A ‘survey’ is a set of questions that is given to a large number of people. Surveys are used by advertising companies to see what people like and why they like it. They are used by researchers to find information that can be used in science, government or other areas. As a verb it can mean to look at something carefully.

Examples:

• Over 10,000 people were surveyed about their attitude to climate change.
• The survey is seeking people’s views on smoking.
• They surveyed the damage after the accident and realised that it was extensive.

Collocations: When you learn new vocab, make sure that you note collocations too. For this group of words some collocations are:
strategy for, strategy to
survey of, survey by, conduct a survey
text to, text about
tradition of
transfer to, transfer from, transfer by

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 word and the correct form of the word.

Vocabulary for IELTS – Academic Word List 2:24

1. _______________ messaging is probably more common today than phone calls.  (text, transfer)
2. A lot of advertising is ______________ targeted at children. (tradition, strategy)
3. 3. Australia is a fairly young country and thus doesn’t really have any _______________ clothes. (tradition, text)
4. She _______________ the money yesterday. (transfer, survey)
5. He _______________ the job vacancies, but couldn’t find anything.  (strategy, survey)

Answers (in the wrong order below)
4. transferred   1. text   5. surveyed    2. strategically    3. traditional