SAT 20

Question 0

Deft; adj.

Answer 0

—quick and neat; skillful / clumsy; awkward; inept

The deft waiter uncorked the champagne without spilling a drop.

Question 1

Confer; verb

Answer 1

• to give, grant, or bestow; award / retrieve; recover

The city council conferred the contract to the lowest bidder.

Question 2

Effeminate; adj.

Answer 2

—having female qualities / masculine; manly
A male that has effeminate qualities displays femininity and unmanliness, which contradicts traditional masculine, male gender roles.

Question 3

Epigram; noun

Answer 3

—witty thought or saying, usually short

Poor Richard’s epigrams made Benjamin Franklin famous.

Question 4

Extemporize; verb

Answer 4

—ad lib; improvise; impromptu

John wasn’t prepared for his oral presentation, so he had to extemporize and made it up as he went along.

Question 5

Feign; verb

Answer 5

—to fake or to pretend

He feigned an interest in the conversation, but his mind wandered elsewhere.

Question 6

Fractious; adj.

Answer 6

—unruly; disobedient; irritable / even-tempered

Bucking and kicking, the fractious horse unseated its rider.

Question 7

Imperceptible; adj.

Answer 7

—unnoticeable; undetectable / obvious; clear

Fortunately, the stain on the blouse was imperceptible after the blouse had gone through the wash.

Question 8

​Incredulous; adj.

Answer 8

—withholding belief; skeptical

When Jack claimed he hadn’t eaten the jelly doughnut, Jill took an incredulous look at his smeared face and laughed.

Question 9

Infinitesimal; adj.

Answer 9

—minute; minuscule; tiny; extremely small / immeasurable; vast
The error in the thirty-page report was so infinitesimal, it was imperceptible—even by the editor.

Question 10

Languid; adj.

Answer 10

—weary; sluggish; listless / vigorous

Her siege of illness left her languid and pallid.

Question 11

Leverage; noun

Answer 11

—influence; power; force; control

The foreman has leverage over his workers because he decides the work assignments.

Question 12

​Levity; noun

Answer 12

—lack of seriousness; lightness / serious; sober

Stop giggling and wriggling around in the pew: such levity is improper in church.

Question 13

​Parcel; verb

Answer 13

—distribute; divide; allocate; apportion

The landowner parceled out his property to three sharecroppers.

Question 14

​Paternal; adj.

Answer 14

—fatherly

Paternal instincts take over when a man becomes a father.

Question 15

Peremptory; adj.

Answer 15

—demanding and leaving no choice; putting an end to

The defense used a peremptory challenge, thanked the juror, and the judge told her she could leave.

Question 16

Plagiarism; noun

Answer 16

—theft of another’s ideas or writings passed off as original

The editor recognized the plagiarism and rebuked the culprit who had presented the manuscript as original.

Question 17

​Privy; adj.

Answer 17

—private or secret

I could not tell you about the job lay offs; it was privy information known only to the supervisors.

Question 18

Prominent; adj.

Answer 18

—conspicuous; noticeable; sticking out / unknown

Have you ever noticed that Prince Charles’s prominent ears make him look like the big-eared character in Mad comics?

Question 19

Proximity; noun

Answer 19

—nearness; closeness / distant; far away

Blind people sometimes develop a compensatory ability to sense the proximity of objects around them.