Click to enlargeVocabulary 4 – CEM & GL
The final word list for grammar-school papers, from January of Year 5.
- 12 word sets in the book
- Every word with a child-friendly definition, synonyms, antonyms and a sentence
Want the whole series? The full English series is £497, under £19 a book.
How this book is used in our course
English books are worked in short daily sessions rather than one long sitting. For vocabulary, the child covers the meaning, says it aloud, then checks; words that are missed go on a card for the week. For comprehension and cloze, the child attempts the passage under a loose time, then marks against the key and rewrites any answer that lost marks.
Where it sits in the series
- Previous book in the series: Book 16, Vocabulary 3 – Quest Exams
- Next book in the series: Book 18, Comprehension Techniques 3
What's inside English Mastery 17
Five real pages from the book, so you can see exactly what your child will work from. All 9 sample pages are in the viewer.

Twelve word sets and 123 opposite pairs: the final word list for grammar school papers.
Part 1 is twelve word sets, Abate to Yearn, each followed by a Word Workout and a Mastery Test. Part 2 is 123 Opposite Pairs in five sets, each with its own Opposites Workout and Test, because CEM and GL papers test antonyms as heavily as synonyms. A Final Mastery Test and full answers close the book.

Learn, sort, use, test. Sorting matters because the trap answer is almost always from the wrong team.
Learn the Baby word first. Build the two teams, the Synonyms as the Same Team and the Antonyms as the Opposite Team, and say each as a chain: derelict, neglected, dilapidated, ruined; derelict and maintained. Sort words into teams with the page covered. Use the word in a new sentence. Then test. It is the method from Vocabulary 1, sharpened for the final list.

Upgrade It and Right or Wrong: using a word is harder than recognising it.
"Mr Singh was worried by the class’s lack of interest in the science fair": replace the underlined words with apathy. "The twins asked for side-by-side seats": adjacent. Then a word in bold used correctly or not, with the reason in the answers: "Assiduous means hard-working, not lazy." This is the step between knowing a word and writing it in an exam.

Genuine: sham, authentic, insignificant, bona fide. Only two of the four are on the right team.
Section A asks for the opposite, with two synonyms planted among the options; Section B starts from the opposite and works back. Nimble or clumsy, courageous or timid, paltry or prolific. A child who has sorted the teams in the workout answers in seconds; a child who has not picks authentic.

Every answer, with the reason when a word is used wrongly.
Workouts, Mastery Tests, Opposites Tests and the Final are all answered in full, and the right-or-wrong questions explain themselves: "An architect designs buildings." The explanation is what makes the second attempt different from the first.
All 12 word sets in the book follow the pattern shown here.



