Unit 49

Question 1

Malleable

Answer 1

(adj) capable of being shaped by pounding; impressionable
e. g. Behaviorists such as B. F. Skinner believe that human nature is malleable, and the people’s behavior can be changed by changing their environment.

Question 2

Maverick

Answer 2

(n) dissenter
e. g. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has a reputation as a maverick; he is one of only two members of the United States Congress who is independent (that is, not a member of the Republican and Democratic party).

Question 3

Megalomania

Answer 3

(n) delusions of power or importance
e. g. In his farewell speech the retiring trial judge warned his colleagues to beware of megalomania as they exercise their power in the courtroom.

Question 4

Menagerie

Answer 4

(n) a variety of animals kept together
e. g. Linda seems to take home every abandoned pet in the town; she now has an incredible menagerie of dogs, cats, turtles, rabbits, and other animals.

Question 5

Mendacious

Answer 5

(adj) dishonest

e. g. The judge ruled the testimony inadmissible because he considered it mendacious.

Question 6

mendicant

Answer 6

(n) beggar
e. g. In Thailand it is traditional for young men to become monks for a year; a period during which they become mendicants.

Question 7

Meretricious

Answer 7

(adj) gaudy; plausible but false; specious
e. g. One of the allures of jargon is that it can make a poor idea appear worthwhile, or something meretricious easier to accept because it is dressed in fancy language.

Question 8

Mesmerize

Answer 8

(v) to hypnotize
e. g. The audience sat, mesmerized, listening to the retired soldier’s account of hand-to-hand combat against the Japanese in New Guinea during World War II.

Question 9

Metamorphosis

Answer 9

(n) change; transformation
e. g. In recent years, many areas of China have been undergoing a metamorphosis, transforming themselves from predominantly agricultural areas to industrial ones.

Question 10

Metaphysics

Answer 10

(n) a branch of philosophy that investigates the ultimate nature of reality
- Metaphysical (adj)
- Metaphysician (n)

e.g. To skeptics, metaphysics is an arbitrary search for a chimerical truth.

Question 11

Chimeric

Answer 11

(adj) hoped for but illusory or impossible to achieve

e. g. The notion of tolerance is a chimeric dream.