2021/02/08-2021/02/20

Question 1

adept

Answer 1

having a natural ability to do something that needs skill:
She’s very adept at dealing with the media.
Tamsin Palmer gave a technically adept performance on the piano.

Question 2

opaque

Answer 2

preventing light from travelling through, and therefore not transparent or translucent:
opaque glass/tights

Question 3

tip-off

Answer 3

a secret warning or piece of secret information:
Acting on a tip-off, the police arrested the drug dealers.
Following a tip-off from a friend, we sold all our shares in the company.

Question 4

kinetic

Answer 4

involving or producing movement:

kinetic energy

Question 5

oscillate

Answer 5

to move repeatedly from one position to another:

The needle on the dial oscillated between full and empty.

Question 6

blissfully

Answer 6

without knowing any of the unpleasant facts about something:
All this time I was blissfully unaware of the situation.
We’ve been able to blissfully ignore these things because it all looked so far off.

Question 7

snippy

Answer 7

slightly rude and impatient, and using only a few words:

A secretary asked in a snippy voice whether she could help him.

Question 8

snappy

Answer 8

(especially of a man’s clothes or of his appearance) modern and stylish:
He’s a snappy dresser.
That’s a very snappy new suit, Peter.

Question 9

stall

Answer 9

a large table or a small shop with an open front from which goods are sold in a public place:
In the village market, the stalls are piled high with local vegetables.

Question 10

edible

Answer 10

suitable or safe for eating:

Only the leaves of the plant are edible.

Question 11

sarcasm

Answer 11

the use of remarks that clearly mean the opposite of what they say, made in order to hurt someone’s feelings or to criticize something in a humorous way:
“You have been working hard,” he said with heavy sarcasm, as he looked at the empty page.

Question 12

savor

Answer 12

to enjoy food or an experience slowly, in order to enjoy it as much as possible:
It was the first chocolate he’d tasted for over a year, so he savored every mouthful.

Question 13

scruple

Answer 13

a feeling that prevents you from doing something that you think is morally wrong or makes you uncertain about doing it:
Robin Hood had no scruples about robbing the rich to give to the poor.
He is a man without scruple - he has no conscience.

Question 14

contagion

Answer 14

the situation in which a disease is spread by touching someone or something:
The doctor says there’s no chance/danger of contagion.

Question 15

proliferate

Answer 15

to increase a lot and suddenly in number:

Small businesses have proliferated in the last ten years.

Question 16

monogamous

Answer 16

having a sexual relationship or marriage with only one person at a time:
a monogamous relationship
I am in a monogamous marriage and we have two sons.

Question 17

polygamous

Answer 17

married to more than one person at the same time, or relating to this practice:
We grew up in a very large family because my father was polygamous.
a polygamous society

Question 18

cuddle

Answer 18

to put your arms around someone and hold them in a loving way, or (of two people) to hold each other close to show love or for comfort:
She cuddled the baby and eventually it stopped crying.
They sat in the back row of the cinema kissing and cuddling.

Question 19

lemur

Answer 19

a small animal from Madagascar, similar to a monkey with thick fur and a long tail, that lives in trees and is active at night

Question 20

egregious

Answer 20

extremely bad in a way that is very noticeable:

It was an egregious error for a statesman to show such ignorance.

Question 21

inbreeding

Answer 21

a situation in which plants, animals, or people are produced by breeding between closely related plants, animals, or people:
the dangers/effects of inbreeding

Question 22

shrub

Answer 22

a large plant with a rounded shape formed from many small branches growing either directly from the ground or from a hard stem, grown in gardens:
She planted some roses and other flowering shrubs.

Question 23

spurious

Answer 23

false and not what it appears to be, or (of reasons and judgments) based on something that has not been correctly understood and therefore false:
Some of the arguments in favour of shutting the factory are questionable and others downright spurious.

Question 24

contestant

Answer 24

someone who competes in a contest:

In tonight’s quiz, our contestants have come from all over the country.

Question 25

reenactment

Answer 25

an occasion on which people re-enact an event:

a re-enactment of the battle of Gettysburg

Question 26

geyser

Answer 26

a hole in the ground from which hot water and steam come out

Question 27

belly

Answer 27

the stomach or the front part of the body between your chest and your legs:
He fell asleep with a full belly and a happy heart.
By the sixth month of pregnancy, Gina’s belly had begun to swell.

Question 28

remnant

Answer 28

a small piece or amount of something that is left from a larger original piece or amount:
the remnants of last night’s meal
remnants of the city’s former glory
a carpet remnant

Question 29

austerity

Answer 29

the condition of living without unnecessary things and without comfort, with limited money or goods, or a practice, habit, or experience that is typical of this:
The wartime austerity of my early years prepared me for later hardships.
The austerities of life in a small rural community were not what I was used to.

Question 30

elasticity

Answer 30

the ability to stretch:

As the skin grows older it loses its elasticity.

Question 31

fictitious

Answer 31

He dismissed recent rumours about his private life as fictitious.
Characters in this novel are entirely fictitious.

Question 32

sham

Answer 32

something that is not what it seems to be and is intended to deceive people, or someone who pretends to be something they are not:
It turned out that he wasn’t a real doctor at all - he was just a sham.
They claimed that the election had been fair, but really it was a sham.

Question 33

quaint

Answer 33

attractive because of being unusual and especially old-fashioned:
a quaint old cottage

Question 34

mastery

Answer 34

complete control of something:

her mastery of the situation

Question 35

continuum

Answer 35

something that changes in character gradually or in very slight stages without any clear dividing points:
It’s not “left-wing or right-wing” - political opinion is a long continuum.

Question 36

chubby

Answer 36

(especially of children) fat in a pleasant and attractive way:
chubby legs
chubby cheeks

Question 37

conspire

Answer 37

to plan secretly with other people to do something bad, illegal, or against someone’s wishes:
[ + to infinitive ] He felt that his colleagues were conspiring together to remove him from his job.
As girls, the sisters used to conspire with each other against their brother.

Question 38

dissent

Answer 38

a strong difference of opinion on a particular subject, especially about an official suggestion or plan or a popular belief:
When the time came to approve the proposal, there were one or two voices of dissent.

Question 39

hue

Answer 39

(a degree of lightness, darkness, strength, etc. of) a colour:
In the Caribbean waters there are fish of every hue.

Question 40

bang on

Answer 40

to talk about something for a long time, especially in a way that is boring to other people:
My parents are always banging on about how much better life was 20 years ago.

Question 41

divergent

Answer 41

different or becoming different from something else:
They hold widely divergent opinions on controversial issues like abortion.
In his book, he identifies 25 choices men and women make that put them on divergent career paths.

Question 42

quirky

Answer 42

unusual in an attractive and interesting way:

He was tall and had a quirky, off-beat sense of humour.

Question 43

clandestine

Answer 43

planned or done in secret, especially describing something that is not officially allowed:
The group held weekly clandestine meetings in a church.
He has been having a clandestine affair with his secretary for three years.
She undertook several clandestine operations for the CIA.

Question 44

scrutiny

Answer 44

the careful and detailed examination of something in order to get information about it:
The government’s record will be subjected to/come under (close) scrutiny in the weeks before the election.

Question 45

unfathomable

Answer 45

impossible to understand:

For some unfathomable reason they built the toilet next to the kitchen.

Question 46

fecund

Answer 46

able to produce a lot of crops, fruit, babies, young animals, etc.:
fecund soil

Question 47

evanescence

Answer 47

the condition of lasting for only a short time, then disappearing quickly and being forgotten:
Perhaps this is a lesson in the evanescence of fame.
The story is a meditation on the evanescence of all things.

Question 48

morbidly

Answer 48

in a way that shows too much interest in unpleasant subjects, especially death:
You don’t want to spend your life morbidly thinking about your old age and death.
The TV audience were morbidly delighted to find there were people worse off than they were.

Question 49

pathogen

Answer 49

any small organism, such as a virus or a bacterium that can cause disease:
a dangerous pathogen

Question 50

punditry

Answer 50

the job or activity of giving your opinion about a subject because you know a lot about it:
A few players move into football punditry when their playing careers are over.
Political punditry is harder than it looks.