3 Education

N am ing academ ic su b je cts I Verbs, nouns and a d jectives associated w ith academ ic study I
C hoosing th e c o rre c t p a rt of speech

Vocabulary

Academic subjects: • sociology

UNCOUNTABLE NOUN Sociology is the
• archaeology also archeology study of society or of the way society is
UNCOUNTABLE NOUN Archaeology is the
organized. ■ a sociology professor at the
study of the societies and peoples of the past University of North Carolina ■ a treatise on
by examining the rem ains of th e ir buildings,
the sociology of religion
tools, and other objects. ■ an archaeology
professor at Florida State University Academic activities:
• astronomy • analyse (analyses, analysing, analysed)
UNCOUNTABLE NOUN Astronomy is the VERB If you analyse something, you consider
scientific study of the stars, planets, and it carefully or use statistical methods in
other n atural objects in space. ■ a 10-day order to fu lly understand it. [US analyze]
astronomy mission ■ McCarthy was asked to analyse the data
• economics from the first phase of trials of the vaccine.
UNCOUNTABLE NOUN Economics is the ■ [+ what] This book teaches you how to
study of the way in which money, industry, analyse what is causing the stress in your life.
and trade are organized in a society. • claim (claims, claiming, claimed)
■ He gained a firs t class Honours degree VERB If you say that someone claims that
in economics. ■ having previously studied something is true, you mean they say that it is
economics and fine art true but you are not sure w hether or not they
• geology are telling the truth. ■ [+ that] He claimed that
UNCOUNTABLE NOUN Geology is the it was all a conspiracy against him. ■ [+ to-inf]
study of the E arth’s structure, surface, and A man claiming to be a journalist threatened to
origins. ■ He was visiting professor of geology reveal details about her private life. ■ He claims
at the University of Jordan. a 70 to 80 per cent success rate.
• linguistics • define (defines, defining, defined)
UNCOUNTABLE NOUN Linguistics is the VERB If you define a word or expression,
study of the way in which language works. you explain its meaning, fo r example in a
■ Modern linguistics emerged as a distinct dictionary. ■ [+ as] Collins English Dictionary
field in the nineteenth century. defines a workaholic as 'a person obsessively
• psychology addicted to work'.
UNCOUNTABLE NOUN Psychology is the • evaluate (evaluates, evaluating, evaluated)
scientific study of the human mind and the VERB If you evaluate som ething or
reasons fo r people's behaviour. ■ Professor someone, you consider them in order to
of Psychology at Bedford College ■ research in make a judgm ent about them , fo r example
educational psychology about how good or bad they are. ■ They w ill

Vocabulary for IELTS

 Unit 3
first send in trained nurses to evaluate the or has really happened. ■ [+ of/for] a report
needs of the individual situation. ■ The market on the scientific evidence for global warming
situation is difficult to evaluate. ■ [+ how] we ■ [+ that] There is a lot of evidence that stress
evaluate how well we do something is partly responsible for disease. ■ [+ to-inf] To
• investigate (investigates, investigating, date there is no evidence to support this theory.
investigated) • hypothesis (hypotheses)
VERB If you investigate som ething, you NOUN A hypothesis is an idea which is
study or examine it carefully to find out suggested as a possible explanation fo r a
the tru th about it. ■ Research in Oxford is p a rticu la r situation or condition, but which
now investigating a possible link between has not yet been proved to be correct.
endometriosis and the immune system. [FORMAL] ■ Work w ill now begin to test the
■ [+ how] Police are s till investigating how the hypothesis in rats. ■ Different hypotheses have
accident happened. been put forward to explain why these foods
are more likely to cause problems.
Nouns associated with research:
• theory (theories)
• evidence NOUN A theory is a fo rm a l idea or set of
UNCOUNTABLE NOUN Evidence is anything ideas that is intended to explain som ething.
that you see, experience, read, or are told that ■ [+ of] Einstein formulated the Theory of
causes you to believe that something is true Relativity in 1905.

Practice exercises

Exam tip: Words fo r academic subjects can have many different endings, but these are
common.

-ics: statistics -logy: biology -y: philosophy

Learn to recognize these.

Complete w ords 1-7 below w ith the ending -ic s , -lo g y , o r - y to fo rm the names of
subjects. Then match them to the topics of study a-g.

1 archaeo a the human mind

2 astrnnnm b people of the past
3 eronnm c society
U geo d money, industry and trade
5 linguist e the Earth
6 psycho ...... ............. ......... f how language w orks
7 s o c io ....... g stars and planets

Exam tip: Words fo r naming people by th e ir occupations often end in -er.

Examples: teacher/farm er/m iner
W ords fo r naming people who study academic subjects fo r a living usually end in -ist.
Examples: biologist/physicist
Learn to recognize these.

Education 15
 Choose the co rre ct w ords fo r academ ic subjects and the people who study them to
com plete sentences 1-7.

1 A n ___________at the Royal Observatory has discovered a new moon in our solar system.
2 She wanted to understand why people feel, think, and behave in certain ways, so she
decided to do a degree in ___________
3 ___________is the study of language in general, not any p a rticu la r language such as
French or Mandarin.
U The governm ent’s predictions fo r economic growth and inflation were not endorsed by
le a d in g ___________
5 Students from the departm ent o f ___________spent the weekend studying rock
form ations off the coast of Scotland.
6 Graduates i n ___________often take jobs which involve analysing data and fo rm ulating
social policy.
7 ___________were called in to investigate the Iron Age tools discovered on the building site.

j Exam tip : When w riting in the IELTS exam you need to use not only the right words but
j also the right parts of speech, for example:
Thompson and her colleagues analyse IverbJ the samples using the antibody test.
The main results of the analysis [noun] are summarized below.
i I have an analytical Iadjective] approach to every survey.
I When you learn a new word, learn its associated parts of speech.

3 The w ords in the table are com m only linked to academic study. Use your dictionary to
com plete the table.

verb noun adjective

claim x
definition x
evaluate
investigation
X evidence
hypothesis
theoretical

4 Choose the co rrect part of speech fro m the w ords in ita lics fo r sentences 1-6.
1 When giving a presentation, it is im portant to define/definition key term s.
2 An effective essay is not ju st descriptive but also evaluation/evaluative.
3 It is im portant to investigate/investigation the causes of inequality.
U It is now evidence/evident that stress contributes to disease.
5 Most scientific research begins w ith a hypothesize/hypothesis.
6 There is no theory/theoretical model to explain the impact of inflation on economic growth.

Vocabulary for IELTS

 Unit 3

5 Choose w ords fro m the table in Exercise 3 to com plete the sentences 1-5.

1 In academic discussions, it is im portant t o ____________ argum ents fo r th e ir strengths

and weaknesses.
2 It would be difficult to design a scientific experiment to test th e ____________ that m ultiple
time dimensions exist.
3 To date there is n o ____________ to support this theory.
4 A fte r le n g th y ____________ , they were s till unable to identify the source of the leak.
5 There is no general agreem ent on a s ta n d a rd ____________ of the term ‘intelligence’.

Exam practice: Writing Task 2

Below is a student’s answer to an IELTS W riting Task 2, in which candidates are required to w rite
a 250 word essay on a given topic. Complete the essay w ith w ords from the unit. There may be
more than one correct answer. Hint: make sure you choose the correct part of speech.

WRITING TASK 2
W rite about the fo llo w ing topic:

Is there any value in studying academic subjects that are not 'useful' in terms of generating
wealth for the country?

Give reasons fo r your answ er and include any relevant exam ples fro m yo u r own knowledge o r
experience.

W rite at least 250 w ords.

Many people these days (1)__________ that a useful education is one that prepares graduates for
occupations that create wealth. However, when we (2)__________ the usefulness of an academic
subject we should think carefully about how we (3)__________ the term ‘useful’. In this essay, I argue
that many academic subjects that do not directly generate great wealth can s till be very useful.
Some subjects can be useful because they create knowledge that can be applied in related fields.
(4) , fo r example, study the way language w orks. Their (5)__________ can be used to
create more effective methods of language teaching. Improved international com m unication can
result in better trading relations, which can in turn generate wealth. (6)__________ (7)__________
the lives of people in the past through th e ir artifacts. Many of these w ill be displayed in museums,
which can a ttract to urists who generate income fo r hoteliers, restaurants and so on.
Many academic subjects can also be ‘useful’ in te rm s of contributing to people’s quality of
life. Some people pursue hobbies in fields such as (8 )__________ in order to have a better
understanding of the planet we live on. Others w ith an interest in stars and planets may become
am ateur (9 )__________ Curiosity is an im portant human tra it, and many academic subjects
allow people to satisfy this need.
In short, there is little (10)__________ that sim ply educating people to be efficient w orkers
makes them happier or riche r in the broader sense. Human curiosity and the unpredictable
nature of knowledge creation mean that a variety of academic disciplines should be valued.

Now com plete the essay in your own w ords.

Education 17