Practice Test 12 - Road to NEC Vol3

✅ walk a (bit of a) tightrope /wɔːk ə (bɪt əv ə) ˈtaɪtrəʊp/ (idiom)

🌱 To be in a risky, delicate, or precarious situation where one must maintain careful balance between opposing pressures, dangers, or expectations.
🔗 In academic or formal writing, it often signals precariousness, fragile balance, or the need for diplomatic caution. The variant “walk a bit of a tightrope” softens the risk, suggesting a situation that is delicate but not absolutely perilous.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. In international relations, diplomats often walk a tightrope between asserting national interests and preserving global cooperation.

2. Educators must walk a bit of a tightrope when encouraging debate without letting discussions devolve into hostility.

3. Companies expanding into new markets walk a tightrope, balancing innovation with cultural sensitivity.

4. Political leaders in times of crisis walk a bit of a tightrope by attempting to reassure the public while avoiding overpromising.

5. Negotiators frequently walk a tightrope, attempting to reconcile incompatible demands from multiple stakeholders.

🔍 Tone & Register Notes:

• Formal, analytical, and metaphorical.

• Common in political science, economics, education, law, and journalism.

• Conveys fragility, risk, and the need for balance.

🧩 Collocations:

• walk a tightrope between X and Y

• forced to walk a tightrope

• carefully walk a bit of a tightrope

• walk a political/ethical/financial tightrope

📌 Tiếng Việt: “walk a (bit of a) tightrope” = ở trong tình thế nguy hiểm / phải khéo léo cân bằng giữa hai phía / tình huống căng thẳng cần sự thận trọng.

✅ the death stare /ðə dɛθ steə/ (noun phrase)

🌱 A fierce, hostile, or intimidating glare meant to silence, threaten, or show extreme disapproval.
🔗 Common in informal, journalistic, or cultural writing to describe non-verbal aggression or dominance through eye contact.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. In classroom dynamics, students reported feeling silenced when teachers gave them the death stare for minor disruptions.

2. Political debates often feature subtle cues, such as the death stare, that communicate hostility without words.

3. Children may interpret parental discipline as embodied not only in speech but also in gestures like the death stare.

4. Social interactions can shift dramatically when one participant delivers the death stare, enforcing authority.

🔍 Tone & Register Notes:

• Informal to semi-formal.

• Often used metaphorically in journalism, media studies, psychology.

• Connotes intimidation.

🧩 Collocations:

• give someone the death stare

• receive the death stare

• shoot the death stare

🔄 Synonyms: glare, hostile stare, menacing look.

📌 Tiếng Việt: cái nhìn giết người / ánh mắt sắc lạnh.

✅ the third degree /ðə ˌθɜːd dɪˈɡriː/ (idiom, noun phrase)

🌱 Intense questioning, often aggressive or relentless, resembling interrogation.
🔗 In academic and journalistic contexts, it signals the severity of interrogation or probing into one’s private affairs.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. Job applicants frequently describe interviews as if they were being given the third degree.

2. Children may resist parental oversight when it takes the form of the third degree about their whereabouts.

3. Investigative journalism sometimes mirrors the third degree, pressing subjects for truth.

4. Historical accounts of police misconduct often cite unlawful use of the third degree.

🔍 Tone & Register Notes:

• Informal but widely understood.

• Common in media, history, criminology, personal narrative.

• Conveys pressure and discomfort.

🧩 Collocations:

• give someone the third degree

• subject someone to the third degree

• go through the third degree

🔄 Synonyms: harsh questioning, grilling, interrogation.

📌 Tiếng Việt: tra hỏi gắt gao / bị chất vấn liên tục.

✅ the glad eye /ðə ɡlæd aɪ/ (idiom, British informal)

🌱 A look of sexual interest or flirtation, usually a lingering or suggestive glance.
🔗 Primarily British English; in cultural or sociolinguistic writing, it signals courtship rituals and non-verbal communication.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. In Edwardian literature, a character giving the glad eye was a subtle marker of courtship.

2. Gender studies often examine how women interpret the glad eye differently across cultures.

3. Historical accounts of dance halls depict young men giving the glad eye as a socially acceptable flirtation.

4. In film studies, close-up shots can simulate the glad eye, heightening audience awareness of desire.

🔍 Tone & Register Notes:

• Colloquial, British English, slightly dated but still understood.

• Suggests playful or sly flirtation.

• Less common in American English.

🧩 Collocations:

• give someone the glad eye

• cast the glad eye

• attract the glad eye

🔄 Synonyms: flirtatious glance, bedroom eyes, seductive look.

📌 Tiếng Việt: ánh mắt đưa tình / liếc mắt đưa tình.

✅ lay down /leɪ daʊn/ (phrasal verb)

🌱 To put something in position, or metaphorically to establish, prescribe, or surrender (e.g. arms, rules, principles).
🔗 Formal and institutional; common in law, philosophy, politics, military contexts.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. The constitution lays down fundamental rights for citizens.

2. After prolonged resistance, the rebels were forced to lay down their weapons.

3. Enlightenment thinkers laid down the principles of rational debate.

4. Ethical guidelines are laid down to protect research integrity.

🧩 Collocations:

• lay down the law

• lay down rules/guidelines

• lay down arms

✅ nail down /neɪl daʊn/ (phrasal verb)

🌱 To fasten firmly, or metaphorically to define, clarify, or finalise something uncertain.
🔗 Common in academic, business, and negotiation contexts, signalling precision and closure.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. Scientists are striving to nail down the origins of the virus.

2. The committee finally nailed down the date for the conference.

3. It is difficult to nail down abstract concepts such as beauty.

4. The parties spent weeks negotiating before they nailed down a settlement.

🧩 Collocations:

• nail down the details

• nail down an agreement

• nail down the cause

✅ tick down /tɪk daʊn/ (phrasal verb, rare)

🌱 To decrease gradually, usually like the ticking of a clock—referring to time, numbers, or rates.
🔗 Used in time-sensitive or quantitative contexts: economics, sports, countdowns.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. As the final minutes ticked down, the team intensified their efforts.

2. Inflation rates have begun to tick down after months of volatility.

3. The seconds ticked down toward the examination’s end.

4. Market indicators ticked down slightly after the announcement.

🧩 Collocations:

• seconds/minutes tick down

• rates tick down

• clock ticks down

✅ stick down /stɪk daʊn/ (phrasal verb, informal)

🌱 To attach or fasten something using glue, tape, or similar; by extension, to jot something down quickly.
🔗 Informal, practical, everyday English—used in crafts, tasks, or casual note-taking.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. The labels were stuck down with adhesive for durability.

2. He quickly stuck down his observations before they faded from memory.

3. The decorator stuck down the carpet edges securely.

4. Students were asked to stick down their answers on the worksheet.

🧩 Collocations:

• stick down with glue/tape

• stick down notes

• stick down edges

✅ obsequiousness /əbˈsiːkwiəsnəs/ (noun)

🌱 Excessive eagerness to please or obey someone, often to the point of servility.
🔗 Signals sycophancy, power imbalance, and lack of independence; common in political critique, leadership studies, and moral philosophy.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. The minister’s obsequiousness towards the monarch undermined his credibility.

2. In corporate hierarchies, obsequiousness can stifle innovation by discouraging dissent.

3. Historians note the obsequiousness of courtiers in absolutist regimes.

4. Literature often portrays servants’ obsequiousness as both comic and tragic.

🔄 Synonyms: servility, sycophancy, subservience.
📌 Tiếng Việt: sự nịnh bợ, sự khúm núm.

✅ capitulation /kəˌpɪtjʊˈleɪʃən/ (noun)

🌱 The act of surrendering or yielding, especially after resistance.
🔗 Used in political history, negotiations, and debates where one side abandons its stance under pressure.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. The treaty was seen as a humiliating capitulation to foreign powers.

2. Philosophical relativism is sometimes criticised as a capitulation to scepticism.

3. The company’s retreat was a strategic capitulation in the face of competition.

4. Students protested against what they perceived as the administration’s capitulation to corporate interests.

🔄 Synonyms: surrender, submission, concession, yielding.
📌 Tiếng Việt: sự đầu hàng, sự nhượng bộ.

✅ insularity /ˌɪnsjʊˈlærɪti/ (noun)

🌱 Narrow-mindedness or isolation; literally “island-like” thinking, detached from broader perspectives.
🔗 Common in sociology, cultural studies, and critiques of nationalism.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. The novel critiques the insularity of small-town life.

2. Economic insularity prevented the region from adapting to global trends.

3. Scholars warn against academic insularity, urging interdisciplinary dialogue.

4. The community’s insularity fostered suspicion of outsiders.

🔄 Synonyms: narrow-mindedness, parochialism, isolationism.
📌 Tiếng Việt: tính cục bộ, tính khép kín.

✅ condemned /kənˈdɛmd/ (adjective, past participle of condemn)

🌱 Describes someone or something declared guilty, unfit, or destined for punishment, destruction, or disapproval. At its heart, it carries the sense of being officially judged negatively.
🔗 In academic, legal, and historical writing, it often refers to punitive judgment, moral censure, or structural unfitness. In literature, it resonates with fate and inevitability.

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🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. The prisoners were condemned to death after a swift and controversial trial.

2. The building was condemned as unsafe and subsequently demolished.

3. Enlightenment thinkers often condemned tyranny as incompatible with human dignity.

4. The poet depicts humanity as condemned to repeat cycles of violence and desire.

5. International law has condemned the use of chemical weapons as a crime against humanity.

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🔍 Tone & Register Notes:

• Strongly formal, weighty, judgment-laden.

• Common in legal, religious, ethical, and literary contexts.

• Conveys a sense of finality and moral force.

🧩 Collocations:

• condemned prisoner

• condemned building

• condemned to death/life of suffering

• universally condemned

• condemned by history

📚 Wordform Table

Form	Part of Speech	Meaning
condemn	verb	to declare guilty, to strongly disapprove
condemned	adjective/pp	judged unfit, guilty, doomed
condemnation	noun	act of disapproving, punishment, censure

🔄 Synonyms: denounced, censured, doomed, judged, damned.

📌 Tiếng Việt: bị kết án, bị lên án, bị tuyên bố là không an toàn hoặc không chấp nhận được.

✅ nebulous /ˈnɛbjʊləs/ (adjective)

🌱 Vague, ill-defined, or hazy—literally “cloud-like.” Describes concepts, plans, or ideas that lack clear boundaries.
🔗 In academic writing, it signals imprecision, indistinctness, or conceptual vagueness. Common in philosophy, law, and critical essays.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. The boundaries between art and propaganda remain nebulous.

2. The policy’s objectives were criticised as overly nebulous, lacking measurable criteria.

3. Early cosmology was based on nebulous notions of the universe.

4. The philosopher rejected nebulous abstractions in favour of logical clarity.

🧩 Collocations:

• nebulous idea

• nebulous concept

• nebulous plan

• nebulous boundaries

🔄 Synonyms: vague, indistinct, amorphous, imprecise.
📌 Tiếng Việt: mơ hồ, mập mờ, không rõ ràng.

✅ obstinate /ˈɒbstɪnət/ (adjective)

🌱 Stubbornly refusing to change one’s mind or behaviour, even when faced with reason or persuasion.
🔗 In academic and formal critique, it signals rigidity, resistance, or persistence—negative when it blocks progress, positive when it shows resilience.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. The regime remained obstinate, resisting international pressure for reform.

2. He was obstinate in defending his thesis, despite mounting counter-evidence.

3. The obstinate refusal of some groups to adapt has hindered social progress.

4. Evolutionary theory suggests that obstinate traits can persist even when maladaptive.

🧩 Collocations:

• obstinate refusal

• obstinate resistance

• obstinate belief

• obstinate child

🔄 Synonyms: stubborn, headstrong, intransigent, unyielding.
📌 Tiếng Việt: bướng bỉnh, ngoan cố, cứng đầu.

✅ to dash one’s hope(s) /tuː dæʃ wʌnz həʊps/ (idiom, verb phrase)

🌱 To destroy or shatter someone’s expectations, dreams, or optimism suddenly and often cruelly. The verb dash here carries the force of violently throwing down and breaking apart.
🔗 In academic or formal essays, it is often used metaphorically to describe the collapse of aspirations due to external forces—political, economic, or personal.

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🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. The economic crisis dashed the hopes of many young graduates seeking stable employment.

2. The failure of international negotiations dashed hopes for an immediate resolution to the conflict.

3. Technological optimism was dashed when the invention proved commercially unviable.

4. The unexpected court ruling dashed the hopes of activists campaigning for reform.

5. Scientific progress, though impressive, has often dashed hopes of achieving universal equality.

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🔍 Tone & Register Notes:

• Formal to semi-formal; metaphorical and emphatic.

• Common in political science, history, sociology, and commentary.

• Conveys emotional weight: disappointment, loss, disillusionment.

🧩 Collocations:

• dash someone’s hopes/expectations/dreams

• hopes were dashed

• utterly/completely dashed hopes

🔄 Synonyms: shatter hopes, crush dreams, quash expectations, extinguish optimism.

📌 Tiếng Việt: làm tan vỡ hy vọng, dập tắt hy vọng.

✅ cop out /kɒp aʊt/ (phrasal verb, informal)

🌱 To avoid responsibility or commitment by making excuses or retreating from a duty.
🔗 In essays, often used critically to describe evasion, moral weakness, or institutional avoidance.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. Governments that delay climate action are accused of copping out of their ethical responsibility.

2. Labelling poverty as “inevitable” is a convenient way to cop out of genuine reform.

3. The committee copped out by postponing the decision rather than confronting the controversy.

4. To deny scientific consensus is to cop out of rational debate.

🔄 Synonyms: evade, shirk, avoid, duck responsibility.
📌 Tiếng Việt: thoái thác, trốn tránh trách nhiệm.

✅ rope in /rəʊp ɪn/ (phrasal verb, informal)

🌱 To persuade, enlist, or involve someone in a task—often reluctantly.
🔗 In formal analysis, can describe mobilising, recruiting, or co-opting individuals into projects or causes.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. Volunteers were roped in to support the campaign despite limited resources.

2. Governments often rope in private corporations to achieve large-scale infrastructure goals.

3. Parents were roped in to assist with educational initiatives.

4. The movement roped in intellectuals to lend legitimacy to its cause.

🔄 Synonyms: enlist, recruit, drag in, co-opt.
📌 Tiếng Việt: kéo vào, lôi kéo tham gia.

✅ whip up /wɪp ʌp/ (phrasal verb)

🌱 To stir up emotions, enthusiasm, or anger; literally to beat or mix quickly, figuratively to generate intensity.
🔗 In academic critique, it often signals manipulation of mass emotion or manufactured excitement.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. Politicians frequently whip up nationalist sentiment to consolidate power.

2. Social media can whip up outrage with astonishing speed.

3. The protest leader successfully whipped up support for the strike.

4. Sensational journalism often whips up fear rather than presenting facts.

🔄 Synonyms: incite, rouse, stir up, provoke.
📌 Tiếng Việt: kích động, khuấy độn

✅ push on /pʊʃ ɒn/ (phrasal verb)

🌱 To continue moving forward despite difficulty, fatigue, or resistance.
🔗 In academic or formal writing, signals perseverance, persistence, or progress under adversity.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. Despite harsh criticism, reformers pushed on with their proposals.

2. The scientists chose to push on with the experiment, even in the face of limited funding.

3. History often honours those who push on despite overwhelming odds.

4. The organisation pushed on with its humanitarian mission despite political obstacles.

🔄 Synonyms: persevere, forge ahead, press on, continue.
📌 Tiếng Việt: tiếp tục tiến lên, kiên trì vượt khó.

✅ thoroughly recommend /ˈθʌrəli ˌrekəˈmɛnd/ (verb phrase, collocation)

🌱 To endorse something with complete conviction, leaving no doubt about its value, usefulness, or quality. The adverb thoroughly intensifies the verb recommend, giving it a strong, emphatic force.
🔗 In formal or academic writing, this collocation is often used in evaluations, reviews, and recommendations, especially in academic reports, literature reviews, and professional advice.

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🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. Based on the evidence presented, I would thoroughly recommend further investment in renewable energy technologies.

2. The study’s methodological clarity is exemplary, and I would thoroughly recommend it as a model for future research.

3. Given its practical applicability, the framework can be thoroughly recommended to policymakers.

4. The author’s balanced perspective leads me to thoroughly recommend the text to scholars of comparative politics.

5. For its clarity of argumentation, the article is thoroughly recommended for inclusion in undergraduate syllabi.

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🔍 Tone & Register Notes:

• Formal, evaluative, emphatic.

• Frequently used in academic peer reviews, recommendation letters, professional endorsements.

• Carries authority and certainty—stronger than simply “recommend.”

🧩 Collocations:

• thoroughly recommend + book/study/article/course/policy

• can be used in active (I thoroughly recommend this text) or passive (This text is thoroughly recommended).

🔄 Synonyms (contextual): strongly recommend, highly recommend, emphatically recommend, unequivocally recommend.

📌 Tiếng Việt: rất khuyến nghị, hết sức đề cử, đánh giá cao.

✅ be no contest /biː nəʊ ˈkɒntɛst/ (idiom, phrase)

🌱 Used to emphasise that one person, idea, or thing is vastly superior to another, leaving no room for real competition. It signals an outcome that is clear, decisive, and beyond dispute.
🔗 In academic and formal writing, it is often employed metaphorically to highlight clear superiority of evidence, arguments, or outcomes.

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🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. When it comes to long-term sustainability, renewable energy is no contest compared to fossil fuels.

2. In terms of explanatory power, the structuralist model is no contest against its postmodern counterpart.

3. For cost-effectiveness and efficiency, digital communication is no contest when compared with traditional postal systems.

4. In the realm of innovation, collaborative research is no contest versus isolated individual effort.

5. Between short-term relief and systemic reform, the latter is no contest in achieving lasting social impact.

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🔍 Tone & Register Notes:

• Semi-formal to informal; idiomatic but sharp.

• In essays, best used sparingly for rhetorical effect.

• Conveys confidence, decisiveness, and a sense of absolute clarity.

🧩 Collocations:

• “X is no contest compared with Y”

• “It’s no contest: …”

• “There is no contest between …”

🔄 Synonyms: undeniable superiority, clear winner, no competition, decisive advantage.

📌 Tiếng Việt: không có gì để so sánh, vượt trội hoàn toàn, áp đảo.

✅ courtesy of /ˈkɜːtəsi əv/ (idiom, prepositional phrase)

🌱 Means thanks to, made possible by, or provided by someone or something. It highlights the source or agent through which something is achieved or granted.
🔗 In academic writing, it is occasionally used metaphorically to attribute cause, sponsorship, or agency—though it is more common in journalism and commentary.

🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. Many of the breakthroughs in biotechnology have arrived courtesy of interdisciplinary collaboration.

2. The globalisation of culture proceeds largely courtesy of digital platforms that transcend borders.

3. Economic growth in emerging nations has accelerated courtesy of foreign investment.

4. The preservation of endangered languages has, in some cases, survived courtesy of community-driven initiatives.

   courtesy of = nhờ vào, nhờ có, được cung cấp bởi

✅ effrontery /ɪˈfrʌntəri/ (noun, uncountable)

EFFORT

🌱 Shameless boldness; insolent or arrogant behaviour that disregards social norms, propriety, or respect. The word suggests an audacious disregard for boundaries.
🔗 In academic or critical writing, it is often used to condemn brazen actions, intellectual dishonesty, or audacious claims.

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🎓 Academic-style examples:

1. The corporation had the effrontery to claim environmental responsibility while being the region’s largest polluter.

2. Some critics argue that it is an act of effrontery for governments to curtail civil liberties in the name of security.

3. The author’s dismissal of centuries of scholarship was regarded as sheer effrontery by her peers.

4. To exploit vulnerable communities while presenting oneself as a benefactor is the height of effrontery.

5. The regime’s censorship, coupled with the effrontery of presenting it as “protection of truth,” exemplifies authoritarian arrogance.

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🔍 Tone & Register Notes:

• Highly formal, caustic, and critical.

• Often carries a moral or ethical judgement.

• Common in polemical essays, critiques, and high-register journalism.

🧩 Collocations:

• sheer/barefaced effrontery

• have the effrontery to (do something)

• display/show effrontery

• the effrontery of + noun/gerund

🔄 Synonyms: insolence, impudence, audacity, shamelessness, brazenness.

📌 Tiếng Việt: sự trơ tráo, sự láo xược, sự trâng tráo.

✅ consummate /ˈkɒnsəmət/ (adjective & verb)

CONSUME

🌱 As an adjective: showing great skill, perfection, or mastery; as a verb: to complete or bring something to the highest degree.
🔗 In academic writing, it signals excellence, mastery, or flawless execution.

🎓 Examples:

1. Mandela was a consummate statesman, balancing pragmatism with vision.

2. The argument is presented with consummate clarity and precision.

3. The scientist’s consummate dedication ensured the project’s success.

4. As an orator, she was a consummate persuader of public opinion.

🔄 Synonyms: exemplary, masterful, peerless, accomplished.
📌 Tiếng Việt: tuyệt vời, hoàn hảo, xuất sắc.

✅ wunderkind /ˈvʊndərkɪnd/ (noun, from German)

🌱 A child prodigy or exceptionally talented young person who achieves success at an unusually early age.
🔗 In essays, often used to discuss youth talent, innovation, or precocity.

🎓 Examples:

1. Mozart remains history’s archetypal wunderkind of music.

2. The tech industry is replete with stories of the entrepreneurial wunderkind.

3. She was hailed as a political wunderkind after winning office at just twenty-five.

4. The dangers of labelling children as wunderkinds lie in unrealistic expectations.

🔄 Synonyms: prodigy, genius, gifted child.
📌 Tiếng Việt: thần đồng, nhân tài trẻ.

✅ germinate /ˈdʒɜːmɪneɪt/ (verb)

🌱 Literally: to begin to grow (of a seed); figuratively: to develop, arise, or come into existence.
🔗 In academic contexts, it often describes ideas, ideologies, or social movements taking root.

🎓 Examples:

1. Radical ideas began to germinate during the Enlightenment.

2. The theory germinated from a chance observation in the laboratory.

3. Within these constraints, new forms of art germinated.

4. Resistance movements often germinate under oppressive conditions.

🔄 Synonyms: sprout, originate, emerge, incubate.
📌 Tiếng Việt: nảy mầm, hình thành, khởi sinh.