-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Bloomsbury. Improve Your Word Power. London: A & C Black, 2007. 184 pp. £6.99. ISBN 978–0–7136–8531–2, Forum for Modern Language Studies, Volume 43, Issue 4, October 2007, Pages 470–471, https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqm073
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
Originally published in 1995 and incorporating additional material by Anna Hodson, this is an extraordinarily testing and fascinating book. It comprises a whole mass of lexical and grammatical information, of the sort anyone, ideally with English as their native language, pretending to being “educated”, might expect to possess. Perhaps that is excessive, as this particular reader was on more than one occasion at a loss; and perhaps it reflects a time when more people had had the benefit of a knowledge-focused education. One need not read the book from beginning to end (apart from the Introduction) – it is to be dipped into and used; it is even recommended that one write in it. Twelve sections, each with multiple “sessions”, explore words and their structures in an intensely intelligent and entertaining way. There are numerous tests, with keys appended or given later. The twelfth section gives advice on continuing to build up one's vocabulary: be receptive, read more, open your mind, set a goal . . . And the whole is concluded by a two-page appendix (pp. 183–4) listing many esoteric phobias – entitled “What are you afraid of?”, it is entirely appropriate to this invaluable little volume.
