Where can I exercise these questions? (Such unpleasantness ... her character.)

[Rosendo]

Good night everyone,

I'm looking for a specific kind of English test where I can find questions related to commonly used expressions in English, like:

Q1 There was ( ) of food-poisoning at the school.

A a break out B an insidence
C an outbreak D an endemic

Q2 Such unpleasantness ( ) her character.

A is not in keeping with B does not keep to
C is not according to D is not discordant of

I have serious problems solving this questions and would like to solve others, but I don´t have a clue where to find. By the way, I would go with "B" and "C".

Thanks in advance!

Andre Rosendo

[Haihao]

Good evening Andre,

I would choose C for Q1 and A for Q2.

Good night!

[Rosendo]

This kind of question is very difficult because its not the kind of question that you can see the answer in a book. I believe that the best way to study it is reading in english, but I don't have a clue where to find questions like this to evaluate how much I'm learning. Is there any test (ESL, TOEIC, TOEFL, STEP, etc) where I can exercise it?

Best Regards,

Andre Rosendo

[Lost_Soul]

Hi,

You can make use of on-line dictionaries when you are stuck with vocablurary problems, like in your exercise.

For example, I found a reference in a dictionary to the idiom "in keeping with":
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/in+keeping+with

You know, the best way to find the definition for an idiom you don't know is to go to google.com, type in the idiom, embrace it in quotation marks, and make a search - I believe you will find lots of references to dictionary articles and also a lot of examples where native speakers used it.

[Nessie]

I'd like to know ideas of some native speakers, please.
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[Rosendo]

Thanks Lost Soul! Googling is a good method to find probably correct answers of questions. Another site that I found awesome is the www.dictionary.com , because it explains the words in english, even if you typed wrong with a "did you mean X" message, and give you the translation in many languages (including mine, which is portuguese).

My problem studing english is that these questions that I mentioned above are related to the expression that they come in, and there isn't a dictionary of expressions ( for example, I don't know why I can't say that something is not according to something). Since this is the kind of knowledge that I will need to read more to understand more, does anyone know a test where I can find questions like these 2 above?

[Inga]

I think it would be better for you to learn the definitions of the words/combinations. Then compare examples (sentences) with these words. You can find some vocabulary tests here, but I don't think there will be the same expressions. You never know what you are going to meet in your next test.
There some special dictionaries of collocations, e.g. Oxford Collocations dictionary for students of English.
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