VOCABULARY related to Christmas

As we are approaching the holiday season we thought the topic should be something to do with Christmas. Have a great Christmas holiday wherever you are in the world.  

Let 2014 bring peace, health and happiness to you, your families and the world.

The Istanbul IELTS Team

VOCABULARY	DEFINITION	EXAMPLE
DONATION	money or goods that are given to help a person or organization, or the act of giving them	On special occasions such as Christmas and Eid people tend to be generous and give gifts or food to neighbours, friends and the poor.
EVE	the period or day before an important event	24 December, the day before Christmas Day / the last day of the year 31 December.
GATHER	a party or a meeting when many people come together as a group	On Christmas Day in many countries around the world, families and relatives gather together to enjoy and celebrate Christmas together.
TRADITIONAL	a belief, principle, or way of acting that people in a particular society have      continued to follow for a long time	A traditional Christmas dinner especially in the UK is usually a turkey, with cranberries and roast potatoes followed by a Christmas pudding.
RESOLUTIONS	a promise to yourself to do or to not do something	Every year I make a resolution that I will lead a healthier lifestyle and start going to the gym. For 2014, one of my resolutions is that I am definitely going to start looking after myself.

Christmas is celebrated by billions of people around the world by Christians and non-Christians.  People start getting ready for their Christmas holidays on Christmas EVE (24^th December) when families and friends start GATHERING in anticipation of Christmas Day. The TRADITIONAL food on Christmas Day is turkey with lots of side dishes and followed by Christmas pudding.  The followıng day, on Boxing Day (26^th December) people and especially the Church make DONATIONS to those who need it the most.   Then on New Year’s EVE    (31^st December) everyone starts getting prepared for the arrival of the New Year and when people start making RESOLUTIONS of things they will do and thing they will not do for the following year.

IELTS Topic based vocabulary CHILDREN & FAMILY

CHILDREN & FAMILY is a topic that usually comes up in the IELTS speaking test and in Task 2 writing.  Here are just a few words to help you along on the topic of FAMILY.

VOCABULARY	DEFINITION	EXAMPLE
bring up	to take care of and educate a child until he/she is an adult.	Some parents need to bring up their children more strictly in order to instil some discipline.
overprotective	being too worried about someone's safety, especially a child.	Some parents tend to be too overprotective of their children.
nuclear family	a family consisting of two parents and their children, but not including aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc.	In some parts of the world the nuclear family remains at the heart of modern society.
extended family	a family unit which includes grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts and uncles, etc. in addition to parents and children who live together or live close to each other.	In many cultures, such as in those of many  Southern European countries, Asians, Middle Easterners, Africans and Latin Americans extended families are the basic family unit.
birth rate	The total ration of live births in a specified population in a community over a particular period of time and is usually defined as live births out of 1000.	The lowest birth rates tend to be in developed countries.  The government showed record-low birth rates 63.2 per 1000 women, was the lowest ever recorded.

It is commonly believed that the BIRTH RATES in Europe and Japan are decreasing whilst in other parts of the world the birth rates are increasing. This also reflects on the culture and how the family structure is constructed.

The way children are BROUGHT UP  varies from culture to culture with many cultures believe that living with the EXTENDED FAMILY will give the parents the support to those who need it.  In contrast, families in the US and UK tend to be more of the NUCLEAR FAMILY.  Personally, I believe the extended family network is great but at the same time I think children from extended families are OVERPROTECTED.

IELTS Test dates Istanbul 2014