‘Volume‘ has several meanings. It was first used in the 1520s and meant ‘a book that was part of a set.’ Later it took on the meaning of ‘many’ or a ‘a lot.’ Both of those meanings exist today. We can talk about the number of volumes in an encyclopedia, we can talk about the volume of passengers using an airport and also about the volume of the television or music.

Examples:

• One of the volumes of The Works of William Shakespeare is missing from the library.
• Would you mind turning the volume down? The music is too loud for me.
• Traffic volumes at certain road crossings in Melbourne are dangerously high. Engineers are working on solutions.

Collocations:
When you learn new vocab, make sure that you note collocations too. For this group of words some collocations are:
technical issues, technical reasons
a technique for
technological advances
validity of, valid for
turn the volume up, turn the volume down, a large volume

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.

1. There are several different_______________ for writing an essay. (technical, technique)
2. Parking in this area usually costs $10, but if you get your ticket _______________ at one of the shops, it is free.(technique, valid)
3.  In many professions you need to keep training because _______________ is constantly changing. (technology, valid)
4. I need a ______________ to look at my computer because it’s doing strange things again.(technical, volume)
5. A large _______________ of oil spilled from the tanker polluting the local beaches. (technique, volume)

Answers (in the wrong order below)
5. volume     3. technology    1. techniques   4. technician    2. validated