Unit7

Question 1

vista

Answer 1

(1) A distant view. (2) An extensive mental view, as over a stretch of time.

eg. The economic vista for the next two years looks excellent, according to a poll of business economists.

Question 2

vis-à-vis

Answer 2

In relation to or compared with.

eg. Many financial reporters worry about the loss of U.S. economic strength vis-à-vis our principal trading partners.

Question 3

visionary

Answer 3

(1) A person with foresight and imagination. (2) A dreamer whose ideas are often impractical.

eg. His followers regarded him as an inspired visionary; his opponents saw him as either a con man or a lunatic.

Question 4

envisage

Answer 4

To have a mental picture of; visualize.

eg. A mere three weeks after they had started dating, the two were already arguing, and none of us could envisage the relationship lasting for long.

Question 5

aspect

Answer 5

(1) A part of something. (2) A certain way in which something appears or may be regarded.

eg. Many experts believe the mental aspect of distance racing is more important than the physical aspect.

Question 6

prospect

Answer 6

(1) The possibility that something will happen in the future. (2) An opportunity for something to happen.

eg. There was little prospect of a breakthrough in the negotiations before the elections.

Question 7

perspective

Answer 7

(1) Point of view; the angle, direction, or standpoint from which a person looks at something. (2) The art or technique of painting or drawing a scene so that objects in it seem to have depth and distance.

eg. From the perspective of the lowly soldier, the war looked very different.

Question 8

prospectus

Answer 8

A printed statement that describes something (such as a new business or a stock offering) and is sent out to people who may be interested in buying or investing.

eg. The prospectus for the mutual fund says nothing about how its profit forecasts were calculated.

Question 9

equivocate

Answer 9

(1) To use ambiguous language, especially in order to deceive. (2) To avoid giving a direct answer.

eg. As the company directors continued to equivocate, the union prepared to return to the picket lines.

Question 10

irrevocable

Answer 10

Impossible to call back or retract.

eg. She had told him she wasn’t going to see him again, but he couldn’t believe her decision was irrevocable.

Question 11

advocate

Answer 11

To speak in favor of.

eg. Our lawyer is advocating a suit against the state, but most of us would rather try some other approaches first.

Question 12

vociferous

Answer 12

Making noisy or emphatic outcries.

eg. Whenever the referee at these soccer games makes a questionable call, you hear vociferous protests from half the parents.

Question 13

phonics

Answer 13

A method of teaching beginners to read and pronounce words by learning the characteristic sounds of letters, letter groups, and especially syllables.

eg. My son’s school switched to phonics instruction several years ago, and reading achievement in the early grades has been improving.

Question 14

phonetic

Answer 14

Relating to or representing the sounds of the spoken language.

eg. In almost every Spanish word the pronunciation is clear from the spelling, so the phonetic part of learning Spanish isn’t usually a big challenge.

Question 15

polyphonic

Answer 15

Referring to a style of music in which two or more melodies are sung or played against each other in harmony.

eg.

Question 16

cacophony

Answer 16

Harsh or unpleasant sound.

eg. In New York she was often dragged off by her boyfriend to downtown jazz concerts, where she struggled to make sense of what sounded like nothing but cacophony.

Question 17

curative

Answer 17

Having to do with curing diseases.

eg. As soon as the antibiotic entered his system, he imagined he could begin to feel its curative effects.

Question 18

curator

Answer 18

Someone in charge of something where things are on exhibit, such as a collection, a museum, or a zoo.

eg. In recent decades, zoo curators have tried to make the animals’ surroundings more and more like their natural homes.

Question 19

procure

Answer 19

To get possession of; obtain.

eg. Investigators were looking into the question of how the governor had procured such a huge loan at such a favorable rate.

Question 20

sinecure

Answer 20

A job or position requiring little work but usually providing some income.

eg. The job of Dean of Students at any college is no sinecure; the hours can be long and the work draining.

Question 21

perimeter

Answer 21

The boundary or distance around a body or figure.

eg. In a medieval siege, an army would surround the perimeter of a city’s high walls, denying the population any food from outside as it assaulted the walls with catapults and battering rams.

Question 22

periodontal

Answer 22

Concerning or affecting the tissues around the teeth.

eg. Years of bad living had filled his teeth with cavities, but it was periodontal disease that finished them off.

Question 23

peripatetic

Answer 23

(1) Having to do with walking. (2) Moving or traveling from place to place.

eg. She spent her early adult years as a peripatetic musician, traveling from one engagement to another.

Question 24

peripheral

Answer 24

(1) Having to do with the outer edges, especially of the field of vision. (2) Secondary or supplemental.

eg. Like most good fourth-grade teachers, he had excellent peripheral vision, and the kids were convinced that he had eyes in the back of his head.

Question 25

sensor

Answer 25

A device that detects a physical quantity (such as a movement or a beam of light) and responds by transmitting a signal.

eg. The outdoor lights are triggered by a motion sensor that detects changes in infrared energy given off by moving human bodies.

Question 26

desensitize

Answer 26

To cause (someone or something) to react less to or be less affected by something.

eg. Even squeamish nursing students report becoming desensitized to the sight of blood after a few months of training.

Question 27

extrasensory

Answer 27

Not acting or occurring through any of the known senses.

eg. A kind of extrasensory capacity seems to tell some soldiers when danger is near.

Question 28

sensuous

Answer 28

(1) Highly pleasing to the senses. (2) Relating to the senses.

eg. Part of what audiences loved about her was the delight she took in the sensuous pleasures of well-prepared food.

Question 29

sophistry

Answer 29

Cleverly deceptive reasoning or argument.

eg. For lawyers and politicians, the practice of sophistry from time to time is almost unavoidable.

Question 30

sophisticated

Answer 30

(1) Having a thorough knowledge of the ways of society. (2) Highly complex or developed.

eg. In Woman of the Year, Katharine Hepburn plays a sophisticated journalist who can handle everything except Spencer Tracy.

Question 31

sophomoric

Answer 31

Overly impressed with one’s own knowledge, but in fact undereducated and immature.

eg. We can’t even listen to those sophomoric songs of his, with their attempts at profound wisdom that just demonstrate how little he knows about life.

Question 32

theosophy

Answer 32

A set of teachings about God and the world based on mystical insight, especially teachings founded on a blend of Buddhist and Hindu beliefs.

eg. He had experimented with a number of faiths, starting with Buddhism and ending with a mixture of Eastern and Western thought that could best be called theosophy.

Question 33

Achilles’ heel

Answer 33

A vulnerable point.

eg, By now his rival for the Senate seat had discovered his Achilles’ heel, the court records of the terrible divorce he had gone through ten years earlier.

Question 34

arcadia

Answer 34

A region or setting of rural pleasure and peacefulness.

eg. The Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania are a vacationer’s arcadia.

Question 35

Cassandra

Answer 35

A person who predicts misfortune or disaster.

eg. They used to call him a Cassandra because he often expected the worst, but his predictions tended to come true.

Question 36

cyclopean

Answer 36

Huge or massive.

eg. They’re imagining a new medical center on a cyclopean scale—a vast ten- block campus with thirty high-rise buildings.

Question 37

draconian

Answer 37

Extremely severe or cruel.

eg. The severe punishments carried out in Saudi Arabia, including flogging for drunkenness, hand amputation for robbery, and beheading for drug trafficking, strike most of the world as draconian.

Question 38

myrmidon

Answer 38

A loyal follower, especially one who executes orders unquestioningly.

eg. To an American, these soldiers were like myrmidons, all too eager to do the Beloved Leader’s bidding.

Question 39

nemesis

Answer 39

A powerful, frightening opponent or rival who is usually victorious.

eg. During the 1970s and ’80s, Japanese carmakers became the nemesis of the U.S. auto industry.

Question 40

Trojan horse

Answer 40

Someone or something that works from within to weaken or defeat.

eg. Researchers are working on a kind of Trojan horse that will be welcomed into the diseased cells and then destroy them from within.