Okay, Andrew.
This is a vocabulary book for Eiken grade 1 test which is one of the hardest English examinations in Japan.
I would like you to check, maybe quickly skim through and see why you think about this vocabulary.
So first glance, a lot of the words are actually quite complicated.
Some of them even look a bit obscure.
Andrew: So this is mostly representative… ATSU: Andrew…
So first glance, some of these words…
They look a bit obscure and I guess their application looks a bit narrow
because this mostly represents words that are commonly used in the exams, right?
Yeah
That’s pretty interesting, so something like…
I wouldn't have thought it would be very common word that crops up in exams
similarly
Have you ever heard that?
I have.
Okay, that’s good. Where? remember?
In books.
Quite rare so I’m a bit surprised that it makes an appearance in this book.
Is that how you say it?
Say I have never used that word in my life.
I’m holding it down.
ATSU: Cause I could see it. Andrew: You could still see it...
Hold it here. Hold it like this.
Why did you do this?
Should’ve concentrated in class.
Are these words supposed to be the infinitive of the word or as they appear in the exam?
I think as they appear in the exams.
Okay.
So the infinitive, it says cage. It's uh...
Andrew...
Can still see it?
Oh my god...
Where does this disappear?
I’ll hold it here. Okay.
Let’s look at the example sentences.
Few believed his story because he was known to be an inveterate liar.
What kind of impression you would have when you hear someone saying this sentence in real life?
It’s a bit over the top.
Well, I don't think anyone actually speaks like that.
Over the top, that’s a good expression cause it’s in Distinction I.
Yeah.
It's not only that.
I don’t think many of these would even appear really that often in writing.
So in speaking it’s like I don’t think like people would even use it that frequently in exams.
These are all fine.
Yeah I think those are.
but...
It’s the opposite side of beneficiary, right?
It’s interesting. For example you've got...
In least frequent
But we often hear that word, right?
Yeah, which I would argue is more common than...
But perhaps it's to do with…
Cause it's from from the exams, is it to do with how frequently it crops up in the exam rather than actual…
So I think what they did was they collected all the data over the past maybe 10 years or 15 years
and then they just screened it and they put them in the order of how many times they appeared on the exam.
Maybe that’s it, because the exam's a bit more formal and a bit more academic style.
So some of these words might occur more frequently than you would expect and vice versa.
So some words that you hear more commonly in everyday speech and in everyday writing doesn’t necessarily feature that often.
Yeah I understand what you're saying.
superfluous
That’s a good one.
It’s a great one except it’s in the "most commonly used"
Which again...surprising...
Some of these are pretty surprising.
equivalent
His silence was tantamount to an admission of guilt.
Do you like that?
I like that a lot.
Being sarcastic?
I just like words.
I could read this all day.
Any surprise? Any words that you don't know ?
There are a few.
More… I've heard them before but I haven't looked into what they mean just because I’ve never used it.
The study of earthquakes.
I think the most interesting is Section A where it’s purportedly the most frequently used words
Purportedly…
That’s a good word too.
I wonder if it’s in this book. Wouldn’t be surprised.
What does that mean?
Commute? Commuting?
Apparently.
Can’t see it.
The judge ordered the commutation of the man's death sentence to life imprisonment.
Ah that’s what it means.
Does it mean accelerate?
It makes the punishment less severe. The act of making the punishment less severe.
So it’s reduced the man’s death sentence to a life sentence.
Never heard of that in my life.
If you're learning purely for the exam, then I think learning from a book like this is probably a good move
Because I think it’s probably quite scientific, right?
I don’t know the full backstory behind it but sounds like there’s been quite a fair bit of analytics and study behind finding the words that crop up most often in the exams
So if your aim for learning English is purely to focus on studying for the exams,
then I would say definitely learn as much as you can from these books.
English learners should have a balance
If they spend like a 100% of their time on this then they would start speaking really unnaturally, but you know…
I think learning from a book like this... It’s not bad. It’s not going to make your English worse.
It’s just a bit unnatural sounding.
The more the better, right? Because when you come across those words in reading a book or whatever…
Yeah. It’s definitely a good thing to learn.
It's just, like you say, I think having a balance is I think the important thing.
Understanding the priority in studies, it’s always an important thing.
Thank you for reviewing the book. It was quite interesting.
Interesting for me as well.
That’s all for today.
Before we wrap up today’s video, I would like to introduce Distinction I&II
What you’re holding right now is Distinction I
We collaborated together with other native speakers included and we created these amazing vocabulary books.
How are these books different from the Eiken grade 1 book that we have just reviewed?
The primary difference in these books is that it focuses more on colloquialism that don’t necessarily pop up on the exam or more scriptive type of setting
It’s really, from a native speaker’s perspective, it’s words and phrases that we use.
One of the best things about this is because we involved native speakers from all parts of the world
because English is such a global language
There's differences in how people use words and phrases
The ones that we put in this book really bring together words and phrases that are used by people all around the world, so not specific to any one country
So I think that’s a really positive thing about the words and phrases we have here.
If you haven’t bought these books, these books are still available on our website atsueigo.shop
Also check our Instagram as well because we have a lot of interesting paraphrase videos too.
Check atsueigo.com where you can read more than a hundred articles for free.
More than a hundred articles…Wow…
So many…
So many… too many?
Yeah too many... for free?!