month17 Flashcards
You’re watching the news. Yesterday a bomb exploded in a crowded area. The police don’t know who did it. The newscaster is discussing this.
No one has come forward yet to claim responsibility for the attacks and police have not named any suspects
(someone) comes forward (with information)
When you admit some important secret to an authority, you are “coming forward” with information.
This happens when someone is keeping a secret, and the secret might be harmful to other people.
For example, you can “come forward” with information about a crime.
Three people on different occasions came forward with accusations of sexual harassment against Mr. Maeda, but they neglected to do anything about it.
(someone) claims responsibility for (something)
“Claiming responsibility” for something means saying that it’s your fault. You’re the one who did it.
I claim personal responsibility for the mistake, and I promise you that it will never happen again.
“Claiming responsibility” is usually a noble and mature thing to do. However, there’s another sense of “claiming responsibility”. When there’s a terror attack, a bombing, etc., sometimes a group will “claim responsibility” for the attack. This means that they’re saying (truly or falsely) that they did it.
(police) have named a suspect
A “suspect” is someone that the police think may have done a crime.
When a police department or law enforcement agency announces that they’re going to officially blame a specific person for a crime, they “naming a suspect”.
You hear this phrase on news programs often:
Police have named two suspects in the shooting.
You’re writing an essay for a college application. The essay question asks you to describe your strengths. You start it this way.
I’d say that my greatest strength is my willingness to take risks
your greatest strength
In interviews, people often ask about a person’s “greatest strength”. Your “greatest strength” is the one thing that you’re best at, or your best personality trait.
Here are some examples of answers:
My greatest strength is my patience.
I’d say that my greatest strength is my willingness to take risks.
I’d say that (clause)
You use the phrase “I’d say that…” to share your opinion. It’s similar to “I think…” but it sounds more thoughful. It demonstrates that you’re still not completely sure of your opinion.
Here are some examples:
A: What do you think?
B: I’d say that the first one would probably be better.
I’d say that drinking four or five nights a week is probably a little too much.
(someone) takes risks
“Taking risks” means doing things that are risky or dangerous.
“Taking risks” is usually thought of as a good thing. On the other hand, the phrase “risking ___” usually has a bad meaning:
You’ve got to be willing to take risks to achieve ultimate success.
I can’t believe that you would risk the economic security of your family on something so foolish!
(someone) takes risks
“Taking risks” means doing things that are risky or dangerous.
“Taking risks” is usually thought of as a good thing. On the hand, “risking” something is usually bad:
You’ve got to be willing to take risks to achieve ultimate success.
I can’t believe that you would risk the economic security of your family on something so foolish!
(someone’s) willingness to (do something)
When you say that you “are willing to ___”, it means that you will say “yes” to doing it, but you don’t really want to do it, or you’re not happy about doing it.
For example, if your lazy grown-up child asks you for money, you can say:
I’m willing to lend you the money, but I expect to be paid back by the end of this year.
“Willingness” is a noun that we use to talk about that quality. It means how likely someone would be to do this difficult or unpleasant thing.
Her willingness to jump in and deal with all of the gritty details really impressed me.
My willingness to help was overpowered by my desire to go home.
When you use the word “willingness” in this way, it sounds intelligent and academic.
You read an article recently about a scientific study. The study was about how learning languages affects people’s brains. You’re having a conversation with a friend and you describe the results of the study.
They found that different brain regions developed depending on how difficult it was for the subjects to learn
how (adjective) (something) is
When you want to talk about the level or amount of a quality, you use the phrase “how ___ something is”. For example, if it’s been raining a lot and the ground is really wet, you can say:
I can’t believe how wet it is.
Another example is when you meet someone who’s famous and seems unfriendly, but he is actually a nice guy when you meet him:
I was surprised by how down-to-earth he was.
(researchers) found that (sentence)
When scientists or other researchers do an experiment, they “find” new information. You can talk about the new information this way:
Scientists at Brigham Young University found that infants as young as 5 months old were able to recognize and match the emotions of their peers.
We found that customers preferred smaller, more frequent updates.
brain regions
A “brain region” is a specific area of the brain that is responsible for a certain kind of thought or ability. For example, there are some brain regions which are responsible for sight, others that control your emotions, etc.
(a living thing) develops
People, animals, plants, body parts, cells, and so on “develop”. This means that they become bigger as well as better and more complete. For example:
Adolescents aren’t capable of making really mature descisions because parts of their brains are still developing.
(something happens) depending on (something)
If you want to talk about one thing that’s strongly affected by something else, use the phrase “depending on ___”. Here’s an example:
It might take up to two days to dry depending on the temperature, how humid it is, and so on.
You can either follow “depending on” with a noun:
We might stop by depending on our schedule.
Or you can follow it with a clause using “what”, “who”, “how”, etc.:
You might get a wide variety of answers depending on who you ask.
You can also put “depending on” at the beginning of a sentence:
Depending on what style you want, it could cost anywhere from three hundred to a thousand bucks.
(test) subjects
When you’re doing an experiment that involves people, the people in your experiment are called “subjects”:
Subjects were then shown photographs of models and asked to rate their attractiveness.
“Subjects” is a formal word for people who participate in an experiment. A slang term for test subjects is “guinea pigs”.
