List37

Question 1

precept

Answer 1

precept​N. /规则/practical rule guiding conduct. “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is a worthwhile precept.

Question 2

precinct

Answer 2

precinct​N. /行政区/district or division of a city. Ed McBain’s detective novels set in the 87th precinct provide an exciting picture of police work.

Question 3

precipice

Answer 3

precipice ​N. /悬崖；危险的位置/cliff; dangerous position. Suddenly Indiana Jones found himself dangling from the edge of a precipice.

Question 4

precipitate

Answer 4

precipitate​V. /下降；下坠/throw headlong; hasten. The removal of American political support appears to have precipitated the downfall of the Marcos regime.

Question 5

precipitous

Answer 5

precipitous​ADJ. /陡峭的；急躁的/steep; overhasty. This hill is difficult to climb because it is so precipitous; one slip, and our descent will be precipitous as well.

Question 6

précis

Answer 6

précis​N. /大纲；摘要/concise summing up of main points. Before making her presentation at the conference, Ellen wrote up a neat précis of the major elements she would cover.

Question 7

predicament

Answer 7

predicament​N. /困境；危险的境地；两难/tricky or dangerous situation; dilemma. Tied to the railroad tracks by the villain, Pauline strained against her bonds. How would she escape from this terrible predicament?

Question 8

predilection

Answer 8

predilection​N. /偏爱；偏好/partiality; preference. Although I have written all sorts of poetry over the years, I have a definite predilection for occasional verse.

Question 9

preempt

Answer 9

preempt​V. /排挤，代替；阻止；抢占；先发制人/head off; forestall by acting first; appropriate for oneself; supplant. Hoping to preempt any attempts by the opposition to make educational reform a hot political issue, the candidate set out her own plan to revitalize the public schools. preemptive,ADJ.

Question 10

preen

Answer 10

preen​V. /把自己打扮漂亮；自我满足；鸟类用嘴梳理羽毛/make oneself tidy in appearance; feel self-satisfaction. As Kitty preened before the mirror, carefully smoothing her shining hair, she couldn’t help preening over how pretty she looked.

Question 11

prehensile

Answer 11

prehensile​ADJ. /可以得到的；可以抓住的/capable of grasping or holding. Monkeys use not only their arms and legs but also their prehensile tails in traveling through the trees.

Question 12

prelate

Answer 12

prelate ​N. /高级教士/church dignitary. The archbishop of Moscow and other high-ranking prelates visited the Russian Orthodox seminary.

Question 13

prelude

Answer 13

prelude​N. /序；先驱；先导/introduction; forerunner. I am afraid that this border raid is the prelude to more serious attacks.

Question 14

premeditate

Answer 14

premeditate​V. /预谋，预先考虑/plan in advance. She had premeditated the murder for months, reading about common poisons and buying weed killer that contained arsenic.

Question 15

preposterous

Answer 15

preposterous​ADJ. /荒唐的/absurd; ridiculous. When he tried to downplay his youthful experiments with marijuana by saying he hadn’t inhaled, we all thought, “What a preposterous excuse!”

Question 16

prerogative

Answer 16

prerogative ​N. /特权/privilege; unquestionable right. The president cannot levy taxes; that is the prerogative of the legislative branch of government.

Question 17

prescience

Answer 17

prescience​N. /预示能力/ability to foretell the future. Given the current wave of Japan-bashing, it does not take prescience for me to foresee problems in our future trade relations with Japan.

Question 18

presentiment

Answer 18

presentiment ​N. /预感/feeling something will happen; anticipatory fear; premonition. Saying goodbye at the airport, Jack had a sudden presentiment that this was the last time he would see Jill.

Question 19

pretentious

Answer 19

pretentious​ADJ. /自命不凡；华而不实；自大/ostentatious; pompous; making unjustified claims; overly ambitious. None of the other prize winners are wearing their medals; isn’t it a bit pretentious of you to wear yours?

Question 20

preternatural

Answer 20

preternatural​ADJ. /超自然的/beyond what is normal in nature. Malcolm’s mother’s total ability to tell when he was lying struck him as almost preternatural.

Question 21

pretext

Answer 21

pretext​N. /借口；托辞/excuse. He looked for a good pretext to get out of paying a visit to his aunt.

Question 22

prevaricate

Answer 22

prevaricate​V. /撒谎；支吾，搪塞；糊弄/lie. Some people believe that to prevaricate in a good cause is justifiable and regard such a statement as a “white lie.”

Question 23

primordial

Answer 23

primordial​ADJ. /原始的；与时间同在的/existing at the beginning (of time); rudimentary. The Neanderthal Man is one of our primordial ancestors.

Question 24

primp

Answer 24

primp​V. /打扮/groom oneself with care; adorn oneself. The groom stood by idly while his nervous bride-to-be primped one last time before the mirror.

Question 25

proclivity

Answer 25

proclivity ​N. /倾向；自然倾向/inclination; natural tendency. Watching the two-year-old voluntarily put away his toys, I was amazed by his proclivityfor neatness.

Question 26

procrastinate

Answer 26

procrastinate​V. /推迟；延期/postpone; delay or put off. Looking at four years of receipts and checks he still had to sort through, Bob was truly sorry he had procrastinated for so long and not finished filing his taxes long ago.

Question 27

prod

Answer 27

prod​V. /刺；刺激；激励/poke; stir up; urge. If you prod him hard enough, he’ll eventually clean his room.

Question 28

prodigal

Answer 28

prodigal​ADJ. /浪费的/wasteful; reckless with money. Don’t be so prodigal spending my money; when you’ve earned some money yourself, you can waste it as much as you want! also N.

Question 29

profane

Answer 29

profane​V. /亵渎/violate; desecrate; treat unworthily. The members of the mysterious Far Eastern cult sought to kill the British explorer because he had profaned the sanctity of their holy goblet by using it as an ashtray. alsoADJ.

Question 30

profligate

Answer 30

profligate​ADJ. /放荡的；放肆的；不检点的/dissipated; wasteful; wildly immoral. Although surrounded by wild and profligate companions, she nevertheless managed to retain some sense of decency.

Question 31

profusion

Answer 31

profusion ​N. /过量；过剩/overabundance; lavish expenditure; excess. Freddy was so overwhelmed by the profusion of choices on the menu that he knocked over his wine glass and soaked his host. He made profuse apologies to his host, the waiter, the bus boy, the people at the next table, and the attendant handing out paper towels.

Question 32

progenitor

Answer 32

progenitor ​N. /祖先/ancestor. The Roth family, whose progenitors emigrated from Germany early in the nineteenth century, settled in Peru, Illinois.

Question 33

progeny

Answer 33

progeny​N. /后裔/children; offspring. He was proud of his progeny in general, but regarded George as the most promising of all his children.

Question 34

prognosi

Answer 34

prognosis​N. /预言；疾病警告/forecasted course of a disease; prediction. If the doctor’s prognosis is correct, the patient will be in a coma for at least twenty-four hours.

Question 35

proletarian

Answer 35

proletarian​N. /无产阶级的；蓝领的/member of the working class; blue collar person. “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains” is addressed to proletarians, not preppies. So is Blue Collar Holler. proletariat, N.

Question 36

prolixity

Answer 36

prolixity​N. /冗长的；啰嗦的/tedious wordiness; verbosity. A writer who suffers from prolixity tells his readers everything they never wanted to know about his subject (or were too bored to ask). prolix,ADJ.

Question 37

prologu

Answer 37

prologue​N. /序（诗歌，歌剧的）/introduction (to a poem or play). In the prologue to Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare introduces the audience to the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets.

Question 38

prolong

Answer 38

prolong​V. /拖延/make longer; draw out; lengthen. In their determination to discover ways to prolong human life, doctors fail to take into account that longer lives are not always happier ones.

Question 39

prolong

Answer 39

prolong​V. /拖延/make longer; draw out; lengthen. Have you ever noticed that Prince Charles’s prominent ears make him look like the big-eared character in Mad comics?

Question 40

promiscuous

Answer 40

promiscuous​ADJ. /随意混合的；打乱的；随便的/mixed indiscriminately; haphazard; irregular, particularly sexually. In the opera La Boheme, we get a picture of the promiscuous life led by the young artists of Paris.

Question 41

promontory

Answer 41

promontory​N. /岬；海角/headland. They erected a lighthouse on the promontory to warn approaching ships of their nearness to the shore.

Question 42

promulgate

Answer 42

promulgate​V. /发布；公布/proclaim a doctrine or law; make known by official publication. When Moses came down from the mountain top all set to promulgate God’s commandments, he freaked out on discovering his followers worshipping a golden calf.

Question 43

prone

Answer 43

prone​ADJ. /倾向于/inclined to; prostrate. She was prone to sudden fits of anger during which she would lie prone on the floor, screaming and kicking her heels.

Question 44

propellants

Answer 44

propellants​N. /推进剂/substances that propel or drive forward. The development of our missile program has forced our scientists to seek more powerful propellants.

Question 45

propensity

Answer 45

propensity​N. /自然倾向/natural inclination. Convinced of his own talent, Sol has an unfortunate propensity to belittle the talents of others.

Question 46

propinquity

Answer 46

propinquity ​N. /亲近；血缘/nearness; kinship. Their relationship could not be explained as being based on mere propinquity; they were more than relatives, they were true friends.

Question 47

propitiate

Answer 47

propitiate​V. /劝解；平静；安抚/appease. The natives offered sacrifices to propitiate the gods.