Unit 20 — Từ vựng C1-C2
📘 Giải thích tiếng Việt
Chủ đề bài là quyền lực, chính quyền, luật pháp và tội phạm (power, authority, crime & society), kèm nhiều bài cấu tạo từ (word formation) và thành ngữ.
Từ vựng về quyền lực và chính quyền
authority (quyền hạn), monarch (quân vương), enforce a law (thực thi luật), consent to (đồng ý), entitled to (có quyền), exempt from (được miễn). Tính từ thái độ: superior/inferior (bề trên/thấp kém), domineering (hống hách), benign (nhân từ), vulnerable (dễ tổn thương), reluctant (miễn cưỡng).
Cấu tạo từ (word formation)
Học các họ từ: impose, restrict, dominate, undermine, victimise, liberate; danh từ trừu tượng corruption, prejudice, legislation, bureaucracy, hardship; tính từ dominant, immoral, charitable, aggressive, exemplary, governing, argumentative. Tiền tố mis- nghĩa "sai/nhầm": misunderstand, misjudge, miscalculate, misbehave, misspell, misfire, misfortune.
Phrasal verbs
phase out (loại bỏ dần), opt out of (chọn không tham gia), crack down on (mạnh tay trấn áp), blend in (hoà lẫn), stand up to (đương đầu), single out (nhắm riêng vào), talk down to (nói kẻ cả), push around (bắt nạt).
Thành ngữ về luật pháp và quyền lực
above the law (đứng trên luật), the powers that be (giới cầm quyền), take the law into your own hands (tự xử), red tape (thủ tục quan liêu), pull strings (nhờ quan hệ), under someone's thumb (bị kiểm soát), gain the upper hand (chiếm ưu thế), throw the book at (phạt nặng), live and let live, bury your head in the sand (trốn tránh thực tế).
Exercise ASelect the correct word.
Exercise BComplete using the words in the box.
Exercise CComplete using the correct form of the words in the box.
Power
We are to many different forms of power. There are those forms of power that exist by law: the right of the government to laws on a country and to what we are allowed to do. There is also the right of courts to people to appear to stand trial or to give evidence. There is also, of course, power on a more personal level. People are constantly struggling for power and social status. This might take the form of attempting to a conversation, something that is relatively easy to since it is so obvious. It is more difficult to ourselves from other forms of social power. When we are as 'this' or 'that' by other people and put into a category, that too is a form of power. Bosses at work might their employees by making them work long hours. A parent might their child's self-confidence with constant criticism. Power is everywhere and the more you understand it, the more you may be able to control it.
Exercise DComplete using the correct form of the words in the box.
Crime and punishment
The demand for prison has steadily increased as more and more people have come to see that locking people up in simply doesn't reduce crime. Not only does it fail to act as a , but it does very little to help readjust to life back in the after they have served their time. Prisons are isolated places, where prisoners learn from other criminals, and where bullying, bribery and other forms of spread. Once outside prison, offenders face which tends to force them back into a life of crime. Even once the recognises the need for change, it is notoriously slow. It usually demands new to change the system, and while the slow processes of go on, more and more lives are affected.
Exercise EIf the word in bold is correct, put a tick. If it is incorrect, replace it with one of the words in bold from the other sentences.
Exercise FMatch to make sentences.
- No matter what I said, Chris refused to back
- Hardly had they locked the shop
- Only radical action will bring
- What annoys me is that the man got
- The Prime Minister hit
- Things have certainly improved since you took
- The authorities shouldn't give
- I don't care who gets
- in to this kind of blackmail from the workers.
- off with just 100 hours' community service.
- in at this election because it doesn't make any difference.
- down from her position on abortion.
- over the business and rearranged things.
- up when the alarm went off.
- about the changes that we so desperately need.
- back at her critics and claimed she had done nothing wrong.
Exercise GWrite a word in each gap so that each second sentence has a similar meaning to the first sentence.
They're out the old-style passports.
Did you know that you can out of the state pension scheme?
The police are down on illegal parking around here.
Police officers in plain clothes tried to in with the crowd.
You should up to Stephanie.
The Deputy Prime Minister was out for criticism by the press.
I wish you wouldn't down to me.
Kyle got in trouble for kids around in the playground.
Exercise HSome phrasal verbs with up, such as lock up, have meanings connected to 'fastening or restricting'. Tick the sentences where the phrasal verb has a meaning connected to 'fastening or restricting'.
Exercise IWrite one word in each gap.
The Hoody
The hooded top, or 'hoody', has become something of a symbol of youth crime in Britain. It seems to get a mention whenever the newspapers get the subject. Those wearing them are often classed yobs or hooligans, even when they have done nothing the law. The problem is that hoodies can easily hide their identity from CCTV cameras. Those authority in some places such as shopping centres have even gone so far as to ban people wearing hoodies. They claim that the threat of crime them the right to do it, but there is a danger that young people will actually be provoked behaving in antisocial ways through rules like this. They may feel that those power are discriminating against them, and that they refuse to listen when they deny done anything wrong. It seems to be a classic example older people feeling threatened by the fashions of the young. At the end of the day, what the members of their peer think will always be more important to the young than what people running shopping centres think they should or shouldn't wear.
Exercise JFor each question, write one word which can be used in all three sentences.
People must be made to respect the ... of law, or we'll have anarchy.
A good ... of thumb is that you should allow 15 minutes per exercise in the exam.
I couldn't believe they ... me three euros for a bottle of water!
The children ran out of the school gate and ... down the hill.
The professor spoke with ... on the subject of young people and crime.
Responsibility for running the prison has been taken out of the hands of the local ....
Why can't you follow your brother's ... and go to university?
Give me one ... of a place round here where young people can go in the evenings.
The authorities ... the couple's request to be allowed to stay in Britain.
I didn't believe Abigail when she ... knowing who had stolen the money.
This government's top priority is ... and order.
Have things improved since the Freedom of Information Act became ...?
Exercise KChoose the correct answer.
Exercise LComplete using the words in the box.
Exercise MUse the word given in capitals at the end of the line to form a word that fits in the space in the same line.
A Reader Writes ...
We have all had the experience, I am sure, of feeling in the face of civil servants. All nations need bureaucrats, but too many have become and inflexible. While some carry out their jobs , others apply the letter of the law but not the spirit, and behave in an manner, relying on computers and rules to tell them what is and what is not. The number of civil servants has increased under this current government, which I believe is a good of where their priorities lie. I agree with Jack Turner (Letters, 16th May) that it is a waste of taxpayers' money and I find his argument that we only need one third of them very indeed. We in this country have the biggest civil service in this part of the world and it is time something was done about it.
Yours sincerely,
A. P. Kennedy (Mrs)
