Question

Find words from the passage which convey a meaning similar to the following

words/phrases

The New Year is a time for resolutions. Mentally, at least most of us could compile

formidable lists of ‘do's’ and ‘don'ts’ for the year. The same old favorites recur year in

year out with monotonous regularity. We resolve to get up earlier each morning, eat

less, find more time to play with the children, do a thousand and one jobs about the

house, be nice to people we don’t like, drive carefully, and take the dog for a walk every

day. Past experience has taught us that certain accomplishments are beyond attainment.

If we remain deep-rooted liars, it is only because we have so often experienced the

frustration that results from failure.

Most of us fail in our efforts at self-improvement because our schemes are too ambitious

and we never have time to carry them out. We also make the fundamental error of

announcing our resolutions to everybody so that we look even more foolish when we

slip back into our bad old ways. Aware of these pitfalls, this year I attempted to keep

my resolutions to myself. I limited myself to two modest ambitions; to do physical

exercise every morning and to read more every evening. An all-night party on New

Year's Eve provided me with a good excuse for not carrying out either of these new

resolutions on the first day of the year, but on the second, I applied myself assiduously

to the task.

The daily exercise lasted only eleven minutes and I proposed to do them early in the

morning before anyone had got up. The self-discipline required to drag myself out of

bed eleven minutes earlier than usual was considerable. Nevertheless, I managed to

creep down into the living-room for two days before anyone found me out. After

jumping about on the carpet and twisting the human frame into uncomfortable positions,

I sat down at the breakfast table in an exhausted condition. It was this that betrayed me.

The next morning the whole family trooped in to watch the performance. That was

really unsettling but I fended off the taunts and jibes of the family good humouredly

and soon everybody got used to the idea. However, my enthusiasm waned, the time I

spent at exercises gradually diminished. Little by little the eleven minutes fell to zero.

By January 10th I was back to where I had started from. I argued that if I spent less time

exhausting myself at exercises in the morning I would keep my mind fresh for reading

when I got home from work. Resisting the hypnotizing effect of television, I sat in my

room for a few evenings with my eyes glued to a book. One night however, feeling cold

and lonely, I went downstairs and sat in front of the television pretending to read. That

proved to be my undoing, for I soon got back to the old bad habit of dozing off in front

of the screen. I still haven't given up my resolution to do more reading, In fact, I have

just bought a book entitled

‘How to Read a Thousand Words a Minute.’ Perhaps it will solve my problem, but I

just haven’t had time to read it.

(i) firm decisions (para 1)

(ii) put together (para 1)

(iii) overwhelming (para 1)

(iv) unchanging (para 1)

(v) stumbling-block (para 2)

(vi) restricted (para 2)

(vii) with great zeal (para 2)

(viii) very tired (para 3)

(ix) give me away (para 3)

(x) ward off (para 3)

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Answer 1

Answer:

1. resolution

2.compile

3.formidable

4.monotonous

5.unsettling

6.

7.enthusiastically

8.exhausted

9.

10.fended