‘Proportion‘ refers to the amount or size of something.

Examples of use:

• A small proportion of the staff live in the building where they work.
• The proportion of male university students used to be much higher than female, but now it is the other way around; more women are studying at university.
• People’s wages are not always in direct proportion to the amount of work they do.

Collocations: When you learn new vocab, make sure that you note collocations too. For this group of words some collocations are:
philosophical views, philosophy of, philosophise about
physical needs
a proportion of,  dis-proportionate numbers, disproportionate distribution, in direct proportion to
publicity for, publication of
reaction to, react to, react against, reaction to, reaction against

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. A high _______________ of university students use social media regularly. (philosophy, proportion)
2. _______________ he is in bad condition, but mentally he has remained quite positive. (physical, react)
3. Who is the _______________?(publish, physical)
4. ______________ discussions can be quite boring for many people. (publish, philosophy)
5. What is your_______________ to the new legislation? (react, proportion)

Answers (in the wrong order below)
5. reaction   1. proportion   2. Physically    4. Philosophical    3. publisher