Enhancement Exercises

Practice 1
Guess the meaning of the underlined words based on your knowledge or experience. Clues are
given to help you.

1. I am famished. Is there any food? I haven’t eaten since this morning.

Clue : food, haven’t eaten
Answer : very hungry, starving

2. We haven’t got much money left. We have to be frugal in our spending.

Clue : haven’t got much money left

Answer : careful, economical, thrifty

3. I felt exhausted. I worked without rest and didn’t sleep well for three days in order to finish
my assignments.

Clue : worked without rest, didn’t sleep well for three days

Answer : extremely tired, fatigued, beat, drained

4. The new smartphone is very dear. It costs nearly RM12,000. I am still a student and I
definitely cannot afford it.

Clue : RM12,000, still a student, cannot afford it

Answer : expensive, costly

5. I cannot recall what happened on July 20th, 2010. It was such a long time ago. I have
forgotten what happened.
Clue : 2010, a long time ago, have forgotten
Answer : remember, recollect
Practice 2
Guess the meaning of the underlined words based on the clues given in the sentences.

1. The police apprehended the robber who stole the money. The police handcuffed him and
took him to the police station.
Clue : handcuffed, took to the police station
Answer : detained, caught, arrested

2. We discarded the old toys since we didn’t need them anymore. We put them into a plastic
bag and dropped them into the dustbin for garbage collection.

Clue : didn’t need them anymore, dustbin, garbage collection

Answer : threw away

3. Malaysia is a prosperous country. The country is very rich with its natural sources like tin,
oil and gas, and gold. In addition, it earns billions of dollars through international trade and
commerce
Clue : rich, earns billions of dollars
Answer : rich, wealthy

4. I am going to tell you something humorous. You will laugh at what I am going to tell you. It
is a real joke.
Clue : laugh, joke
Answer : funny, amusing, hilarious

5. You have to repay the money you owe me. You borrowed it from me last week.

Clue : owe me, borrowed from me

Answer : return, pay back

Practice 3
Guess the meaning of the underlined words. What are the clues that help you guess the correct
meaning?

1. There was a fatal accident involving three cars along the highway this morning. All the
passengers died, no one survived.

2. Clue : All the passengers died, no one survived

Answer : deadly

3. The temperature in the classroom is 400C. It is a grueling condition for a lesson to take
place.

Clue : 400C

Answer : tough, hard, exhausting

4. Danial is not in the main football team. He is only a substitute player, meaning that he will
get to play if a player is injured.

Clue : not in the main football team, he will get to play if a player is injured.

Answer : extra, reserve, standby

5. Afiq works as chauffer in a big company. Every day he drives his boss to work or anywhere
that he wants to go.

Clue : he drives his boss to work or anywhere that he wants to go.

Answer : driver

6. Afiqah is an employee in Syarikat Terang Gelap Sendirian Berhad. She has been working
there for five years as a clerk.

Clue : has been working there for five years as a clerk.

Answer : worker
Practice 4
Read the passages below and give the meaning of the underlined words as used in the context.

Passage 1
Lily and her sister Laila wanted to have a pet. They headed to the pet shop and had a look
around. It was a tiny shop so there was not much space for them to walk. At last, they
purchased a Siamese kitten that cost them RM100.

headed went

tiny small

purchased bought

Passage 2
Looking up for the meaning of unfamiliar words in the dictionary can be helpful. However, such
strategy can be ineffective. First, it may disrupt your concentration as you need to stop every
time you do not know the meaning of a word. Second, there are various definitions to the word.
Thus, you need to choose the right meaning of the word as it is used in the context.

unfamiliar difficult, incomprehensible

disrupt disturb, interrupt

various many, several, some

Passage 3
Abu Dajjal was not a bright man. One day, he found a pot of gold. He was terrified that someone
might rob and kill him. So, he dug a hole and put the pot of gold inside. The, he wrote a note
that said, ‘Abu Dajjal did not hide a pot of gold here’. His friend, Abu Nawas, saw the note. He
took out the pot, and penned another note that said, ‘Abu Nawas did not take Abu Dajjal’s gold’.

bright clever

terrified afraid, scared

penned wrote
Passage 4
In an interview with BBC, a female Indonesian worker said she was returning home and vowed
never to come back to Malaysia even she was paid RM1million. She had suffered bitter
experience here because her employer and agent were very cruel. She was going to seek
employment in another country.

vowed swore

bitter nasty, horrible

seek look for, find

Passage 5
Marriage can create stress for women in many ways. First, career development for women can
be restricted as they have to look after the family first. Most often, they have to sacrifice
because of the children. Their primary role is wife and mother. This makes their career
development secondary. In addition, if they work, they still have to perform household chores
like cooking and cleaning the house. This is burdening and always leaves them exhausted at
the end of the day.

restricted limited, constrained

primary main, major, key, principal

exhausted very tired, fatigued, beat