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GRE Barron's 2 > GRE Barron's 43-44 > Flashcards

GRE Barron's 43-44 Flashcards

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1
Q

sequester

A

isolate; retire from public life; segregate; seclude. Toe prevent the jurors from hearing news broadcasts about the case, the judge decided to sequester the jury.

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2
Q

sere

A

parched; dry. After the unseasonably dry winter the Berkeley hills looked dusty and sere.

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3
Q

serendipity

A

gift for finding valuable or desirable things by accident; accidental good fortune or luck. Many scientific discoveries are a matter of serendipity: Newton was not sitting there thinking about gravity when the apple dropped on his head.

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4
Q

serenity

A

calmness, placidity. The serenity of the sleepy town was shattered by a tremendous explosion.

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5
Q

serpentine

A

winding; twisting. The car swerved at every curve in the serpentine road.

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6
Q

servitude

A

slavery; compulsory labor. Born a slave, Douglass resented his life of servitude and plotted to escape to the North.

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7
Q

sever

A

cut; separate. Dr. Guillotin invented a machine that could neatly sever an aristocratic head from its equally aristocratic body. Unfortunately, he couldn’t collect any severance pay.

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8
Q

shackle

A

chain; fetter. The criminal’s ankles were shackled to prevent his escape.

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9
Q

sham

A

pretend. She shammed sickness to get out of going to school.

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10
Q

shambles

A

wreck; mess. After the hurricane, the Carolina coast was a shambles. After the New Year’s Eve party, the host’s apartment was a shambles.

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11
Q

shaving

A

very thin piece, usually of wood. As the carpenter pared away the edge of the board with his plane, a small pile of shavings began to accumulate on the floor.

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12
Q

sheaf

A

bundle of stalks of grain; any bundle of things tied together. The lawyer picked up a sheaf of papers as she rose to question the witness.

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13
Q

sheathe

A

place into a case. As soon as he recognized the approaching men, he sheathed his dagger and hailed them as friends.

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14
Q

shimmer

A

glimmer intermittently; 揺らめき、きらめき. The moonlight shimmered on the water as the moon broke through the clouds for a moment.

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15
Q

shirk

A

avoid (responsibility, work, etc.); malinger. Brian has a strong sense of duty; he would never shirk any responsibility.

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16
Q

shoddy

A

sham; not genuine; inferior. You will never get the public to buy such shoddy material.

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17
Q

shrewd

A

clever; astute. A shred investor, she took clever advantage of the fluctuations of the stock market.

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18
Q

shunt

A

turn aside; divert; sidetrack. If the switchman failed to shunt the Silver Streak onto a side track, the train would plow right into Union Station.

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19
Q

simper

A

smirk; smile affectedly. Complimented on her appearance, Stella self-consciously simpered.

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20
Q

sinewy

A

tough; strong and firm. The steak was too sinewy to chew.

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21
Q

sinister

A

evil. We must defeat the sinister forces that seek our downfall.

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22
Q

skimp

A

provide scantily; live very economically. They were forced to skimp on necessities in order to make their limited supplies last the winter.

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23
Q

skirmish

A

minor fight. Custer’s troops expected they might run into a skirmish or two on maneuvers; they did not expect to face a major battle.

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24
Q

skittish

A

lively; frisky. She is as skittish as a kitten playing with a piece of string.

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25
Q

skulduggery

A

dishonest behavior. The investigation into municipal corruption turned up new instances of skulduggery daily.

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26
Q

skulk

A

move furtively and secretly. He skulked through the less fashionable sections of the city in order to avoid meeting any of his former friends.

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27
Q

slacken

A

slow up; loosen. As they passed the finish line, the runners slackened their pace.

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28
Q

slag

A

residue from smelting metal; dross; waste matter. The blast furnace had a special opening at the bottom to allow the workers to remove the worthless slag.

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29
Q

slake

A

quench; sate; 満たす、いやす、和らげる. When we reached the oasis, we were able to slake our thirst.

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30
Q

slander

A

defamation; utterance of false and malicious statements. Considering the negative comments politicians make about each other, it’s a wonder that more of them aren’t sued for slander.

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31
Q

slapdash

A

haphazard; careless; sloppy. From the number of typos and misspellings I’ve found in it, it’s clear that Mario proofread the report in a remarkably slapdash fashion.

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32
Q

sleazy

A

flimsy; unsubstantial; 安っぽい、薄っぺらな. This is a sleazy fabric; it will not wear well.

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33
Q

sleeper

A

something originally of little value or importance that in time becomes very valuable. Unnoticed by the critics at its publication, the eventual Pulitzer Prize winner was a classic sleeper.

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34
Q

sleight

A

dexterity; 手練、策略. The magician amazed the audience with his sleight of hand.

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35
Q

slew

A

large quantity or number. Although Ellen had checked off a number of items on her “To Do” list, she still had a whole slew of errands left.

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36
Q

slight

A

insult to one’s dignity; snub. Hypersensitive and ready to take offense at any discourtesy, Bertha was always on the lookout for real or imaginary slights.

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37
Q

slipshod

A

untidy or slovenly; shabby; だらしない、ぞんざいな. As a master craftsman, the carpenter prided himself on never doing slipshod work.

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38
Q

slither

A

slip or slide. During the recent ice storm, many people slithered down this hill as they walked to the station.

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39
Q

slothful

A

lazy. The British word “layabout” is a splendid descriptive term for someone slothful: What did the lazy bum do? He lay about the house all day.

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40
Q

slough

A

cast off; 泥沼の中を歩く. Each spring, the snake sloughs off its skin.

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41
Q

slovenly

A

untidy; careless in work habits. Unshaven, sitting around in his bathrobe all afternoon, Gus didn’t care about the slovenly appearance he presented.

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42
Q

sluggard

A

lazy person. “You are a sluggard, a drone, a parasite,” the angry father shouted at his lazy son.

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43
Q

sluggish

A

slow; lazy; lethargic. After two nights without sleep, she felt sluggish and incapable of exertion.

44
Q

slur

A

insult to one’s character or reputation; slander. Polls revealed that the front-runner’s standing had been damaged by the slurs and innuendoes circulated by his opponent’s staff.

45
Q

slur

A

speak indistinctly; mumble. When Sol has too much to drink, he starts to slur his words: “Washamater? Cansh you undershtand what I shay?”

46
Q

smattering

A

slight knowledge. I don’t know whether it is better to be ignorant of a subject or to have a mere smattering of information about it.

47
Q

smelt

A

melt or blend ores, changing their chemical composition. The furnaceman smelts tin with copper to create a special alloy used in making bells.

48
Q

smirk

A

conceited smile. Wipe that smirk off your face!

49
Q

smolder

A

burn without flame; be liable to break out at any moment. The rags smoldered for hours before they burst into flame.

50
Q

snicker

A

Half-stifled laugh. The boy could not suppress a snicker when the teacher sat on the tack.

51
Q

snivel

A

run at the nose; snuffle; whine; 鼻水をたらす、すすり泣く. Don’t you come sniveling to me complaining about your big brother.

52
Q

sojourn

A

temporary stay. After his sojourn in Florida, he began to long for the colder climate of his native New England home.

53
Q

solace

A

comfort in trouble; 慰め、癒し. I hope you will find solace in the thought that all of us share your loss.

54
Q

solder

A

repair or make whole by using a metal alloy. The plumber fixed the leak in the pipes by soldering a couple of joints from which water had been oozing.

55
Q

solecism

A

construction that is flagrantly incorrect grammatically. I must give this paper a failing mark because it contains many solecisms.

56
Q

solemnity

A

seriousness; gravity. The minister was concerned that nothing should disturb the solemnity of the marriage service.

57
Q

solicit

A

request earnestly; seek. Knowing she needed to have a solid majority for the budget to pass, the mayor telephoned all the members of the city council to solicit their votes.

58
Q

solitude

A

state of being alone; seclusion. Much depends on how much you like your own company. What to one person seems fearful isolation to another is blessed solitude.

59
Q

soluble

A

able to be dissolved; able to be worked out. Sugar is soluble in water; put a sugar cube in water and it will quickly dissolve. Because the test-maker had left out some necessary data, the problem was not soluble.

60
Q

somber

A

gloomy; depressing. From the doctor’s grim expression, I could tell he had somber news.

61
Q

somnolent

A

half asleep. The heavy meal and the overheated room made us all somnolent and indifferent to the speaker.

62
Q

sonorous

A

resonant; 音を出す、鳴り響く. His sonorous voice resounded through the hall.

63
Q

sophistry

A

seemingly plausible but fallacious reasoning. Instead of advancing valid arguments, he tried to overwhelm his audience with a flood of sophistries.

64
Q

sophomoric

A

immature; half-baked, like a sophomore. Even if you’re only a freshman, it’s no compliment to be told your humor is sophomoric, the humor in Dumb and Dumber is sophomoric at best.

65
Q

sparse

A

not thick; thinly scattered; scanty. No matter how carefully Albert combed his hair to make it appear as full as possible, it still looked sparse.

66
Q

spasmodic

A

fitful; periodic. The spasmodic coughing in the auditorium annoyed the performers.

67
Q

spat

A

squabble; minor dispute. What had started out as a mere spat escalated into a full-blown argument.

68
Q

spate

A

sudden flood. I am worried about the possibility of a spate if the rains do not diminish soon.

69
Q

spatial

A

relating to space. Certain exercises test your sense of spatial relations by asking you to identify two views of an object seen from different points in space.

70
Q

sphinx-like

A

enigmatic; mysterious. The Mona Lisa’s sphinx-like expression has puzzled art lovers for centuries.

71
Q

splice

A

fasten together; unite. Before you splice two strips of tape together, be sure to line them up evenly.

72
Q

spontaneity

A

lack of premeditation; naturalness; freedom from constraint. The cast overrehearsed the play so much that the eventual performance lacked any spontaneity.

73
Q

sportive

A

playful. Such a sportive attitude is surprising in a person as serious as you usually are.

74
Q

spruce

A

neat and trim. Every button buttoned, tie firmly in place, young Alex Keaton looked spruce and tidy for his job interview at the bank.

75
Q

spry

A

vigorously active; nimble. She was eighty years old, yet still spry and alert.

76
Q

spurious

A

false; counterfeit; forged; illogical. The hero of Jonathan Gash’s mystery novels is an antique dealer who gives the reader advice on how to tell spurious antiques from the real thing.

77
Q

spurn

A

reject; scorn. The heroine spurned the villain’s advances.

78
Q

squabble

A

minor quarrel; bickering. Children invariably get involved in petty squabbles; wise parents know when to interfere and when to let the children work things out on their own.

79
Q

squander

A

waste. If you squander your allowance on candy and comic books, you won’t have any money left to buy the new box of crayons you want.

80
Q

squat

A

stocky; short and thick. Tolkien’s hobbits are somewhat squat, sturdy little creatures, fond of good ale, good music, and good food.

81
Q

stagnant

A

motionless; stale; dull. Mosquitoes commonly breed in ponds of stagnant water. Mike’s career was stagnant; it wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was he!

82
Q

staid

A

sober; sedate. Her conduct during the funeral ceremony was staid and solemn.

83
Q

stalemate

A

deadlock. Negotiations between the union and the employers have reached a stalemate; neither side is willing to budge from previously stated positions.

84
Q

stalwart

A

strong, brawny; steadfast. His consistent support of the party has proved that he is a stalwart and loyal member.

85
Q

steadfast

A

loyal; unswerving. Penelope was steadfast in her affections, faithfully waiting for Ulysses to return from his wanderings.

86
Q

steep

A

soak; saturate. Be sure to steep the fabric in the dye bath for the full time prescribed.

87
Q

stickler

A

perfectionist; person who insists things be exactly right. The Internal Revenue Service agent was a stickler for accuracy; no approximations or rough estimates would satisfy him.

88
Q

stifle

A

suppress; extinguish; inhibit. Halfway through the boring lecture, Laura gave up trying to stifle her yawns.

89
Q

stilted

A

bombastic; stiffly pompous. His stilted rhetoric did not impress the college audience; they were immune to bombastic utterances.

90
Q

stipend

A

pay for services; 固定給、俸給. There is a nominal stipend for this position.

91
Q

stock

A

typical; standard; kept regularly in supply. Victorian melodramas portrayed stock characters – the rich but wicked villain, the sweet young ingenue, the poor but honest young man – in exaggerated situations. Although the stationery store kept only stock sizes of paper on hand, the staff would special-order any items not regularly in stock.

92
Q

stodgy

A

stuffy; boringly conservative. For a young person, Winston seems remarkably stodgy: you’d expect someone his age to have a little more life.

93
Q

stoke

A

stir up a fire; feed plentifully; 補給する、かき立てる. As a Scout, Marisa learned how to light a fire, how to stoke it if it started to die down, and how to extinguish it completely.

94
Q

stratagem

A

clever trick; deceptive scheme. What a gem of a stratagem! Watson, I have the perfect plan to trick Moriarty into revealing himself.

95
Q

stratum

A

layer of earth’s surface; layer of society. Unless we alleviate conditions in the lowest stratum of our society, we may expect grumbling and revolt.

96
Q

strew

A

spread randomly; sprinkle; scatter. Preceding the bride to the altar, the flower girl will strew rose petals along the aisle.

97
Q

stringent

A

binding; rigid. I think these regulations are too stringent.

98
Q

studied

A

unspontaneous; deliberate; thoughtful. Given Jill’s previous slights, Jack felt that the omission of his name from the guest list was a studied insult.

99
Q

stupor

A

state of apathy; daze; lack of awareness. In his stupor, the addict was unaware of the vents taking place around him.

100
Q

stymie

A

present an obstacle; stump. The detective was stymied by the contradictory evidence in the robbery investigation.

101
Q

suavity

A

urbanity; polish; 上品さ、口当たりの良さ、人当たりの良さ. He is particularly good in roles that require suavity and sophistication.

102
Q

subaltern

A

subordinate. The captain treated his subalterns as though they were children rather than commissioned officers.

103
Q

subdued

A

less intense; quieter. Bob liked the subdued lighting at the restaurant because he thought it was romantic. I just thought the place was dimly lit.

104
Q

subjugate

A

occurring or taking place within the mind; unreal. Your analysis is highly subjective; you have permitted your emotions and your opinions to color your thinking.

105
Q

sublimate

A

refine; purify. We must strive to sublimate these desires and emotions into worthwhile activities.

106
Q

sublime

A

exalted; noble and uplifting; utter; 気品のある、崇高な. Lucy was in awe of Desi’s sublime musicianship, while he was in awe of her sublime naivete.

GRE Barron's 2 (25 decks)

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