Aptis Vocabulary Practice: Sport
Continuing with our new series, here are some more themed vocabulary tests, this time based on sport. Sport, like food, is another very common subject area for discussion, both in exams and in real life. More and more people are realising that we all need to be more active and keep fit if we want to avoid health problems in later life. And of course, there’s also always renewed interest in sports every time there’s a big sporting event, such as the World Cup or the Olympics.
The topic comes up at some point in most exams. For Trinity College London, Sport is one of the subject areas for GESE Grade 4 (A2.2), and Health and Fitness comes at GESE Grade 6 (B1). There are also many words associated with sports in the Cambridge English wordlist, which covers vocabulary appropriate to the B1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). For more information about all the CEFR levels (A1 – C2), click here.
Some of the typical questions that come up in exams
Do you think people these days are doing enough sports?
Which sports are most popular in your country?
What sports do you do to keep fit and healthy?
Which sports do you think are best suited for older people?
Have you ever practised an extreme sport, like bungee-jumping or white-water rafting?
Are you thinking about taking up a new sport? Which one?
In order to answer this type of question well, you’ll need to practise the language of giving opinions. let’s have a look at some useful examples.
Expressing opinions & giving reasons
Use modal auxiliary verbs (+ infinitive) and similar verbs such as ought to and need to:
I think people should do physical exercise every day.
Try to use a variety of synonyms to express your opinions, rather than just repeating ‘I think …’.
In my opinion, we ought to make more of an effort to keep fit.
As I see it, schools could offer a better variety of sports to keep children interested.
If you ask me, gyms are too expensive.
To my mind, they should be free for older people.
To tell you the truth, I’d prefer to stick with a safe sport, like tennis!
For further practice on good ways to start your answers, look at our 50 Useful Example Phrases.
Themed vocabulary tests: Sport
Of course, you’ll also need a good range of vocabulary, and we think these tests are going to help. Again, we’ve followed the format of the Aptis vocabulary tests so that you’re getting exam practice too. So there are four question-types in each mini-test: word pairs, word definitions, word usage and word combinations.
Before each mini-test we’ll give you an example of each of these question-types, don’t worry! So here we go!
Part 1: Word Pairs
In this part we’re looking at nouns associated with sports vocabulary. We give you a target word in the following format: ‘swimming trunks = ‘. Then you have to select (from a drop-down list) the option that has the most similar meaning to that word; in this case, ‘bathing costume’.
Part 2: Word Definitions
Here we’re looking at the names of some sports. We give you a definition and you have to select a word (from the drop-down list) to match to that definition. For example, ‘a game played between two teams of five players, in which points are scored by throwing a ball through a hoop is’ … ‘basketball’.
Part 3: Word Usage
You have to select a word (again from a drop-down list) to complete each sentence correctly. For example, ‘I [ do / play / make ] exercise every day’. The correct answer here is ‘do‘.
Part 4: Word Combinations
Finally, in this part you have to combine words that are often used together; this is called collocation. For example, we say ‘rugby pitch’, not ‘’rugby court’.
Next Steps
Have you done the Food tests yet? Check them out!
Go to our Guide for lots more Aptis practice activities, exercises and tests.
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