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Question 1

abate

Answer 1

v. to decrease; reduce

Nasa announced that it would delay the launch of the manned spacecraft until the radiation from the solar flares abated.

Question 2

abdicate

Answer 2

v. to give up a position, right, or power

Romulus Augustus, the last Western Roman emperor, was forced to abdicate the throne in 476 A.D. and the Germanic chieftain Odovacar became the de facto rule of Italy.

The appeals judge has abdicated his responsibility to review the findings of the high court.

Question 3

aberrant

Answer 3

adj. deviating from what is normal.

When a person’s behavior becomes aberrant, his or her peers may become concerned that the individual is becoming a deviant.

Abberation is a noun meaning something different from the usual or normal.

For centuries, solar eclipses were regarded as serious aberrations in the natural order.

Question 4

abeyance

Answer 4

n. temporary suppression or suspension

A good judge must hold his or her judgment in abeyance until all the facts in a case have been presented.

Question 5

abject

Answer 5

adj. miserable; pitiful

John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath portrays the abject poverty of many people during the Great Depression.

Question 6

abjure

Answer 6

v. to reject; abandon formally

Most members of the Religious Society of Friends abjure the use of violence to settle disputes between nations.

For a foreigner to become a U.S. citizen, he or she must take an oath abjuring allegiance to any other country and pledging to take up arms to defend the U.S.

Question 7

abscission

Answer 7

n. the act of cutting; the natural separation of a leaf or other part of a plant

Two scientists, Williams and Whitham, have hypothesized that premature leaf abscission is an adaptive plant response to herbivorous attack.

The verb abscise means to cut off or away.
The surgeon abscised a small growth on the patient’s hand.

Question 8

abscond

Answer 8

v. to depart secretly

A warrant is out for the arrest of a person believed to have absconded with three million dollars.

Question 9

abstemious

Answer 9

adj. moderate in appetite

Some research suggests that people with an abstemious lifestyle tend to live longer than people who indulge their appetites.

Question 10

abstinence

Answer 10

n. the giving up of certain pleasures

The monk’s vow of abstinence include all intoxicating substances.