‘Range’ is commonly used as both a noun and a verb. It has been in use in English for 900 years. It was originally a noun meaning a row of people. Four hundred years ago the meaning had extended to mean the area where sheep and cows graze. By the 1800s it was used to refer to a place where people practice shooting. Today it ‘variety of things’ or ‘the limits of things.’ We can talk about a wide range or a narrow range. We talk about the temperature range.

Examples:

• Prices for houses in Melbourne range from $700,000 to $1,200,000.
• I don’t like shopping at that supermarket because they have a narrow range of fruit and vegetables.

Collocations: When you learn new vocab, make sure that you note collocations too. For this group of words some collocations are:
potential for, potential to
previous experience
prime reason, primarily for, primarily to
purchase of
range of, range from X to Y, wide range, narrow range

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).

Vocabulary for IELTS – Academic Word List 2:21

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

1. Have you seen the new _______________ of IELTS materials available? (range, previous)
2. Those chemicals are ______________ dangerous and should be handled with great care.(prime, potential)
3. A _______________ reason for climate change is the use of fossil fuels. (prime, range)
4. Her _______________ job was with an advertising company.  (purchase, previous)
5. What did you ________________? (potential, purchase)

Answers (in the wrong order below)
5. purchase 3. primary  2. potentially    1. range    4. previous