Sharpening up Your Reading and Comprehension Skills by Austin Mitchell - HTML preview

Word Sentences

Petite The petite young lady walked down the street.

Quandary We were in a quandary over Paul’s arrest for stealing his aunt’s goat.

Consternation John was in consternation after the police left.

Resume His resume was well put together.

Outstanding He had recommendations from outstanding persons in their own field.

Reputation I told Alwyn to be careful in giving money to Jack to invest for him as he had a bad reputation.

Excellent The students were really impressed with the new teacher and it showed in the excellent grades they were getting.

Damages Pablo suffered only minor damages to his car in the accident.

Apartment Only Jill and her mother live in their apartment.

Accommodate Sally told us that they could not accommodate us in their one bedroom apartment.

Utility Debbie was always late with her payment of the utility bills.

Complaining Josh was always complaining about the low wages he was getting for the mount of work he did.

Unceasingly David was praised by his supervisor for the unceasingly way he went about his work.

Assigned Desmond wasn’t pleased with the work assigned to him by his manager.

Appreciate I told Joel that I appreciated what he had done for my daughter.

Whereabouts After he left Listead where he had lived for more than fifteen years George Butler’s whereabouts were unknown.

Compulsory There were some compulsory questions on the test paper that we had to answer.

Observed We sat on a wall and observed some youths playing football.

Remonstrated Mrs. Jones remonstrated with her son about his behaviour.

Dumbfounded When he saw the gun, Tad was dumbfounded.

Seminar At the seminar we learned to protect ourselves from dengue fever.

Photocopies I made photocopies of my certificates for the interview.

Negative When she replied in the negative he told her to call them and that he was on his way.

Unpaved Stanford and his wife lived on an unpaved road.

Harried A harried looking Opal greeted him when he reached home.

Genuine Lascelles Ingram’s teacher’s certificate was not genuine.

Kidnap You had your friends kidnap my son.

Urgent We had urgent business to attend to in Kingston that’s why we couldn’t attend the party.

Mastermind The police found out that Jim was the mastermind behind the recent robberies and arrested him.

Relocate Because their house was so near to the river, Pablo’s family had to relocate.

Culinary Dina treated us to some culinary delights from her farm.

Demeanour He had a friendly demeanour and was a very persuasive person.

Amiss We saw clothes strewn all over the floor and we knew that something was amiss.

Accent He spoke with a deep Latino accent.

Native Pedro told us that he was a native of Columbia.

Numerous We saw numerous friends at the party.

Prominent Joline was a student at a prominent high school in Kingston.

Whisked The young girl was whisked away from the scene in a waiting motor car.

Declined Mr. Brown declined our offer to purchase the piece of property.

Volunteers Instead of a salary the volunteers were paid a small stipend.

Signal At our signal, Mr. Jones dived into the river.

Confessed Jill confessed to being the person who stole the money.

Identity The identity of the man who stole Jack’s car is now known to us.

Denied Debbie denied that she was the one who stole the money from the canteen.

Village David did not want to return to his village because things were so bad there.

Irrigate We use the water from the pond to irrigate our fields.

Precious People are rushing to African countries in search of precious metals.

Fashion We attended the fashion show at our school.

Valuable The jewlry we found were very valuable.

Caretaker The men broke into the church and robbed the caretaker.

Appoint For his good work at the school, Mr. Smith was appointed principal.

Refuse Dean was angry because I refused his offer to buy my motor cycle.

Dissatisfied We were dissatisfied with the accomodation offered to us.

Mistake We acknowledged our mistake in naming Billy as a thief.

Surviving Jane was the only surviving sister living in Jamaica.

Gloat We gloated over our school winning the football match.

Determined It was determined that the police should investigate the case.

Negotiated We have just negotiated a new salary package.

Newcomers The newcomers had no respect for our customs.

Pressure The new principal couldn’t stand the pressure any longer so he resigned.

Canyon The rustlers escaped in a canyon with the stolen cattle.

Approach The policemen approached the car with the intention of searching the passengers.

Untidy The old man looked untidy and his clothes needed a good scrubbing.

Curious People were curious to find out where the river came from.

Immediately Immediately he heard about the accident, Pedro came to visit us.

Nearby We went to a nearby shop to buy some drinks.

Distance We didn’t know the distance from our district to Kingston was so long.

Useless Dave’s mother said that he was completely useless.

Disobeying The soldier was punished for disobeying orders.

Normal My father said that these were not normal times.

Market Market day is always a busy time for most higglers.

Examinations The new college entrance examinations proved difficult for many of the students who sat it.

Approach As we approached the clearing we saw the truck.

Amazed We were amazed that it was Tom who had stolen Mr. Reid’s goats.

Torrent We were soaked by a torrent of water from the gully.

Punish The principal decided to punish the boys for their late coming.

Wail When my grandmother got the telegram about her sister’s death she let out a huge wail and started crying.

Adamant The pastor was adamant that it was Kevin who had punctured his car tyres.

Canteen Lunches at the canteen are cheaper than at most restaurants in the town.

Prospect The prospect of meeting Mr. Bell again was not welcome by Joe.

Casaul Carmen and Del were casual workers at the school.

Occasionally The school bell was so old that it was only rung occasionally.

Produce Most of the produce from the farm are sold to hotels in Ocho Rios.

Customers Many customers came to the shop last night.

Binge The doctor said that binge eating could be dangerous.

Previous We were all talking about the events of the previous day.

Retrieve He retrieved his spare keys from his desk drawer.

Evidence In court the evidence against Rory was overwhelming.

Reveal Lorna told us that in a few day she would reveal to us the buyer of her house.

Expel Hugh Davis was expelled from school for fighting.

Dropsy Because he suffered from dropsy, Mr. Benn stopped driving.

Pardon The man asked the Lord to pardon him for the bad things he had done.

Unruly Jacqueline said that we deserved to be punished for being unruly in class.

Neighbour Miss Dolly wasn’t pleased to see her neighbour’s daughter graduate from college.

Wander The stranger was just wandering around the village as if he was lost.

Congratulate We congratulated Albert on his success abroad.

Loafing The town council warned people about loafing around town.

Behave Because of bad behaviour, William was asked to leave the party.

Internship Valrie served her internship at a country school.

Commotion We saw people running but we didn’t know what the commotion was about.

Prank We immediately saw that it was a prank the boys were playing on us.

Majority The majority of students don’t attend school on Friday.

Proximity We lived in close proximity to the school.

Embarrass Daisy was embarrassed at her teenaged son’s poor table manners.

Compromise Mr. Green and his sister came to a compromise agreement.

Surround Jamaica is an island surrounded by the sea.

Conscience Mr. White accused us of having no conscience for supporting his opponent in the elections.

Advice We were told to seek legal advice before buying any property.

Resentful Weston was resentful about the way he had been treated.

Suspicious The stranger we saw in town looked very suspicious.

Unfounded Mr. Dwyer accused me of making some unfounded accusations against him.

Accountant Our accountant filed our tax returns on time.

Department Jill was appointed head of our department last month.

Director Mr. Hall appointed his son managing director of the company.

Hardware Several hardware merchants came to the nine night.

Cooperate Denton agreed to cooperate with the police.

Opportunity Bilton said he wanted an opportunity to go to univesrsity.

Review  Several students asked the principal to review their test papers again.

Perform  Only a few of my students performed below average.

Advise Baxter was advised to try and get into medical school.

Standard He failed to meet the standard to get into his favourite high school.

Recommend I have written dozens of recommendations for people I know.

Interview I was waiting on the result of my latest interview when Charles told me about the job.

Deadline We were given a deadline of next week to finalize the job.

Impress Vinette did her best to impress her new manager.

Remind We were reminded about working on Saturdays.

Attend Benny woke up early in order to attend the stock take in May Pen.

Evaluation An outside firm was hired to do the staff evaluations.

Hardworking Nelson was a hardworking young man.

Shortcomings Dawson knew of Liston’s shortcomings.

Employees Two new employees were hired on Monday.

Roster A roster was put up at the depot showing when the bus drivers were to report for duty.

Schedule As usual the buses were way off schedule.

Circulate The news about Tommy’s success in winning the lottery began to circulate fast.

Fidgeting Johny was fidgeting while the police searched his bus.

Predecessor My predecessor in my present job is now working overseas.

Colleague I saw many of my former colleagues at the taxation seminar.

Conference Our church conference was held in Montego Bay this year.

Reported We reported what we had seen to the police.

Summons We have just received the summons to attend court next week.

Disbelief We stared in disbelief at the news of Jacob’s arrest for robbery.

Informal The meeting was an informal one.

Application My application to my old school for a teaching position was turned down.

Satisfied The school felt satisfied with the performance of the students in the examinations.

Replace In a few days Mr. Reid was able to replace Dick with another driver.

Heist The thieves made a lot of money from the heist.

Dismissal Dennis blamed Norris for his dimissal from his uncle’s company.

Associate After leaving law school Duncan and Ellis became associates at the same law firm.

Fraudulent It was soon discovered that the man had used fraudulent means to obtain the job.

Use the above words to make sentences of your own. A useful exercise is for the class teacher to ask students to find synonyms and antonyms for some of the above underlined words.