Describing music
Look at these music reviews and note the collocations in bold.
fi
Bloom Music from the Centre of the Earth
(Palm records 234655)
New arrivals on the rock music scene, Bloom
are already making a big impact. If you're
looking for background music, then this is not
for you, but if you want music to blast out
from your hi-fi and annoy the neighbours,
then Bloom's debut album, with tracks from
their live performance at the Delaya Stadium,
may be just what you want.
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Johnny Mac Roy Songs we loved
(Kase Phonograph 488792)
For fans of easy listening and catchy4 tunes,
this is all you need. In fact it's so relaxing you
might just fall asleep. MacRoy gives a
sentimental performance of these old love
songs. At 47, he's not exactly a pop idol but his
adoring fans will love it.
•0J>-Q'J>J3J>J3J>.GJ>.QJ>
The Divide Amphibian
(Fono Corp 3321978)
This is a rock symphony, an extraordinary piece
of music. After their massive hit in 2004 with
Megalith, their record company has released
this CD hoping for another big hit. The band
themselves wrote the music. They have a huge
following and are due to go on tour later this

over rhythm tracks
8 made a new version of a musical track
9 played at a fast beat
I saw Martin strumming a
guitar the other day. I didn't
know he could play.
I've taken up the guitar. I've
had three lessons so far.
He can't. He just likes people
to think he can. He's got no
musical talent whatsoever.
That's great
I love live
music.
What can
you play?
54 English Collocations in Use
Well, the first week was all
about tuning the instrument.
I've got to play a piece for my
teacher next week.
Exercises
25.1 Change the underlined words using collocations from A so that each sentence has the
opposite meaning.
1 The band's last CD was a minor hit. (give two answers)
2 There are some great slow numbers on this new CD.
3 The band has a small following of dedicated fans.
4 Music was playing quietly on a CD player when I entered the house.
5 Maria Plurosa gave a poor performance of Heder's violin concerto last night.
25.2 Correct the eight collocation errors in this paragraph. The first one is done for you.

5 It is one of those melodies which you never forget, so beautiful, yet so sad.
6 There's a lot of musical in the family; all the children play an instrument.
Now, for twenty thousand
dollars, who wrote Beethoven's
Fifth Symphony?
English Collocations in Use 55
Sport
Do, play and go
The table below gives examples of common sporting collocations with do, play and go.
You do
You play
You go
gymnastics, judo, weightlifting, aerobics, yoga, wrestling, circuit training, archery, athletics
games, badminton, billiards, hockey, bowls, rugby, golf, (table) tennis, cricket, baseball, chess,
darts, cards, dominoes
fishing, skiing, bowling, cycling, skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding, hang-gliding, climbing,
hill walking, sailing, jogging, swimming
You can also say you go to aerobics/judo/yoga/karate — this means that you go to a class in
this sport.
ERROR
WARNING
Learners often make mistakes with some common collocations connected with sport.
Make a point of learning these commonly used collocations.
• You do or play sport. (NOT make sport)
• You do exercises. (NOT make exercises)
• You play computer or other games. (NOT de games)
• You have/piay a game of cards. (NOT make a game)
• You go skiing. (NOT make skiing)
• You do activities. (NOT make or practise activities)
If you are a serious sportsperson, you will certainly practise your sport, but that has a

You can skateboarding! You can even darts! Vj
26.2
In fact, you can almost any sport you can think of. So join now!
Look at B and C. Make ten collocations by matching a word from the box on the left with
a word or phrase from the box on the right.
26.3
personal
blow
bring on
fail
enter
set
achieve
train
enhance
take
the lead
best
a substitute
a record
a whistle
a competition
your performance
a drugs test
hard
your ambitions
Look at the error warning. There are six verb + noun errors in this e-mail. Find and
correct them.
enr>
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[formal]
suffer from
have an
attack of
be diagnosed
with
suffer /
sustain
[formal]
common collocations
a cold, the flu, a chill, pneumonia
a disease, malaria, typhoid
(lung/breast) cancer, diabetes, AIDS, arthritis,
Alzheimer's disease
asthma, hay fewer, backache
bronchitis, asthma, hay fever, diarrhoea
(lung/breast) cancer, AIDS, leukaemia, autism
(major/minor/serious/head) injuries
example
1 got soaking wet and caught a cold.
Uncle Jess contracted malaria while he
was working in Africa.
My grandfather developed Alzheimer's
disease and could no longer remember
things or recognise people.
She has suffered from asthma all her life.
She had an attack of hay fever and was
sneezing non-stop.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer and
died a year later.

diarrhoea
a cold
breast cancer
minor injuries
typhoid
autism
1 sustain
2 contract
3 have an attack of
4 develop
5 be diagnosed with
6 catch
Use the verbs and expressions in the left-hand column of exercise 27.1 instead of the verb
get in these newspaper extracts.
1
Many musicians who get
arthritis experience the
tragedy of no longer
being able to play their
instrument.
To get cancer is the most
frightening experience, and
people often need intense
counselling to cope with it.
Mr Taylor escaped with
bruises, but experts say
he was lucky not to have
got serious injuries.
More than 50 passengers on
the flight got moderate or

9 My aunt was t ill when she was on holiday. Apparently, she was in
e pain. Luckily she had travel insurance.
10 1 believe in h eating and I try to do v exercise every other day.
11 My doctor p me a new drug to a my backache. It worked!
12 1 took a day off work yesterday. It was nothing serious, just a s cold.
•
If you have not already done it, complete the questionnaire at B opposite. If you think you need
to change your habits, make a note of it, e.g. Take more vigorous exercise!
English Collocations in Use 59
28 Computers
E-mail and the Internet
Look at these conversations where people are
asking for assistance at an Internet cafe,
Customer: How do I go online?
Assistant: You're already connected to the
Internet. Do you want to send e-mail?
Customer: No, I just want to browse the web for a while.
Assistant: OK, just open the search engine or enter the web address and press *enter\
Customer: I can't access my company's website. Can you help?
Assistant: Have you put in the correct address?
Customer: Yes, I'm sure I have.
Customer: How do I reply to this e-mail? Sorry, I'm not very good with computers.
Assistant: That's OK. Just hit 'reply', then compose your message, then press 'send'.
Customer: Then can I forward the message to myself at my home address?
Assistant: Yes. Make sure you enter the right address, or the e-mail will bounce (come
back]. Let me know if you would like a hard copy of your e-mail and I'll show
you how to print out your work, [a copy on paper]
Customer: What do I do if I want to download this picture?
Assistant: You have to save it to a disk. I can sell you one if you don't have one.
Customer: Can I send an attachment with this e-mail?