Unit17

Question 1

animated

Answer 1

(1) Full of life; lively, vigorous, active.
(2) Seeming or appearing to be alive.

Her gestures as she talked were so animated that even people across the room were watching her.

Question 2

magnanimous

Answer 2

(1) Showing a lofty and courageous spirit.
(2) Generous and forgiving.

eg. She was magnanimous in victory, saying she’d been lucky to win and praising her opponent’s effort.

Question 3

animosity

Answer 3

Ill will or resentment.

eg. Legend has it that the animosity between the Greeks and the Trojans began with the stealing of the beautiful Helen from her husband, Menelaus.

Question 4

inanimate

Answer 4

(1) Not alive; lifeless.
(2) Not lively; dull.

eg. The sculptures of Rodin are so expressive that, although inanimate, they seem full of life and emotion.

Question 5

figurative

Answer 5

(1) Representing form or figure in art.
(2) Saying one thing in terms normally meaning or describing another thing.

eg. When the poet says he’s been living in the desert, it’s a figurative reference to his emotional life.

Question 6

configuration

Answer 6

An arrangement of parts or elements; shape, design.

eg. We’ve changed the configuration of the office so that employees will have more privacy at their desks.

Question 7

effigy

Answer 7

An image of a person, especially a crude representation of a hated person.

eg. The night before the big game, an effigy of the rival coach was burned on a huge bonfire.

Question 8

figment

Answer 8

Something made up or imagined.

eg. His preference for Cindy is a figment of your imagination; believe me, he barely knows she exists.

Question 9

annuity

Answer 9

Money that is payable yearly or on some regular basis, or a contract providing for such payment.

eg. Throughout her working career she invested regularly in annuities that would support her after retirement.

Question 10

superannuated

Answer 10

(1) Outworn, old-fashioned, or out-of-date.
(2) Forced to retire because of old age or infirmity.

eg. He called himself a car collector, but his backyard looked like a cemetery for superannuated clunkers.

Question 11

millennium

Answer 11

(1) A period of time lasting 1,000 years, or the celebration of a 1,000-year anniversary. (2) A period of great happiness and perfection on earth.

eg. The first millennium B.C. saw the rise of important civilizations in Greece, Rome, India, Central America, and China.

Question 12

perennial

Answer 12

(1) Continuing to grow for several years.
(2) Enduring or continuing without interruption.

eg. “See You in September” is a perennial summertime hit among lovesick teenagers.

Question 13

coeval

Answer 13

Having the same age or lasting the same amount of time; contemporary.

eg. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, probably written around 700 B.C., are coeval with portions of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament.

Question 14

longevity

Answer 14

(1) A long duration of life.
(2) Length of life; long continuance.

eg. Picasso had a career of remarkable longevity, and was producing plentifully until his death at 91.

Question 15

medieval

Answer 15

(1) Relating to the Middle Ages of European history, from about A.D. 500 to 1500.
(2) Extremely out-of-date.

eg. The great cathedral at Chartres in France, finished in 1220, is a masterpiece of medieval architecture.

Question 16

primeval

Answer 16

(1) Having to do with the earliest ages; primitive or ancient.
(2) Existing from the beginning.

eg. When European settlers first arrived in North America, they found vast tracts of primeval forest, seemingly untouched by human influence.

Question 17

corporeal

Answer 17

Having or relating to a physical body; substantial.

eg. In paintings, angels usually look very much like corporeal beings, often with actual feathered wings.

Question 18

corpulent

Answer 18

Having a large, bulky body; obese.

eg. Squire Jenkins had often been described as “stout” or “portly,” but more recently the word his acquaintances were using was usually “corpulent,” or even “fat.”

Question 19

corporal

Answer 19

Relating to or affecting the body.

eg. She was reminded that, in the public-school system, shaking a child was now regarded as unacceptable corporal punishment.

Question 20

incorporate

Answer 20

(1) To blend or combine into something already existing to form one whole.
(2) To form or form into a corporation.

eg. The new edition incorporates many suggestions and corrections received by the author from his readers.

Question 21

tact

Answer 21

The ability to deal with others without offending them.

eg. Already at 16 his daughter showed remarkable tact in dealing with adults, which she certainly hadn’t gotten from him.

Question 22

tactile

Answer 22

(1) Able to be perceived by touching.
(2) Relating to the sense of touch.

He always enjoyed the tactile sensation of running his hand over the lush turf.

Question 23

tangential

Answer 23

Touching lightly; incidental.

eg. The government is trying to determine if the extremists were deeply involved or if their relationship to the suspect was merely tangential.

Question 24

tangible

Answer 24

Able to be perceived, especially by touch; physical, substantial.

eg. The snow was tangible evidence that winter had really come.

Question 25

codex

Answer 25

A book in handwritten form, especially a book of Scripture, classics, or ancient texts.

eg. There on the shelves of the monastery library they saw codex after codex, all carefully copied and illustrated by hand.

Question 26

codicil

Answer 26

(1) An amendment or addition made to a will.
(2) An appendix or supplement.

eg. With the birth of each new grandchild, the old man added a new codicil to his will.

Question 27

codify

Answer 27

To arrange according to a system; classify.

eg. In the 6th century B.C., the great statesman Solon newly codified the laws of Athens, replacing the harsh legal code of Draco.

Question 28

decode

Answer 28

(1) To put a coded message into an understandable form.
(2) To find the underlying meaning of; decipher.

eg. The Allies were able to decode many important secret messages sent by the Germans and Japanese in World War II.

Question 29

signify

Answer 29

(1) To be a sign of something; to mean something.
(2) To show or make known, especially by a sign.

eg. The improved performance of the students signifies that the new approach may be working.

Question 30

insignia

Answer 30

A badge of authority or honor; a distinguishing sign or mark.

eg. Peering closely at the photograph, he could now see clearly the insignia of the Nazi SS on his grandfather’s chest.

Question 31

signatory

Answer 31

A person or government that signs an agreement with others; especially a government that agrees with others to abide by a signed agreement.

eg. More than a dozen countries were signatories to the agreement setting limits on fishing in international waters.

Question 32

signet

Answer 32

(1) A seal used instead of a signature to give personal or official authority to a document.
(2) A small engraved seal, often in the form of a ring.

eg. The charters of lands and rights of the early American colonies were confirmed with the king’s signet.

Question 33

quadrant

Answer 33

(1) A quarter of a circle.
(2) Any of the four quarters into which something is divided by two lines intersecting at right angles.

eg. Washington, D.C., like a number of other cities, is divided into quadrants called Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast

Question 34

quadrille

Answer 34

A square dance popular in the 18th and 19th century, made up of five or six patterns for four couples.

eg. Quadrilles were very popular at balls in the American South before the Civil War.

Question 35

quadriplegic

Answer 35

Paralyzed in both arms and both legs.

eg. A motorcycle accident in her teens had killed her boyfriend and left her a quadriplegic.

Question 36

quartile

Answer 36

One of four equal groups each containing a quarter of a statistical population.

eg. The schools in our town always average in the lowest quartile in both reading and math achievement.

Question 37

tetracycline

Answer 37

A yellow broad-spectrum antibiotic.

eg. He was sent home with a prescription for tetracycline and some advice about how to avoid Lyme disease in the future.

Question 38

tetrahedron

Answer 38

A solid shape formed by four flat faces.

eg. Her son’s box kites was a tetrahedron, and its pyramid shape was easy to pick out among the traditional designs flown by the other children.

Question 39

tetralogy

Answer 39

A set of four connected literary, artistic, or musical works.

eg. The Raj Quartet, Paul Scott’s long and complex tetralogy of India, was made into a highly praised television series.

Question 40

tetrapod

Answer 40

A vertebrate with two pairs of limbs.

eg. His special study was the great seismosaurus, probably the largest tetrapod —and the largest land animal—that ever lived.