Raising Awareness

Complete the text with the right word. The GLOSSARY can help

We would like to raise your awareness of the fact the two verbs we will focus on in this lesson are very easily confused. We are all aware that interest rates are 1. _ these days and we know very well that it is banks that are 2. _ the interest rates. However, we might not be sure when to use which verb. The problem is that they both mean ‘to move upwards’, but are not interchangeable.

It might help to know that the verb raise is always followed by an object: you can 3. _ your voice to make it easier for people to hear you; you can raise your 4. _ if you want to say something or you can raise an 5. _ when you wish to discuss something in a meeting. Unlike raise, the verb rise is not followed by an object. Thus we say that the sun 6. _ in the east. And after a spell of cold weather last week, the temperature rose to 20 degrees. As you can see from the above examples, we could simply say that after raise we need something that we raise. Rise, on the other hand, is more independent and stands either on its own or is followed by phrases telling us where or to what something is rising.

Amidst the financial crisis, countries are busy raising 7. _. Companies need help to rise from this difficult situation. Since the crisis seems to be so severe, there are probably people who would be willing to raise a 8. _ to anyone finding a way out of it.

Previous experience has raised 9. _ and suspicions in voters’ minds and they might not rise to the 10. _ and give their votes so easily in the next election. There is no doubt that whoever rises to 11. _ will not have an easy job, especially if they raise people’s hopes too high and allow them to expect too much. We believe that mastering these two verbs will raise your 12. _ and that you will simply feel more confident about using them in the future. For the moment, we can all raise our 13. ____ to that.