Using Collocation to Boost Your IELTS Score – Key Word: memory

Key Word: memory

1          Verb + memory

Use the correct form of these verbs:

bring back                   blot out

commit                        put behind

etch                                jog

lose                              search

1. I’ve been___________ my memory all week for the name of that guy I was at college with, but all I can remember is it starts with ‘g’ – a name like ‘Goodfellow’ or ‘Goldsmith’.
2. When I was at school we had to ___________ a lot of poems to memory.
3. Elderly people tend to___________ their memory bit by bit and become increasingly forgetful.
4. Listen to it again. It might ___________ your memory and help you to remember who the singer was.
5. These photographs___________ lots of great memories of our holiday in Egypt.
6. John can’t stop thinking about the accident. He finds it impossible to ___________ the memory. However, I’m sure the memory will fade with the passing of time.
7. My first sight of you will always be ___________ on my memory. You were wearing that light blue dress and your hair was flying in the wind as you got out of your Porsche.
8. Sooner or later you’re going to have to ___________ the memory of your first wife you. How can we live if you keep talking about her?

2          Common adjective collocations

Complete the sentences with these adjectives:

distant                         earliest

fond                             short-term

hazy                             living

painful                        terrible

1. I have a great memory for faces, but a___________ memory for names. What’s your name again?
2. I have very ___________ memories of living in the country. It was such a relaxed way of life.
3. Dave’s mother died when he was only four years old, so he only has a ___________ memory of what she looked like.
4. My ___________ memory is of being taken to the park and feeding the ducks.
5. The storms we have experienced recently are the worst in ___________ memory – according to the weathermen.
6. My time at university is now a___________ memory. It seems so long ago.
7. For over thirty years Bernard had suppressed some___________ memories from his troubled childhood.
8. I can remember things that happened when I was a very young child, but my___________ memory is awful. Now, where did I leave my glasses!

3          Kinds of memory

Match the first and second parts:

1. I’ve got a photographic memory.
2. I’ve got no memory for places.
3. I’ve got a very retentive memory.
4. I’ve got a very long memory.

a          I’ll never forget what you used to do to me at school.

b          I can’t remember whether it was Modena or Turin where we met first.

c          I can see a painting in a gallery and then recall all the details days later.

d          I can remember every word of Hamlet’s great speech.

ANSWER KEY

Ex 1:

1 searching       2. commit      3. lose        4. jog

5 bring back      6. blot out      7. etched     8. put … behind

Ex 2:

1 terrible    2. fond     3. hazy     4. earliest    5. living

5 distant     7. painful     8. short-term

Ex 3:

l-c           2-b       3-d       4-a

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