Academic English Generator  
 

 

6.3  Odd One Out

 

In this exercise, you'll see four example sentences for each word. Only three of them are correct. Try to click on these three correct sentences and avoid the 'odd one out'.

 

denote 

 

The last figure in the car’s registration plate denotes the year in which the car was first licensed in the country.

The symbol :) denotes a smiley face and is used to communicate amusement or satisfaction in emails, online chat and text messages.

I’m not sure what he was denoting when he said he would look into the problem.

The factor that you see on sunscreen denotes the average amount of protection, so the higher the number, the more protection it gives.

 

interpret

 

Journalists have interpreted the departure of Roy Keane as a sign that he had lost the support of the management.

I interpreted his silence as a sign that he wasn’t really interested in negotiating.

I can interpret Spanish but I can’t speak it myself.

 He believes the treaty needs to be interpreted in a way that makes sense in the 21st century.

 

analogy

 

I made a direct analogy between the two offers and chose the one which was obviously better.

By way of analogy, let’s compare the life cycle of a product and a living creature.

I understand what you’re trying to say; it’s just that I don’t accept the analogy you’re trying to draw.

He drew an interesting analogy between business and family organisation.

 

correlate

 

Her research showed that a baby’s weight at the age of six months correlated positively with their life expectancy.

The research confirmed the common belief that age and reaction time are negatively correlated.

The candidate scores on reading tests correlated strongly with their vocabulary score which was interpreted as evidence of the importance of vocabulary knowledge in reading.

Apparently she was correlated to the President of Brazil on her mother’s side.

   

confirm

 

The trend was confirmed by the latest figures which showed a further 10 % fall in the market.

My research confirmed an earlier study carried out in the United States.

I can’t confirm the sign over there. Is it a ‘no entry’ or ‘no exit’? 

The police asked me to confirm my name, age and place of birth.

 

deduce

 

With this data and a basic knowledge of mathematics, it should be possible to deduce the average profit.

Do you deduce that New Zealand will win the Rugby World Cup? 

Even today, Newton’s theories allow us to deduce the position of the planets now or at any time in the past or future.

We can deduce the future value of the investment using this simple equation.

 

valid

 

Although the computers were valid, we decided to upgrade them because they looked a bit old-fashioned with all the new furniture we’d installed.

This offer is only valid until the end of the month, so don’t delay.

She raised some valid points at the meeting, but unfortunately there was no time to discuss them properly.

They decided the contract was still valid, even though he’d lost the documents.

  

ambiguous

 

Having grown up in New Zealand, but in a totally British community, he felt his national identity was somewhat ambiguous.

The wording of the document was deeply ambiguous, which made it impossible to rely on.

We’re looking for a clear and ambiguous statement from the directors.  

We had to accept a wide range of interpretations for question 4 on the exam paper, as the question itself was rather ambiguous.

   

 

Back ] Home ] Up ] Next ]

 

 

 

Materials by Martin McMorrow, Massey University Auckland.