Unit18

Question 1

capitalism

Answer 1

An economic system based on private ownership, private decisions, and open competition in a free market.

eg. In the 1980s, the leaders of the free world had faith that capitalism and a free-market economy would solve all our problems.

Question 2

capitulate

Answer 2

To surrender or stop resisting; give up.

eg. At 2:00 a.m. the last three senators finally capitulated, allowing the bill to move forward.

Question 3

decapitate

Answer 3

(1) To cut off the head; behead.
(2) To destroy or make useless.

eg. The leaders of the uprising were decapitated, and their heads were mounted on long poles on London Bridge as a warning to the people

Question 4

recapitulate

Answer 4

To repeat or summarize the most important points or stages.

eg. At the end of his talk, the president carefully recapitulated the main points in order.

Question 5

anthropoid

Answer 5

Any of several large, tailless apes.

eg. The chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, gibbons, and bonobos are all classified as anthropoids.

Question 6

anthropology

Answer 6

The science and study of human beings.

eg. By studying the cultures of primitive peoples, anthropology may give us a better understanding of our own culture.

Question 7

misanthropic

Answer 7

Hating or distrusting humans.

eg. Few characters in literature are more misanthropic than Ebenezer Scrooge, who cares for nothing but money.

Question 8

lycanthropy

Answer 8

(1) A delusion that one has become a wolf.
(2) Transformation into a wolf through witchcraft or magic.

eg. The local farmers avoided the residents of the village in the next valley, who had long been suspected of grave robbing and lycanthropy.

Question 9

kinesiology

Answer 9

The scientific study of human movement.

eg. With a kinesiology degree in hand, she landed a job as a rehab therapist for patients following heart surgery.

Question 10

hyperkinetic

Answer 10

(1) Relating to or affected with hyperactivity.
(2) Characterized by fast-paced or frantic activity.

eg. Noises Off is a hyperkinetic stage farce that moves at a breathless pace for a full hour and a half.

Question 11

kinescope

Answer 11

A motion picture made from an image on a picture tube.

eg. In the archives she turned up several kinescopes of Ernie Kovacs’s 1950s show, which she thought had been dumped into New York Harbor decades ago.

Question 12

telekinesis

Answer 12

The movement of objects without contact or other physical means, as by the exercise of an occult power.

eg. Fascinated by telekinesis as a boy, he’d spent hours in his room trying to push a pencil off the table using only his mind.

Question 13

dynamic

Answer 13

(1) Relating to physical force or energy.
(2) Continuously and productively active and changing; energetic or forceful.

eg. The situation has entered a dynamic phase, and what we knew about it last week has changed considerably by now.

Question 14

dynamo

Answer 14

(1) A power generator, especially one that produces direct electric current.
(2) A forceful, energetic person.

eg. Even as they entered the power plant, the roar of the water covered the sound of the immense dynamos.

Question 15

aerodynamics

Answer 15

(1) A science that studies the movement of gases such as air and the way that objects move through such gases.
(2) The qualities of an object that affect how easily it is able to move through the air.

eg. Early automobile designs were based on the boxlike carriages drawn by horses, back when no one was even thinking about aerodynamics.

Question 16

hydrodynamic

Answer 16

Having to do with the science that studies fluids in motion and the forces that act on bodies surrounded by fluids.

eg. Building levees to contain a flood presents complicated hydrodynamic problems.

Question 17

gradation

Answer 17

(1) A series made up of successive stages.
(2) A step in an ordered scale.

eg. In the fall, the leaves show gradations of color from deepest red to brightest yellow.

Question 18

degrade

Answer 18

(1) To treat someone or something poorly and without respect.
(2) To make the quality of something worse.

eg. They had feared for years that television was degrading the mental capacities of their children.

Question 19

gradient

Answer 19

(1) Slope, grade.
(2) A continuous change in measure, activity, or substance.

eg. Steep temperature gradients in the atmosphere are usually associated with unstable conditions.

Question 20

retrograde

Answer 20

(1) Moving or performed in a direction that is backward or opposite to the usual direction.
(2) Moving toward a worse or earlier state.

For the government to cover up the findings of its scientific research institutes was clearly a retrograde step.

Question 21

regimen

Answer 21

A regular course of treatment, usually involving food, exercise, or medicine.

eg. As part of his training regimen, he was now swimming two miles, running seven miles, and bicycling 15 miles every day.

Question 22

interregnum

Answer 22

(1) The time during which a throne is vacant between two successive reigns or regimes.
(2) A period during which the normal functions of government or control are suspended.

eg. During the weeklong interregnum between the CEO’s death and the appointment of a new CEO, she felt that she was really running the whole show.

Question 23

regalia

Answer 23

(1) The emblems and symbols of royalty.
(2) Special or official dress.

eg. The governor seems to enjoy life in the governor’s mansion and all the regalia of office more than actually doing his job.

Question 24

regency

Answer 24

A government or period of time in which a regent rules in place of a king or queen.

eg. Since the future king was only four when Louis XIV died, France spent eight years under a regency before he took the throne at 13 as Louis XV.

Question 25

criterion

Answer 25

A standard by which a judgment or decision is made.

eg. He’s one of those readers whose main criterion for liking a book is whether it confirms his prejudices.

Question 26

critique

Answer 26

A judgment or evaluation, especially a rating or discussion of merits and faults.

eg. Whenever he reads his latest story in the fiction-writing seminar, one of the other students always delivers a nasty critique.

Question 27

hypercritical

Answer 27

Overly critical.

eg. Most teachers do their best to correct their students’ mistakes without seeming hypercritical.

Question 28

hematocrit

Answer 28

The ratio of the volume of red blood cells to whole blood.

eg. The latest blood test had revealed that her hematocrit had risen considerably and was almost back to normal.

Question 29

jurisprudence

Answer 29

(1) A system of law.
(2) The study and philosophy of law.

eg. As a young lawyer his heroes were the crusaders of 20th-century jurisprudence, especially Louis Brandeis and Thurgood Marshall.

Question 30

abjure

Answer 30

To reject formally.

eg. The Spanish Inquisition forced many Jews to abjure their religion and adopt Christianity or be burned at the stake.

Question 31

perjury

Answer 31

The crime of telling a lie under oath.

eg, Found guilty of perjury for lying under oath in front of a Congressional committee, he was sentenced to two years in prison.

Question 32

de jure

Answer 32

Based on or according to the law.

eg. The country is a de jure democracy, but since one party controls all the media outlets it really isn’t one.

Question 33

pentathlon

Answer 33

An athletic contest in which each athlete competes in five different events.

eg. The modern Olympic pentathlon includes swimming, cross-country running, horseback riding, fencing, and target shooting.

Question 34

Pentateuch

Answer 34

The first five books of the Old Testament, traditionally said to have been written by Moses.

eg. The Pentateuch takes us from the creation of the world up to the Israelites’ arrival in the Promised Land.

Question 35

pentameter

Answer 35

A line of poetry consisting of five metrical feet.

eg. Shakespeare’s tragedies are written mainly in blank verse, which is unrhymed iambic pentameter.

Question 36

Pentecostal

Answer 36

Of or relating to any of various fundamentalist sects that stress personal experience of God and vocal expression in worship.

eg. Their neighbors belonged to a Pentecostal sect and, homeschooled their daughters, who never wore clothes more revealing than floor-length skirts and long pants.

Question 37

quincentennial

Answer 37

A 500th anniversary, or the celebration of such an event.

eg. In 1992 Americans celebrated the quincentennial of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the New World.

Question 38

quintessential

Answer 38

Representing the purest or most perfect example of something.

eg. As a boy, he had thought of steak, eggs, and home fries as the quintessential Saturday breakfast.

Question 39

quintet

Answer 39

(1) A musical piece for five instruments or voices.
(2) A group of five, such as the performers of a quintet or a basketball team.

eg. The team’s five starters are considered one of the most talented quintets in professional basketball.

Question 40

quintile

Answer 40

One or another of the values that divide a tested population into five evenly distributed classes, or one of these classes.

eg. According to the tests, their one-year-old boy ranks high in the second quintile for motor skills.