Knowledge of Prepositions Impresses IELTS Examiners

Most teachers of English as a second or a foreign language consider prepositions as the most difficult to master. It is no wonder why only few books comprehensively discuss them. In this post, I will introduce you to a table of prepositions made by two experts of the field (Murcia and Freeman, 2010).

This table will allow learners to familiarize these short yet controversial words in the English lexicon. It is impossible to memorize all their functions, so it is advisable that students get the real experience with these grammatical items through reading a wide range of text and observing how native or fluent speakers use them in their speeches.

Considering IELTS writing, reading, speaking, listening and reading skills, this table will help candidates improve their band score. Prepositions may be small words, but they could greatly change a sentence’s meaning.

Both in IELTS Reading and IELTS Listening, prepositions are an important marker. They could signal what the missing word would be (for instance, in the sentence completion test).

In IELTS Speaking and IELTS Writing, most examiners get annoyed with the incorrect use of prepositions. Showing a good command with prepositions would lighten up an examiner’s day and makes his or her assessment task easier. In IELTS Writing, especially, accurate and sophisticated use of prepositions would definitely increase the band score.

Now test your knowledge. Read the article below and fill in each blank with the appropriate preposition.

Note: not all answers are found in the table, so try to use your “second language intuition” in answering. You may also do some research or consultation with a native speaker/expert.

Atheism Rises, Religiosity Declines In America

Kimberly Winston

(RNS) Religiosity is on the decline ___ (1) the U.S. and atheism is on the rise, according to a new worldwide poll.

The poll, called “The Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism,” found that the number ___ (2) Americans who say they are “religious” dropped ___ (3) 73 percent ___ (4) 2005 (the last time the poll was conducted) to 60 percent. At the same time, the number ___ (5) Americans who say they are atheists rose, ___ (6) 1 percent to 5 percent.

The poll was conducted by WIN-Gallup International and is based ___ (7) interviews ___ (8) 50,000 people ___ (9) 57 countries and five continents. Participants were asked, “Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say you are a religious person, not a religious person, or a convinced atheist?”

The seven years ___ (10) the polls is notable because 2005 saw the publication of “The End of Faith” by Sam Harris, the first in a wave of best-selling books on atheism by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and other so-called “New Atheists.”

“The obvious implication is that this is a manifestation of the New Atheism movement,” said Ryan Cragun, a University of Tampa sociologist ___ (11) religion who studies American and global atheism.

Still, Cragun does not believe the poll shows more people are becoming atheists, but rather that more people are willing to identify as atheists.

“___ (12) a very long time, religiosity has been a central characteristic of the American identity,” he said. “But what this suggests is that is changing and people are feeling less inclined to identify as religious to comply ___ (13) what it means to be a good person ___ (14) the U.S.”

Another possible factor may be the number ___ (15) atheists within organized efforts by American atheist groups to encourage those who do not believe in God to say so publicly. The Out Campaign, a project ___ (16) the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, was launched in 2007 and has since been endorsed by several national atheist groups.

The current poll confirms a declining religiosity — both at home and abroad — that’s been detected in other polls. The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey found that 15 percent of Americans said they have no religion — different from being a “confirmed atheist,” but nonetheless up from 8 percent ___ (17) 1990.

Barry Kosmin, the principal investigator for the ARIS report, said he’s skeptical of the new study.

“The U.S. trends are what we have found and would expect, but the actual numbers are peculiar to say the least,” he said. “The drops in religiosity seem too sharp for the time period — people just don’t change their beliefs that quickly. Most of the trend away ___ (18) religion has demographic causes and demography moves ‘glacially.’”

Specifically, he points ___ (19) the poll’s finding that Vietnam, while showing a sharp 23 percent drop in religiosity since 2005, also shows no atheists. “Eight million Communist Party members but zero atheists?” he said. “That statistic makes me very doubtful ___  (20) the accuracy of the survey overall and some of the international comparisons.”

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Note: You should take advantage of the link above to the Huffington Post. It contains great articles with which you can develop English language reading skills and widen your vocabulary.

Answer

in           of            from       in           of

from     on           with       from      between

of           for          with       in            of

of           in            from      to            of

 
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To your IELTS success!

Don Enricuso
Pass IELTS Higher