Module One

Exercise 1.1

• The only thing to fear is fear itself.

• Men are from Mars; women are from Venus.

• In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.


Exercise 1.2
Ambiguous – The professor’s ambiguous answer left the students wondering whether or not they had homework.

Ambivalent – I felt ambivalent about his proposition of going to Vegas for the weekend.

Healthy – He felt healthy after losing those five extra pounds from the holidays.

Healthful – She ate a healthful snack after she came back from her run.

Conscience – Jenny’s conscience haunted her after she spread rumors about her friend’s bad hygiene.

Conscious – He made a conscious attempt to compliment his date on her appearance.

Apprise – I will apprise you of the parking situation once I get to school.

Appraise – She likes to appraise all the melons in the grocery store before picking one.

Disinterested – Some people say the objective, disinterested reporter does not exist.

Uninterested – The uninterested clerk could care less about her criteria for judging the melons.

Affect – I hope my silly sentences do not affect the quality of my exercises.

Effect – The long break from school had an effect on my ability to stay serious for extended periods of time.

Exercise 1.3
•After receiving the latest offer, the labor leaders decided they had no choice but to go on strike.

• She walked silently into the room, sat down and, without a word, looked straight at me.



Exercise 1.4
• As fat as a house
• As dumb as a doornail (what does that really mean, anyway?)
• It’s not over till the fat lady sings.
• The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
• As fast as lightning
• Going to hell in a hand basket
• Raining cats and dogs
• Sitting on top of the world
• I feel like a million bucks
• He wouldn’t hurt a fly.

Exercise 1.5
• Dialup Internet access seems like the pony express, compared to the efficient railway system of Roadrunner.

• My father views the Internet as a foreign country, and he visits too infrequently to learn his way around.

Exercise 1.6

• U.S. Airways offers a bounty of on time flights, convenient connections and well-balanced in-flight meals. (But they don’t offer refunds if you buy your tickets via Orbitz – I just found out the hard way!)

• Movie heroes always have money, get the girl, wear high fashion and arrive at the scene about two seconds after the bad guy has left.

• Speaking of movies, characters often knock over telephones if they wake them up, answer them after only three rings and tap them frantically on the cradle, shouting “Hello? Hello?”