JC's vocabulary Set 1

Question 1

secularist

Answer 1

世俗主义者

Question 2

promiscuity

Answer 2

n. 破坏名誉, 中伤, 诽谤
【法】 破坏名誉, 中伤, 毁谤

Question 3

smugness

Answer 3

沾沾自喜

Question 4

immorality

Answer 4

n. 不道德, 道德败坏, 不道德的行为, 伤风败俗的行为

Question 5

pilloried

Answer 5

嘲笑

Question 6

rudimentary

Answer 6

adj. stripped down

Rudimentary is a pretty long and fancy word, for a word that just means stripped down or at a very early stage. The test should be easy: it requires only a rudimentary understanding of the materials.

Question 7

knack

Answer 7

n. skill or ability. a skill or ability
adj. a. tendency to do something silly or annoying.

If you have a knack for doing something, you do it well. You may have a knack for baking cakes or a knack for cracking jokes. These things come easy to you.

Question 8

nomadic

[no ma dic]

Answer 8

adj. moving from place to place.
syn: itinerant

A nomad is someone who lives by traveling from place to place. Nomadic thus means anything that involves moving around a lot. Nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes follow the animals they hunt, carrying tents with them.

Question 9

avarice

[a va rice]

Answer 9

n. greed

Avarice is a fancy word for good old-fashioned greed. It’s one of what some call “the seven deadly sins.”

Question 10

garble

[gar ble]

Answer 10

v. to confuse a message or information so that it is misleading or unintelligible
v. scramble transmission of something

When you garble something, you warp or distort it, making it hard to understand. Talking with marbles in your mouth is one sure way of garbling your speech.

Question 11

eloquence

Answer 11

Eloquence is powerful, moving, magnificent use of language. Simply put, if you have eloquence, then you’re one smooth talker.

Question 12

renege

Answer 12

To renege is to go back on your word or fail to keep a promise.

Question 13

uproarious

Answer 13

Uproarious describes a room of happy people laughing, or a noisy crowd at a soccer match. Uproarious situations are very loud, a little out of control, and often hilarious.

Question 14

verdigris

Answer 14

Verdigris is the blue-green tarnish on certain metals after they are left outside for a long period of time. A lot of churches have rooftops coated with verdigris, and many capitol buildings have verdigris on their domes.

Question 15

lusciously

Answer 15

adv. so as to produce a delightful taste

Question 16

ethos

Answer 16

Ethos, a noun, is the fundamental set of beliefs that you, or a society, or group live by. A free spirit might live by the ethos of “anything goes.”

Question 17

genesis

Answer 17

When you talk about the genesis of something, you’re talking about where it began. The genesis of hip-hop music was the party scene in New York City?s South Bronx in the 1970s.

Question 18

exert

Answer 18

Exert basically means to put forth effort to do something. For example, when you exert yourself in a workout, you can really feel the burn in your muscles.

Question 19

cradle

Answer 19

cradle: crib To cradle is to hold delicately and gently, like how you would hold an infant. A cradle is the tiny bed with rockers that the infant sleeps in.

Question 20

leniency

Answer 20

leniency: (n.) mercy Leniency is a noun that refers to the lessening of a punishment or chore. Your father’s leniency, for example, resulted in you not having to paint the entire house like your mother wanted. Instead you just had to paint the garage.

Question 21

indulgence

Answer 21

indulgence: (n.) tolerance, self-indulgence, indulgence in alcohol An indulgence is doing something that you enjoy even if it has negative consequences. Buying yourself something that you don’t need, be it a cookie, video game, or diamond necklace, is an indulgence.

Question 22

mano-a-mano

Answer 22

mano-a-mano: hand to hand

Question 23

imprimatur

Answer 23

imprimatur: [n. Formal] permission

Question 24

wrested

Answer 24

wrested: take land, power, or possessions from someone. Grab, gain, extort To wrest is to forcefully grab or take something away. You can wrest away many things, such as remote controls and championships.

Question 25

upheaval

Answer 25

upheaval: [n.] disturbance, sudden or violent change affecting people’s lives Upheaval means a violent or sudden change. You might talk about an upheaval in government following an election where many incumbents are replaced.

Question 26

dictatorship

Answer 26

dictatorship: A dictatorship is a government or a social situation where one person makes all the rules and decisions without input from anyone else.

Question 27

brutal

Answer 27

adj. brutal: extremely cruel Use brutal to describe something beastly and harsh, like training for a triathlon, a really cold winter in the Arctic, or a mean bouncer at a club who throws people out for no reason.

Question 28

bequeath

Answer 28

bequeathed: give to sb. after death To bequeath is to leave your possessions to another person after you die. A man might love his classic cars but would be happy to bequeath them to his grandsons when he writes out his last will and testament.

Question 29

visceral

Answer 29

adj. Visceral: When something’s visceral, you feel it in your guts. A visceral feeling is intuitive — there might not be a rational explanation, but you feel that you know what’s best, like your visceral reaction against egg salad.

Question 30

conducive

Answer 30

adj conducive: Conducive means tending to cause or produce something. Regular exercise is conducive to happiness and a feeling of well-being.

Question 31

balm

Answer 31

n. balm: If your lips are cracked and dry, lip balm will make them feel better. A balm is a soothing substance with a consistency somewhere between solid and liquid.

Question 32

detoxify

Answer 32

Detoxifies: remove poison from

Question 33

scant

Answer 33

Scant: Scant is an adjective that means “a tiny amount,” like your scant attendance at practice this week that results in being benched from the big game.

Question 34

bode

Answer 34

bode The verb bode suggests prescience or forecasting. Something bodes well when the clues or signs imply a favorable outcome. But if something bode ill, you’d better watch out!

Question 35

drachma

Answer 35

Drachma : Greece currency

Question 36

savvy

Answer 36

Savvy You are known as someone with a lot of business savvy, but only because you’ve managed to keep your staggering debts a secret. Which is actually pretty savvy. Someone who is savvy is shrewd and perceptive.

Question 37

technocrat

Answer 37

Technocrats : an expert who is a member of a highly skilled elite group

Question 38

lambast

Answer 38

Lambasts: v. beat with a cane

Question 39

radical

Answer 39

radically If something is considered extremist or very different from anything that has come before it, call it radical.

Question 40

divergent

Answer 40

Divergent Something divergent is moving away from what is expected. Two divergent paths are moving in opposite directions — away from each other.

Question 41

buttress

Answer 41

buttress You can buttress an argument with solid facts or your financial portfolio with safe investments. You may find that giving compliments to everyone you meet buttresses your popularity. To buttress is to sustain or reinforce.

Question 42

precedent

Answer 42

precedent an example that is used to justify similar occurrences

Question 43

peripheral

Answer 43

peripheral Scanners, printers, and speakers are peripheral devices for a computer because they aren’t central to the working of the computer itself. Anything peripheral is on the margin, or outside, while main things, like a computer’s processor, are not peripheral.

Question 44

exasperation

Answer 44

exasperation If you’ve ever become so frustrated with someone or something that you feel like you’re at the end of your rope, you have experienced exasperation. You are fed up!

Question 45

convergence

Answer 45

convergence the occurrence of two or more things coming together

Question 46

apt

Answer 46

apt: Something apt is perfectly appropriate, clever and well-suited to the matter at hand. A “Cinderella story” might be an apt metaphor for an underdog team that makes it to the championships.