To improve your English proficiency, you need to be reading widely and daily. It’s a good idea to follow the news because stories often continue for a few days, so you’ll see some of the same vocabulary being repeated.

Make sure that you note collocations too. For this group of words some collocations are:
invest in, itemised account, maintenance requirements, maintenance teams, maintenance of

Check the meanings of the words if you don’t already know them. Check the meanings of the various forms as sometimes they are different. You can check them at Time4english by clicking the words (http://www.time4english.com/aamain/lounge/awl.asp).

Complete the sentences below with the correct form of the word.

IELTS VOCABULARY 19

1. They ______________ the changes immediately they took power.  (institute)
2. I got a good end-of-year bonus so I _______________ in a renewable power project in the countryside near Bendigo. (invest)
3. I thought I bought six things, but I only seem to have five in the bag. I’ll have to check the _______________ account. (item)
4. You should keep a _______________ to record your progress with your study. (journal)
5. How do you _______________ your composure when people are rude to you? (maintain)

Answers (in the wrong order below)

5. maintain 3. itemised  2. invested    1. instituted    4. journal