What's the word?
(A dictionary quiz)

    I suppose many of the people reading these pages have seen a programme called Eigo de shabera naito. If you haven't, it's on the NHK-General channel at 11:15 p.m. on Monday night. One activity that I think is quite interesting is when one of the presenters, Patrick Harlan (or "Pakkun," as he is also known), does his "Pakkun's dictionary" quiz activity. In this activity he reads out several definitions from an  English dictionary and his Japanese colleagues and guests have to guess the word.

    It's an excellent activity and I've started doing the same thing in some of my classes. So, with apologies to Patrick for borrowing his idea, I will try it in this week's one-point lesson, I will give you some definitions. Please try to guess the word I'm referring to.

Exercise

    Which word is being defined in the sentences below? All these words are nouns:
    1. A very large animal with thick grey skin, large ears, two curved outer teeth called tusks and a long nose called a trunk.
    2. A large sea fish with very sharp teeth and a pointed fin on its back. There are several types of these, some of which can attack people.
    3. An aircraft without wings has large blades on top that go round. It can fly straight up from the ground and can also stay in one position in the air.
    4. The group of people that are responsible for controlling a country or a state.
    5. A line of hair that a man allows to grow on his upper lip.
    6. A thin flat round cake made from a mixture of flour, eggs and milk that is fried on both sides. In the US it is usually eaten hot for breakfast; in Britain it is eaten either as a dessert with sugar, jam etc. or as a main course with meat, cheese etc.
    7. The activity of playing games of chance for money and of betting on horses etc.
    8. A game played by two teams of 11 players, using a round ball which players kick up and down the playing field. Teams try to kick the ball into the other team's goal.

    (All definitions adapted from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 2000, 6th edition).
And for a bit of extra fun...
    Try writing your own definitions for these words:
    1. Giraffe
    2. Boxing
    3. Window-shopping
    4. Map

    Click here to check your answers and for a comment about using the dictionary.

    Please click on the link below if you want to try some of my other one-point lessons:
    Bob's One-Point Lesson Archive

    © Robert E. Jones, 2005