanks successfully.
I won’t go through every blank, but I thought it might be useful to discuss a few of the blanks where there were several possible solutions.
depictions of the prophet Muhammad are……. in Islam: you could say forbidden, or banned, prohibited.
The prohibition of images of the prophet, no matter how …….., is widely …….. today . There are many ways to complete this sentence, especially as it is ambiguous: does the adjective following ‘no matter how’ refer to ‘images of the prophet’, or to ‘prohibition’? Depending on what you think, you could say ‘the prohibition of images of the prophet, no matter how innocuous, is widely accepted’, or ‘the prohibition of images of the prophet, no matter how harmless, is widely criticised today’, or ‘the prohibition of images of the prophet, no matter how dangerous, is widely accepted today’. You need to think carefully about what has been said so far, and your background knowledge about this issue.
there is no such …….. in the Qur’an: this could be instruction, or prohibition, ban, or edict.
Islam was the only common …..: could be religion, factor, or denominator.
ruling elites ……. Islam as a binding agent: there are several solutions, depending on meaning. You could say used or exploited; or fastened on to, latched on to; or saw, perceived.
decade of economic pain and social …..: this could be decline, problems, tensions, or fracture.
Speech transcript
Here’s the transcript of the speech. I have highlighted the missing words in bold.
Though we often hear that depictions of the prophet Muhammad are forbidden in Islam, artworks bearing his image can be found in museums in Europe and the United States. And he is in many carefully curated private collections of Islamic art, appearing from time to time in the catalogues of prestigious auction houses when these artworks change hands.
The prohibition of images of the prophet, no matter how anodyne, is widely accepted today – but, as these examples show, it is a distinctly modern edict. The religious justification for the ban is far less clear than its proponents believe: there is no such instruction in the Qur’an. There is, of course, a pre-Islamic aversion to idol worship shared by all the monotheistic religions, and over the centuries this aversion gradually wore away depictions of Muhammad in Islamic art. But this was only a prelude to the modern charge of blasphemy – which arrived only in the 20th century, after the Muslim world had fractured into nation-states.
The modern majority-Muslim nation-state is a weak and unwieldy creature. Across Africa and south Asia, colonial forces lumped together disparate tribes and languages, drew boundary lines around them, and then abruptly decamped to Europe. For many citizens of these new nations, Islam was the only common denominator. In the absence of any coherent political programme beyond the maintenance of their own power, ruling elites fastened on to Islam as a binding agent. From there it was an easy step to pick out some sacred icons, such as the image of the prophet, and to draw arbitrary theological red lines, useful for dispensing with political opponents. The story of blasphemy in contemporary Islam isn’t about doctrine. It is about decline and dictatorship.
There is a lesson in this tale for all of us: the more that a society is preoccupied with its symbols, the more insecure it has become. In the UK, the Conservative government and its court press have seized upon the veneration of national symbols as a consolation for a decade of economic pain and social fracture.
And then, of course, there is the flag, the latest icon to be invested with a sanctity that demands it be flown longer and larger. The government has decreed that after the summer the flag should fly over official buildings every day rather than 20 days a year. No longer is it just jolly bunting on special occasions. This is the endpoint of a journey that began when Nigel Farage took a small union flag and placed it in front of him at the European parliament. In all its absurdity, that moment comes closest to representing what the flag has come to symbolise today – a false but potent claim of liberation from fictional oppressive forces.
Over the past few months, Tory MPs have tried to burnish their political credentials by posturing more and more aggressively about the flag, demanding that it be compulsory in all schools (and that anyone who has concerns can be “educated” into compliance). It is an even shorter distance between that public, official intimidation and private citizens taking matters into their own hands. Earlier this year, one mayor in Cornwall received death threats for removing flags that had been put up without the council’s permission.
“You can’t eat a flag,” said John Hume, one of the architects of the Northern Ireland peace process. When Muslim countries erupt with rage over images of Muhammad, I see governments who cannot feed their people, or provide them with dignity or democratic rights, so they feed them false pride instead. The images we see on the news from Cairo or Khartoum of protests against cartoons or authors, are pictures of astroturfed anger, whipped up and bussed into town squares in government vehicles. Some of that anger seeps into corners that then become impossible to scrub. The worship of icons, whether flags or statues, may seem like a harmless performance on the part of a government that has little else to offer. But behind it lurks the threat of something much more sinister.
I hope you enjoyed this exercise!
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