Study guide: English 9 Units 1 and 2 Review

📋 Course Outline

1. Local Community Vocabulary
2. City Life Vocabulary
3. Phrasal Verbs and Verb Patterns
4. Complex Sentences and Connectors
5. Comparisons and Their Forms
6. Pronunciation and Word Stress
7. Reading, Rewriting, and Word Formation

📖 1. Local Community Vocabulary

★ Must-know

• Community vocabulary includes:
  • community
  • artisan
  • craft
  • handicraft
  • workshop
  • traditional
  • preserve
  • attraction
  • speciality
  • product

Further detail

• Traditional craft vocabulary includes:

  • pottery
  • weave
  • embroider
  • cast
  • mould
  • drum
  • lacquerware
  • conical hat

• Community expressions include:

  • traditional craft
  • local speciality
  • historical site
  • cultural heritage
  • make a living
  • preserve traditions

📖 2. City Life Vocabulary

★ Must-know

• City-life vocabulary includes:
  • metropolitan
  • urban
  • downtown
  • skyscraper
  • infrastructure
  • facilities
  • population
  • population density
  • crowded
  • bustling

Further detail

• City descriptions include:

  • cosmopolitan
  • multicultural
  • affordable
  • reliable
  • convenient
  • fascinating
  • delicious
  • fabulous
  • liveable
  • packed

• Common city problems and transport expressions include:

  • urban sprawl
  • traffic congestion
  • air pollution
  • get around

💡 Memory Hook

Crowded and polluted city life contrasts with convenient facilities and abundant opportunities.

📖 3. Phrasal Verbs and Verb Patterns

★ Must-know

• Common phrasal verbs include look after, look around, look for, find out, give up, set up, turn down, get on with, pass down, close down, deal with, and live on.

📌 Look forward to is followed by a noun or a verb ending in -ing, as in look forward to seeing you.

Further detail

📌 The infinitive with to can express purpose, as in using a mould to shape clay.

📖 4. Complex Sentences and Connectors

★ Must-know

• Because introduces a reason, although introduces a contrast, and so that introduces a purpose.

📌 In an ordinary clause, although is not used together with but.

Further detail

• When and while introduce time clauses, and before and after indicate the timing of an action relative to another.

📌 So links a cause to a result, as in traffic being heavy, so the air is polluted.

💡 Memory Hook

Because gives a reason, whereas although marks a contrast.

📖 5. Comparisons and Their Forms

★ Must-know

• Comparatives use adjective + -er + than for short adjectives and more + long adjective + than for long adjectives.

• A continuing change is expressed with comparative + and + comparative or more and more + a long adjective.

• A paired change uses the pattern the + comparative, the + comparative, as in the more you practise, the better you become.

Further detail

• The listed comparative forms are:
  • good–better
  • bad–worse
  • far–farther or further
  • noisy–noisier
  • busy–busier
  • crowded–more crowded
  • convenient–more convenient

📌 Equality uses as + adjective + as, lack of equality uses not as or not so + adjective + as, and inferiority uses less + adjective + than.

• Different from means unlike, while the same as expresses similarity.

💡 Memory Hook

Comparative + and + comparative shows a continuing change; the + comparative, the + comparative links paired changes.

📖 6. Pronunciation and Word Stress

★ Must-know

• The pronunciation review covers -ed endings /t/, /d/, and /ɪd/, and -s or -es endings /s/, /z/, and /ɪz/.

Further detail

📌 Pronunciation questions require attention to word stress and should not be answered from spelling alone.

📖 7. Reading, Rewriting, and Word Formation

★ Must-know

• The passage presents these advantages and disadvantages of city life:
  • Advantages: job opportunities
  • Advantages: modern facilities
  • Advantages: entertainment
  • Advantages: convenient public transport
  • Disadvantages: traffic congestion
  • Disadvantages: air pollution
  • Disadvantages: higher living costs
  • Disadvantages: noise
  • Disadvantages: crowding

Further detail

📌 Before deciding where to live, people should consider both the advantages and disadvantages.

📌 A comparative sentence can be rewritten with not as + adjective + as while retaining the comparison, as in the countryside isn't as noisy as the city.

• The reviewed word forms are:

  • heritage
  • crowded
  • handicrafts
  • facilities
  • problematic
  • attraction
  • convenient
  • diverse

• A standard multiple-choice rule is one of the + superlative + plural noun, as in one of the most crowded areas.