Unit6

Question 1

equable

Answer 1

(1) Tending to remain calm. (2) Free from harsh changes or extreme variation.

eg. Her friends thought it odd that such an equable woman had married a man so moody and unpredictable.

Question 2

adequacy

Answer 2

Being equal to some need or requirement.

eg. Environmentalists doubt the adequacy of these regulations to protect the wilderness areas.

Question 3

equilibrium

Answer 3

(1) A state in which opposing forces are balanced so that one is not stronger or greater than the other. (2) A state of emotional balance or calmness.

eg. The news had come as a shock, and it took him several minutes to recover his equilibrium.

Question 4

equinox

Answer 4

A day when day and night are the same length.

eg. She and her friends got together for an equinox party twice a year to celebrate the arrival of the fall and the spring.

Question 5

inquisition

Answer 5

A questioning or examining that is often harsh or severe.

eg. The President’s first choice for the job turned him down, fearing the Senate hearings would turn into an inquisition into her past.

Question 6

perquisite

Answer 6

(1) A privilege or profit that is provided in addition to one’s base salary. (2) Something claimed as an exclusive possession or right.

eg. A new car, a big house, and yearly trips to Europe were among the perquisites that made the presidency of Wyndam College such an attractive position.

Question 7

acquisitive

Answer 7

Eager to acquire; greedy.

eg. With each year the couple became more madly acquisitive, buying jewelry, a huge yacht, and two country estates.

Question 8

requisition

Answer 8

A demand or request (such as for supplies) made with proper authority.

eg. The teachers had grown impatient with having to submit a requisition for even routine classroom supplies.

Question 9

plenary

Answer 9

(1) Including all who have a right to attend. (2) Complete in all ways.

eg. For the convention’s plenary session, five thousand members gathered to hear a star speaker.

Question 10

complement

Answer 10

(1) Something that fills up or makes perfect; the amount needed to make something complete. (2) A counterpart.

eg. On the committee, the two young people provided an energetic complement to the older members.

Question 11

deplete

Answer 11

To reduce in amount by using up.

eg. Years of farming on the same small plot of land had left the soil depleted of minerals.

Question 12

replete

Answer 12

Fully or abundantly filled or supplied.

eg. The professor’s autobiography was replete with scandalous anecdotes about campus life in the 1950s.

Question 13

metric

Answer 13

(1) Relating to or based on the metric system. (2) Relating to or arranged in meter.

eg. Americans have resisted using the metric system for years, but are now slowly getting accustomed to a few of the metric units.

Question 14

meter

Answer 14

(1) The basic metric unit of length, equal to about 39.37 inches. (2) A systematic rhythm in poetry or music.

eg. The basic meter of the piece was 3/4, but its rhythms were so complicated that the 3/4 was sometimes hard to hear.

Question 15

odometer

Answer 15

An instrument used to measure distance traveled.

eg. Jennifer watched the odometer to see how far she would have to drive to her new job.

Question 16

tachometer

Answer 16

A device used to measure speed of rotation.

eg. Even though one purpose of a tachometer is to help drivers keep their engine speeds down, some of us occasionally try to see how high we can make the needle go.

Question 17

auditor

Answer 17

A person who formally examines and verifies financial accounts.

eg. It seems impossible that so many banks could have gotten into so much trouble if their auditors had been doing their jobs.

Question 18

auditory

Answer 18

(1) Perceived or experienced through hearing. (2) Of or relating to the sense or organs of hearing.

eg. With the “surround-sound” systems in most theaters, going to a movie is now an auditory experience as much as a visual one.

Question 19

audition

Answer 19

A trial performance to evaluate a performer’s skills.

eg. Auditions for Broadway shows attract so many hopeful unknown performers that everyone in the business calls them “cattle calls.”

Question 20

inaudible

Answer 20

Not heard or capable of being heard.

eg. The coach spoke to her in a low voice that was inaudible to the rest of the gymnastics team.

Question 21

sonic

Answer 21

(1) Having to do with sound. (2) Having to do with the speed of sound in air (about 750 miles per hour).

eg. A sonic depth finder can easily determine the depth of a lake by bouncing a sound signal off the bottom.

Question 22

dissonant

Answer 22

(1) Clashing or discordant, especially in music. (2) Incompatible or disagreeing.

eg. Critics of the health-care plan pointed to its two seemingly dissonant goals: cost containment, which would try to control spending, and universal coverage, which could increase spending.

Question 23

resonance

Answer 23

(1) A continuing or echoing of sound. (2) A richness and variety in the depth and quality of sound.

eg. The resonance of James Earl Jones’s vocal tones in such roles as Darth Vader made his voice one of the most recognizable of its time.

Question 24

ultrasonic

Answer 24

Having a frequency higher than what can be heard by the human ear.

eg. My grandfather’s dog is always pricking up its ears at some ultrasonic signal, while he himself is so deaf he can’t even hear a bird singing.

Question 25

errant

Answer 25

(1) Wandering or moving about aimlessly. (2) Straying outside proper bounds, or away from an accepted pattern or standard.

eg. Modern-day cowboys have been known to use helicopters to spot errant calves.

Question 26

aberrant

Answer 26

Straying or differing from the right, normal, or natural type.

eg. Sullivan’s increasingly aberrant behavior was leading his friends to question his mental stability.

Question 27

erratic

Answer 27

(1) Having no fixed course. (2) Lacking in consistency.

eg. In the 1993 World Series, the Phillies weren’t helped by the erratic performance of their ace relief pitcher, “Wild Thing.”

Question 28

erroneous

Answer 28

Mistaken, incorrect.

eg. For years her parents had had an erroneous idea of her intelligence, because she didn’t begin to talk until the age of six.

Question 29

cede

Answer 29

To give up, especially by treaty; yield.

eg. Their 88-year-old father reluctantly ceded control over his finances to two of the children this year.

Question 30

concede

Answer 30

To admit grudgingly; yield.

eg. To his friends, Senator Beasley concedes that his reelection campaign was badly run and that he made several damaging errors.

Question 31

accede

Answer 31

(1) To give in to a request or demand. (2) To give approval or consent.

eg. This time Congress refused to accede to the demands of the president, and began cutting the funding for the war.

Question 32

precedent

Answer 32

Something done or said that may be an example or rule to guide later acts of a similar kind.

eg. When Judy bought Christmas presents for all her relatives one year, she claimed that it set no precedent, but it did.

Question 33

Augean stable

Answer 33

A condition or place marked by great accumulation of filth or corruption.

eg. Leaders of many of the newly formed nations of Eastern Europe found that the old governments of their countries had become Augean stables that they must now clean out.

Question 34

Croesus

Answer 34

A very rich person.

eg. Warren Buffett’s extraordinary record of acquiring and investing made him an American Croesus.

Question 35

dragon’s teeth

Answer 35

Seeds of conflict.

eg. Many experts believed that, in invading a Middle Eastern country that hadn’t attacked us, we were sowing dragon’s teeth.

Question 36

Hades

Answer 36

The underground home of the dead in Greek mythology.

eg. In a dramatic scene, he crawls up out of the ground coated in black petroleum as though emerging from Hades.

Question 37

lethargic

Answer 37

(1) Lazily sluggish. (2) Indifferent or apathetic.

eg. Once again the long Sunday dinner had left most of the family feeling stuffed and lethargic.

Question 38

Midas touch

Answer 38

The talent for making money in every venture.

eg. Investors are always looking for an investment adviser with the Midas touch, but after a couple of good years each adviser’s brilliance usually seems to vanish.

Question 39

Pyrrhic victory

Answer 39

A victory won at excessive cost.

eg. That win turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory, since our best players sustained injuries that would sideline them for weeks.

Question 40

stygian

Answer 40

Extremely dark, dank, gloomy, and forbidding.

eg. When the power went out in the building, the halls and stairwells were plunged in stygian darkness.