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Collocations On Success and Failure

Suma has experienced great success in her career, creating an effective employee motivation system and now working to develop real-time translation among 100 languages. Her brother Danny has faced constant failure, being told he wasn't smart enough for medicine, losing opportunities, poor job performance, and his software company failing after just 8 months. If all else fails for Danny, he can move in with his successful sister Suma.

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74 views

Collocations On Success and Failure

Suma has experienced great success in her career, creating an effective employee motivation system and now working to develop real-time translation among 100 languages. Her brother Danny has faced constant failure, being told he wasn't smart enough for medicine, losing opportunities, poor job performance, and his software company failing after just 8 months. If all else fails for Danny, he can move in with his successful sister Suma.

Uploaded by

Omkar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Collocations on success and failure

Successful Suma has a long list of impressive accomplishments. It seems like everything
she does ends up being a phenomenal success. In her very first job, she created a highly
effective way to motivate the company’s employees, resulting in a dramatic improvement
in workplace morale.

Now she’s developing a system for real-time translation among 100 different languages. If
she can pull it off, it’ll be an unprecedented success (success in something for the first time
in history) and the crowning achievement (best or most significant achievement) of her
career.

So far, the program has enjoyed modest success (some limited success) but there is still room
for improvement (potential for improvement). However, Suma says that the team is making
good progress, and that in the next month or two she hopes to make a breakthrough (make
a sudden advance in success, especially when you overcome an obstacle).

Although Suma is very ambitious, she’s also a very likeable person. She brings out the best
in other people, and quickly wins the respect of colleagues.

Suma’s brother, Disastrous Danny, is the opposite – everything he attempts seems to fail
miserably. He wanted to be a doctor, but his teachers told him he wasn’t smart enough,
dashing his hopes (making him abandon hope) of a career in medicine. He had the
opportunity to do a prestigious internship in another country, but he lost his nerve (lost his
courage) and turned down the offer.

He then applied for various jobs, but completely failed to show up to the interviews on time.
He was eventually hired, but later lost his job during an economic downturn due to his
mediocre performance (average work, not very special ) and total lack of remarkable
contribution.

Danny then tried to start his own software company to compete with Suma’s; that was a
spectacular failure. He invested his life savings in the business, despite all his friends telling
him that it would be a recipe for disaster (very likely to result in disaster). His sales
predictions were way off the mark (completely inaccurate), and the company went under
(lost all its money and shut down) just eight months after it was founded.

Poor Danny – it seems like he’s doomed to failure (destined to be unsuccessful). But if all
else fails (if everything is unsuccessful), he can always move into Suma’s mansion as a last
resort (a final possibility)!

Question 1
Edward certainly ____________ my respect when he turned down an unethical business deal.
A bet
Efforts to reduce teen pregnancy through better sex education have seen
B took ____________ success.

C won
Question 2
A average
B modest
C ordinary
Question 3
Getting a new haircut has made a ____________ improvement in his overall appearance.
A crowning
B dramatic
C theatrical
Question 4 4
I made a real ____________ in my English when I started practicing listening more often.
A breakdown
B breakover
C breakthrough
Question 5
I wanted to try water skiing, but I lost my ____________ and ended up staying inside the
boat.
A heart

B nerve
C spirit
Question 6
I'm not a complete pacifist; I just believe war should be the last ____________.
A option
B prospect
C resort
Question 7
Immigration reform was the ____________ achievement of the president's term in office.
championin
A
g
B charming
C crowning
Question8 8
My attempts at losing weight have failed ______________ - in fact, I've gained a few
pounds!
A inadequately
B miserably
C strongly
Question 9
My girlfriend really ___________ out the best in me - I'm a better person thanks to our
relationship.
A brings

B gets
C helps
Question 10
Putting inexperienced teachers into the country's worst schools is a _____________ for
disaster.
A method
B program
C recipe
Question 11
Researchers have invented a new, _____________ effective treatment for leukemia.
A highly
B richly

C sharply
Question 12
The company's advertising campaign was a _____________ failure - it didn't attract a single
new customer.
A miraculous
B spectacular
C wonderful
Question 13
The new movie has been a _____________ success, with billions of dollars in ticket sales.
A mediocre
B phenomenal
C supernatural
Question 14
There's a lot of ___________ for improvement in his writing skills.
A area
B room
C space
Question 15
We thought the repairs on the car would cost about $500, but our estimate was way off the
_________ - it was $4000.
A mark
B point
C spot

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