Unit12

Question 1

umber

Answer 1

(1) A darkish brown mineral containing manganese and iron oxides used for coloring paint.
(2) A color that is greenish brown to dark reddish brown.

eg. Van Dyke prized umber as a pigment and used it constantly in his oil paintings.

Question 2

adumbrate

Answer 2

(1) To give a sketchy outline or disclose in part.
(2) To hint at or foretell.

eg. The Secretary of State would only adumbrate his ideas for bringing peace to Bosnia.

Question 2

penumbra

Answer 2

(1) The partial shadow surrounding a complete shadow, as in an eclipse.
(2) The fringe or surrounding area where something exists less fully.

eg. This area of the investigation was the penumbra where both the FBI and the CIA wanted to pursue their leads.

Question 3

umbrage

Answer 3

A feeling of resentment at some slight or insult, often one that is imagined rather than real.

eg. She often took umbrage at his treatment of her, without being able to pinpoint what was offensive about it.

Question 4

divest

Answer 4

(1) To get rid of or free oneself of property, authority, or title.
(2) To strip of clothing, ornaments, or equipment.

eg. In protest against apartheid, many universities in the 1980s divested themselves of all stock in South African companies.

Question 5

investiture

Answer 5

The formal placing of someone in office.

eg. At an English monarch’s investiture, he or she is presented with the crown, scepter, and sword, the symbols of power

Question 6

transvestite

Answer 6

A person, especially a male, who wears the clothing and adopts the mannerisms of the opposite sex.

eg. In Handel’s operas, the heroic male leading roles are today often sung by female transvestites, since he originally wrote them for the soprano range.

Question 7

travesty

Answer 7

(1) An inferior or distorted imitation.
(2) A broadly comic imitation in drama, literature, or art that is usually grotesque and ridiculous.

eg. The senator was shouting that the new tax bill represented a travesty of tax reform.

Question 8

apotheosis

Answer 8

(1) Transformation into a god.
(2) The perfect example.

eg. Abraham Lincoln’s apotheosis after his assassination transformed the controversial politician into the saintly savior of his country.

Question 9

atheistic

Answer 9

Denying the existence of God or divine power.

eg. The atheistic Madalyn Murray O’Hair successfully sought the removal of prayer from American public schools in the 1960s.

Question 10

pantheon

Answer 10

(1) A building serving as the burial place of or containing memorials to the famous dead of a nation.
(2) A group of notable persons or things.

eg. A Hall of Fame serves as a kind of pantheon for its field, and those admitted in the early years are often the greatest of all.

Question 11

theocracy

Answer 11

(1) Government by officials who are regarded as divinely inspired.
(2) A state governed by a theocracy.

eg. The ancient Aztecs lived in a theocracy in which guidance came directly from the gods through the priests.

Question 12

icon

Answer 12

(1) A religious image usually painted on a small wooden panel: idol.
(2) Emblem, symbol.

eg. Henry Ford’s assembly line captured the imagination of the world, and he and his company became icons of industrial capitalism.

Question 13

iconic

Answer 13

(1) Symbolic.
(2) Relating to a greatly admired and successful person or thing.

eg. The 1963 March on Washington was the iconic event in the history of the civil-rights movement, now familiar to all American schoolchildren.

Question 14

iconoclast

Answer 14

(1) A person who destroys religious images or opposes their use.
(2) A person who attacks settled beliefs or institutions.

eg. She’s always rattling her friends by saying outrageous things, and she enjoys her reputation as an iconoclast.

Question 15

iconography

Answer 15

(1) The imagery and symbolism of a work of art or an artist.
(2) The study of artistic symbolism.

eg. Today scholars pore over the advertisements in glossy magazines, studying the iconography for clues to the ads’ hidden meanings.

Question 16

urbane

Answer 16

Sophisticated and with polished manners.

eg. He was remembered as a gentlemanly and urbane host of elegant dinner parties.

Question 17

exurban

Answer 17

Relating to a region or settlement that lies outside a city and usually beyond its suburbs and often is inhabited chiefly by well-to- do families.

eg. Exurban areas typically show much higher education and income levels than closer-in suburbs or nearby rural counties.

Question 18

interurban

Answer 18

Going between or connecting cities or towns

eg. Businesspeople in the two cities have been waiting for decades for a true high-speed interurban railway on the Japanese model.

Question 19

urbanization

Answer 19

The process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more and more people begin living and working in central areas.

eg. The area has been undergoing rapid urbanization, and six or seven of the old small towns are now genuine suburbs.

Question 20

acculturation

Answer 20

(1) Modification of the culture of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture.
(2) The process by which a human being acquires the culture of a particular society from infancy.

eg. The old Eastern European bagel has gone through an acculturation in America, where it has acquired a soft texture, a white interior, and fillers like eggs and peanut butter.

Question 21

cross-cultural

Answer 21

Dealing with or offering comparison between two or more different cultures or cultural areas.

eg. A cross-cultural study of 49 tribes revealed a tight relationship between the closeness of mother-infant bonding in a given tribe and that tribe’s peacefulness toward its neighbors.

Question 22

horticulture

Answer 22

The science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants

eg. He considered majoring in botany, but has decided instead on horticulture, hoping he can spend more time in a greenhouse than in the library or the lab.

Question 23

subculture

Answer 23

A group whose beliefs and behaviors are different from the main groups within a culture or society.

eg. Members of the emo subculture at her high school recognized each other by their skinny jeans, dyed hair, and canvas sneakers.

Question 24

demographic

Answer 24

Having to do with the study of human populations, especially their size, growth, density, and patterns of living.

eg. Each year the state government uses the most current demographic figures to determine how to distribute its funding for education.

Question 25

endemic

Answer 25

(1) Found only in a given place or region.
(2) Often found in a given occupation, area, or environment.

eg. Malaria remains endemic in tropical regions around the world.

Question 26

demagogue

Answer 26

A political leader who appeals to the emotions and prejudices of people in order to arouse discontent and to advance his or her own political purposes.

eg. His supporters called him a “man of the people”; his enemies called him a lying demagogue.

Question 27

demotic

Answer 27

Popular or common

eg. Partly because of television, the demotic language and accents of America’s various regions have become more and more similar.

Question 28

populist

Answer 28

A believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people.

eg. He knew he would have to campaign as a populist in order to appeal to the working-class voters.

Question 29

populace

Answer 29

(1) The common people or masses.
(2) Population.

eg. Perhaps Henry Ford’s major achievement was to manufacture a car that practically the entire populace could afford—the Model T.

Question 30

populous

Answer 30

Numerous, densely settled, or having a large population.

eg. Most Americans can’t locate Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world, on a map.

Question 31

vox populi

Answer 31

Popular sentiment or opinion.

eg. Successful politicians are always listening to the vox populi and adjusting their opinions or language accordingly.

Question 32

aquiline

Answer 32

(1) Relating to eagles.
(2) Curving like an eagle’s beak.

eg. The surviving busts of noble Romans show that many of the men had strong aquiline noses.

Question 33

asinine

Answer 33

Foolish, brainless.

eg. He’s not so great when he’s sober, but when he’s drunk he gets truly asinine.

Question 34

bovine

Answer 34

(1) Relating to cows and oxen.
(2) Placid, dull, unemotional.

eg. In that part of Texas, many of the veterinarians specialize in bovine conditions and won’t even deal with dogs or cats.

Question 35

canine

Answer 35

Relating to dogs or the dog family; doglike.

eg. Pleasure in getting their tummies rubbed must be a basic canine trait, since all our dogs have loved it.

Question 36

feline

Answer 36

(1) Relating to cats or the cat family.
(2) Like a cat in being sleek, graceful, sly, treacherous, or stealthy.

The performers moved across the high wire with feline grace and agility.

Question 37

leonine

Answer 37

Relating to lions; lionlike.

eg. As he conducted, Leonard Bernstein would fling his leonine mane wildly about.

Question 38

porcine

Answer 38

Relating to pigs or swine; piglike.

eg. She describes her landlord’s shape as porcine, and claims he has manners to match.

Question 39

vulpine

Answer 39

(1) Relating to foxes; foxlike.
(2) Sneaky, clever, or crafty; foxy.

She’d already decided she didn’t like anything about him, especially the twitchiness, that vulpine face, and those darting eyes.