Day 18

Question 1

Alas

Answer 1

an expression of sadness or disappointment, especially when there is no hope that a situation will change:
- “Alas!” cried the man.
- I love football but, alas, I have no talent as a player.
- “Will you be able to come tomorrow?” “Alas, no.”

Question 2

Crave

Answer 2

to have a very strong feeling of wanting something:
- Many young children crave attention.

Question 3

Dweller

Answer 3

a person who lives in a city, town, cave, etc.

Question 4

Animosity

Answer 4

strong dislike, opposition, or anger:
- Of course we’re competitive, but there’s no personal animosity between us.
- In spite of his injuries, he bears no animosity towards his attackers.
- The European Community helped France and Germany forget the old animosities between them.

Question 5

Intermingled

Answer 5

to become mixed together:
- The flavours intermingle to produce a very unusual taste.
- Fact is intermingled with fiction throughout the book.

Question 6

Dire

Answer 6

very serious or extreme:
- These people are in dire need of help.
- He gave a dire warning that an earthquake was imminent.
- This decision will have dire consequences for local people.

Question 7

Subdue

Answer 7

to reduce the force of something, or to prevent something from existing or developing:
- The fire burned for eight hours before the fire crews could subdue it.
- He criticized the school for trying to subdue individual expression.

Question 8

Miffed

Answer 8

annoyed at someone’s behaviour towards you:
- She hadn’t called for a week and I was getting miffed.

Question 9

Roll in

Answer 9

to arrive in great numbers or amounts:
- Once our business gets started, the money will be rolling in.

Question 10

Solid

Answer 10

hard or firm, keeping a clear shape:
- solid ground
- a solid object
- a solid structure

Question 11

Vie

Answer 11

to compete with other people to achieve or get something:
- Six candidates are currently vying for the Democratic presidential nomination.
- The two older children tend to vie with the younger one for their mother’s attention.
- [ + to infinitive ] The two groups of scientists are vying to get funding for their research projects.

Question 12

Imminent

Answer 12

coming or likely to happen very soon:
- imminent disaster/danger
- A strike is imminent.

Question 13

Frank

Answer 13

honest, sincere, and telling the truth, even when this might be awkward or make other people uncomfortable:
- a full and frank discussion
- There followed a frank exchange of views.
- To be perfectly frank with you, I don’t think she’s the person for the job.

Question 14

Befitting

Answer 14

suitable or right for someone or something:
- They were greeted with befitting courtesy.
- A land area of more than 140 million people deserves a befitting transport network.

Question 15

Utter

Answer 15

to say something or to make a sound with your voice:
- She sat through the whole meeting without uttering a word.

Question 16

Necessitate

Answer 16

to cause something to be needed, or to make something necessary:
- Reduction in government spending will necessitate further cuts in public services.
- [ + -ing verb ] An important meeting necessitates my being in Boston on Friday.

Question 17

Sign off

Answer 17

to approve something officially:
- Both sides signed off on a legally binding agreement last month.

Question 18

Protracted

Answer 18

lasting for a long time or made to last longer than necessary:
- protracted negotiations
- a protracted argument/discussion

Question 19

Shrewdness

Answer 19

clear understanding and good judgment of a situation, usually resulting in an advantage:
- She was a woman of great courage and political shrewdness.
- He has approached the task with commitment, intelligence, and shrewdness.

Question 20

Malicious

Answer 20

intended to harm or upset other people:
- malicious gossip
- a malicious look in his eyes
- He complained that he’d been receiving malicious phone calls.
- He was charged with malicious wounding.

Question 21

Frankly

Answer 21

in an honest and direct way:
- She spoke very frankly about her experiences.

Question 22

Omit

Answer 22

to fail to include or do something:
- She was omitted from the list of contributors to the report.
- The Prince’s tour conveniently omitted the most deprived areas of the city.
- [ + to infinitive ] formal She omitted to mention that she would be away next week.

Question 23

Withdraw

Answer 23

to take or move out or back, or to remove:
- This credit card allows you to withdraw up to £200 a day from ATMs.
- The UN has withdrawn its troops from the country.
- Eleven million bottles of water had to be withdrawn from sale due to a health scare.
- Once in court, he withdrew the statement he’d made to the police (= he claimed it was false).
- All charges against them were withdrawn after the prosecution’s case collapsed.
formal After lunch, we withdrew into her office to finish our discussion in private.
- She had to withdraw from the competition because of a leg injury.
- Following his nervous breakdown, he withdrew from public life and refused to give any interviews.

Question 24

Be crawling with something

Answer 24

to be completely covered with or full of a particular type of thing:
- After the bomb scare, the airport was crawling with police.
- The bread they gave us was crawling with ants and completely inedible.
- It was obvious to us that the hotel was crawling with spies.
- The city is absolutely crawling with stray cats.
- Their homes have no running water and the walls are crawling with termites.

Question 25

Bliss

Answer 25

perfect happiness:
- Lying on a sunny beach is my idea of sheer bliss.

Question 26

Herald

Answer 26

To be a sign that something important, and often good, is starting to happen, or to make something publicly known, especially by celebrating or praising it:
- The president’s speech heralds a new era in foreign policy.
- This drug has been heralded as a major breakthrough in the fight against breast cancer.

Question 27

To sow

Answer 27

to cause a bad emotion or condition to begin somewhere so that it will grow or continue:
- Now that you’ve sown doubts in my mind, I’ll never be sure I can trust him.

Question 28

Retreat

Question 29

Nimble

Answer 29

quick and exact either in movement or thoughts:
- nimble fingers/feet
- His nimble mind calculated the answer before I could key the numbers into my computer.

Question 30

Discord

Answer 30

the state of not agreeing or sharing opinions:
marital discord
- A note of discord has crept into relations between the two countries.