List 36

Question 1

philistine

Answer 1

philistine​N. /俗气的人，无教养的人；心胸狭窄的人/narrow-minded person, uncultured and exclusively interested in material gain. We need more men of culture and enlightenment; we have too many philistines among us.

Question 2

philology

Answer 2

philology​N. /语言学/study of language. The professor of philology advocated the use of Esperanto as an international language.

Question 3

picaresque

Answer 3

picaresque​ADJ. /以歹徒为题材的文学作品的/pertaining to rogues in literature. Tom Jones has been hailed as one of the best picaresque novels in the English language.

Question 4

piebald

Answer 4

piebald​ADJ. /花斑的；斑驳的/mottled; spotted. You should be able to identify Polka Dot in this race; it is the only piebald horse running.

Question 5

piecemeal

Answer 5

piecemeal​ADV. /一次一个的，逐个的；渐渐的；碎的/one piece at a time; gradually. Tolstoy’s War and Peace is too huge to finish in one sitting; I’ll have to read it piecemeal.

Question 6

pied

Answer 6

pied​ADJ. /杂色的；斑驳的/variegated; multicolored. The Pied Piper of Hamelin got his name from the multicolored clothing he wore.

Question 7

piety

Answer 7

piety​N. /虔诚；孝行/religious devotion; godliness. The nuns in the convent were noted for their piety; they spent their days in worship and prayer. Pious,ADJ.

Question 8

pigment

Answer 8

pigment​N. /色素/coloring matter. Van Gogh mixed various pigments with linseed oil to create his paints.

Question 9

pillage

Answer 9

pillage​V. /掠夺/plunder. The enemy pillaged the quiet village and left it in ruins.

Question 10

pious

Answer 10

pious​ADJ. /尽职的；虔诚的/devout; religious. The challenge for church people today is how to be pious in the best sense, that is, to be devout without becoming hypocritical or sanctimonious. piety, N.

Question 11

piquant

Answer 11

piquant​ADJ. /开胃的；辛辣的；刺激的；淘气顽皮的/pleasantly tart-tasting; stimulating. The piquant sauce added to our enjoyment of the meal. piquancy, N.

Question 12

pique

Answer 12

pique​N. /愤怒；不满/irritation; resentment. She showed her pique at her loss by refusing to appear with the other contestants at the end of the competition. alsoV.

Question 13

pique

Answer 13

pique​V. /激起，煽动；激怒/provoke or arouse; annoy. “I know something you don’t know,” said Lucy, trying to pique Ethel’s interest.

Question 14

pithy

Answer 14

pithy​ADJ. /精炼的；抓住灵魂的/concise; meaningful; substantial; meaty. While other girls might have gone on and on about how uncool Elton was, Liz summed it up in one pithy remark: “He’s bogus!”

Question 15

pittance

Answer 15

pittance​N. /微薄的薪水/a small allowance or wage. He could not live on the pittance he received as a pension and had to look for an additional source of revenue.

Question 16

pivotal

Answer 16

pivotal​ADJ. /关键的/crucial; key; vital. The new “smart weapons” technology played a pivotal role in the quick resolution of the war with Iraq.

Question 17

placate

Answer 17

placate​V. /安抚/pacify; conciliate. The store manager tried to placate the angry customer, offering to replace the damaged merchandise or to give back her money right away.

Question 18

placebo

Answer 18

placebo​N. /安慰剂/harmless substance prescribed as a dummy pill. In a controlled experiment, fifty volunteers were given aspirin tablets; the control group received only placebos.

Question 19

plaintive

Answer 19

plaintive​ADJ. /哀伤的/mournful. The dove has a plaintive and melancholy call.

Question 20

plasticity

Answer 20

plasticity​N. /塑性/ability to be molded. When clay dries out, it loses its plasticity and becomes less malleable.

Question 21

platitude

Answer 21

platitude​N. /陈词滥调/trite remark; commonplace statement. In giving advice to his son, old Polonius expressed himself only in platitudes; every word out of his mouth was a commonplace.

Question 22

plaudit

Answer 22

plaudit​N. /喝彩/enthusiastically worded approval; round of applause. The theatrical company reprinted the plaudits of the critics in its advertisements. plauditory,ADJ.

Question 23

plenitude

Answer 23

plenitude ​N. /充分，富足/abundance; completeness. Looking in the pantry, we admired the plenitude of fruits and pickles we had preserved during the summer.

Question 24

plethora

Answer 24

plethora​N. /过剩；过多/excess; overabundance. She offered a plethora of excuses for her shortcomings.

Question 25

plumb

Answer 25

plumb​ADJ. /垂直；铅锤；用铅锤量/checking perpendicularity; vertical. Before hanging wallpaper it is advisable to drop a plumb line from the ceiling as a guide. also ​N. andV.

Question 26

plumage

Answer 26

plumage​N. /鸟类的羽毛/feathers of a bird. Bird watchers identify different species of bird by their characteristic songs and distinctive plumage.

Question 27

plummet

Answer 27

plummet​V. /垂直落下/fall sharply. Stock prices plummeted as Wall Street reacted to the crisis in the economy.

Question 28

plutocracy

Answer 28

plutocracy​N. /富豪统治/society ruled by the wealthy. From the way the government caters to the rich, you might think our society is a plutocracy rather than a democracy.

Question 29

podiatrist

Answer 29

podiatrist​N. /足病医生/doctor who treats ailments of the feet. He consulted a podiatrist about his fallen arches.

Question 30

podium

Answer 30

podium​N. /指挥台；检阅台/pedestal; raised platform. The audience applauded as the conductor made his way to the podium.

Question 31

poignancy

Answer 31

poignancy​N. /强烈的；感人的；尖锐的/quality of being deeply moving; keenness of emotion. Watching the tearful reunion of the long-separated mother and child, the social worker was touched by the poignancy of the scene. poignant,ADJ.

Question 32

polemical

Answer 32

polemical​ADJ. /辩论的，好辩的/aggressive in verbal attack; disputatious. Lexy was a master of polemical rhetoric; she should have worn a T-shirt with the slogan “Born to Debate.”

Question 33

polygamist

Answer 33

polygamist​N. /多配偶/one who has more than one spouse at a time. He was arrested as a polygamist when his two wives filed complaints about him.

Question 34

polyglot

Answer 34

polyglot​ADJ. /多语言/speaking several languages. New York City is a polyglot community because of the thousands of immigrants who settle there.

Question 35

pomposity

Answer 35

pomposity​N. /夸大，华丽；浮夸；自大/self-important behavior; acting like a stuffed shirt. Although the commencement speaker had some good things to say, we had to laugh at his pomposity and general air of parading his own dignity. POMPOUS,ADJ.

Question 36

pontifical

Answer 36

pontifical​ADJ. /教皇的；主教的/pertaining to a bishop or pope; pompous or pretentious. From his earliest days at the seminary, John seemed destined for a high pontifical office. However, he sounded so pompous when he pontificated that he never was chosen pontiff after all.

Question 37

pore

Answer 37

pore​V. /沉思；考察；深思熟虑；小孔，细口/study industriously; ponder; scrutinize. Determined to become a physician, Beth spent hours poring over her anatomy text.

Question 38

porous

Answer 38

porous​ADJ. /筛子似的/full of pores; like a sieve. Dancers like to wear porous clothing because it allows the ready passage of water and air.​

Question 39

portend

Answer 39

portend​V. /预示/foretell; presage. The king did not know what these omens might portend and asked his soothsayers to interpret them.

Question 40

portent

Answer 40

portent​N. /征兆/sign; omen; forewarning. He regarded the black cloud as a portent of evil.

Question 41

portly

Answer 41

portly​ADJ. /健壮的；肥胖的；魁梧的/stately; stout. The overweight gentleman was referred to as portly by the polite salesclerk.

Question 42

poseur

Answer 42

poseur​N. /装模作样的人；邯郸学步/person who pretends to be sophisticated, elegant, etc., to impress others. Some thought Salvador Dali was a brilliant painter; others dismissed him as a poseur.

Question 43

posterity

Answer 43

posterity​N. /子孙；后裔/descendants; future generations. We hope to leave a better world to posterity.

Question 44

posthumous

Answer 44

posthumous​ADJ. /身后的；遗腹的（书出版于作者死后，孩子生于父亲死后）/after death (as of child born after father’s death or book published after author’s death). The critics ignored his works during his lifetime; it was only after the posthumous publication of his last novel that they recognized his great talent.

Question 45

potable

Answer 45

potable​ADJ. /可饮用的/suitable for drinking. The recent drought in the Middle Atlantic states has emphasized the need for extensive research in ways of making sea water potable. also N.

Question 46

potent

Answer 46

potent​ADJ. /有效的/powerful; persuasive; greatly influential. Looking at the expiration date on the cough syrup bottle, we wondered whether the medication would still be potent. potency, N.

Question 47

potentate

Answer 47

potentate​N. /当权者/monarch; sovereign. The potentate spent more time at Monte Carlo than he did at home on his throne.

Question 48

potion

Answer 48

potion​N. /剂量/dose (of liquid). Tristan and Isolde drink a love potion in the first act of the opera.

Question 49

practitioner

Answer 49

practitioner ​N. /从业者/someone engaged in a profession (law, medicine). In need of a hip replacement, Carl sought a practitioner with considerable experience performing this particular surgery.

Question 50

prank

Answer 50

prank​N. /胡闹；打扮/mischievous trick. Is tipping over garbage cans on Halloween merely a childish prank, or is it vandalism?

Question 51

prate

Answer 51

prate​V. /空谈/speak foolishly; boast idly. Let us not prate about our good qualities; rather, let our virtues speak for themselves.

Question 52

prattle

Answer 52

prattle​V. /闲聊；胡说；废话；唠叨/babble. Baby John prattled on and on about the cats and his ball and the Cookie Monster.

Question 53

preamble

Answer 53

preamble​N. /导言；介绍词/introductory statement. In the Preamble to the Constitution, the purpose of the document is set forth.