TPO69 Flashcards
millennia
plural of millennium
example: intrigued people for millennia
malevolence
the quality of causing or wanting to cause harm or evil
example: the forked tongue symbolizes malevolence…
tactile
related to the sense of touch
example: the snake’s tongue is a tactile organ…
deceit
(an act of) keeping the truth hidden, especially to get an advantage:
example: the forked tongue symbolizes malevolence and deceit.
vomeronasal
either of a pair of small blind pouches or tubes in many vertebrates that are situated one on either side of the nasal septum or in the buccal cavity and that are reduced to rudimentary pits in adult humans but are developed in reptiles, amphibians, and some mammals as chemoreceptors
example: the vomeronasal organs …
secrete
(of animals or plants or their cells) to produce and release a liquid
example: the chemicals that the animals secrete…
simultaneously
in a way that is simultaneous (= happening or being done at exactly the same time)
example: allows the snake to sense chemical stimuli at two points
simultaneously…
stereovision
type of vision
example: two eyes permits stereovision…
forage
to go from place to place searching for things that you can eat or use
example: Lizards
that forage widely…
computation
calculating
example: birds that permits the computation of differences between what one ear hears and what the other ear hears and thus mediates auditory localization.
barren
unable to produce plants or fruit
example: … all Pacific islands
were born barren of life, with hard, dense,…
stowaway
a person who hides on a ship, aircraft, or other vehicle
example: without being notably good floaters or stowaways
colonize
(of animals, plants, or bacteria) to start to live or grow in a particular area
example: so some species
colonized these islands…
impoverish
to make something weaker or worse in quality
example: the further from Indonesia, the more impoverished the plant and animal life…
attenuation
the process of making something less or weaker
example: This attenuation is strong for land species…
crucible
a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development
example: continental crucibles of biological evolution…
niche
a habitat supplying the factors necessary for the existence of an organism or species
example: the development of new species occupying ecological niches…
finche
any of various types of small singing bird with a short, wide, pointed beak
example: the finches s described by the naturalist Charles Darwin on the Galapagos Islands …
paucity
the fact that there is too little of something
example: the paucity of
grazing animals meant that plants developed no defenses,…
endemism
that is, of species that existed only there
example: The remote islands had a very high proportion of endemism
chiefly
most importantly
example: defined chiefly by the degree of isolation…
decisive
strongly affecting how a situation will progress or end
example: A second source of vulnerability, perhaps more decisive, arose from the arrival of humankind in the Pacific…
arid
very dry and without enough rain for plants
example: and thrive in its arid
conditions…
irrigation
the practice of supplying land with water so that crops and plants will grow
example: irrigation-based agriculture…
acre
a unit for measuring area, equal to 4,047 square meters or 4,840 square yards
example: that could fertilize as many as 8,000 acres
salinization
salinize: to treat or impregnate with salt
example: East were abandoned owing to the salinization of the land…
communal
belonging to or used by a group of people rather than one single person
example: communal houses in villages
pueblo
a group of flat-roofed, connected buildings made of pressed, dried earth or stone, built by American Indians in the southwestern U.S
example: or pueblos, along the edges of a river at the bottom…
sophistication
the quality of being complicated or made with great skill
example: illustrates the sophistication with which these people transformed their environment
chamber
a room or space used for a particular purpose
example: ceremonial chambers called kivas…
advent
the fact of an event happening
example: to predict the
advent of growing and harvesting seasons …
solstices
either of the two occasions in the year when the sun is directly above either the farthest point north or the farthest point south of the equator that it ever reaches. These are the times in the year, in the middle of the summer or winter, when there are the longest hours of day or night
example: based on the arrival of solstices (longest and shortest days) around June 21 and December 21…
equinoxes
either of the two occasions in the year when the center of the sun is directly above the Equator, and day and night are approximately equal in length
example: and equinoxes (days with equal periods of light and darkness) around March 21 and September 21.
petroglyph
an image carved onto a rock
example: sunlight entered between two stones and fell on a petroglyph…
hazard
a source of danger
example: a measure of control over the hazards of an environment…
disruption
the action of preventing something, especially a system, process, or event, from continuing as usual or as expected
example:. Deforestation, social disruption, and the onset of an 11-year drought around A.D. 1280…
