There are a few words and phrases that occur fairly commonly no matter what exam you take. Understanding these phrases will make it easy for your to crack the reading comprehension section or might just be able to help you understand the question better.

In many cases the fifteen expressions that follow are used in contexts where many questions appear. Be familiar with these and you will ace the competitive tests. GRE? Sure. IELTS? Certainly. PTE? Oh yes! CAT? Absolutely. 

• stifle something (stifle journalistic opinions / stifle academic discourse / etc)
• empirical
• punitive
• contravene
• grapple
• constitute
• undermine something
• stringent regulation
• falsehoods
• enforcing legislation
• scientific progress
• falsified data
• raising concerns
• compromise civil liberties
• holding someone / something to account
• fail to comply
• holding someone more accountable
• deemed unflattering
• clamp down on something
• censoring someone’s opinion

Want to read an article with all these expressions, take a look at the full PDF file in our Telegram Channel!