SUCCESS AND FAILURE

1. Verbs and expressions

Study the verbs and expressions in bold and put them into the correct category
below.

a) After years of hard work and patience, Joe finally made it. He's a millionaire now.
b) Kate's phone was off all day, but I managed to call her in the evening.
c) If you don't have a little luck on your side, all your hard work may come to
nothing.
d) Despite the financial crisis, some banks are continuing to prosper.
e) Dave had a wonderful opportunity to impress his new boss, but in the end he
failed.

Be successful: _________________________________________________________
Be unsuccessful: _______________________________________________________

Now rewrite the following sentences using any of the verbs and expressions above
(in bold).
It was hard work, but we finally were successful in reaching the top of the
mountain.
After publishing his first book, he succeeded in a big way. He's now a famous
author.
It it starts to rain, all our plans will have no successful result in the end.
I hope that your business will be financially successful in the new year.
It was an interesting experiment, but unfortunately it was not successful in the
end.

2. Collocations
Match the “succeeding verbs” on the left with the nouns on the right:

Notice that:
– “Fulfill” collocates with things we want to do or obligations.
– “Accomplish” means “fully completing a task, a goal, etc”
– “Realise” in these collocations has the sense of “bringing a dream or an ambition into
reality”.
Now, without looking at the previous page, complete these sentences with these
verbs in the correct form:
Reach realise achieve fulfill accomplish

3. Word families
Complete the table below:
Verb Noun Adjective
succeed
accomplishment accomplished
achievable
fulfilment fulfilled
realise realised
fail failed

Now complete the sentences below with words from the table. More than one
answer is possible.

Carlo never imagined that his book would become such a great _______________ .
He was delighted.
Tamara is optimistic about her language skills. She thinks that becoming fluent in
English is an _______________ goal.
Winning the championship was the _______________ of his childhood dream.
The project was such a miserable _______________. I'll never get involved in
something like that again!.
Daniel is a very _______________ musician. Everybody wants to hear him play.
After a _______________ experiment, the website is giving up on its job search
facility.
Donald was very statisfied after the _______________ of his dream. So he decided
to take a break from politics and travel the world.
 4. Idioms about success and failure
Match the underlined idioms to their definitions below.

1) Most of Amy's students passed their exams with flying colors. She's very proud of
them.
2) Pauline's dream of a white wedding went up in smoke after her fiance left her.
3) After losing so many matches, everyone was shocked when their team made a
comeback and won the championship.

a) Came to an end before producing a result.

b) Very successfully.
c) Achieved success again after a period of failure.
SUCCESS AND FAILURE KEY

1. Verbs and expressions

It was hard work, but we finally made it to the top of the mountain.
It was hard work, but we finally managed to reach the top of the mountain.

After publishing his first book, he made it. He's now a famous author.

It it starts to rain, all our plans will come to nothing.

I hope that your business will prosper in the new year.

It was an interesting experiment, but unfortunately it failed in the end.

2. Collocations
Idioms Sentences with idioms
1. b 1. reach / achieve
2. a 2. realise
3. d 3. fulfill
4. c 4. accomplish
5. e 5. reach / achieve / accomplish
6. achieved / fulfilled / realised

3. Word families
Complete the table below:
Verb Noun Adjective
succeed success successful
accomplish accomplishment accomplished
achieve achievement achievable
fulfil fulfilment fulfilled
realise realisation realised
fail failure failed

Carlo never imagined that his book would become such a great success. He was
delighted.
Tamara is optimistic about her language skills. She thinks that becoming fluent in
English is an achievable goal.
Winning the championship was the fulfilment / realisation of his childhood dream.
The project was such a miserable failure. I'll never get involved in something like
that again!.
Daniel is a very accomplished / successful musician. Everybody wants to hear him
play.
 After a failed experiment, the website is giving up on its job search facility.
Donald was very statisfied after the realisation / fulfilment of his dream. So he
decided to take a break from politics and travel the world.

4. Idioms about success and failure

1. b 2. a 3. c