English Vocabulary in Use Advanced » Unit 15: Birth and death: from cradle to grave

Word List
  • ashes
  • be at death’s door
  • be on your last legs
  • bequeath
  • bequest
  • bereaved
  • burial
  • caesarean (section)
  • coffin
  • conceive
  • conception
  • condolence
  • cremation
  • crematorium
  • deceased
  • deliver
  • delivery
  • dementia
  • doddery
  • embryo
  • expecting
  • fatality
  • fertilisation
  • fertilise
  • fertility drugs
  • foetus
  • gaga
  • give birth
  • go into labour
  • have all your wits about you
  • implant
  • in vitro fertilisation
  • induce
  • induction
  • inherit
  • inheritance
  • intestate
  • IVF
  • late
  • loss
  • midwife
  • mourning
  • pass away
  • pass on
  • pass over
  • pensioner
  • perish
  • placenta
  • pregnancy
  • pregnant
  • ripe old age
  • scatter ashes
  • sheltered accommodation
  • slaughtered
  • test tube baby
  • uterus
  • wake
  • will
  • womb
Exercises

15.1 ‣ Complete these sentences with words from A opposite.

  1. If Liz doesn’t _____ soon, she’s going to ask her doctor for a fertility test.
  2. Karen went into _____ at midnight and gave _____ only four hours later.
  3. Did Amy have a natural _____ or a _____ section?
  4. The _____ provides the baby growing in the mother’s _____ with all the food it needs.
  5. The first test _____ baby was born in 1978.
  6. As well as helping with the birth, a trained _____ usually visits the mother before and aft er the birth to check that everything is going well.
  7. Laila’s _____ a baby – it’s due in the middle of October.
  8. During the nine months of _____, the baby developing inside the mother is oft en referred to as a _____.

15.2 ‣ Correct these sentences, which use the vocabulary in B and C.

  1. The whole country is in morning aft er the President’s death.
    _____
  2. I’d like my dust scattered in my favourite forest.
    _____
  3. My extinct grandfather was a shepherd all his life.
    _____
  4. I’m afraid her elderly step-mother has just passed off.
    _____
  5. My car is on its last leg.
    _____
  6. My father inherited me his gold watch in his will.
    _____
  7. Mrs Wilson seems to have been at death’s window for years.
    _____
  8. Over 2,000 people were perished in the earthquake.
    _____
  9. It was amazing there were no fertilities when the bridge collapsed.
    _____
  10. My aunt left me a request of £500 in her will.
    _____

15.3 ‣ Write sentences with the same meanings, using the word in brackets and making any appropriate changes.

  1. Both my sisters are pregnant at the moment. (expect)
    _____
  2. Twins were born to Shona Harrison last Monday. (Birth)
    _____
  3. She has been taking medication to help her conceive. (Fertility)
    _____
  4. All my grandparents lived to their 80s or 90s. (ripe)
    _____
  5. My neighbour is 90 but she is still very mentally alert. (wits)
    _____
  6. Unfortunately, the deceased died intestate. (will)
    _____
  7. John bequeathed £1,000 to each of his three nephews. (inherit)
    _____
  8. I was so sorry to hear of your loss. (condolences)
    _____

15.4 ‣ Choose words or expressions from the box to complete these texts.

  1. deceased
  2. bequest
  3. bequeathed
  4. inherited
  5. slaughtered
  6. pensioner
  7. perished
  8. passed away
  9. fatalities

THE DAY IN REVIEW

Yesterday was indeed a black day for our country. Twenty-five people 1_____ in an earthquake. Five more people were 2_____ in a terrorist bomb attack and there were ten road accident 3_____. Among the 4_____ was one of our most popular young politicians.

Charles Smith

I’m very sad to have to tell you that my grandfather 5_____ last month. He retired 20 years ago, so he had been a 6_____ for some years. He had considerable savings and 7_____ each of his grandchildren quite a large sum of money. I’d love to spend the money I 8_____ on something really special. He also left a very large 9_____ to the university where he worked for most of his life.

Answer Key
A ‣ At the beginning

Pregnancy1 is the nine-month period when a woman is expecting a baby. It begins with conception2, when the mother’s egg is fertilised3 and an embryo4 implants5 in the mother’s womb, or uterus6. Most mothers conceive7 naturally but some are helped by fertility drugs8 or other procedures such as IVF9. As the foetus10 grows, it is fed through the mother’s placenta11. After 40 weeks, the mother usually goes into labour12. If this doesn’t happen naturally, she may be induced13. Usually, a mother is helped to give birth14 by a midwife15. Sometimes a surgeon is needed to deliver16 the baby by caesarean section17.

1 (adj. = pregnant)
2 time when sperm and egg meet and a baby starts to form
3 made to start developing into new life
4 developing baby
5 fixes itself
6 organ inside the mother where the fertilised egg develops into a baby; uterus is a more medical word than womb
7 become pregnant
8 drugs that help a woman to become pregnant
9 in vitro fertilisation: process that fertilises a woman’s egg in a laboratory; babies born this way are sometimes referred to as test tube babies
10 what the embryo developing in the uterus is known as from eight weeks onward
11 organ connecting the developing baby to the mother and giving it food
12 goes into the last stage of pregnancy, where the womb starts the process of pushing the baby out of the body
13 be helped medically to start the process of labour (noun = induction)
14 have her baby
15 person medically trained to help women when they are giving birth
16 help the mother to give birth (noun = delivery)
17 operation in which the mother’s abdomen and womb are cut open to allow the baby to be removed

Language help

Expect when it means ‘expect a baby’ is only used in the continuous form, e.g. Helena and her sister are both expecting (NOT expect).

B ‣ At the end

More and more people these days are living to a ripe old age1. My aunt, for example, that’s my late2 father’s sister, is 93. She’s been a pensioner3 for more years than she worked. She lives in sheltered accommodation4 but she’s not at all doddery5 or gaga6. She’s lucky still to have all her wits about her7 because a lot of elderly people develop dementia8. Funerals are changing a lot too. I went to one recently where there was a coffin9 in the colours of the dead man’s football team. And at the wake,10 his sister told me she’d put it in her will11 that her own ashes12 are to be sent up in a rocket! Funerals now are often more about celebrating a person’s life rather than just about mourning13. As for me, I think I’d prefer an ordinary cremation14. But then I’d quite like to have my ashes scattered15 at sea, as I love sailing.

1 living well into old age; usually used in the phrase to live to a ripe old age
2 now dead
3 elderly person, receiving an old age pension from the state
4 special housing, usually for old people, where care staff also live
5 weak and unable to walk well, usually because of old age; informal
6 unable to think clearly because of old age; informal and offensive
7 is still able to think and react quickly
8 an illness that causes problems with  memory loss
9 box where the dead person is put
10 gathering of family and friends after a funeral
11 legal document saying what is to happen to your possessions after your death
12 remains of a body after cremation (see 14)
13 expressing sadness after someone’s death (the mourners have been bereaved)
14 service at a place called a crematorium, where a dead body is burnt (as opposed to a burial, where the body is buried in the ground)
15 spread around

C ‣ Death in different registers

expressions of sympathy: Please accept my condolences. (formal) I was so sorry to hear/learn of your loss. (informal)

euphemisms for ‘to die’: to pass away, to pass on, to pass over

very informal expressions for being close to death: to be at death’s door, to be on your last legs (often used about machines, e.g. My laptop’s on its last legs)

newspaper words: fatalities [dead people], perished [died], slaughtered [violently killed]

legal words: the deceased [the dead person], to bequeath [to leave something in a will; noun = a bequest], to inherit [to receive something from someone who has died; noun = an inheritance], to die intestate [without having made a will]

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