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Day 3 WORDBUILDING : UNDERSTANDING AND USING PREFIXES

Most IELTS reading tests your extensive or global reading skills: you are given quite difficult texts on unfamiliar subjects. You are not expected to understand every word that you come across. However, you are expected to have the ability to work out and guess the approximate meanings of words. An understanding of how words are constructed with various affixes will help you do this.
Affixes are group of letters which can be added to a word to create a new word with a different meaning or word class. Prefixes are added at the beginning of a word.
Task 1: Look at this list of general meanings of prefixes.
a. again        b. against            c. before          d. between        e. extreme       
f. self                g. too little               h. wrong          i. too much       j. with                   
Now match the general meaning with the examples of prefixes listed below.
For example, the general meaning of overwork (over-) is too much work. The answer is “too much”.
PREFIX                                                                                              
  1. anti- (antibiotic, antinuclear)
  2. auto- (autobiography, autonomy)
  3. co- (co-operate, co-worker)
  4. hyper- (hypersensitive, hypermarket)
  5. inter- (interaction, intergovernmental)
  6. mis- (mislead, misinform)
  7. over- (overload, overflow)
  8. pre- (pre-school, predominant)
  9. re- (rebuild, reunion)
  10. under– (underweight, underused)
Task 2: Now try to work out and explain the meanings of the following words.
  1. antisocial (adj)
  2. autopilot (n)
  3. counteract (v)
  4. disqualify (v)
  5. extraterrestrial (adj)
  6. hyperinflation (n)
  7. inattention (n)
  8. interdependent (adv)
  9. malfunction (n/v)
  10. misconception (n/v)
Task 3: Use words from the list above to complete the following sentences.
  1. Drivers who exceed the speed limits in town risk being ……………………. .
  2. It would be a (n) ………………… to say that the news is disastrous, but it’s certainly serious.
  3. He takes drugs to ……………….. the side effects of his cancer treatment.
  4. The crash was caused by a …………………… in the port engine.
  5. Any attempts to ………………………….. the company will lead to redundancies.
  6. The new laws aim to tackle loud parties, graffiti and other ……………………… behavior.
  7. A jury must not ……………………….. a case, especially when there is heavy media coverage.
  8. ……………………………… to details could lead to serious error in the overall calculation.
  9. There is a popular ……………………. that the more exercise you do, the better.
  10. Our bodies’ immune and nervous systems a …………………. .

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