Vocabularies

Question 1

abate

Answer 1

v. to decrease; reduce

NASA announced that it would delay the launch of the manned spacecraft until the radiation from the solar flares abated.

Question 2

abdicate

Answer 2

v. to give up a position, right, or power

Romulus Augustus, the last Western Roman emperor, was forced to abdicate the throne in 476 A.D., and the Germanic chieftain Odovacar became the de facto ruler of Italy.

The appeals judge has abdicated his responsibility to review the findings of the high court.

Question 3

aberrant

Answer 3

adj. deviating from what is normal

When a person’s behavior becomes aberrant, his or her peers may become concerned that the individual is becoming a deviant.

aberration n. something different from the usual or normal

For centuries, solar eclipses were regarded as serious aberrations in the natural order.

Question 4

abeyance

Answer 4

n. temporary suppression or suspension

A good judge must hold his or her judgement in abeyance until all the facts in a case have been presented.

Question 5

abject

Answer 5

adj. miserable; pitiful

John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath portrays the abject poverty of many people during the Great Depression.

Question 6

abjure

Answer 6

v. to reject; abandon formally

Most members of the Religious Society of Friends (commonly known as the Quakers or Friends) abjure the use of violence to settle disputes between nations.

For a foreigner to become a U.S. citizen, he or she must take an oath abjuring allegiance to any other country and pledging to take up arms to defend the United States.

Question 7

abscission

Answer 7

n. the act of cutting; the natural separation of a leaf or other parts of a plant

Two scientists, Alan G. Williams and Thomas G. Whitham, have hypothesized that premature leaf abscission is an adaptive plant response to herbivorous attack.

abscise v. to cut off or away

The surgeon abscised a small growth on the patient’s hand.

Question 8

abscond

Answer 8

v. to depart secretly

A warrant is out for the arrest of a person believed to have absconded with three million dollars.

Question 9

abstemious

Answer 9

adj. moderate in appetite

Some researches suggests that people with an abstemious lifestyle tend to live longer than people who indulge their appetites.

Question 10

abstinence

Answer 10

n. the giving up of certain pleasures

The monk’s vow of abstinence includes all intoxicating substances.

Question 11

abysmal

Answer 11

adj. very bad

The abysmal failure of the free market system in Russia has led some people to argue that the planned economy of the soviet Union, while not perfect, was better suited to Russia’s history and culture than Western-style capitalism.

Question 12

accretion

Answer 12

n. growth in size or increase in amount

In the 1960s, the American geophysicist Harry Hess conceived the idea of sea-floor spreading, a process in which the new crust in the ocean is continually generated by igneous processes at the crest of the mid-oceanic ridges, causing a steady accretion of the crust.

Question 13

accrue

Answer 13

v. to accumulate; grow by additions

Regulating the growth of large companies when they begin to become monopolistic is a difficult task for government in a capitalist country; if it limits monopolies too much, the nation’s firms could become less competitive than foreign companies that enjoy the advantages accruing from greater monopolies.

Question 14

adamant

Answer 14

adj. uncompromising; unyielding

Despite widespread opposition to his plan, the political party’s leader is adament that the party must move to the center to appeal to moderate voters.

Question 15

adjunct

Answer 15

n. something added, attached, or joined

Speed walking, cross-country running, and marathons are normally regarded as adjuncts of track and field athletics since races in these sports are not normally held on a track.

Question 16

admonish

Answer 16

v. to caution or reprimand

The judge admonished the jury to discount testimony that had been ruled inadmissible.

Question 17

adulterate

Answer 17

v. to corrupt or make impure

The unscrupulous company sells an adulterated version of the drug, and doesn’t inform consumers that they are getting a less efficacious drug than they think they are getting.

Question 18

aesthetic

Answer 18

adj. relating to beauty or art

Members of the English aesthetic movement, such as Oscar Wilde, were proponents of the doctrine of art for art’s sake, which is the belief that art cannot and should not be useful for any purpose other than that of creating beauty.

aesthetic n. a conception of what is artistically beautiful

The Gothic aesthetic dominated European art and architecture for approximately the twelfth to the fifteenth century.

aesthetics n. the conception of what is beautiful; it is also a branch of philosophy dealing with beauty and art, and standards in judging them

aesthete n. someone who cultivates a special sensitivity to beauty; often the word refers to a person whose interest in beauty and art is regarded as excessive or superficial

Question 19

affected

Answer 19

adj. pretentious, phony

It has been argues that the emphasis on so-called “proper English” leads to unnatural and affected speech.

Question 20

affinity

Answer 20

n. fondness; liking; similarity

The female students in the class felt an affinity for the ancient Greek playwright Euripides because he sympathized with women, slaves, and other despised members of his society.

Question 21

aggrandize

Answer 21

v. to make larger or greater

One of the concerns of the framers of the U.S. Constitution was that one branch of government would try to aggrandize itself at the expense of the others.

Question 22

aggregate

Answer 22

adj. amounting to a whole; total

The aggregate wealth of a country includes private as well as public resources and possessions.

aggregate v. to collect into a mess

Portals are Web sites designed to aggregate information and are used as a starting point on the Web.

aggregate n. collective mass or sum

Question 23

alacrity

Answer 23

n. cheerful willingness; eagerness; speed

The football coach was pleased to see the team get to work on the task of improving its tackling skills with alacrity.

Question 24

alchemy

Answer 24

n. medieval chemical philosophy based in changing metal into gold; a seemingly magical power or process of transmutation

Alchemy was the forerunner of the modern science of chemistry.

None of their friends could understand the mysterious alchemy that caused two people as different from one another as Rob and Barbara to fall in love.

Question 25

allay

Answer 25

v. to lessen; ease; soothe Improvements in antivirus software have allayed many people’s fears of having their computers “infected” with malicious software.

Question 26

alleviate

Answer 26

v. to relieve; improve partially According to come commentators, one of the weaknesses of capitalism is that, although it is very efficient at increasing absolute wealth, it is not as successful at alleviating relative poverty; thus, a person living in a slum in America may be reasonably well off by historical standards, but he might perceive himself to be poor compared to members of the bourgeoisie, whom he sees regularly buying luxury goods that he is not able to afford.

Question 27

alloy

Answer 27

n. a combination; a mixture of two or more metals Scientists formulate alloys to create properties that are not possessed by hy natural metals or other substances

Question 28

allure

Answer 28

n. the power to entice by charm Political groups in the United States often lobby Congress to use the allure of America’s vast market as an incentive for counties to pursue policies in accordance with American policies. allure v. to entice by charm alluring adj. The idea of a clockwork universe is very alluring to some people because it explains how the universe was created, yet allows human beings to live in it without believing in supernatural intervention.

Question 29

amalgamate

Answer 29

v. to combine into a unified whole In early 1999, six municipalities were amalgamated into an enlarged city of Toronto, Canada.

Question 30

ambiguous

Answer 30

adj. unclear or doubtful in meaning The gender of the Mahayana Buddhist deity Avalokitesuara, the god of infinity mercy, is ambiguous in both China and Japan, where the god is sometimes called a goddess.

Question 31

ambivalence

Answer 31

n. the state of having conflicting emotional attitudes. John felt some ambivalence about getting married before finishing college. ambivalent adj. In public opinion survey in the United States, scientists rank second only to physicians in public esteem, yet much of the public is increasingly ambivalent about some of the implications for society of "Big Science" and its related technology.

Question 32

ambrosia

Answer 32

n. something delicious; the food of the gods The combination of flavors in the Moroccan baked eggplant was pure ambrosia. ambrosial adj. The food critic praised the chef for preparing what he called an "ambrosial meal."

Question 33

ameliorate

Answer 33

v. to improve Knowing they could not stop the spread of a contagion in a few days, health authorities worked to inhibit its spread and to ameliorate its effects by issuing warnings to the public and initiating immunization programs.

Question 34

amenable

Answer 34

adj. agreeable; cooperative; suited The young writer is amenable to suggestions for improving her prose style to make it more interesting.

Question 35

amenity

Answer 35

n. something that increases comfort Many amenities considered normal and necessary by people in developed countries, such as indoor plumbing, were luxuries only a few generations ago.

Question 36

amulet

Answer 36

n. ornament worn as a charm against evil spirits The early Christian Church forbade the use of amulets, which had become common in the Roman Empire at the time the Christian Church began to develop.

Question 37

anachronism

Answer 37

n. something out of the proper time Some experts regard the retirement age of 65 as an anachronism at a time when people in the developed world have much longer lift expediencies than previously.

Question 38

analgesic

Answer 38

n. medication that reduces or eliminates pain Aspirin (the trade mark of the drug acetylsalicylic acid) is a powerful analgesic that was introduced in 1899 and is still one of the most effective medicines available to alleviate pain, fever, and inflammation.

Question 39

analogous

Answer 39

adj. comparable The psychology researcher's experiment postulated that the brain is analogous to a digital computer. analogy n. a similarity in some ways between things that are otherwise dissimilar. The idea of evolution in nature is sometimes misconstrued and applied by analogy to other areas in which there is scant evidence for its existence; a notable example of this is Social Darwinism, in which it is argues that society is like nature, and thus people, like animals are competing for survival, with those who are generically superior at surviving and reproducing. analog n. something that is comparable to something else. Some commentators have posited the existence of an analog to the Protestant work ethic in Chinese culture, which they call the "Confucian work ethic," to explain the economic success of some countries with large Chinese populations.

Question 40

anarchy

Answer 40

n. absence of government; state of disorder The american philosopher Robert Nozick does not advocate anarchy; rather, he argues for the merits of a minimal state that would not violate the natural rights of individuals. anarchic adj. lacking order or control The student of mythology speculated that Dionysos was created as a projection of the pleasure_loving, anarchic aspect of human nature.

Question 41

anodyne

Answer 41

n. something that calms or soothes pain Some people use alcohol as an anodyne to numb their emotional pain. anodyne adj. relaxing, or capable of soothing pain The public relations officer is remarkably anodyne; all he does is mouth comforting, politically correct platitudes, saying nothing of substance.

Question 42

anomalous

Answer 42

adj. irregular; deviating from the norm The psychologist discounted the anomalous behavior of the soldier, saying it was merely a short-term effect of the stress of battle. anomaly n. A moral dilemma that arises with humanity's ability to clone is posed in the following hypothetical scenario: a pig that produces much more meat than a normal pig can be cloned, but the pig's life span would be cut n half because of anomalies in the cloning process: Is it right to clone such an animal?

Question 43

antecedent

Answer 43

n. something that comes before Historical factors, such as the increased emphasis on the individual, the invention of printing, and the rise of the bourgeoisie, contributed to make the Reformation, which had its antecedents in the reform movement within the Roman Catholic Church, into a much broader phenomenon that created powerful churches that grew to rival the original church.

Question 44

antediluvian

Answer 44

adj. prehistoric Most of our knowledge of antediluvian times has been built up as a result of one of humanity's grandest collaborative endeavors -- the gathering, identification, dating, and categorization of fossils as they are discovered.

Question 45

antipathy

Answer 45

n. dislike; hostility Heathcliff, the protagonist of Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights, feels great antipathy for Edgar Linton, the man who marries the woman he loves.

Question 46

apathy

Answer 46

n. indifference Apathy was high in the election because there was no major controversy or issue to arouse voter interest. apathetic adj. One criticism of the welfare state is that it makes people overly reliant on government, with the result that democracy is gradually weakened as citizens take a more apathetic and detached view of politics.

Question 47

apex

Answer 47

n. the highest point In English literature, classicism reached its apex in the poetry of Alexander Pope and the other Augustans.

Question 48

apogee

Answer 48

n. the point in an orbit most distant from the body being orbited; the highest point The Ottoman Empire reached its apogee in the seventeenth century, when it controlled a territory running from Budapest to North Africa.

Question 49

apothegm

Answer 49

n. a terse, witty saying (pronounced AP-uh-them and also spelled apophthegm) One of the best-known political apothegms was written by the British historian Load Acton: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Question 50

appease

Answer 50

v. to calm; pacify; placate Many historians have criticized British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for trying to appease Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.

Question 51

appellation

Answer 51

n. name The discovery of the bones of a person with the appellation Kennewick Man in the state of Washington in 1996 has raised important questions about who the earliest people to populate America were.

Question 52

apposite

Answer 52

adj. strikingly appropriate and relevant The writer searched two dictionaries and a thesaurus before finding the perfectly apposite word he was looking for.

Question 53

apprise

Answer 53

v. to inform Nadine Cohodas's biography of the blues singer Dinah Washington keeps the reader apprised of the racism black Americans had to endure.

Question 54

approbation

Answer 54

n. praise; approval The Congressional Medal of Honor is the highest approbation an American soldier can receive.

Question 55

appropriate

Answer 55

v. to take possession for one's own use; confiscate (uh-PROH-pree-ayt) The invading army appropriated supplies form the houses of the local people. appropriate adj. (uh-PROH-pree-it)

Question 56

apropos

Answer 56

adj. relevant Apropos of nothing, the speaker declared that the purpose of life is to love.

Question 57

arabesque

Answer 57

n. ornate design featuring intertwined curves; a ballet position in which one leg is extended in back while the other supports the weight of the body The ballerina stunned the audience with her perfectly executed arabesque.

Question 58

archeology

Answer 58

n. the study of material evidence of past human life Carbon-14 dating is of great use in archeology because it can determine the age of specimens as old as 35,000 years, but it is of less use in geology because most of the processes studied in this field occurred millions of years ago.

Question 59

ardor

Answer 59

n. great emotion or passion The twentieth-century American poet Wallace Stevens said, "It is the unknown that excites the ardor of scholars, who in the known alone, would shrivel up with boredom.

Question 60

arduous

Answer 60

adj. extremely difficult; laborious The task of writing a research paper is arduous, but if it is broken down to logical steps it becomes less daunting.

Question 61

argot

Answer 61

n. a specialized vocabulary used by a group Writers of crime fiction often use the argot of criminals and detectives to create a realistic atmosphere.

Question 62

arrest

Answer 62

v. to stop; to seize Temporary arrest of the patient's respiration made it easier for the doctor to perform surgery on him.

Question 63

artifact

Answer 63

n. item made by human craft Marxists contend that appreciation of art has declined because capitalism has trained people to perceive human artifacts as commodities, and has alienated people from nature, their true humanity, and their creations.

Question 64

artless

Answer 64

adj. guileless; natural The source of the meaning of artless as guileless is the poet John Dryden, who wrote of William Shakespeare in 1672: "Such artless beauty lies in Shakespeare's wit...."

Question 65

ascetic

Answer 65

n. one who practices self-denial Muslim ascetics consider the internal battle against human passions a greater jihad than the struggle against infidels. ascetic adj. self-denying or austere The writer's ascetic lifestyle helped her to concentrate on finishing her novel. asceticism n. One tradition of asceticism derives from the belief that the body is fundamentally bad and must be subjugated to the soul.

Question 66

asperity

Answer 66

n. severity; harshness; irritability In his autobiography Gerald Trywhitt, the British writer, composer, artist, and aesthete, recounts a humorous incident: "Many years later, when I was sketching in Rome, a grim-looking Englishwoman came up to me and said with some asperity, 'I see you are painting MY view.'"

Question 67

aspersion

Answer 67

n. slander; false rumor The Republic of Singapore is a young democracy, and its leaders often respond strongly to journalists and others who cast aspersions on their integrity.

Question 68

assiduous

Answer 68

adj. diligent; hard-working The assiduous people of Hong Kong live in a territory with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world.

Question 69

assuage

Answer 69

v. to make less severe On November 21, 1864, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln wrote the following in a letter to Mrs. Bixby of Boston, who had lost five sons in battle: "I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Question 70

astringent

Answer 70

adj. harsh; severe Bob tends to nick himself when he shaves, so he uses an astringent aftershave to stop the bleeding.

Question 71

asylum

Answer 71

n. place of refuge or shelter The Stoic, accused of seeking asylum in the consolations of philosophy, rebutted this charge, saying that Stoicism is simply the most prudent and realistic philosophy to follow.

Question 72

atavism

Answer 72

n. in biology, the reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence; individual or a part that exhibits atavism; return of a trait after a period of absence Some modern political theorists reject nationalism as a tribal atavism.

Question 73

attenuate

Answer 73

v. to weaken Modern digital radio equipment allows even signals that have been greatly attenuated to be transmitted by one station and received by another station.

Question 74

audacious

Answer 74

adj. bold; daring The German army commander Erwin Rommel was known as the "Desert Fox" as a result of his audacious surprise attacks on Allied forces in World War II.

Question 75

austere

Answer 75

adj. stern; unadorned Deism is an austere belief that reflects the predominant philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment: a universe symmetrical and governed by rationality.

Question 76

autonomous

Answer 76

adj. self-governing; independent Some biologists have theorized that our belief in our ability to act as autonomous agents is in conformity with the theory of evolution because it gives us a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives that helps us to survive.

Question 77

avarice

Answer 77

n. greed Successful investment bankers are sometimes accused of avarice; their defenders, however, say that they are simply very good at what they do and should be rewarded accordingly.

Question 78

aver

Answer 78

v. to affirm; declare to be true Yogis aver that everyone has a guru, whether it be a person, God, or the experiences of the world, that helps him or her practice the yoga that is in accordance with his or her nature, and assists on the path toward enlightenment.

Question 79

avocation

Answer 79

n. secondary occupation Dan became so proficient at his avocation -- computer programming -- that he is thinking of giving up his job as a teacher to do it full time.

Question 80

avuncular

Answer 80

adj. like an uncle, benevolent and tolerant Walter Cronkite, who was the anchorman of CBS News during much of the 1970s and 1980s, had a avuncular manner that made his one of America's most trusted personalities.

Question 81

axiomatic

Answer 81

adj. taken for granted In nineteenth-century geology, uniformitarianism was the antithesis of catastrophism, asserting that it was axiomatic that natural law and processes do not fundamentally change, and that was we observe now is essentially the same as what occurred in the past.

Question 82

bacchanalian

Answer 82

adj. pertaining to riotous or drunken festivity; pertaining to revelry For some people New Years' Eve is an occasion for bacchanalian revelry.

Question 83

banal

Answer 83

adj. commonplace; trite The writer has a gift for making even the most banal observation seem important and original.

Question 84

banter

Answer 84

n. playful conversation The governor engaged in some banter with reporters before getting to the serious business of the news conference.

Question 85

bard

Answer 85

n. poet The great bards of English literature have all been masters of the techniques of verse.

Question 86

bawdy

Answer 86

adj. obscene Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is the story of a group of Christian pilgrims who entertain one another with stories, ranging from the holy to the bawdy, on their journey to Canterbury Cathedral.

Question 87

beatify

Answer 87

v. to sanctify; to bless; to ascribe a virtue to In the year 2000 Pope John Paul II traveled to Fatima in Portugal to beatify two of the three children who said they saw the appearance of the Virgin Mary there in 1917. beatification n. Beatification is the second and next to last step on the path to sainthood

Question 88

bedizen

Answer 88

v. to dress in a vulgar, showy manner Paul went to the costume party bedizened as a seventeenth-century French aristocrat.

Question 89

behemoth

Answer 89

n. huge creature; anything very large and powerful In the 1980s and the 1990s, the trend in American business was toward increased privatization of government industries (such as power generation), partly because it was believed that private industry is more efficient and partly because foreign private companies were becoming commercial behemoths,, outstripping government-owned companies in competitiveness.

Question 90

belie

Answer 90

v. to contradict; misrepresent; give a false impression The boxer's childlike face belies the ferocity with which he can attack opponents in the ring.

Question 91

beneficent

Answer 91

adj. kindly; doing good The theologian discussed the question of why a beneficent and omnipotent God allows bad things to happen to good people.

Question 92

bifurcate

Answer 92

v. to divide into two parts Contemporary physicists generally bifurcate their discipline into two parts -- classical physics and modern physics; the former are the fields of study that were already well developed before the momentous breakthroughs of the early twentieth century by scientists such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Werner Heisenberg, which inaugurated the age of modern physics. bifurcation n. Some people regard the Hindu-Buddhist philosophy on animals as more in accordance with the modern scientific view than the traditional Western view, since it does not posit a radical bifurcation of man and nature.

Question 93

blandishment

Answer 93

n. flattery Despite the salesperson's blandishments, Donna did not buy the car. blandish v. coax with flattery

Question 94

blasé

Answer 94

adj. bored because of frequent indulgence; unconcerned We were amazed by John's blasé attitude toward school; he seems to have made it a rule never to open a book.

Question 95

bolster

Answer 95

v. to give a boost to; prop up; support The president has visited the state several times to bolster his sagging popularity there.

Question 96

bombastic

Answer 96

adj. pompous; using inflated language Nearly lost in the senators long, bombastic speech were several sensible ideas.

Question 97

boorish

Answer 97

adj. rude; insensitive Bob apologized for his boorish behavior at the party, saying he hadn't realized that it was such a formal occasion.

Question 98

bovine

Answer 98

adj. cowlike Following the slow-moving group of students up the long path to the school's entrance, the word "bovine" popped into the English teacher's mind.

Question 99

brazen

Answer 99

adj. bold; shameless The brazen student irritated his teacher by saying that he could learn more from a day spent "surfing" the World Wide Web than a day spent in school.

Question 100

broach

Answer 100

v. to mention for the first time Steve's boss knew that she could't put off warning him about his poor performance and decided to broach the subject the next time she saw him.

Question 101

bucolic

Answer 101

adj. characteristic of the countryside; rustic; pastoral The south end of Toronto's beautiful High Park is a bucolic expanse of land that is perfect for anyone wanting a quiet walk.

Question 102

burgeon

Answer 102

v. to flourish After World War II, the increased speed of industrialization and the burgeoning world population resulted in such an increase in pollution that it began to be recognized by some people as a threat to the human habitat, Earth.

Question 103

burnish

Answer 103

v. to polish The poet T. S. Eliot burnished his reputation as one of the master poets of the twentieth century with Four Quartets, four long poems published between 1936 and 1942.

Question 104

buttress

Answer 104

v. to reinforce; support Some critics of the American legal system argue that the requirement of proving guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt" is too difficult a criterion to use, and buttress their case by citing the fact that objective studies suggest that only a very small number of the criminals are successfully prosecuted.

Question 105

cacophonous

Answer 105

adj. unpleasant or harsh-sounding The dissonant harmonies of the great jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk might seem cacophonous to some listeners, but to many jazz aficionados they are sublime. A cacophony is a jarring, unpleasant noise.

Question 106

cadge

Answer 106

v. to beg; sponge An enduring image of the Great Depression in America is the out-of-work man cadging money with the line, "Hey, mister, can you spare a dime for a cup of coffee?"

Question 107

callous

Answer 107

adj. thick-skinned; insensitive Jim's terrible experiences in the war have made him callous about the suffering of others.

Question 108

calumny

Answer 108

n. false and malicious accusation; slander "Be thou chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny." -- William Shakespeare, Hamlet Act III, Scene 1 (Hamlet addressing Ophelia)

Question 109

canard

Answer 109

n. false, deliberately misleading story Most politicians do not want to be associated with the old canard that big government in Washington can solve all of America's problems.

Question 110

canon

Answer 110

n. an established principle; a basis or standard for judgment; a group of literary works Canons of aesthetic taste vary over the years; the Rococo period, for example, valued ornate art. The sixty-volume Great Books of the Western World is an attempt to gather the central canon of Western civilization into one collection. canon adj. The system of civil law originated in the Roman Empire and was kept alive in the Middle Ages int eh canon law of the Church. canonical adj. belonging to a group of literary works The English professor is trying to persuade the chairperson of her department to let her teach some writers that are not canonical.

Question 111

cant

Answer 111

n. insincere talk; language of a particular group Many of the beat artists of the 1950s reacted against what they regarded as the cant of bourgeois society.

Question 112

cantankerous

Answer 112

adj. irritable; ill-humored Many of us have in our mind the stereotype of the cantankerous old man who is constantly complaining about something or other.

Question 113

capricious

Answer 113

adj. fickle The rule of law is regarded by many historians as one of humanity's great achievements because since its inception citizens are no longer subject to capricious decisions and penalties of rulers. caprice n. an inclination to change one's mind compulsively Styles in high fashion seem governed by caprice as much as anything else.

Question 114

captious

Answer 114

adj. faultfinding; intended to entrap, as in an argument The pedantic and captious critic seems incapable of appreciating the merits of even the most highly regarded books.

Question 115

cardinal

Answer 115

adj. of foremost importance The cardinal rule of any weight=loss diet must be limiting the intake of calories.

Question 116

carnal

Answer 116

adj. of the flesh or body; related to physical appetites The yogi's goal is to achieve nirvana through, among other things, the overcoming of carnal desires.

Question 117

carp

Answer 117

v. to find fault; complain Cost-benefit analysis owes much of its origin to utilitarian thought; despite the carping of critics that such analysis is based on faulty premises, the technique has proved useful in many areas.

Question 118

cartography

Answer 118

n. science of making maps Satellites in Earth orbit take pictures of topography that have greatly aided cartography.

Question 119

caste

Answer 119

n. any of the hereditary social classes of Hindu society; social stratification The dalits, formerly knows as untouchables, are at the bottom of the thousands of castes that make of Indian society. caste adj. Most modern corporations employ a sort of caste system, with senior executives at the top and ordinary workers at the bottom.

Question 120

castigation

Answer 120

n. punishment; chastisement; criticism Many British writers recall with loathing the castigation they received at school.

Question 121

cataclysm

Answer 121

n. a violent upheaval that causes great destruction and change The French Revolution of 1789 was a cataclysm whose effects are still felt today.

Question 122

catalyst

Answer 122

n. something causing change Among the catalysts of the Romantic movement were the libertarian ideals of the French Revolution.

Question 123

categorical

Answer 123

adj. absolute; without exception Although incest is categorically forbidden by every state, recent evidence that marriage between cousins is no more likely to produce abnormal offspring than "normal" marriages may allow the constitutionality of ans on marriage between cousins to be challenged.

Question 124

caucus

Answer 124

n. smaller group within an organization The workers formed an informal caucus to discuss their difficulties.

Question 125

causal

Answer 125

adj. involving a cause The philosopher Plato believed there is a causal relationship between income inequality, on the one hand, and political discontent and crime, on the other hand: in his Laws he quantified his argument, contending that the income of the rich should be no more than five times that of the poor, and he proposed policies to limit extremes of wealth and poverty.

Question 126

caustic

Answer 126

adj. sarcastically biting; burning The columnist's caustic comments on government policy did not win her any friends among government officials.

Question 127

celestial

Answer 127

adj. concerning the sky or heavens; sublime Astronomers make use of the Doppler effect to measure the velocities and distance from Earth of stars and other celestial objects.

Question 128

centrifugal

Answer 128

adj. moving away from a center As the empire expanded, there was an ever-increasing centrifugal stress as remote colonies sought autonomy.

Question 129

centripetal

Answer 129

adj. moving or directed toward a center Astronomers calculated that the centripetal force exerted by the Earth's gravity on the Moon will keep the Moon in orbit around the Earth for billions of years.

Question 130

champion

Answer 130

v. to defend or support Robin Hood is famous for championing the underdogs of England.

Question 131

chasten

Answer 131

v. to correct by punishment or reproof; to restrain or subdue The child's behavior improved after she had been chastened by punishment.

Question 132

chicanery

Answer 132

n. trickery; fraud The governor ordered an audit to investigate alleged financial chicanery.

Question 133

chivalry

Answer 133

n. the qualities idealized by knighthood such as bravery and gallantry toward women. Chivalry was rooted in Christian values, and the knight was bound to be loyal to Christian ideals; the Crusades enhanced this idea, as knights vowed to uphold Christianity against heathens.

Question 134

churlish

Answer 134

adj. rude; boorish According to the chivalric code, a knight was never supposed to be churlish, especially toward noble ladies, to whom he was supposed to be unfailingly gentle and courteous.

Question 135

circuitous

Answer 135

adj. roundabout According to Hindu philosophy, some souls take a circuitous path through many births to reach God.

Question 136

clairvoyant

Answer 136

n. one who can predict the future; psychic Edgar Cayce was a famous clairvoyant who some people believe was able to go into a trance during which he was in touch with a spiritual realm.

Question 137

clamor

Answer 137

n. noisy outcry Over the past 12 years or so the clamor for better protection of the Earth's rain forests has increased dramatically. clamor v. to cry out noisily The crowd clamored their disapproval of the plan.

Question 138

clique

Answer 138

n. a small, exclusive group The principal of the high school is concerned that one clique of students in dominating the student council.

Question 139

cloister

Answer 139

v. to confine; seclude The writer cloistered herself in a country house to finish her novel. cloistered adj. shut away from the world The journalist described the large American philanthropic foundations as arrogant, elitist, and cloistered. cloister n. a monastery or convent

Question 140

coagulate

Answer 140

v. thicken; congeal In normal individuals, blood begins to coagulate about 20 seconds after a wound is sustained, thus preventing further bleeding.

Question 141

coalesce

Answer 141

v. to cause to become one President John F. Kennedy said that Americans must be vigilant so that the interests of business and the military do not coalesce and thus undermine those of society as a whole.

Question 142

coda

Answer 142

n. concluding part of a literary or musical composition; something that summarizes or concludes The coda of the Danish composer Per Norgard's Sixth Symphony seems to return to the serene sounds of the opening.

Question 143

codify

Answer 143

v. to systematize The state legislature voted to codify regulations governing banking fraud. codification n. The most influential codification of civil law was the Napoleonic Code in France, which became the paradigm for law in the non-English-speaking countries of Europe and had a generally civilizing influence on most of the countries in which it was enacted. codified adj. Common law is the system of laws that originated in England; it is based on curt decisions and on customs rater than on codified written laws.

Question 144

cognizant

Answer 144

adj. informed; conscious; aware O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" is a simple evocation of a young couple's love for one another, a story in which a husband and wife in straitened circumstances each sacrifices to buy a Christmas present for the other, not cognizant of what the other is doing.

Question 145

collage

Answer 145

n. artistic composition of materials pasted over a surface; an assemblage of diverse elements The cubist Juan Gris is noted for his use of collage to create trompe l'oeil effects -- the illusion of photographic reality.

Question 146

commensurate

Answer 146

adj. proportional In the United States, malpractice suits have raised the cost of medicine because doctors must pay more for insurance, and thus increase their fees commensurately.

Question 147

compendium

Answer 147

n. brief, comprehensive summary The Mozart Compendium: A guide to Mozart's Life and Music by H. C. Robbins Landon is a convenient reference for finding information about the life and music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Question 148

complacent

Answer 148

adj. self-satisfied Although Tom received an "A" on his midterm exam, Professor Donovan warned him not to become complacent since the work in the second term would be harder.

Question 149

complaisant

Answer 149

adj. overly polite; willing to please; obliging Although France and Germany have a close relationship, neither would consider the other a complaisant ally.

Question 150

complement

Answer 150

n. something that completes or makes up a whole Some people envision chess developing into a game between teams of humans and computers, each complementing the other and providing investigators with insight into the cognitive processes of each.

Question 151

compliant

Answer 151

adj. yielding The young negotiator is trying to learn the skill of being open to proposals by the other side without seeming too compliant.

Question 152

compunction

Answer 152

n. uneasiness caused by guilt The American psychiatrist Frank Pittman said, "Men who have been raised violently have every reason to believe it is appropriate for them to control others through violence; they feel no compunction over being violent to women, children, and one another."

Question 153

concave

Answer 153

adj. curving inward Concave lenses are used in glasses to compensate for myopia (Nearsightedness).

Question 154

conciliatory

Answer 154

adj. overcoming distrust or hostility The leader of the country made conciliatory statements assuring the world that his country did not intend to acquire nuclear weapons.

Question 155

concoct

Answer 155

v. to invent The various human cultures have concocted a great many explanations to describe the beginning of the Earth, life, and humanity.

Question 156

concomitant

Answer 156

n. existing concurrently A rebuttal of the argument that homo sapiens's higher cognitive functions could not be the result solely of evolution is that such abilities arose as concomitants of language, which gave early hominids a tremendous advantage over other species.

Question 157

condone

Answer 157

v. to overlook voluntarily; forgive Mahatma Gandhi believed in the principle of ahimsa and refused to condone violence of any kind, even if used in a just cause.

Question 158

confound

Answer 158

v. to baffle; perplex; mix up Everyone but astrophysicists seems to be confounded by the question, "What happened before the Big Bang?"

Question 159

congenial

Answer 159

adj. similar in tastes and habits; friendly; suited to The physicist Freeman Dyson has expressed his awe at how congenial the universe is to intelligent life and consciousness.

Question 160

conjugal

Answer 160

adj. pertaining to marriage agreement The goal of the Bennett sisters in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is to find a suitable man to marry with whom they can live in conjugal happiness.

Question 161

connoisseur

Answer 161

n. a person possessing expert knowledge or training; a person of informed and discriminating taste The art connoisseur selected works by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Picasso for the exhibition.

Question 162

conscript

Answer 162

n. person compulsorily enrolled for military service The position of NOW (The National Organization for Women) is that have male-only conscripts violates the principle of gender equality. conscript v. to enroll a person for military service he French writer Andre Breton was conscripted into the artillery and had to put his medical studies in abeyance for the duration of World War I. conscription n. During the War of 1812, American political leaders considered national conscription to augment state militias, but Daniel Webster successfully argued before Congress that such a measure would be unconstitutional and thus the proposal was rejected.

Question 163

consecrate

Answer 163

v. to declare sacred In his Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln said of the soldiers who died in the Battle of Gettysburg in July, 1863: "We have come to dedicate a portion of the field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live... But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

Question 164

contend

Answer 164

v. to assert One of the most famous philosophers to argue for ethical relativism was the German Friedrich Nietzsche, who contended that the rightness of a particular action is dependent on the circumstances of the time and culture in which it occurs. contention n. an assertion The study's contention is that obesity is America's biggest health problem.

Question 165

contentious

Answer 165

adj. quarrelsome; causing quarrels When genetic engineering began in the 1970s, there was a contentious, and sometimes acrimonious, debate among scientists themselves about its dangers.

Question 166

contiguous

Answer 166

adj. touching; neighboring; connecting without a break There are forty-eight contiguous states in the United States of America.

Question 167

continence

Answer 167

n. self-control; abstention from sexual activity Saint Augustine's famous line "Give me chastity and continence ,but not just now" is sometimes used to highlight the idea that action is desirable at some point, but not at present.

Question 168

contrite

Answer 168

adj. very sorrowful for a wrong In sentencing the convicted man to a life sentence, the judge took into consideration the fact that he did not seem to be at all contrite about his crime.

Question 169

contumacious

Answer 169

adj. disobedient; rebellious In the late eighteenth century, Great Britain tried unsuccessfully to put down the uprising against their rule by contumacious Americans, leading eventually to the establishment of a separate nation.

Question 170

conundrum

Answer 170

n. riddle; puzzle with no solution The paradoxical statement "This statement is false" presents us with a conundrum.

Question 171

convention

Answer 171

n. practice widely observed in a group; custom; accepted technique or device The work of French artist Henri Rousseau demonstrates a naiveté that many people find more attractive than the sophistication of highly complex works that make use of all the conventions of their genre. conventional adj. customary or commonplace Guerrilla war presents a dilemma for framers of rules of war: should guerrilla fighters be subject to the same rules as those imposed on soldiers who fight conventional wars?

Question 172

converge

Answer 172

v. to approach; come together; tend to meet Although the People's Republic of China and India are rivals in many ways, in certain areas their interests converge.

Question 173

convex

Answer 173

adj. curved outward The term for a lens with one convex and one concave side is "convex-concave."

Question 174

convivial

Answer 174

adj. sociable One of the jobs of an ambassador is to provide a convivial atmosphere for diplomats to meet.

Question 175

convoluted

Answer 175

adj. twisted; complicated Unraveling the convoluted genetic code is one of the great achievements of modern science.

Question 176

copious

Answer 176

adj. abundant; plentiful The copious rainfall was welcomed by farmers in the parched land.

Question 177

conquette

Answer 177

n. woman who flirts After she had played the part of a coquette in the college play, Pam's boyfriend felt that he needed to remind her that real life was quite different from the theater.

Question 178

cornucopia

Answer 178

n. horn overflowing with fruit and grain; state of abundance The U.S. economy has produced a cornucopia of employment opportunities.

Question 179

cosmology

Answer 179

n .study of the universe as a totality; theory of the origin and structure of the universe Albert Einstein downplayed the strength of the evidence for quantum theory because a universe governed by laws that are inconsistent in their application was not congruent with his personal cosmology. cosmos n. the physical universe regarded as a totality Shakespeare embodies the incredible confidence and vitality of Renaissance artists and writers, depicting the entire cosmos, not intimidated by its vastness. cosmic adj. relating to the physical universe, especially as distinct from Earth, and suggests infinite vastness The gods of ancient Greece were concerned not only with cosmic events, but also with the ordinary events of everyday life.

Question 180

covert

Answer 180

adj. hidden; secret The CIA gathers information about foreign intelligence through many means, including covert ones.

Question 181

covetous

Answer 181

adj. desiring something owned by another The astronomer is covetous of the time that his colleague gets for research using the Hubble Space Telescope. covet v. The latest model cell phone is designed to make people covet it so much that they go out and buy it even though their present phone is perfectly adequate.

Question 182

cozen

Answer 182

v. to mislead by trick or fraud; deceive The writer H. L. Mencken pointed out that a common strategy of politicians is to cozen the people by exaggerating the seriousness of a problem and then offering a solution that, conveniently, only they can provide.

Question 183

craven

Answer 183

adj. cowardly In the Hindu epic poem the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna warns the hero, who is reluctant to fight, that refusing to fight would be a craven act.

Question 184

credence

Answer 184

n. acceptance of something as true One of the lessons in Aesop's fable "The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf" is that if a person "cries wolf" too many times without real danger being present (that is, raise too many false alarms) people will be less likely to give credence to future alarms raised by that person.

Question 185

credo

Answer 185

n. statement of belief or principle; creed The credo of Google is "Don't be evil."

Question 186

daunt

Answer 186

v. to discourage; intimidate; dishearten Do not let the difficulty of learning the 800 words in Essential Words for the GRE daunt you. daunting adj. discouraging or disheartening Earning a Ph.D. is a daunting task, but it can be done. dauntless adj. fearless

Question 187

dearth

Answer 187

n. scarcity In his book The Affluent Society, published in 1958, the economist J. K. Galbraith pointed out that in America affluence is located disproportionately in the private sector, leaving a dearth of resources available for the public sector.

Question 188

debauchery

Answer 188

n. corruption The prince lived a life of debauchery until he discovered a spiritual dimension to life.

Question 189

decorum

Answer 189

n. proper behavior When addressing the nation, the president generally has an air of decorum. decorous adj.

Question 190

defame

Answer 190

v. to malign; harm someone's reputation The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was defamed as a teacher who corrupted the morals of his students.

Question 191

default

Answer 191

v. to fail to act Economists have pointed out the danger of using government money to help banks in danger of defaulting on a loan: such help might encourage banks to take excessive risks on the future, knowing they will be "bailed out" by the government.

Question 192

deference

Answer 192

n. respect; regard for another's wish There was a movement to condemn slavery among some of the writers of the Declaration of Independence, but despite many misgivings, the proposal was dropped in deference to the objections of a number of people. defer v. to submit to the wishes of another due to respect or recognition of the person's authority or knowledge The young lawyer deferred to the view of the senior partner in the law firm.

Question 193

defunct

Answer 193

adj. no longer existing Skeptics have been prognosticating that Moore's Law, which says computer processing power doubles every 18 months, will soon become defunct, but the ingenuity of engineers, coupled with commercial incentives, has so far succeeded in preventing the law from being invalidated.

Question 194

delineate

Answer 194

v. to represent or depict Quantum theory led to the formulation of the uncertainty principle, which was delineated in 1937 by Werner Heisenberg.

Question 195

demographic

Answer 195

adj. related to population balance Demographic trends in many European countries indicate that n the next generation there will be relatively fewer working people to support retired people. demography n. the study of human population Demography makes use of the knowledge of other fields such as geography and statistics. demographer n. one who studies human population If, beginning in the mid-twentieth century, many governments in the world had not taken steps to promote birth control among their citizens, causing a diminution in the birth rate, demographers say the world would now have a much greater population than it does.

Question 196

demotic

Answer 196

adj. pertaining to people Walt Whitman is considered by many to be a quintessentially American poet, a poet who celebrated the glory of the ordinary person; one critic praised him as a poet who was able to "make the demotic sing."

Question 197

demur

Answer 197

v. to express doubt The Supreme Court's decision was not unanimous, one justice demurred, saying that the majority decision used specious reasons.

Question 198

denigrate

Answer 198

v. to slur someone's reputation According to a recent biography of Napoleon Bonaparte, the famous leader felt a need to denigrate women.

Question 199

denizen

Answer 199

n. an inhabitant; a regular visitor The U.S. Census Bureau has the responsibility of collecting information about the denizens of the United States.

Question 200

denouement

Answer 200

n. outcome; unraveling of the plot of a play or work of literature The book tells the story of what was for Europe a rather embarrassing denouement to the Crusades.

Question 201

deride

Answer 201

v. to mock Innovation often required challenges to orthodox thinking; for example, in the late 1960s, scientists from the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency presented their idea of a vast network of computers to leading scientists from IBM and AT&T -- companies with innumerable research breakthroughs to their credit -- and were derided as impractical visionaries.

Question 202

derivative

Answer 202

n. something derived; unoriginal The drug morphine -- considered by doctors to be one of the most effective analgesics -- is the principle derivative of opium, which is the juice in the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy. derivative adj. The critic dismissed the new novel as dull and derivative. derive v. obtain from another source One of the attempts to create a lingua franca resulted in Esperanto, a synthetic language whose vocabulary is created by adding various affixes to individual roots and is derived from Latin and Greek, as well as Germanic and Romance languages.

Question 203

desiccate

Answer 203

v. to dry completely The dry desert air caused the bodies of the dead animals to desiccate quickly.

Question 204

desuetude

Answer 204

n. state of disuse NASA is considering a plan to refurbish booster rockets form the Apollo Program that have fallen into desuetude.

Question 205

desultory

Answer 205

adj. random; disconnected; rambling The jury had difficulty following the witnesses' desultory testimony.

Question 206

deterrent

Answer 206

n. something that discourages or hinders During the Cold War, the United States maintained a large number of nuclear weapons as a deterrent to aggression by the Soviet Union and its allies.

Question 207

detraction

Answer 207

n. the act of taking away; derogatory comment on a person's character The writer responded in a letter to the critic's long list of detraction about his book.

Question 208

diaphanous

Answer 208

adj. transparent; fine-textured; insubstantial; vague In World War II, many soldiers went to war with diaphanous dreams of glory, but found instead horror and death.

Question 209

diatribe

Answer 209

n. bitter verbal attack The speaker launched into a diatribe against what he called "the evils of technology.."

Question 210

dichotomy

Answer 210

n. division into two usually contradictory parts The philosopher is a dualist who argues that there is a dichotomy between the mind and physical phenomena.

Question 211

diffidence

Answer 211

n. shyness; lack of confidence As a result of the strength of his opposition to the Vietnam War Senator Eugene McCarthy overcame his diffidence and ran against President Lyndon Johnson for the Democratic nomination for president.

Question 212

diffuse

Answer 212

v. to spread out The idea of equality and liberty diffused through society after the French Revolution. diffuse adj. wordy; rambling; spread out This essay is so diffuse it is difficult to follow its central argument.

Question 213

digression

Answer 213

n. act of straying from the main point The novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig contains many fascinating digressions from the main story that discuss topics such as Platonic philosophy.

Question 214

dirge

Answer 214

n. funeral hymn The music critic described the movement of the symphony portraying the hero's last days as "dirgelike."

Question 215

disabuse

Answer 215

v. to free from a misconception The chairman of the Federal Reserve used his testimony before Congress to disabuse his audience of the idea that the business cycle had been eliminated by the unprecedented period of prosperity.

Question 216

discerning

Answer 216

adj. perceptive; exhibiting keen insight and good judgment Discerning moving critics have praised the work of producer Stanley Kubrick, who produced such excellent films as 2001, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, and Lolita. discern v. to perceive something obscure Superficially, expressionism can appear to be unrealistic because of its extreme distortion of reality, but upon closer examination, an inner psychological reality can often be discerned.

Question 217

discomfit

Answer 217

v. to make uneasy; disconcert The young man was discomfited being the only male in the play.

Question 218

discordant

Answer 218

adj. not in tune In a pluralistic society there exists a cacophony of discordant voices, each shouting to be heard.

Question 219

discredit

Answer 219

v. to dishonor; disgrace; cause to be doubted The candidate's attempt to discredit his opponent by spreading damaging rumors about him failed.

Question 220

discrepancy

Answer 220

n. difference between The book studies the discrepancy in values and outlook between men who fought in the war, whether voluntarily or not, and those who remained civilians.

Question 221

discrete

Answer 221

adj. constituting a separate thing; distinct Like the physicist, the abstract artist strives to identify the discrete elements of reality and to understand how they interact.

Question 222

discretion

Answer 222

n. quality of showing self-restraint in speech or actions; circumspection; freedom to act on one's own In nineteenth-century Britain gentlemen were expected to behave with discretion.

Question 223

disingenuous

Answer 223

adj. not candid; crafty When a person starts a sentence, "I don't mean to appear disingenuous," one might be tempted to suspect that the person is being just that.

Question 224

disinterested

Answer 224

adj. unprejudiced; objective The newspaper reporter looked for disinterested witnesses to the events so that she could get an objective account of what had happened.

Question 225

disjointed

Answer 225

adj. lacking order or coherence; dislocated The technique of telling a story through a disjointed narrative is a technique best left to masters of the modern novel such a s James Joyce and William Faulkner.

Question 226

dismiss

Answer 226

v. put away from consideration; reject Investigators dismissed the man's account of a visit to another planet aboard an alien spacecraft as the product of an overactive imagination.

Question 227

disparage

Answer 227

v. to belittle Through sometimes disparaged as merely an intellectual game, philosophy provides us with a method for inquiring systematically into problems that arise in areas such as medicine, science, and technology.

Question 228

disparate

Answer 228

adj. dissimilar May technological projects are interdisciplinary, requiring a knowledge of fields as disparate as physics and biology. disparity n. the condition of being unequal or unlike The huge income disparity in the world is clearly illustrated by the fact that the asset of the world's two hundred richest people exceed the combined income of 41 percent of the world's population.

Question 229

dissemble

Answer 229

v. to pretend; disguise one's motives "Miss," the prosecutor said, "I believe you are dissembling. I want you to tell me the whole truth about what happened that night.

Question 230

disseminate

Answer 230

v. to spread; scatter; disperse While belief in reincarnation appeared as doctrine first in India and was disseminated throughout Asia by Buddhism, it is interesting that it was accepted by the most influential philosophy of the West, Platonism, and by some important early Christian thinkers, such as the theologian Origen.

Question 231

dissident

Answer 231

n. person who disagrees about beliefs, etc. Some of the most notorious concentration camps in history were the Gulag camps used by the Soviet Unions to control dissidents.

Question 232

dissolution

Answer 232

n. disintegration; debauchery Some philosophers maintain that the dissolution of the body does not mean the destruction of the mind.

Question 233

dissonance

Answer 233

n. discord; lack of harmony In psychology, the term "cognitive dissonance" refers to a conflict resulting from inconsistency between one's beliefs and one's actions. For example, a soldier who believes that all killing is immortal but is forced to kill by his superiors might experience cognitive dissonance.

Question 234

distend

Answer 234

v. to expand; swell out People in an advanced stage of starvation often have distended bellies.

Question 235

distill

Answer 235

v. extract the essential elements In his book Men of Ideas: Some Creators of Contemporary Philosophy, Bryan Magee manages to distill the essence of leading thinkers such as W. V. Quine, John Searle, Iris Murdoch, and Noam Chomsky.

Question 236

distrait

Answer 236

adj. inattentive; preoccupied The chairperson became distrait because his secretary was not sitting in her usual position on his right.

Question 237

diverge

Answer 237

v. to vary; g in different directions from the same point A famous line in American poetry is from Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken": Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by ... divergence n. psychological tests show that there is a wide divergence between citizens of different countries in how much importance they place on the virtue of justice, on the one hand, and the virtue of mercy, on the other hand.

Question 238

divest

Answer 238

v. to strip; deprive; rid The candidate for secretary of defense pledged to divest himself of the shares he held in defense-related companies.

Question 239

divulge

Answer 239

v. to make known something that is secret Under the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war cannot be tortured and forced to divulge information.

Question 240

doctrinaire

Answer 240

adj. relating to a person who cannot compromise about points of a theory or doctrine; dogmatic; unyielding The doctrinaire Marxists say the capitalism is merely a temporary phenomenon on the road to socialism.

Question 241

document

Answer 241

v. to provide with written evidence to support The insurance company asked Debbie to document her claim with letters from the doctors who treated her for her condition.

Question 242

doggerel

Answer 242

n. poor verse ``` In his book Poetic Meter and Poetic Form, the literary critic Paul Fussell quotes this bit of doggerel from a U.S. Army latrine during World War II: Soldiers who wish to be a hero Are practically zero. But those who wish to be civilians, Jesus, they run into millions. ```

Question 243

dogmatic

Answer 243

adj. stating opinions without proof Since every case is unique, jurists must not be dogmatic in applying precedents to make their decision, but instead must base their decision on a combination of such precedents and the facts of the case at hand. dogma n. a belief asserted on authority without evidence Religions whose dogma specifies a time of the creation of the world have found difficulty in reconciling their view of creation with that of modern science.

Question 244

dormant

Answer 244

adj. inactive There is a considerable body of evidence showing that many diseases, such as ulcers, asthma, and hypertension have a large psychological component; the working hypothesis is that they represent manifestations of dormant emotional disturbances.

Question 245

dross

Answer 245

n. waste; worthless matter; trivial matter One of the ways the dross among blogs on the Internet are filtered out from the worthwhile ones is through links good blogs provide to other good blogs.

Question 246

dupe

Answer 246

v. to deceive; trick "In friendship, as well as in love, the mind is often duped by the heart." (Philip Dormer Stanhope)

Question 247

ebullient

Answer 247

adj. exhilarated; enthusiastic The ebullient candidate for president appeared before his supporters to announce that he had won in a landslide.

Question 248

eclectic

Answer 248

adj. selecting from various sources Neo-Platonism -- an eclectic third-century synthesis of Platonic, Pythagorean, Aristotelian, Stoic, and Jewish philosophy -- was an essentially mystical belief that a person can achieve spiritual emancipation through union of the soul with the ultimate source of existence.

Question 249

effervescence

Answer 249

n. state of high spirits or liveliness; the process of bubbling as gas escapes Effervescence occurs when hydrochloric acid is added to a block of limestone. effervescent adj. A person who believes himself to be physically unattractive might develop an effervescent personality as a compensation for his perceived deficiency.

Question 250

effete

Answer 250

adj. depleted of vitality; overrefined; decadent In 1969, U.S. vice President Spiro T. Agnew denounced people protesting against the Vietnam War: "A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."

Question 251

efficacy

Answer 251

n. efficiency; effectiveness A cardinal rule of medicine is that the efficacy of a treatment should be measured against the seriousness of its side effects. efficacious adj. In a situation where some subjects are benefiting while others are not, a researcher is likely to have ambivalent feelings, since he or she is in a "no-win" situation. In such a situation, the experimenter must choose between, on the one hand, getting more conclusive results by continuing the experiment and, on the other hand, stopping it and administering the drug that has proven efficacious to those who have not received it.

Question 252

effrontery

Answer 252

n. shameless boldness; presumptuousness In her essay the student has the effrontery to argue that school is largely a waste of time.

Question 253

egoism

Answer 253

n. the tendency to see things in relation to oneself; self-centeredness The beginning of philosophy has been described as a moving away from egoism to an understanding of the larger world.

Question 254

egotistical

Answer 254

adj. excessively self-centered; conceited The critics accused the writer of being egotistical since she wrote only about herself.

Question 255

elegy

Answer 255

n. poem or song expressing lamentation Adonais is a pastoral elegy written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in the spring of 1821 after he learned of the death of his friend and fellow poet John Keats.

Question 256

elicit

Answer 256

v. to provoke; draw out The Socratic method is designed to elicit responses that guide the student toward understanding.

Question 257

elixir

Answer 257

n. a substance believed to have the power to cure ills The doctor said that her prescription would help to alleviate my condition but that could not expect it to be an elixir.

Question 258

Elysian

Answer 258

adj. blissful; delightful In Book VI of Virgil's Aeneid, the hero Aeneas descends to the Underworld where he meets the soul of his dead father, Anchises, in the Elysian fields and learns from him the future of the Roman race.

Question 259

emaciated

Answer 259

adj. thin and wasted The prisoner was emaciated after being fed only bread and water for three months.

Question 260

embellish

Answer 260

v. to adorn; decorate; enhance; make more attractive by adding details The story he had been told was so powerful that the writer felt no need to embellish it.

Question 261

emollient

Answer 261

adj. soothing; mollifying The politician's speech is filled with emollient phrases to make his message more palatable. emollient n. an agent that soothes or makes more acceptable.

Question 262

empirical

Answer 262

adj. derived from observations or experiment Some people erroneously cite the theory of relativity as support for ethical relativism, whereas in reality the former is a scientific theory, while the latter is a moral issue, and thus by its nature is not subject to empirical verification. Empiricism n. the view that experience is the only source of knowledge. It can also mean the employment of empirical methods, as in science.

Question 263

emulate

Answer 263

v. to imitate; copy Bionics uses technology to emulate nature, but sometimes a similar process occurs in reverse, in which scientists use technology as a heuristic tool to better understand natural processes.

Question 264

encomium

Answer 264

n. a formal expression of praise The prime minister asked her speechwriter to compose an encomium for the retiring general.

Question 265

endemic

Answer 265

adj. inherent; belonging to an area Malaria, once endemic to the area, has now been largely eradicated.

Question 266

enervate

Answer 266

v. to weaken During World War II Russian commanders counted on the bitter cold to enervate German soldiers invading their country.

Question 267

engender

Answer 267

v. to cause; produce Freudians believe that the traumatic events of infancy often repression that creates neuroses.

Question 268

enhance

Answer 268

v. to increase; improve Although it is widely believed that the primary objective of the researchers developing the Internet was to secure the American nuclear missile system, in fact their main goal was to foster science by enhancing the ability of technology to disseminate information among scientists.

Question 269

entomology

Answer 269

n. the scientific study of insects Considering that there are approximately 925,000 species of insects (more than all other species combined), entomology is a vast field of study.

Question 270

enunciate

Answer 270

v. to pronounce clearly In everyday speech the sounds of many words are not enunciated clearly.

Question 271

ephemeral

Answer 271

adj. short-lived; fleeting Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet share with the Romantics an affinity for nature, but the Impressionists took a more scientific interest in it, attempting to accurately depict ephemeral phenomena such as the play of light on water.

Question 272

epistemology

Answer 272

n. branch of philosophy that examines the nature of knowledge A major question in epistemology is whether the mind can ever gain objective knowledge, limited as it is by its narrow range of sense experience.

Question 273

equable

Answer 273

adj. steady; unvarying; serene Throughout the crisis the president remained equable.

Question 274

equanimity

Answer 274

n. composure; calmness Emergency room doctors and nurses are trained to maintain their equanimity when treating patients.

Question 275

equivocate

Answer 275

v. to intentionally use vague language The businessperson has earned a reputation as someone who never equivocates and can be trusted to do exactly what he promises. equivocation n. The saying "It's a matter of semantics" is often used to indicate that the real meaning of something is being lost in verbiage, often with the implication that there is obfuscation or equivocation.

Question 276

errant

Answer 276

adj. mistaken; straying form the proper course The pitcher's errant fastball struck the batter on the shoulder.

Question 277

erudite

Answer 277

adj. learned; scholarly Frederick Copleston, author of the nine-volume History of Philosophy, was undoubtedly one of the most erudite people who ever lived. erudition n. Great erudition does not necessarily mean that person is sagacious.

Question 278

esoteric

Answer 278

adj. hard to understand; known only to a few Epidemiologists, using esoteric statistical analyses, field investigations, and complex laboratory techniques, investigate the cause of a disease, its distribution (geographic, ecological, and ethnic), method of spread, and measures for preventing or controlling it.

Question 279

essay

Answer 279

v. to make an attempt; subject to a test The composer began work on a sonata, a form she had not previously essayed.

Question 280

estimable

Answer 280

adj. admirable; possible to estimate Alistair Cooke's book Six Men contains character studies of estimable modern figures including H. L. Mencken, Humphrey Bogart, and Adlai Stevenson.

Question 281

ethnocentric

Answer 281

adj. based on the attitude that one's group is superior The words "primitive" and “savage" reflect an ethnocentric bias in Western culture that regards societies that do not have Western science and technology as inferior because they have not achieved as much material success as Western societies. ethnocentrism n. During certain periods of Chinese history, foreigners were considered to be "barbarians"; perhaps this ethnocentrism made it difficult for the Chinese to accept innovations from other countries.

Question 282

etiology

Answer 282

n. causes or origins The etiology of mental illness is complex because of the diversity of factors -- social, biological, genetic, and psychological -- that contribute to many disorders.

Question 283

etymology

Answer 283

n. origin and history of a word The origin of the word "barbarian" reflects the ethnocentrism of the ancient Greeks; its etymology is that it comes (through Latin and French words) from he Greet word barbaros, meaning non-Greek, foreign.

Question 284

eugenic

Answer 284

n. study of factors that influence the hereditary qualities of the human race and ways to improve these qualities The science fiction novel describes a military eugenics program designed to create a race of ""super-soldiers" possessing intelligence, strength, and other qualities far in advance of the ordinary person.

Question 285

eulogy

Answer 285

n. high praise, especially of a person who had recently died After the death of Abraham Lincoln, many eulogies of him appeared in newspapers throughout America.

Question 286

euphemism

Answer 286

n . use of agreeable or inoffensive language in place of unpleasant or offensive language An illustration of the tendency toward euphemism is the change (reflecting the political concerns of the day) in the accepted appellation of poor countries from the unambiguous poor, to undeveloped, to underdeveloped, to less developed, to developing.

Question 287

euphoria

Answer 287

n. a feeling of extreme happiness There was euphoria in the professor's house after it was learned that she had received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

Question 288

euthanasia

Answer 288

n. mercy killing Modern medicine's ability to prolong life has raised ethical questions, such as "Is euthanasia ever morally justifiable?"

Question 289

evince

Answer 289

v. to show plainly; be an indication of The student's response to the teacher's question evinces his ignorance of the subject.

Question 290

evocative

Answer 290

adj. tending to call to mind or produce a reaction Somerset Maugham's short stories are often evocative of exotic places such as Pago-Pago and Gibraltar. evocation n. Some literary critics believe that Charles Dickens' use of caricature makes his characters one-dimensional, but others see these characters as evocations of universal human types that resonate powerfully with readers' experience of real people. evoke v. The terms "loaded language" and "charged language" are used to specify language that has so many connotations for most readers that it is difficult for a writer to sue it without evoking myriad associations, which will distract attention from the topic under discussion.

Question 291

exacerbate

Answer 291

v. to aggravate; make worse The release of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels has increased the amount of this gas in the atmosphere, exacerbating the naturally occuring “greenhouse effect” that has predominated in Earth’s recent past.

Question 292

exact

Answer 292

v. to force the payment of; demand and obtain by authority The conquering rulers exacted a tax of 10% from every adult male in the country. exacting adj. extremely demanding Early in his career the English writer Aldous Huxley made this comment: “What occupation is pleasanter, what less exacting, than the absorption of curious literary information?”

Question 293

exculpate

Answer 293

v. to clear of blame; vindicate The report exculpated the FBI of any wrongdoing in its handling of the investigation.

Question 294

execrable

Answer 294

adj. detestable; abhorrent When folk artists such as Bob Dylan began to use rock instruments, many folk music traditionalists considered it an execrable travesty.

Question 295

exhort

Answer 295

v. to urge by strong appeals In 1943 U.S. General George S. Patton exhorted American troops about to invade Hitler's Europe, saying that victory was assured because American soldiers were more virile and courageous than their German counterparts.

Question 296

exigency

Answer 296

n. crisis; urgent requirements Astronauts must be prepared for exigencies such as damage to their spacecraft's life support system.

Question 297

existential

Answer 297

adj. having to do with existence; based on experience; having to do with the philosophy of existentialism Existential writers such as Jean-Paul Sartre have argued that human beings are free, but that this freedom entails a burden of responsibility that makes them anxious.

Question 298

exorcise

Answer 298

v. to expel evil spirits; free from bad influences A modern parallel to the shaman is the psychiatrist, who helps the patient exorcise personal demons and guides him toward mental wholeness.

Question 299

expatiate

Answer 299

v. to speak or write at length Every year the book club invites a famous author to come to expatiate on the art of writing.

Question 300

expatriate

Answer 300

v. to send into exile (ek-SPAY-tree-ayt) People seeking asylum in another country are sometimes expatriated. expatriate n. a person living outside his or her own land (ek-SPAY-tree-it) expatriate adj.

Question 301

expiate

Answer 301

v. to atone for The pilgrims undertook their long journey to expiate their sins. expiation n.

Question 302

explicate

Answer 302

v. to explain; interpret; clarify The literature exam requires students to explicate three poems they studied in class and one they have not studied. explication n.

Question 303

expository

Answer 303

adj. explanatory There is no one model of expository prose that a student can emulate, since each piece of good writing is unique.

Question 304

extant

Answer 304

adj. in existence; not lost Unfortunately for Bible scholars, there are no extant writings of Jesus Christ.

Question 305

extemporaneous

Answer 305

adj. unrehearsed I enjoyed the speaker's extemporaneous remarks more than her prepared speech, because they gave me insight into her personality that helped me understand the decisions she made during her time as a federal judge.

Question 306

extirpate

Answer 306

v. to root up; to destroy The new federal prosecutor promised voters that he would extirpate corruption int he state.

Question 307

extraneous

Answer 307

adj. not essential The encyclopedia editors worked hard to cut out extraneous material so that readers could find information easily on a given subject

Question 308

extrapolation

Answer 308

n. the act of estimation by projecting known information The economist's extrapolation suggests that the economy will grow by 4 percent next year. extrapolate v. Strict determinists believe that it is possible, at least theoretically, to extrapolate the future movement of every atom in the universe based on present conditions.

Question 309

extrinsic

Answer 309

adj. not inherent or essential The experiment is designed to exclude factors that are extrinsic to the phenomenon.

Question 310

facetious

Answer 310

adj. humorous The comedian's facetious comments about prominent politicians kept the audience amused.

Question 311

facilitate

Answer 311

v. to make less difficult The Internet -- together with the availability of relatively inexpensive personal computers -- has greatly facilitated the ability of ordinary people to conveniently exchange information with one another and with large computer systems.

Question 312

factotum

Answer 312

n. a person who does all sorts of work; a handyman In Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, the character Malvolio aspires to become more than merely a factotum in the house of Lady Olivia.

Question 313

fallacious

Answer 313

adj. based on a false idea or fact; misleading The belief of the Nazis that they could create a "master race" was based on the fallacious premise that some races are inherently superior to others. fallacy n. an incorrect idea Critics of the "strong" anthropic principle argue that its proponents are guilty of logical fallacy: on the basis of one known case of intelligent life, they extrapolate the existence of a multitude of such cases.

Question 314

fallow

Answer 314

adj. plowed but not sowed; uncultivated At the beginning of each school year the teacher looks out at the new students and thinks of a fallow field, ready to be cultivated.

Question 315

fatuous

Answer 315

adj. foolishly self-satisfied The student could not understand why no one took seriously his fatuous comments.

Question 316

fauna

Answer 316

n. animals of a period or region When humans introduce fauna from one habitat into another habitat, the ecological balance is upset.

Question 317

fawning

Answer 317

adj. seeking favor by flattering The boss has a reputation for hiring fawning employees.

Question 318

felicitous

Answer 318

adj. suitable expressed; appropriate; well-chosen The Gettysburg Address is full of felicitous phrases such as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Question 319

feral

Answer 319

adj. existing in a wild or untamed state Feral dogs returning to an untamed state after domestication sometimes form packs, becoming a thread to humans.

Question 320

fervor

Answer 320

n. warmth and intensity of emotion American soldiers were welcomed back to the United States with fervor after the end of World War II. fervent adj. full of strong emotion, or impassioned The fervent libertarian believed that government is a necessary evil that should be constrained from excessive interference in the affairs of individuals.

Question 321

fetid

Answer 321

adj. having a bad smell Many people find the smell of Limburger cheese fetid.

Question 322

fetter

Answer 322

v. to bind; confine The poet William Blake believed that each person creates "mind-forged manacles," fettering his or her natural instincts and spirit. fetter n. something that restricts or restrains fettered adj. bound or confined

Question 323

fiat

Answer 323

n. arbitrary order; authorization The dictator rules almost entirely by fiat.

Question 324

fidelity

Answer 324

n. loyalty; exact correspondence Monks joining the Franciscan Order pledge fidelity to the ideals and rules of the Order.

Question 325

filibuster

Answer 325

n. use of obstructive tactics in a legislature to block passage of a law The senator threatened that his filibuster would include a full reading of his eight-volume autobiography.

Question 326

finesse

Answer 326

v. to handle with a deceptive or evasive strategy; to use finesse, that is, refinement in performance Engineers decided that the problem could be finessed by using lighter materials.

Question 327

fissure

Answer 327

n. crevice Geologists measure the width of the fissure regularly to monitor movement of the Earth's plates in the area.

Question 328

flag

Answer 328

v. to droop; grow weak Noticing that the students' attention was flagging, the professor gave them a short break

Question 329

fledgling

Answer 329

n. beginner; novice The coach said that some of the team's fledglings would play in Saturday's game. fledgling adj. immature or inexperienced

Question 330

flora

Answer 330

n. plants of a region or era Singapore's Botanical Gardens contain an extensive collection of the flora of Southeast Asia.

Question 331

florid

Answer 331

adj. ruddy; reddish; flowery As he grew older, the novelist eschewed the florid, ostentatious style of his youth in a favor of a more direct and sparse style.

Question 332

flourish

Answer 332

n. an embellishment or ornamentation The Sophists often gave interminable speeches full of rhetorical flourishes. flourish v. to grow vigorously, or to thrive Capitalism flourished in the eighteenth century in Europe and the United States as the industrial revolution created a prodigious amount of wealth that, for the first time in history, was in the hands of land-owners.

Question 333

flout

Answer 333

v. to treat scornfully In his book Poetic Meter and Poetic Form the distinguished literary critic Paul Fussel discusses the dangers poets face when they flout poetic conventions.

Question 334

flux

Answer 334

n. flowing; a continuous moving In come cultures time is conceptualized as a flux moving in one direction.

Question 335

foment

Answer 335

v. to incite; arouse The government accused the newspaper of fomenting unrest in the country.

Question 336

forbearance

Answer 336

n. patience The president warned that great courage and forbearance would be required to see the war through to a successful conclusion.

Question 337

forestall

Answer 337

v. to prevent; delay The government took steps to forestall an economic downturn by increasing government spending.

Question 338

formidable

Answer 338

adj. menacing; threatening By the middle of the nineteenth century the United States had become a formidable economic and military power.

Question 339

forswear

Answer 339

v. renounce; repudiate When she became a U.S. citizen, Julia forswore allegiance to all other countries and pledged to defend the United States if call upon to do so.

Question 340

founder

Answer 340

v. to sink; fail; collapse Most attempts to create advanced new technology by government fiat founder, probably because of the difficulty in anticipating changes in the fluid world of high technology.

Question 341

fracas

Answer 341

n. a loud quarrel; brawl The police were called in to break up a fracas that had erupted in the bar.

Question 342

fractious

Answer 342

adj. quarrelsome; unruly; rebellious In an effort to unify their divided party, its leaders decided to first placate the party's most fractious elements.

Question 343

fresco

Answer 343

n. a painting done on plaster The Italian Renaissance was the greatest period of fresco painting, as seen in the work of artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael, and Giotto.

Question 344

frieze

Answer 344

n. ornamental band on a wall One of the best-known friezes, on the outer wall of the Parthenon in Athens, is a 525-foot depiction of the Panathenaic procession honoring Athena.

Question 345

froward

Answer 345

adj. stubbornly contrary; obstinately disobedient The teacher had no choice but to sent the froward child to the vice-principle for disciplining.

Question 346

frugality

Answer 346

n. thrift In these days of credit card and installment plan buying, frugality seems to have become a rarely practiced virtue.

Question 347

fulminate

Answer 347

v. to attack loudly; denounce The senator fulminated against what he termed "foreign meddling in America's business."

Question 348

fulsome

Answer 348

adj. so excessive as to be disgusting The actor was embarrassed by the fulsome praise he received after winning the Academy Award for best actor.

Question 349

fusion

Answer 349

adj. union; synthesis A hydrogen bomb requires tremendous heat to trigger the fusion reaction, which is provided by the detonation of a fission bomb.

Question 350

futile

Answer 350

adj. ineffective; useless; fruitless To some non-philosophers, the discipline seems frivolous and futile because it produces no tangible benefits.

Question 351

gainsay

Answer 351

v. to deny; dispute; oppose No one can gainsay the fact that she put great effort into the project.

Question 352

gambol

Answer 352

v. to frolic; leap playfully The children gamboled on the lawn while their parents ate lunch. gambol n. frolicking about

Question 353

garrulous

Answer 353

adj. very talkative; wordy The garrulous houseguest made it difficult for us to get much work down on the project.

Question 354

gauche

Answer 354

adj. coarse and uncouth; clumsy What is considered gauche in one culture might not be considered gauche in another culture; for example, burping is considered rude in America but is acceptable in China.

Question 355

geniality

Answer 355

n. cheerfulness; kindliness; sociability Hosts of television talk shows are generally people who possess a great deal of geniality. genial adj. having a pleasant or friendly disposition

Question 356

gerrymander

Answer 356

v. to divide an area into voting districts in a way that favors a political party An argument against the practice of gerrymandering is that is tends to make it difficult for the party that is out of power to regain power.

Question 357

glib

Answer 357

adj. fluent in an insincere way, offhand Sharon's parents were not satisfied by her glib explanation of why she had not been able to study for the exam.

Question 358

goad

Answer 358

v. to prod; urge on Goaded by his friends into trying out for the football team as a walk-on, Jeff went on to become an all-American linebacker.

Question 359

gossamer

Answer 359

adj. sheer; light and delicate, like cobwebs Some experts in NASA believe that what they call a gigantic "gossamer spacecraft" could be constructed in space using extremely lightweight materials.

Question 360

gouge

Answer 360

v. to tear out; scoop out; overcharge The store is able to gouge its customers because itis the only store in the area that carries that particular line of merchandise.

Question 361

grandiloquent

Answer 361

adj. pompous; bombastic The orator abandoned grandiloquent phrases and instead uses simple and direct language.

Question 362

gregarious

Answer 362

adj. sociable A recent anthropological theory is that human beings are gregarious creatures that are comfortable living in groups of around 150 individuals.

Question 363

grouse

Answer 363

v. to complain Instead of grousing about the policy, do something about it: write to your congressional representative. grouse n. The lieutenant told his men "If you have any grouses, take them to the captain."

Question 364

guileless

Answer 364

adj. free of conning or deceit; artless One of the charms of the novel is that the guileless hero manages to defeat the scheming villain. guile n. deception or trickery playing poker well requires guile as well as skill.

Question 365

guise

Answer 365

n. outward appearance; false appearance; pretense In Greek mythology, the god Zeus often appeared to mortal women to whom he was attracted in strange guises: as a swan, he made love to Leda of Sparta; with other women he took on the form of a shower of gold, or a bull, or thunder and lightning.

Question 366

gullible

Answer 366

adj. easily deceived Gullible members of the audience believed the young performer's claim that he had composed "Hey, Jude."

Question 367

gustatory

Answer 367

adj. affecting the sense of taste According to scientists, our gustatory sense depends to a large extent on our olfactory sense.

Question 368

halcyon

Answer 368

adj. calm and peaceful; happy; golden; prosperous The movie evokes the halcyon years immediately after World War II when America was at peace and the economy was booming. halcyon n. a genus of kingfisher; name of a mythological bird identified with the kingfisher that symbolizes life and renewal.

Question 369

hallowed

Answer 369

adj. holy; sacred The question of scientific and religious orthodoxy by scientists such as Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin led to stupendous advances in both geology and biology, as these fields freed themselves from the fetters of hallowed, but fallacious, assumptions about the age and development of the Earth and life.

Question 370

harangue

Answer 370

n. long, pompous speech, tirade The football team sat silently listening to their coach's half-time harangue about poor tackling, dropped passes, and lost opportunities to score.

Question 371

harrowing

Answer 371

adj. extremely distressing; terrifying The gurney "inward" to explore the unconscious mind has been described as more harrowing than the most dangerous voyage to explore the Earth.

Question 372

herbivorous

Answer 372

adj. relating to a herbivore, an animal that feeds mainly on plants Most researchers now believe that the common ancestor of apes and humans was a strongly herbivorous animal.

Question 373

hermetic

Answer 373

adj. tightly sealed; magical Scholars have traced many of the hermetic traditions of ancient Greece to Egypt.

Question 374

heterodox

Answer 374

ad. unorthodox; not widely accepted The orthodox view among scientists is that the ancestors of the great apes and humans evolved solely in Africa; however, recently a competing, heterodox view has arisen theorizing that they also may have evolved in Euroasia.

Question 375

hieroglyphics

Answer 375

n. a system of writing in which pictorial symbols represent meaning or sounds; writing or symbols that are difficult to decipher; the symbols used in advanced mathematics The deciphering of hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone in 1822 was a great step forward in understanding hieroglyphics.

Question 376

hirsute

Answer 376

adj. covered with hair One of the most obvious differences between humans and closely related species such as chimpanzees is that the latter are hirsute, while the former have relatively little hair.

Question 377

histrionic

Answer 377

adj. relating to exaggerated emotional behavior calculated for effect; theatrical arts or performances Whenever the star of the movie does not get her way on the set, she flies into a histrionic fit. histrionics n. emotional behavior done for effect "Cut the histrionics and tell me how you really feel," the woman said to hey angry husband.

Question 378

homeostasis

Answer 378

n. automatic maintenance by an organism of normal temperature, chemical balance, etc. within itself An example of homeostasis in mammals in the regulation of glucose levels in the blood, which is done mainly by the liver and insulin secreted by the pancreas.

Question 379

homily

Answer 379

n. sermon; tedious moralizing lecture; platitude The pastor's homilies have been published in an anthology.

Question 380

homogeneous

Answer 380

adj. composed of identical parts; uniform in composition Pluralists in America argue that the country's institutions can withstand great diversity and even be strengthened by it, while those who argue for a more homogeneous society believe that such a situation results in unhealthy contention and animosity between groups.

Question 381

hyperbole

Answer 381

n. purposeful exaggeration for effect The American tradition of the tall tale uses hyperbole to depict a world in which the inhabitants and their deeds are larger than life, as befitting a people inhabiting a vast landscape.

Question 382

iconoclastic

Answer 382

adj. attacking cherished traditions The linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky has been described as gleefully iconoclastic because o the zeal with which he attacks many of the central beliefs of American society.

Question 383

ideological

Answer 383

adj. relating to ideology, the set of ideas that form the basis of a political or economic system Recent social science research suggests that a person's psychological makeup plays a large part in determining his or her ideological leanings.

Question 384

idolatry

Answer 384

n. idol worship; blind or excessive devotion During the Protestant Reformation images in churches were felt to be a form of idolatry and were banned and destroyed.

Question 385

igneous

Answer 385

adj. produced by fire; volcanic The presence of igneous rocks on the beach suggests that there was a volcanic eruption int eh area millions of years ago.

Question 386

imbroglio

Answer 386

n. complicated situation; an entanglement The plot of many of Somerset Maugham's stories consists of an unraveling of an imbroglio in which the main character finds himself.

Question 387

immutable

Answer 387

adj. unchangeable If humanity colonizes Mars, it will be come a tabula rasa on which we will inscribe our immutable values and beliefs in a new environment. immutability n. The dogma of creation and the immutability of species was endorsed virtually unanimously by the leading anatomists, botanists, and zoologists of Charles Darwin's day.

Question 388

impassive

Answer 388

adj. showing no emotion The judge sat, impassive, listening to the man's emotional account of the crime.

Question 389

impecunious

Answer 389

adj. poor; having no money The businessman's biography tells how he went from being an impecunious student in the 1980s to one of the richest people in America.

Question 390

impede

Answer 390

v. to hinder; block The development of the western region of China has been impeded by a lack of trained workers.

Question 391

impermeable

Answer 391

adj. impossible to penetrate The virus protection software is said to be impermeable to attacks by malicious software sent over the internet.

Question 392

imperturbable

Answer 392

adj. not easily disturbed Buddha counseled that one should try to remain imperturbable through life's vicissitudes.

Question 393

impervious

Answer 393

adj. impossible to penetrate; incapable of being affected We were amazed how Laura could sit at the noisy party studying organic chemistry, impervious to the noise around her.

Question 394

impinge

Answer 394

v. to strike; encroach Scientists have found chimpanzees to be a territorial species; individuals that are not members of a group impinging on the territory of that group are normally met with aggression.

Question 395

implacable

Answer 395

adj. inflexible; incapable of being pleased Once an implacable foe of capitalism, the People's Republic of China in recent years seems, in practice if not in principle, to have embraced it.

Question 396

implausible

Answer 396

adj. unlikely; unbelievable To say that Napoleon Bonaparte achieved what he did merely because he was compensating for his shortness is simplistic, reductionistic, and implausible.

Question 397

implicit

Answer 397

adj. implied; understood but not stated Implicit in the review is the idea that the writing of serious literature is a moral undertaking. implication n. something hinted at or suggested The guiding principle of common law is that decisions of previous courts should be followed unless there are compelling reasons for ruling differently, which by implication would invalidate the earlier rulings.

Question 398

implode

Answer 398

v. collapse inward violently The building was imploded in order to make way for the construction of a new apartment complex. implosion n.

Question 399

imprecation

Answer 399

n. curse The convicted man was taken away by court officers, uttering imprecations against the jury that had found him guilty.

Question 400

impute

Answer 400

v. to relate to a particular cause or source; attribute the fault to; assign as a characteristic Primatologists generally impute relatively high intelligence to chimpanzees based on, among other things, the ability of chimpanzees to recognize themselves in a mirror.

Question 401

inadvertently

Answer 401

adv. carelessly; unintentionally The songwriter says that is it easy to inadvertently use the melody of another song when composing.

Question 402

incarnate

Answer 402

adj. having bodily form Christians believe that Jesus Christ was God incarnate.

Question 403

inchoate

Answer 403

adj. imperfectly formed or formulated In his book Chronicles, Bob Dylan describes the process of how some of his songs went from an inchoate state to finished, well-produced songs.

Question 404

incongruity

Answer 404

n. state of not fitting There is an incongruity between the poem's solemn tone and its light-hearted theme. incongruous adj. The assumptions underlying Jonathan Swift's definition of literary style -- "The proper words in the proper order" -- recognize that there are many effective styles, but that the effectiveness of each is dependent on the context within which it is found: for example, the rambling, exuberant style of Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" would be incongruous in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, with its dependence on sustained wit and irony.

Question 405

inconsequential

Answer 405

adj. insignificant; unimportant The meeting of the two women seemed inconsequential at the time, but in retrospect it led to one of the literature's great collaborations.

Question 406

incorporate

Answer 406

v. introduce something into another thing already in existence; combine According to Bob Dylan in his autobiography, Chronicles, he systematically tried to incorporate what he learned about life and music into the songs he wrote.

Question 407

incursion

Answer 407

n. sudden invasion At first, the Native Americans were not too concerned about the incursions of European settlers, but their anxiety grew with the relentless flow of people, until, finally, calamitous wars were fought between the two sides.

Question 408

indeterminate

Answer 408

adj. uncertain; indefinite The novel describes the main character as "being of an indeterminate age, somewhere between 50 and 60."

Question 409

indigence

Answer 409

n. poverty Most economists believe that the best way to prevent indigence is to expand employment opportunities. indigent adj. For approximately 20 percent of the world's population, nearly all of whom are indigent, malnutrition is the main impediment to achieving good health.

Question 410

indolent

Answer 410

adj. habitually lazy; idle An argument against welfare is that it encourages people to be indolent.

Question 411

ineluctable

Answer 411

adj. not to be avoided or escaped; inevitable No one can escape the ineluctable truth that every creature that born will one day die.

Question 412

inert

Answer 412

adj. unable to move; sluggish The teacher was frustrated by his inability to get an answer to his question from his inert class. inertia n. meaning disinclination to action or change The fact that industrialization occurred in Europe hundreds of years before it did in China, which had reached a similar level of technology, is perhaps attributable to cultural factors such as bureaucratic inertia in China and a culture that placed a high value on the status quo.

Question 413

ingenuous

Answer 413

adj. naive and trusting; lacking sophistication The conman would not bring himself to take advantage of the ingenuous boy.

Question 414

inherent

Answer 414

adj. firmly established by nature or habit Some studies of random numbers generated by computers suggest that an inherent order exists in nature, since certain patterns appear that one would not expect in a random system, but skeptics dismiss such patterns as either artifacts of imperfectly designed experiments, or as the attempt of the human mind to impose a pattern where there is no intrinsic order.

Question 415

innocuous

Answer 415

adj. harmless The bodyguard looked innocuous enough, but under his jacket were several weapons that could kill an attacker in seconds.

Question 416

insensible

Answer 416

adj. unconscious; unresponsive The gas in intended to render enemy soldiers insensible.

Question 417

insinuate

Answer 417

v. to suggest; say indirectly; imply If you read his speech carefully you will see that the senator is insinuating that his party has taken the wrong path.

Question 418

insipid

Answer 418

adj. lacking in flavor; dull Ironically, the book about how to write lively, engaging prose is an insipid piece of writing.

Question 419

insouciant

Answer 419

adj. indifferent; lacking concern or care Considering the gravity of the situation, Nancy's colleagues could not understand her insouciant attitude.

Question 420

insularity

Answer 420

n. narrow-mindedness; isolation The insularity of many tribes in New Guinea allows anthropologists to study cultures that have been relatively uninfluenced by the modern world.

Question 421

insuperable

Answer 421

adj. insurmountable; unconquerable Attempts by the United States to develop an antiballistic missile system have met with limited success because of the almost insuperable difficulties presented by the speed of the approaching warhead that must be intercepted.

Question 422

intangible

Answer 422

adj. not material When considering what occupation to pursue it is prudent to consider intangible rewards as well as financial ones.

Question 423

interdict

Answer 423

v. to forbid; prohibit; to confront and halt the activities, advance, or entry of Under U.S. law, interdicted goods can be seized by customs officials.

Question 424

internecine

Answer 424

adj. deadly to both sides The U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) was an internecine conflict that lead to the deaths of 630,000 soldiers out of the 2.4 million who fought in the war.

Question 425

interpolate

Answer 425

v. to insert; change by adding new words or material The book The Five Gospels was produced by having leading Bible scholars vote on which sayings of Jesus they believe to be authentic and which they believe to have been interpolated by other writers.

Question 426

interregnum

Answer 426

n. interval between reigns; gap in continuity Those who believe that Western culture represents the culmination of history are not disheartened by considering the fall of previous dominant civilizations, believing that these were merely interregnums in the march of humanity from the cave to a united world founded on Western principles.

Question 427

intimate

Answer 427

adj. marked by close acquaintance (IN-tuh-mit) During the 1990s Bob Dylan and Jerry Garcia became good, though not intimate, friends. intimacy n. The American artist Grandma Moses, although considered by art experts to be deficient in technique, achieved an admirable intimacy with her subject matter. intimate v. to make known subtly and indirectly (IN-tuh-mayt) The editor intimated that substantial changes would have to be made in the book.

Question 428

intractable

Answer 428

adj. not easily managed General practitioners are equipped to deal with most psychosomatic disorders, but in intractable cases a psychiatrist in consulted.

Question 429

intransigence

Answer 429

n. stubbornness; refusal to compromise Each side in the negotiations accused the other of intransigence, so talks broke down.

Question 430

introspective

Answer 430

adj. contemplating one's own thoughts and feelings In many ways William Wordsworth's great poem the Prelude is an introspective work, retrospectively exploring his thoughts and feelings as he matured.

Question 431

inundate

Answer 431

v. to cover with water; overwhelm Farmers in the arid areas called for the government to build a dam to provide water to irrigate their crops and provide hydroelectric power; however, this plan was opposed by environmentalists, who dislike inundation of land because it would have an adverse effect on wildlife.

Question 432

inured

Answer 432

v. hardened; accustomed; used to After 20 years in the army, the chaplain had not become inured to the sight of men dying on the battlefield.

Question 433

invective

Answer 433

n. verbal abuse The debate judge cautioned participants not to engage in invective, but rather in reasoned and decorous discourse.

Question 434

inveigh

Answer 434

v. to disapprove; protest vehemently The conservative writer inveighed against the school board's decision to exclude moral education from the curriculum.

Question 435

inveigle

Answer 435

v. to win over by flattery or coaxing The students inveigled their professor into postponing the test for a week.

Question 436

inveterate

Answer 436

adj. confirmed; long-standing; deeply rooted The columnist is an inveterate iconoclast who continually questions conventional wisdom.

Question 437

invidious

Answer 437

adj. likely to provoke ill will; offensive Most publications in the United States prohibit their writers from making invidious comparisons between racial groups.

Question 438

irascible

Answer 438

adj. easily angered The irascible old man complains every time someone makes a little noise.

Question 439

irresolute

Answer 439

adj. unsure of how to act; weak The president admonished Congress, saying that although it faced difficult choices it must not be irresolute.

Question 440

itinerant

Answer 440

adj. wandering from place to place; unsettled According to state law, companies hiring itinerant workers must provide adequate housing for them.

Question 441

itinerary

Answer 441

n. route of a traveler's journey We planned our itinerary to be flexible, so that if we especially enjoyed a particular place we could stay there longer.

Question 442

jaundiced

Answer 442

adj. having a yellowish discoloration of the skin; affected by envoy, resentment, or hostility Norman's experience as an infantryman during the war has given him a jaundiced view of human nature. The noun jaundice refers to a medical condition often due to liver disease and characterized by yellowness of the skin.

Question 443

jibe

Answer 443

v. to be in agreement The auditor checked the company's account books to make sure that they jibed with the ta return it filed.

Question 444

jocose

Answer 444

adj. found of joking; jocular; playful The English words jocose, jocular, and joke all come from derivatives of the Latin noun jocus, which means "jest" or "joke," but the etymology of the word jocund is unrelated to these. Jocose (fond of joking; jocular; playfulo) is from Latin jocosus (huorous, merry, sportive), form jocus. Jocular (fond of joking; playful; speaking in jest) is from Latin jocularis (jocular; laughable), also from jocus. Jocund (mirthful; merry; light-hearted; delightful) is from jocundus (pleasant, agreeable), from juvare (to delight).

Question 445

juggernaut

Answer 445

n. huge force destroying everything in its path Some people in Britain regard American English as a juggernaut sweeping through the British Isles, destroying British English.

Question 446

junta

Answer 446

n. group of people united in political intrigue The country's ruling junta consists of a general, an admiral, and the mayor of the capital city.

Question 447

juxtapose

Answer 447

v. place side by side To illustrate their case, opponents of functionalism juxtapose the products of modern architecture and those of classical architecture, such as the Parthenon, or those of medieval architecture, such as the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. juxtaposition n. a side-by-side placement

Question 448

kudos

Answer 448

n. fame; glory; honor Kudos won by Bob Dylan include an honorary doctorate in music from Princeton University.

Question 449

labile

Answer 449

adj. likely to change Blood pressure in human beings is, to varying degrees, labile.

Question 450

laconic

Answer 450

adj. using few words he laconic actor seemed to be a good choice to play the strong, silent hero in the western.

Question 451

lambaste

Answer 451

v. to thrash verbally or physically The critic lambasted the movie in her column, calling it "the most insipid, jejune film made in our generation."

Question 452

lascivious

Answer 452

adj. lustful The court ruled that the movie could be censored because its sole aim was to promote lascivious thoughts.

Question 453

lassitude

Answer 453

n. lethargy; sluggishness After the death of his wife, Steven suffered a three-month period of lassitude and depression.

Question 454

latent

Answer 454

adj. present but hidden; potential Some experts in human psychology believe that we are just beginning to explore the latent powers of the human mind.

Question 455

laud

Answer 455

v. to praise The literary critic lauded Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, calling it a novel that "explores the tension between a person's life as a social being and his or her individual consciousness."

Question 456

lethargic

Answer 456

adj. inactive After the 18-hour flight from New York to Singapore, the passengers were lethargic.

Question 457

levee

Answer 457

n. an embankment that prevents a river from overflowing An extensive system of levees is the only way to prevent the river from flooding the area during periods of heavy rain.

Question 458

levity

Answer 458

n. light manner or attitude The comedian has a gift for finding an element of levity in the most serious of subjects.

Question 459

liberal

Answer 459

adj. tolerant; broad-minded; generous; lavish Bankruptcy laws should not be too stringent, or not enough people will venture their capital; on the other hand, they should not be too liberal, or entrepreneurs will take unreasonable risks and waste capital.

Question 460

livertine

Answer 460

n. one without moral restraint Don Juan is a legendary, archetypal libertine whose story has been told by many poets, such as Lord Byron.

Question 461

libido

Answer 461

n. sexual desire According to psychologists, the libido of human males peaks at around the age of 18.

Question 462

Lilliputian

Answer 462

adj. extremely small Microbiologists study Lilliputian organisms.

Question 463

limn

Answer 463

v. to draw; describe The artist based his painting on a sketch he had limned several years earlier.

Question 464

limpid

Answer 464

adj. clear; transparent At the bottom of the limpid pond we could see hundreds of fish swimming.

Question 465

linguistic

Answer 465

adj. pertaining to language Humans are at the acme of their linguistic proficiency in the first several years of life, during which they master thousands of complex grammatical operations. linguistics n. the scientific study of language linguist n. someone who studies language Linguists such as Noam Chomsky believe that what people come to know and believe depends on experiences that evoke a part of the cognitive system that is latent in the mind.

Question 466

litany

Answer 466

n. lengthy recitation; repetitive chant The student listened intently to his teacher's litany of grammatical errors committed by the class.

Question 467

literati

Answer 467

n. scholarly or learned persons "Any test that turns on what is offensive to the community's standards is too loose, too capricious, too destructive of freedom of expression to be squared with the First Amendment. Under that test, juries can censor, suppress, and punish what they don't like, provided the matter relates to 'sexual impurity' or has a tendency 'to excite lustful thoughts.' This is community censorship in one of its worst forms. It creates a regime where in the battle between the literati and the Philistines, the Philistines are certain to win." -- U.S. Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas, dissenting in the case of Roth v. United States, 1957.

Question 468

litigation

Answer 468

n. legal proceedings The radio amateur's neighbor resorted to litigation in an attempt to have her neighbor dismantle his 100-foot-high antenna tower.

Question 469

log

Answer 469

n. record of a voyage; record of daily activities Although no longer required to do so by the Federal Communications Commission, many amateur radio operators nevertheless keep a meticulous record of stations they communicate with, logging the details of each contact.

Question 470

loquacious

Answer 470

adj. talkative Eighty meters is portion of the radio spectrum where a shortwave listener can often here loquacious "hams" chatting (chewing the rag" in amateur radio parlance) for hours.

Question 471

lucid

Answer 471

adj. bright; clear; intelligible The eminent surgeon Dr. Christian Barnard, who performed the first human heart-transplant operation in 1967, made his views on euthanasia clear in this lucid injunction: "The prime goal is to alleviate suffering, and not to prolong life. And if your treatment does not alleviate suffering, but only prolongs life, that treatment should be stopped."

Question 472

lucre

Answer 472

n. money or profits Many religions regard the pursuit of lucre for what it can do to help others as laudable.

Question 473

luminous

Answer 473

adj. bright; brilliant; glowing The Moon is the most luminous object in the night sky. luminosity n. A supernova can suddenly increase its luminosity to as much as a billion times its normal brightness.

Question 474

lustrous

Answer 474

adj. shining On the clear night we gazed up in awe at the lustrous stars.

Question 475

Machiavellian

Answer 475

adj. crafty; double-dealing One theory of the evolution of high intelligence in primates is that it evolved largely as a result of Machiavellian calculations on the part of apes.

Question 476

machinations

Answer 476

n. plots or schemes The mayor resorted to behind-the-scenes machinations to try to win his party's nomination for governor.

Question 477

maelstrom

Answer 477

n. whirlpool; turmoil Nearly everyone in Europe was caught up in the maelstrom that was World War II.

Question 478

magnanimity

Answer 478

n. generosity; nobility The senator showed his magnanimity when he conceded defeat to his opponent in the disputed election, saying that further uncertainty would be harmful to public confidence in the political system.

Question 479

malign

Answer 479

v. to speak evil of Lawyers are sometimes maligned as greedy and dishonest.

Question 480

malinger

Answer 480

v. to feign illness to escape duty In order to discourage malingering, the company decided to require employees taking sick leave to produce a doctor's certification of their illness.

Question 481

malleable

Answer 481

adj. capable of being shaped by pounding; impressionable Behaviorists such as B. F. Skinner believe that human nature is malleable, and that people's behavior can be changed by changing their environment.

Question 482

maverick

Answer 482

n. dissenter Bernie Sanders of Vermont has a reputation as a maverick; he is one of only two members of the United States Congress who is independent (that is, not a member of the Republican or Democratic Party).

Question 483

megalomania

Answer 483

n. delusions of power or importance In his farewell speech the retiring trial judge warned his colleagues to beware of megalomania as they exercise their power in the courtroom.

Question 484

menagerie

Answer 484

n. a variety of animals kept together Linda seems to take home every abandoned pet in the town; she now has an incredible menagerie of dogs, cats, turtles, rabbits, and other animals.

Question 485

mendacious

Answer 485

adj. dishonest The judge ruled the testimony inadmissible because he considered it mendacious.

Question 486

mendicant

Answer 486

n. beggar In Thailand it is traditional for young men to become monks for a year, a period during which they become mendicants.

Question 487

meretricious

Answer 487

adj. gaudy; plausible but false; specious One of the allures of jargon is that it can make a poor idea appear worthwhile, or something meretricious easier to accept because it is dressed in fancy language.

Question 488

mesmerize

Answer 488

v. to hypnotize The audience sat, mesmerized, listening to the retired soldier's account of hand-to-hand combat against the Japanese in New Guinea during World War II.

Question 489

metamorphosis

Answer 489

n. change; transformation In recent years, many areas of China have been undergoing a metamorphosis, transforming themselves from predominantly agricultural areas to industrial ones.

Question 490

metaphysics

Answer 490

n. a branch of philosophy that investigates the ultimate nature of reality To skeptics, metaphysics is an arbitrary search for a chimerical truth. metaphysical adj. meaning pertaining to metaphysics Some critics of evolution object to its implication that human thought is reduced to a peripheral phenomenon; they find it implausible that the ability to conceptualize --- to write a sonnet, a symphony, a metaphysical treatise -- would have evolved in early hominids solely as a secondary effect.

Question 491

meteorological

Answer 491

adj. concerned with the weather Some experts believe that reports of UFOs are attributable to natural astronomical or meteorological phenomena. meteorology n. science that deals with weather and atmospheric phenomena meteorologist n. one who study meteorology or forecast weather conditions The term "butterfly effect" to refer to the process driving chaotic systems was first used in 1979 by meteorologist E. M. Lorenz in an address entitled, "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?"

Question 492

meticulous

Answer 492

adj. very careful; fastidious Science is an empirical field of study based on the belief that the laws of nature can best be discovered by meticulous observation and experimentation.

Question 493

mettle

Answer 493

n. courage; endurance In many cultures, young men are expected to test their mettle by performing difficult and dangerous tasks.

Question 494

mettlesome

Answer 494

adj. full of courage and fortitude; spirited The mettlesome young officer was well regarded by all the senior officers. meddlesome adj. inclined to interfere (do not confuse)

Question 495

microcosm

Answer 495

n. a small system having analogies to a larger system; small world For many years the atom was seen as a sort of microcosm of the larger universe, with electrons -- analogous to the planets of a solar system -- orbiting the nucleus, or "sun."

Question 496

militate

Answer 496

v. to work against The manager asked all of his employees to think of any factors that might militate against the project's success.

Question 497

minatory

Answer 497

adj. threatening; menacing Intelligence information suggests minatory troop concentrations on the border.

Question 498

minuscule

Answer 498

adj. very small Ancient geological processes are beyond the scope of carbon-14 dating (which is at most 120,000 years)because the amount of carbon-14 in material from such processes that has not decayed is minuscule.

Question 499

minutia

Answer 499

n. petty details President Ronald Reagan said that a president should concentrate on the formulation and execution of broad policy and leave the minutia of running the country to subordinates.

Question 500

misanthrope

Answer 500

n. one who hates humanity One of the most famous misanthropes in literature is the protagonist of the seventeenth century French writer Moliere's play Le Misanthrope (The Misanthrope).

Question 501

miscellany

Answer 501

n. mixture of writings on various subjects The book is a fascinating miscellany collected from the writer's life work.

Question 502

miscreant

Answer 502

n. villain; criminal The public execution of miscreants was common in Great Britain in the eighteenth century.

Question 503

misogynists

Answer 503

n. one who hates women Some people have called the philosopher Freidrich Nietzsche a misogynist because of the numerous negative comments he made about women.

Question 504

mitigate

Answer 504

v. to cause to become less harsh, severe, or painful; alleviate Although the Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice Warren Burger did not rescind any of the fundamental rulings of the Warren Court that preceded it, its decisions did mitigate the effects of some of the rulings of the Warren Court. mitigation n. the act of reducing the severity or painfulness of something Before sentencing the women, the judge asked if she had anything to say in mitigation.

Question 505

mnemonic

Answer 505

adj. related to memory; assisting memory In the introduction to a collection of poetry, By Heart, the British poet Ted Hughes says that "the more absurd, exaggerated, grotesque" the images used as a mnemonic device to help remember a poem, the easier it will be to recall. mnemonics n. a system that develops and improves the memory Symbolic languages -- the second generation of computer languages -- were developed in the early 1950s, making use of mnemonics such as "M" for "multiply," which are translated into machine language by a computer program.

Question 506

modicum

Answer 506

n. limited quantity The scientist Carl Sagan wrote about astronomy and other scientific subjects in a way that enabled a reader with even a modicum of knowledge of science to understand what he was saying.

Question 507

mollify

Answer 507

v. to soothe The prime minister tried to mollify people protesting the tax increase with a promise that she would order a study of other means to raise revenue.

Question 508

monolithic

Answer 508

adj. solid and uniform; constituting a sinngle, unified whole In the fifteenth century, there was a significant movement to revitalize the Church from within; however, it had become so monolithic over the centuries and contained so many vested interests that piecemeal reform was difficult and ineffective.

Question 509

morose

Answer 509

adj. ill-humored; sullen The assessment of some skeptical critics of existentialism is that it is generally a view of life created by a group of thinkers whose distinguishing characteristic is that they are morose.

Question 510

motley

Answer 510

adj. many colored; made up of many parts The new political party is made up of a motley group of people who are unhappy with the existing parties.

Question 511

multifarious

Answer 511

adj. diverse Modern technology is so complex and multifarious that it requires thousands of specialists to devise and operate; thus, even a brilliant engineer could not by himself fabricate a sophisticated radio or computer without the help of existing black boxes and expertise.

Question 512

mundane

Answer 512

adj. worldly as opposed to spiritual; concerned with the ordinary Fundamentalists contend that the Bible's account of the creation is literally true, while others believe that it is the retelling of a powerful myth currently in the Middle East that sought to explain the mundane in spiritual language.

Question 513

necromancy

Answer 513

n. black magic Television might seem like necromancy to a time traveler from the fifteenth century.

Question 514

negate

Answer 514

v. to cancel out; nullify The soldiers' poor treatment of the prisoners negated the goodwill they had built up among the population.

Question 515

neologism

Answer 515

n. new word or expression The word "anesthesia" was the neologism of the American physician and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes, who used it in 1846 in a letter to Dr. William Morton, who had recently demonstrated the use of ether; the word is derived from the Latin word anaisthesia, meaning "lack of sensation."

Question 516

neophyte

Answer 516

n. novice; beginner The school provides extensive support and guidance for neophyte teachers.

Question 517

nexus

Answer 517

n. a means of connection; a connected group or series; a center Wall Street is the nexus of American's financial system.

Question 518

nonplussed

Answer 518

adj. bewildered The members of the football team were nonplussed by the presence of a female reporter in the locker room.

Question 519

nostalgia

Answer 519

n. sentimental longing for a past time The product's marketing is centered on nostalgia for the 1950s. nostalgic adj. The idea of an extended family existing in nineteenth-century America consisting of loving uncles and doting aunts has been shown to be largely a product of a nostalgic and romanticized view of the past.

Question 520

nostrum

Answer 520

n. medicine or remedy of doubtful effectiveness; supposed cure Although there are many nostrums urged on obese consumers, the only effective remedy for this condition is prosaic but nonetheless valid: eat less and exercise more.

Question 521

nugatory

Answer 521

adj. trifling; invalid The historian has a knack for focusing on information that appears nugatory but that, upon examination, illuminates the central issue.

Question 522

obdurate

Answer 522

adj. stubborn Coach Knight is obdurate about one thing: the offensive line is the heart of his football team.

Question 523

obsequious

Answer 523

adj. overly submissive Tom's tendency to submit meekly to any bullying authority is so great that his wife suggested eh overcome this obsequiousness by taking an assertiveness training course.

Question 524

obsequy

Answer 524

n. funeral ceremony (often used in the plural, obsequies) Solemn obsequies were held for President John F. Kennedy following his assassination on November 22, 1963.

Question 525

obviate

Answer 525

v. to make unnecessary; to anticipate and prevent An experienced physician can often discern if a patients symptoms are psychosomatic, thus obviating the need for expensive medical tests.

Question 526

occlude

Answer 526

v. to shut; block One of the primary uses of solar cells is in spacecraft to provide electric power; this is because space is an environment uniquely suited to these devices since it has no weather to occlude the Sun and it is not susceptible to interruptions in sunlight caused by the rotation of the Earth.

Question 527

occult

Answer 527

adj. relating to practices connected with supernatural phenomena In his book Supernature the biologist Lyall Watson explores what he regards as phenomena on the border between natural and occult phenomena.

Question 528

odyssey

Answer 528

n. a long, adventurous voyage; a quest Steve's quest for enlightenment took him on a spiritual odyssey that helped him to gain an understanding of many philosophers and religions.

Question 529

officious

Answer 529

adj. too helpful; meddlesome Some of us on the tour found the guide officious, but others thought she was helpful and courteous.

Question 530

olfactory

Answer 530

adj. concerning the sense of smell Wine connoisseurs say the the olfactory senses play as important a part in appreciating good wine as the sense of taste.

Question 531

oligarchy

Answer 531

n. form of government in which power belongs to only a few leaders In 411 B.C., democratic government was overthrown in Athens and a conservative oligarchy called the Four Hundred came to power.

Question 532

onerous

Answer 532

adj. burdensome The duty the judge considers most onerous is sentencing convicted criminals.

Question 533

onomatopoeia

Answer 533

n. formation or use of words that imitate sounds of the actions they refer to One theory of the origin of language is that it began as a sort of onomatopoeia as early humans imitated sounds they heard.

Question 534

opprobrium

Answer 534

n. disgrace; contempt It is difficult to imagine the opprobrium heaped on a person who is a traitor to his or her group.

Question 535

ornithologist

Answer 535

n. scientist who studies birds Ornithologists believe that there currently exist only about twenty individuals of a bird called the Balinese sparrow.

Question 536

oscillate

Answer 536

v. to move back and forth The teacher oscillates between a student-centered approach to teaching and a subject-centered approach.

Question 537

ostentatious

Answer 537

adj. showy; trying to attract attention; pretentious A member of the bourgeoisie might purchase a vacation home on Maui or Cape Cod that some would regard as an ostentatious display of wealth, but that the person regards as simply a pleasant place to go on vacation.

Question 538

overweening

Answer 538

adj. presumptuous; arrogant; overbearing The ancient Greeks believed that overweening pride -- what they called hubris -- would be punished, eventually, by the gods.

Question 539

paean

Answer 539

n. song of joy or triumph; a fervent expression of joy Fundamentally, the poem is a paean of joy, celebrating the coming of democracy to the country.

Question 540

paleontology

Answer 540

n. study of past geological eras through fossil remains Primatology, together with anthropology, paleontology, and several other fields, has given scientists a fairly accurate picture of the evolution of homo sapiens. paleontologist n. an expert in the field of paleontology The attempts of the Jesuit priest and paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin to reconcile evolution and the Catholic dogma of original sin were regarded by Church authorities as nearly heretical, and he had to abandon his position in 1926.

Question 541

pallid

Answer 541

adj. lacking color or liveliness Archeological evidence indicates that women have been using makeup to give color to a pallid face for millennia.

Question 542

panegyric

Answer 542

n. elaborate praise; formal hymn of praise Many panegyrics were written to Abraham Lincoln in the years after his death, and he has become one of the most revered figures in American history.

Question 543

paragon

Answer 543

n. model of excellence or perfection The epic poet Homer was regarded by the ancient Greeks as a paragon of literary excellence.

Question 544

partisan

Answer 544

adj. one-sided; committed to a party group, or cause; prejudiced Supporters of constitutional monarchy believe that while in this system, as it is generally practiced today, virtually all power is vested in popularly elected assemblies, the institution of the monarchy continues to serve a purpose as a focus of national unity above the furor of partisan politics.

Question 545

pathological

Answer 545

adj. departing from normal condition People sometimes confound psychology and psychiatry: the former is the science that studies cognitive and affective functions, both normal and pathological, in human beings and other animals, whereas the latter is a branch of medicine that deals with mental disorders. pathology n. Some of the most spectacular examples of spin-off in the twentieth century are the advances that have been made in medicine as an unforeseen result of pure biological research; an example of this is diagnostic testing for defective genes that predispose a person to certain pathologies. pathos n. a quality that causes a felling of pity or sorrow (PAY-thahs)

Question 546

patois

Answer 546

n. a regional dialect; nonstandard speech; jargon In Singapore the lingua franca is increasing becoming Singapore English, widely regarded as a patios.

Question 547

paucity

Answer 547

n. scarcity An argument sometimes advanced for euthanasia is that the amount of money spent on prolonging a person's life for several months is exorbitant in relation to the paucity of funds available for preventive health programs and child health, both of which are highly cost-effective.

Question 548

pedantic

Answer 548

adj. showing off learning The Sophists have acquired a reputation as being learned but rather pedantic entertainers who gave didactic talks on every subject under the Sun; the truth, however, is that some of the Sophist philosophers (notable Protagoras) were very able thinkers.

Question 549

pellucid

Answer 549

adj. transparent; translucent; easily understood Two writers often mentioned as having an admirably pellucid style are Bertrand Russell and George Orwell.

Question 550

penchant

Answer 550

n. inclination Sue has a penchant for science, while her brother is more interested in the arts.

Question 551

penury

Answer 551

n. extreme poverty The autobiography tells the story of the billionaire's journey from penury to riches beyond his imagining.

Question 552

peregrination

Answer 552

n. a wandering from place to place Swami Vivekananda's peregrinations took him all over India.

Question 553

peremptory

Answer 553

adj. imperative; leaving no choice The general's words were spoken in the peremptory tone of a man who is used to having his commands obeyed without questions.

Question 554

perennial

Answer 554

adj. present throughout the years; persistent Perennial warfare has left most of the people of the country in poverty.

Question 555

perfidious

Answer 555

adj. faithless; disloyal; untrustworthy The novel tells the story of the hero's perfidious lover.

Question 556

perfunctory

Answer 556

adj. superficial; not thorough; performed really as a duty The perfunctory inspection of the airplane failed to reveal structural faults int he wing.

Question 557

perigee

Answer 557

n. point in an orbit that is closest to the Earth The Earth observation satellite reaches a perigee of 320 miles above the Earth's surface.

Question 558

permeable

Answer 558

adj. penetrable Wetsuits, used by divers in cold water, are permeable to water but designed to retain body heat.

Question 559

perturb

Answer 559

v. to disturb greatly; make uneasy or anxious; cause a body to deviate from its regular orbit The finds that violence is increasing in schools greatly perturbed government officials. perturbation n. disturbance Scientists believe that the Earth has undergone alternating periods of relatively cooler and warmer climate, and that this is due largely to fluctuations in the intensity of the greenhouse effect and perturbations in the Earth's orbit around the Sun.

Question 560

pervasive

Answer 560

adj. spread throughout every part It is a plausible hypothesis that the atheistic and materialistic philosophy of Marxism was readily accepted in China because of its similarities with Confucian views on spiritual matters, which had a pervasive influence in China for many centuries. pervasiveness n. An indicator of the pervasiveness of psychotropic drugs in American society is the fact that approximately 50 percent of adults have used tranquilizers at some time in their lives. pervade v.

Question 561

petulant

Answer 561

adj. rude; peevish The boy's father worries that his disobedient and petulant child would grow up to be a bitter and annoying man.

Question 562

phlegmatic

Answer 562

adj. calm in temperature; sluggish "Phlegmatic natures can be inspired to enthusiasm only by being made into fanatics." (Friedrich Nietzsche)

Question 563

phoenix

Answer 563

n. mythical, immortal bird that lives for 500 years, burns itself to death, and rises from its ashes; anything that is restored after suffering great destruction The captain believed the battalion had been destroyed by the enemy and was amazed so see it arise, phoenix-like, its men still fighting valiantly.

Question 564

physiognomy

Answer 564

n. facial features The art teacher assigned her students to make drawings of people with a wide variety of physiognomy.

Question 565

piety

Answer 565

n. devoutness Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was a medieval French monk revered for his piety.

Question 566

piquant

Answer 566

adj. appealingly stimulating; pleasantly pungent; attractive Many of the guests enjoyed the piquant barbecue sauce, but others found it too spicy for their taste.

Question 567

pique

Answer 567

n. fleeting feeling of hurt pride Sally left the restaurant in a fit of pique after her date called to say he couldn't come because he was working late. pique v. to provoke or arouse The geologist's curiosity was piqued by the unusual appearance of the rock formation.

Question 568

placate

Answer 568

v. to lessen another's anger; to pacify After his team's third consecutive winless season, the Big State football coach opened his address to the irate alumni with a barrage of cliches and euphemisms to try to placate them: "Gentlemen, it is not my intention today to pull the wool over your eyes. Heaven only knows I have given my all. I have truly made the old college try. Unfortunately, however, by any reasonable criteria we have been less than completely successful in our endeavors, but I assure you that hope springs eternal in the human breast and next year we will rise to the occasion, put our noses to the grindstone and emerge triumphant in the face of adversity. I certainly admit that we have had a run of bad luck but that is nothing that can't be cured by true grit and determination."

Question 569

placid

Answer 569

adj. calm We were amazed how the monk was able to remain placid despite the fire that was raging through the building.

Question 570

plaintive

Answer 570

adj. melancholy; mournful After the battle all that could be heard was the plaintive cries of women who had lost their husbands.

Question 571

plasticity

Answer 571

n. condition of being able to be shaped or formed; pliability The sociologist is continually amazed by the plasticity of social institutions.

Question 572

platitude

Answer 572

n. stale, overused expression Though Sarah's marriage didn't seem to be going well, she took comfort in the platitude that the first six months of a marriage were always the most difficult.

Question 573

platonic

Answer 573

adj. spiritual; without sensual desire; theoretical Gradually what had been a platonic relationship between Tim and Kyoko became a romantic one.

Question 574

plethora

Answer 574

n. excess; overabundance Because it deals with death and grieving, the funeral business has produced a plethora of euphemisms such as "slumber room" for the place where the corpse is placed for viewing.

Question 575

plumb

Answer 575

v. to determine the depth; to examine deeply (PLUM) A recurrent theme of mystical experience is "the dark night of the soul," in which a person plumbs the depths of despair before finding a transcendent reality that brings the person closer to what he or she regards as God. plume n. to congratulate oneself in a self-satisfied way (do not confuse) John plumed himself on his ability to read both Sanskrit and Greek.

Question 576

plummet

Answer 576

v. to fall; plunge The fighter jet, struck by an enemy missile, plummeted to earth.

Question 577

plutocracy

Answer 577

n. society ruled by the wealthy It has been argued that modern democracies are plutocracies to the extent that wealth allows certain people to have a disproportionately large influence on political decision-making.

Question 578

porous

Answer 578

adj. full of holes; permeable to liquids If you go camping, make sure to spend enough money to buy a tent with a roof that is not porous.

Question 579

poseur

Answer 579

n. person who affects an attitude or identity to impress others The critic labeled the writer a poseur who was more interested in getting the public's attention than in writing good books.

Question 580

pragmatic

Answer 580

adj. practical The cult of romantic love was a major factor in making a marriage for love, rather than for more pragmatic reasons, a ubiquitous phenomenon in the West by the nineteenth century. pragmatism n. a practical way of approaching situations or solving problems Pragmatism is similar to positivism in rejecting lofty metaphysical conceptions and in asserting that the main role of philosophy is to help clarify phenomena experienced. pragmatist n. someone who approaches situations in a practical way The word "pragmatist" is often used to refer to someone who is willing to sacrifice his principles to expediency.

Question 581

prate

Answer 581

v. to talk idly; chatter The "talk radio" program allows people to call in and prate about their pet peeves.

Question 582

prattle

Answer 582

n. meaningless, foolish talk The sociologist theorizes that what may seem like prattle often has an important social function: what might be labeled "gossip" is an important means for people to communicate valuable information about themselves and others.

Question 583

preamble

Answer 583

n. preliminary statement Along with the opening words of the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address, the preamble to the Constitution of the United States contains some of the most memorable language in American history: "We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty, to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Question 584

precarious

Answer 584

adj. uncertain The prime minister's precarious hold on power ended when she lost a vote of confidence in Parliament.

Question 585

precept

Answer 585

n. principle; law A good precept to follow in writing is to avoid redundancies such as "track record" (unless the record was set on a racecourse), "revert back," "free gift," and "general consensus."

Question 586

precipitate

Answer 586

v. to cause to happen; throw down from a height Full-scale American entry into World War II remained unpopular with the vast majority of Americans until a declaration of war was precipitated by the Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, a day that President Roosevelt predicted, in a memorable phrase, would "live in infamy." adj. rash; hasty; sudden The secretary of state advised the president not to take precipitate action. precipitous adj. hasty; quickly with too little caution precipitation n. water droplets or ice particles from atmospheric water vapor that falls to Earth It would be helpful if the atmosphere could be induced to deposit its precipitation more evenly over the Earth's surface, so that some land areas are not inundated while others remain arid.

Question 587

precursor

Answer 587

n. forerunner; predecessor The precursor to the theory of plate tectonic was the theory of continental drift.

Question 588

preempt

Answer 588

v. to supersede; appropriate for oneself The movie was preempted for the president's emergency address to the nation.

Question 589

prehensile

Answer 589

adj. capable of grasping Many more animals in South America have prehensile tails than those in Southeast Asia and Africa, possible because the greater density of the forest there favored this adaptation over the ability to glide through the trees.

Question 590

premonition

Answer 590

n. forewarning; presentiment Shortly after his reelection in 1864, President Abraham Lincoln had a premonition of his impending death, and on April 14, 1865, he was shot and died the next day.

Question 591

presage

Answer 591

v. to foretell; indicate in advance The English poet William Blake believed his word presaged a new age in which people would achieve political, social, psychological, and spiritual freedom.

Question 592

presumtuous

Answer 592

adj. rude; improperly bold; readiness to presume The new employee did not offer her advice to her boss because she was afraid he might consider it presumptuous for a recent graduate to make a suggestion to someone with 30 years experience in the field. presume v. to assume or act with impertinent boldness Proponents of the view presume that there exist only two antithetical positions, with no middle ground between their opponent's view and their own (eminently more reasonable) position. presumption n. Anti-Semitism originated in the presumption that Jews were responsible for Jesus' crucifixion, and was responsible for periodic persecutions such as the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492.

Question 593

preternatural

Answer 593

adj. beyond the normal course of nature; supernatural Most scientists believe that putative preternatural phenomena are outside the scope of scientific inquiry.

Question 594

prevaricate

Answer 594

v. to quibble; evade the truth Journalists accused government leaders of prevaricating about the progress of the war.

Question 595

primordial

Answer 595

adj. original; existing from the beginning Scholars are divided as to whether polytheism represents a degeneration from a primordial monotheism, or was a precursor to a more sophisticated view, monotheism.

Question 596

pristine

Answer 596

adj. untouched; uncorrupted The bank's hermetically sealed vault has kept the manuscript in pristine condition for 50 years.

Question 597

probity

Answer 597

n. honesty; high-mindedness No one questioned the probity of the judge being considered for elevation to the U.S. Supreme Court; what was at issue was his controversial views on several important issues.

Question 598

problematic

Answer 598

adj. posing a problem; doubtful; unsettled The idea of the universe originating at a certain point in time seems problematic to many scientists.

Question 599

prodigal

Answer 599

adj. wasteful; extravagant; lavish Betty warned her husband that he must stop his prodigal spending on sports cars and expensive clothing.

Question 600

profound

Answer 600

adj. deep; not superficial There is an adage in philosophy that everyone is born either a Platonist or an Aristotelian, meaning that everyone has a predisposition to believing either that reality is completely "here and now," or that there exists a more profound, hidden reality.

Question 601

prohibitive

Answer 601

adj. so high as to prevent to the purchase or use of; preventing; forbidding Most people in poor countries are unable to purchase a computer because of its prohibitive price. prohibition n. The word taboo was taken from Polynesia (tabu in Tongan) and broadened to mean any culture's prohibition of a particular object or activity.

Question 602

proliferate

Answer 602

v. to increase rapidly With the pervasive influence of American culture, "fast-food" restaurants are proliferating in many countries. proliferation n. A problem with the proliferation of jargon is that it impedes communication between different fields of knowledge.

Question 603

propensity

Answer 603

n. inclination; tendency There is a natural propensity to stress the importance of what one is saying by exaggerating it.

Question 604

propitiate

Answer 604

v. to win over; appease M.E.W. Sherwood, an author alive at the time of the U.S. Civil War, eloquently expressed the sacrifice made by soldiers on both sides of that great conflict: "But for four years there was a contagion of nobility in the land, and the best blood of North and South poured itself out a libation to propitiate the deities of Truth and Justice. The great sin of slavery was washed out, but at what a cost!"

Question 605

propriety

Answer 605

n. correct conduct; fitness Judges are expected to conduct themselves with propriety, especially in the courtroom.

Question 606

proscribe

Answer 606

v. to condemn; forbid; outlaw The expert in English believes that since the tendency to use hyperbole is natural and often enriches the language, it should not be proscribed. proscriptive adj. relating to prohibition Proponents of the view that dictionaries should be proscriptive, dictating what correct usage is, believe that without such guides the standard of language will decline; however, advocates of descriptive dictionaries argue that dictionary makers have no mandate to dictate usage and there fore should merely record language as it is used.

Question 607

provident

Answer 607

adj. providing for future needs; frugal Most people have heard the story of the prodigal grasshopper and the provident ant that spends the summer saving food for the winter.

Question 608

puissant

Answer 608

adj. powerful The article analyzes the similarities and differences between the Roman Empire and the British Empire when each was at its most puissant. puissance n.

Question 609

punctilious

Answer 609

adj. careful in observing rules of behavior or ceremony The prime minister reminded his staff that they must be punctilious in following protocol during the visit by the foreign head of state.

Question 610

pungent

Answer 610

adj. strong or sharp in smell or taste; penetrating; caustic; to the point Slang frequently expresses an idea succinctly and pungently.

Question 611

purport

Answer 611

v. to profess; suppose; claim The United States is generally considered to be a secular society in which church and state are separate; however, religion plays a large role, since nearly everyone purports to believe in God and many people are members of churches. purport n. meaning intended or implied

Question 612

pusillanimous

Answer 612

adj. cowardly Traditionally, a ship captain is considered pusillanimous if he abandons his ship before everyone else has. pusillanimity n. cowardice

Question 613

quagmire

Answer 613

n. marsh; difficult situation The federal government's antitrust suit in the 1990s against Microsoft created a legal quagmire.

Question 614

quail

Answer 614

v. to cower; lose heart The defendant quailed when the judge entered the room to announce the sentence.

Question 615

qualified

Answer 615

adj. limited; restricted In Indian philosophy a position between monism at one extreme and dualism at the other is qualified nondualism, a philosophy in which reality is considered to have attributes of both dualism and monism. qualification n. limitation or restriction So many qualifications had been added to the agreement that Sue was now reluctant to sign it. qualify v. to modify or limit

Question 616

qualm

Answer 616

n. sudden feeling of faintness or nausea; uneasy feeling about the rightness of actions The judge had no qualms about sentencing the thief to five years imprisonment.

Question 617

query

Answer 617

v. to question Until widespread industrialization caused massive pollution in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the ability of the biosphere to dissipate and assimilate waste created by human activity was not queried. query n. a question The history professor answered the student's interesting query about the influence of Arabic thought on Western civilization.

Question 618

quibble

Answer 618

v. to argue over insignificant and irrelevant details The lawyers spent so much time quibbling over details that they made little progress in reaching an agreement on the central issue. quibble n.

Question 619

quiescent

Answer 619

adj. inactive; still Although malignant tumors may remain quiescent for a period of time, they never become benign.

Question 620

quorum

Answer 620

n. number of members necessary to conduct a meeting The U.S. Senate's majority leader asked three members of his party to be available to help form a quorum.

Question 621

raconteur

Answer 621

n. witty, skillful storyteller Former president Bill Clinton is known as an accomplished raconteur who can entertain guests with amusing anecdotes about politics all evening.

Question 622

rail

Answer 622

v. to scold with bitter or abusive language The critic of globalization railed against its effect on the poor people of the world.

Question 623

raiment

Answer 623

n. clothing It took two hours for the princess' handmaidens to help her put on her splendid raiment for her coronation as queen.

Question 624

ramification

Answer 624

n. implication; outgrowth; consequence The full ramification of the invention of the laser did not become apparent for many years; now it is used in a great variety of applications, from DVD players to surgery.

Question 625

rarefied

Answer 625

adj. refined Many scholars flourish in the rarefied intellectual atmosphere of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey.

Question 626

rationale

Answer 626

n. fundamental reason The philosophy of "enlightened self-interest" justifies acting in one's own interest by asserting that this is not selfish or motivated by a "beggar thy neighbor" rationale, but is simply the best way to ensure the welfare of the entire community.

Question 627

rebus

Answer 627

n. puzzle in which pictures or symbols represent words Egyptian writing uses the principle of the rebus, substituting pictures for words.

Question 628

recalcitrant

Answer 628

adj. resisting authority or control The officer had no choice but to recommend that the recalcitrant soldier be court-martialed.

Question 629

recant

Answer 629

v. to retract a statement or opinion The bishop told the theologian that he must recant his heretical teaching or risk excommunication.

Question 630

recluse

Answer 630

n. person who lives in seclusion and often in solitude The monk spent three years of his life as a recluse, praying and meditating. reclusive adj. John is a reclusive person who enjoys reading more than anything else.

Question 631

recondite

Answer 631

adj. abstruse; profound Many classical and biblical references known to educated nineteenth-century readers are now considered recondite by most readers.

Question 632

redoubtable

Answer 632

adj. formidable; arousing fear; worthy of respect As a result of winning 95 percent of her cases, the prosecutor has earned a reputation as a redoubtable attorney.

Question 633

refractory

Answer 633

adj. stubborn; unmanageable; resisting ordinary methods of treatment The general practitioner called in specialists to help determine the cause of the patient's refractory illness. refract v. to deflect sound or light Intermittently the ionosphere refracts radio waves of certain frequencies, allowing transmissions between distant points on the Earth.

Question 634

refulgent

Answer 634

adj. brightly shining; resplendent On the queen's neck was a necklace of jewels, in the middle of which was a large, refulgent diamond.

Question 635

refute

Answer 635

v. to contradict; disprove The eighteenth-century English author Samuel Johnson claimed to have refuted the philosophy of idealism by kicking a large stone. refutation n. Fundamentalism arose in Protestantism as a refutation of the liberal theology of the early twentieth century, which interpreted Christianity in terms of contemporary scientific theories.

Question 636

regale

Answer 636

v. to entertain Former U.S. presidents Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton often regaled visitors with amusing political anecdotes.

Question 637

relegate

Answer 637

v. to consign to an inferior position Idealist philosophers are a common target of satire; however, instead of relegating them all to the garbage can, one should reflect that thinkers such as Plato and Kant have given humanity some of its most profound ideas.

Question 638

remonstrate

Answer 638

v. to object or protest Minority members of the committee remonstrated with the majority embers, saying that the proposal was unjust nevertheless, it was approved.

Question 639

renege

Answer 639

v. to go back on one's word Generally, if one party to an agreement reneges on its contractual obligations, it must provide appropriate compensation to the other party.

Question 640

reparation

Answer 640

n. amends; compensation The judge said she would not sentence the man to jail on the condition that he pay full reparation to the family hurt by his crime.

Question 641

repine

Answer 641

v. fret; complain The president told the congressional representative he should stop repining over the lost opportunity and join the majority in exploring new ones.

Question 642

reprise

Answer 642

n. repetition, especially of a piece of music The standing ovation at the end of the set meant that the band had little choice but to reprise a few of their most popular tunes. reprise v.

Question 643

reproach

Answer 643

v. to find fault with; blame The speaker in Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress" reproaches his beloved for ignoring the passing of time and for not being willing to physically express her love for him. reproach n.

Question 644

reprobate

Answer 644

n. morally unprincipled person The social worker refused to give up hope of reforming the criminal who was generally regarded as a reprobate.

Question 645

repudiate

Answer 645

v. to reject as having no authority In the 1960s, many black leaders such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael repudiated integration and nonviolence in favor of black separatism and passive resistance in the fight for civil rights.

Question 646

rescind

Answer 646

v. to cancel The salesperson said he would rescind his offer to sell the goods at a 10 percent discount unless he received full payment within 24 hours.

Question 647

resolution

Answer 647

n. determination; resolve Fred's resolution to succeed is unshaken despite the many set backs he has suffered.

Question 648

resolve

Answer 648

n. determination; firmness of purpose President Abraham Lincoln displayed remarkable resolve in preventing the Confederate states from seceding. resolve v.

Question 649

reticent

Answer 649

adj. not speaking freely; reserved; reluctant Many people in the west are reticent to criticize science, which in the view of many has become a sacred cow.

Question 650

reverent

Answer 650

adj. expressing deep respect; worshipful The biologist Loren Eisely had what could be described as a reverent attitude toward nature. revere n.

Question 651

riposte

Answer 651

v. a retaliatory action or retort The commander decided that the enemy attack must be countered with a quick riposte.

Question 652

rococo

Answer 652

adj. excessively ornate; highly decorated; style of architecture in eighteenth-century Europe In music, the Rococo period (1730-1780) comes between the preceding Baroque period and the subsequent Classical period. The highly ornamented style of the Rococo period created new forms of dissonance that to listeners in previous eras would have sounded cacophonous. The noted authors Lawrence Durrell and Vladimir Nabokov often wrote in a rich, almost rococo style.

Question 653

rubric

Answer 653

n. title for heading; category; established mode of procedure or conduct; protocol The data from the experiment was so diverse that the scientist decided to design a new rubric to organize it.

Question 654

rue

Answer 654

v. to regret The judge told the convicted man that he would come to rue his decision to commit the crime.

Question 655

ruse

Answer 655

n. trick; crafty stratagem; subterfuge In July, 1999, a group of Christians fro the United Kingdom traveled to various countries in which Crusaders had massacred people to apologize; however, many of the Moslems spurned this overture, believing it to be another Crusade in the form of a ruse.

Question 656

sage

Answer 656

adj. wise Samuel Johnson gave this sage, albeit hard, advice to writers wishing to improve their style: "Read over your compositions, and whenever you meet with a passage that you think is particularly fine, strike it out." sage n. a wise older person

Question 657

salacious

Answer 657

adj. lascivious; lustful The school board decided that the book is too salacious to be in the school library.

Question 658

salubrious

Answer 658

adj. healthful The salubrious effects of exercise on both physical and mental health have been well documented.

Question 659

salutary

Answer 659

adj. expecting an improvement; favorable to health "The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment...." -- President Benjamin Harrison, 1892

Question 660

sanction

Answer 660

v. to approve; ratify; permit The establishment of the state of Israel from Palestinian territory in 1948 was the realization of a hallowed dream for Zionists, but for many Palestinians it meant the sanctioning of continued domination of their land by Europeans. sanction n. approval; ratification; permission In the West, the institution of marriage is traditionally given formal sanction by both the Church and the State, which has the social function of reinforcing its importance and the seriousness of the duties it entails. sanction n. penalization The United Nations has the power to compel obedience to international law by sanctions or even war, but there must be unanimity for such action among the five permanent members of the Security Council. sanction v. penalize

Question 661

sardonic

Answer 661

adj. cynical; scornfully mocking Satire that is too sardonic often loses its effectiveness.

Question 662

sartorial

Answer 662

adj. pertaining to tailors Off-screen, the glamorous actress' sartorial style runs more to jeans and T-shirts than to elaborate gowns.

Question 663

satiate

Answer 663

v. to satisfy The bully satiated his fury by pummeling the helpless little boy.

Question 664

saturate

Answer 664

v. to soak thoroughly; imbue throughout The writer's recollection of her childhood is saturated with sunshine and laughter.

Question 665

saturnine

Answer 665

adj. gloomy When the long list of casualties from the battle were announced, the mood in the room was saturnine.

Question 666

satyr

Answer 666

n. a creature that is half-man, half-beast with the horns and legs of a goat; it is a follower of Dionysos; a lecher One of the best-known satyrs is Pan, the god of the woods in Greek mythology.

Question 667

savor

Answer 667

v. to enjoy; have a distinctive flavor or smell The coach gave his team a day off practice to savor their big victory.

Question 668

schematic

Answer 668

adj. relating to or in the form of an outline or diagram The engineer outlined the workings of the factory in schematic form.

Question 669

secrete

Answer 669

v. produce and release substance into organism The pancreas gland secrete a fluid that helps fat, carbohydrates, and protein to be digested in the small intestine.

Question 670

sedition

Answer 670

n. behavior prompting rebellion The federal prosecutor argued that the journalist's article could be interpreted as an act of sedition since it strongly suggested that the government should be overturned.

Question 671

sedulous

Answer 671

adj. diligent The Nobel Prize-winning scientist attributed his success to what he termed "curiosity, a modicum of intelligence, and sedulous application."

Question 672

seismic

Answer 672

adj. relating to earthquakes; earthshaking The study of seismic waves enables scientists to learn about the Earth's structure.

Question 673

sensual

Answer 673

adj. relating to the senses; gratifying the physical senses, especially sexual appetites The yogi teaches his students that attachment to sensual pleasure is one of the great hindrances to spiritual advancement.

Question 674

sensuous

Answer 674

adj. relating to the senses; operating through the senses The American painter Georgia O'Keeffe is known especially for her sensuous paintings of plants and flowers and for her landscapes.

Question 675

sentient

Answer 675

adj. aware; conscious; able to perceive Charles Darwin regarded many animals as being sentient and as having intelligence. sentience n. An analgesic relieves pain but unlike an anesthetic, does not cause loss of sensation or sentience.

Question 676

servile

Answer 676

adj. submissive; obedient None of the dictator's servile citizens dared question his decree.

Question 677

sextant

Answer 677

n. navigation tool that determines latitude and longitude Because it enabled precise determination of position, the sextant quickly became an essential tool in navigation after its invention in 1731.

Question 678

shard

Answer 678

n. a piece of broken glass or pottery Archeologists were able to reconstruct the drinking vessel from shards found around the ancient campsite.

Question 679

sidereal

Answer 679

adj. relating to the stars A sidereal year is longer than a solar year by 20 minutes and 23 seconds.

Question 680

simian

Answer 680

adj. apelike; relating to apes Many people in the nineteenth century denied the evolutionary significance of the simian characteristics of human beings.

Question 681

simile

Answer 681

n. comparison of one thing with another using "like" or "as" In his autobiographical book Chronicles, Volume 1, Bob Dylan uses two similes in succession to try to convey the experience of writing a song: "A song is like a dream, and you try to make it come true.

Question 682

sinecure

Answer 682

n. well-paying job or office that requires little or no work The company established the high-paying position of senior advisor as a sinecure for the man who had been instrumental in the company's success for so many years.

Question 683

singular

Answer 683

adj. unique; extraordinary; odd The defendant's singular appearance made it easy for the witness to identify him as the person at the scene of the crime.

Question 684

sinuous

Answer 684

adj. winding; intricate; complex The students had trouble following the philosopher's sinuous line of reasoning.

Question 685

skeptic

Answer 685

n. one who doubts Like the nihilist, a comprehensive philosophic skeptic can be a difficult person to debate: if you tell him you know you exist, he is likely to ask you to prove it -- and that can be harder than it first appears. skeptical adj. A good scientist is skeptical about inferences made from data; however, he must not be dogmatic about the possible implications the data might have.

Question 686

sobriety

Answer 686

n. seriousness The student approaches her studies with commendable sobriety.

Question 687

sodden

Answer 687

adj. thoroughly soaked; saturated The sodden field makes it difficult for the soccer players to move effectively.

Question 688

solicitous

Answer 688

adj. concerned; attentive; eager The nurse is extremely solicitous of the health of every patient in the ward.

Question 689

soliloquy

Answer 689

n. literary or dramatic speech by one character, not addressed to others The nineteenth-century English poet Robert Browning used the dramatic monologue -- which is essentially a soliloquy in a poem -- successfully in many of his poems.

Question 690

solvent

Answer 690

adj. able to meet financial obligations During the financial crisis several large banks had difficulty remaining solvent.

Question 691

somatic

Answer 691

adj. relating to or affecting the body; corporeal A psychosomatic disorder is a malady caused by a mental disturbance that adversely affects somatic functioning.

Question 692

soporific

Answer 692

adj. sleep producing For some people the best soporific is reading a boring book.

Question 693

sordid

Answer 693

adj. filthy; contemptible and corrupt The Monica Lewinsky scandal, which led to President Bill Clinton's impeachment in 1998, must certainly rank as one of the most sordid affairs in American history.

Question 694

specious

Answer 694

adj. seeming to be logical and sound, but not really so The article systematically rebuts the specious argument advanced by the so-called expert in the field.

Question 695

spectrum

Answer 695

n. band of colors produced when sunlight passes through a prism; a broad range of related ideas or objects The political science course deals with the whole spectrum of political ideologies.

Question 696

spendthrift

Answer 696

n. person who spends money recklessly A Chinese proverb describes a paradox: Rich spendthrifts never save enough, but the poor always manage to save something. spendthrift adj. wasteful and extravagant Tom's spendthrift habits resulted in his accumulating a huge amount of credit card debt.

Question 697

sporadic

Answer 697

adj. irregular Despite the ceasefire, there have been sporadic outbreaks of violence between the warring factions.

Question 698

squalor

Answer 698

n. filthy, wretched condition The family lives in squalor in the slums of Mexico City.

Question 699

staccato

Answer 699

adj. marked by abrupt, clear-cut sounds We listened to the staccato steps of the woman in high heels running down the street.

Question 700

stanch

Answer 700

v. to stop or check the flow of The country's government has put controls on currency movement to stanch the flow of money out of the country.

Question 701

stentorian

Answer 701

adj. extremely loud The stentorian speaker prefers not to use a microphone so that the audience can appreciate what he calls "the full effect of my powerful oratory."

Question 702

stigma

Answer 702

n. mark of disgrace or inferiority A problem with giving formal psychological treatment to a child who is believed to be poorly adjusted to society is that he may acquire a stigma as a result of officially being labeled as deviant, and he may act to corroborate society's expectation. stigmatize v. The civil rights movement helped to stigmatize racism, augmenting legal efforts to desegregate American society.

Question 703

stint

Answer 703

v. to be sparing Stinting on funding for education strikes many people as shortsighted. stint n. a period of time spent doing something Isaac Asimov did a short involuntary stint in the army as a conscript during the 1950s.

Question 704

stipulate

Answer 704

v. to specify as an essential condition The president's lawyer stipulated that he would appear before the investigative committee, but would answer only questions directly relevant to the issue at hand. stipulation n. Stipulations in a contract should be clear in order to obviate the need for parties to resort to litigation.

Question 705

stolid

Answer 705

adj. having or showing little emotion Behind the professor's stolid appearance is a fun-loving, gregarious character.

Question 706

stratified

Answer 706

adj. arranged in layers One of the implications of an increasingly stratified economy for America might be increased social unrest. stratum n. a layer In the English-speaking world many members of the upper classes historically have had a deprecatory attitude toward slang, a form of language they regard as indecorous and thus suitable only for the lowest stratum of society. (plural) strata As it matured as a science, geology began to complement biology, a process that helped it to gain a more comprehensive view of the history of life on Earth by allowing fossils to be dated and identified (paleontology), often using knowledge gained from stratigraphy -- the study of the deposition, distribution, and age of rock strata. stratification n. (used in the sociological term social stratification) the hierarchical arrangement of individuals in a society into classes or castes

Question 707

striated

Answer 707

adj. marked with thin, narrow grooves or channels The striated surface suggested to the geologist that he was walking over an area in which there once had been a torrent of water. striation n. The geologist examined striations in the rock to learn about the glacier that had made them 10,000 years ago.

Question 708

stricture

Answer 708

n. something that restrains; negative criticism As professionals, lawyers are expected to abide by a set of ethical strictures in their practice of the law.

Question 709

strident

Answer 709

adj. loud; harsh; unpleasantly noisy Calls for the prime minister's resignation became more strident after it was discovered that he had strong connections to organized crime.

Question 710

strut

Answer 710

v. to swagger; display to impress others The star quarterback strutted around campus the entire week after he led his team to a 42-0 win over the county's top-ranked team.

Question 711

stultify

Answer 711

v. to impair or reduce to uselessness The professor of education believes that overreliance on rote learning stultifies students'creativity.

Question 712

stupefy

Answer 712

v. to dull the senses of; stun; astonish After drinking three glasses of wine, Linda was stupefied.

Question 713

stygian

Answer 713

adj. dark and gloomy; hellish Wilfred Owens's famous poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est" describes an unfortunate soldier who was unable to get his gas mask on in time, seem through the stygian gloom of poison gas: GAS! Gas! Quick, boys! -- An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And floundering like a man in fire or lime. -- Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

Question 714

subpoena

Answer 714

n. notice ordering someone to appear in court The judge issued a subpoena for the man but the prosecutor had little hope that he would appear because he was living abroad.

Question 715

subside

Answer 715

v. to settle down; grow quiet Army personnel told the civilians to wait for the violence to subside before reentering the town.

Question 716

substantiate

Answer 716

v. to support with proof or evidence The validity of fossil identification is substantiated by data from geology and carbon-14 dating.

Question 717

substantive

Answer 717

adj. essential; pertaining to the substance The judge cautioned the attorney to present only information that was substantive to the case at hand.

Question 718

subsume

Answer 718

v. to include; incorporate The philosopher described his work as an attempt to arrive at a final generalization that will subsume all previous generalizations about the nature of logic.

Question 719

subversive

Answer 719

adj. intended to undermine or overthrow, especially an established government subvert v. Anything that subverts the market mechanism is believed to cause anomalies in prices, making the economy less efficient. subversive n. a person intending to undermine something

Question 720

succor

Answer 720

n. relief; help in time of distress or want The woman was accused of providing succor to the enemy in the form of food and medical help.

Question 721

suffrage

Answer 721

n. the right to vote The pivotal feminist goal of suffrage was not obtained in the United States until 1920, and in Britain not until 1928.

Question 722

sundry

Answer 722

adj. various The main character in the novel returns home safely after his sundry adventures.

Question 723

supersede

Answer 723

v. to replace, especially to displace as inferior or antiquated Malay was in lingua franca of the Malay peninsula for centuries, but in many parts of that region it is being superseded in that role by a European interloper, English.

Question 724

supine

Answer 724

adj. lying on the back; marked by lethargy he captured robbery suspects were held supine on the floor.

Question 725

supplant

Answer 725

v. to replace; substitute The "Frankenstein monster" fear of some people is that AI machines will eventually supplant biological life forms, making such life redundant or even subservient.

Question 726

suppliant

Answer 726

adj. beseeching The worshippers raised their suppliant voices to God, praying for forgiveness.

Question 727

supplicant

Answer 727

n. one who asks humbly and earnestly The mother of the man sentenced to be executed appeared as a supplicant before the governor, asking him to grant her son clemency.

Question 728

supposition

Answer 728

n. the act of assuming to be true or real Science proceeds on the supposition that knowledge is possible.

Question 729

syllogism

Answer 729

n. a form of deductive reasoning that has a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion The following syllogism is often taught in logic courses: "All Xs are Ys, all Ys are Zs; therefore, all Xs and Zs."

Question 730

sylvan

Answer 730

adj. related to the woods or forest The house's sylvan setting provides the family with beauty and tranquility.

Question 731

tacit

Answer 731

adj. silently understood; implied During the Cold War, there was a tacit assumption on the part of both the Soviet Union and the United States that neither side would launch an unprovoked nuclear attack against the other side.

Question 732

taciturn

Answer 732

adj. habitually untalkative The teacher couldn't get the taciturn child to tell her what activities he enjoyed during recess.

Question 733

talisman

Answer 733

n. charm to bring good luck and avert misfortune The soldier's mother gave him a talisman to protect him from ham during battle.

Question 734

tangential

Answer 734

adj. peripheral; digressing The judge ruled that the evidence had only a tangential bearing on the case and directed the lawyer to present only a brief summary of it.

Question 735

tautology

Answer 735

n. unnecessary repetition Unless the phrase "repeat again" is being used to refer to something that has occurred more than twice, it is a tautology.

Question 736

taxonomy

Answer 736

n. science of classification; in biology, the process of classifying organism developed, leading to the development of the sciences of taxonomy and morphology (the study of the form and structure of organisms.)

Question 737

tenet

Answer 737

n. belief; doctrine In his novel Walden II, the psychologist B. F. Skinner depicts a brave new world based on the tenets of a behavioral psychology that frees human beings from the inhibitions and preconceptions of traditional society.

Question 738

tenuous

Answer 738

adj. weak; insubstantial Study of the historical evidence has shown that there is only a tenuous connection between the country Plato describes in The Republic and the legendary land of Atlantis.

Question 739

theocracy

Answer 739

n. government by priests representing a god All Islamic fundamentalists are opposed to secularism, and some of them support theocracy.

Question 740

thespian

Answer 740

n. an actor or actress Every year the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland gives thespians from around the world the opportunity to perform before a diverse audience.

Question 741

timbre

Answer 741

n. the characteristic quality of sound produced by a particular instrument or voice; tone color The audience was delighted by the rich timbre of the singer's soprano.

Question 742

tirade

Answer 742

n. long violent speech; verbal assault The students had no choice but to sit and wait for the principal's tirade about poor discipline to end.

Question 743

toady

Answer 743

n. flatterer; hanger-on; yes-man The boss had no respect for the employee because he considered him a toady who would do anything he said.

Question 744

tome

Answer 744

n. book, usually large and academic Despite being an abridged edition of the twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary consists of two tomes that define over half a million words.

Question 745

torpor

Answer 745

n. lethargy; dormancy; sluggishness After returning home from his coast-to-coast trip, the truck driver sank into a peaceful torpor, watching TV and dozing.

Question 746

torque

Answer 746

n. a turning or twisting force; the moment of a force; the measure of a force's tendency to produce twisting or turning and rotation around an axis Internal combustion engines produce useful torque over a rather circumscribed range of rotational speeds (normally from about 1,000 rpm to 6,000 rpm).

Question 747

tortuous

Answer 747

adj. having many twists and turns; highly complex Only the world's leading mathematicians are able to follow the tortuous line of reasoning used by the English mathematician Andrew Wiles to Prove Fermat's Last Theorem via the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture.

Question 748

tout

Answer 748

v. to promote or praise energetically The critic touted Moby Dick as the greatest book in American literature.

Question 749

tractable

Answer 749

adj. obedient; yielding The country's leader found that the people became more tractable when he made them believe there was a great threat facing them that only he could overcome.

Question 750

transgression

Answer 750

n. act of trespassing or violating a law or rule The teacher made it clear on the first day of the term that she would not countenance any transgression of classroom rules. transgress v. Western medicine transgressed Hippocrates' prescriptions for medicine when doctors debilitated patients through the administration of purges and bloodletting.

Question 751

transient

Answer 751

adj. temporary; short-lived; fleeting A hypothesis to explain the fact that American states in which the population is composed of a large number of recently settled people (California, for example) tend to have high rates of crime, suicide, divorce, and other social problems is that anomie is higher in transient populations than in more stable populations, resulting in more antisocial behavior.

Question 752

translucent

Answer 752

adj. partially transparent The architect decided to install a translucent door in the room to allow outside light to shine in.

Question 753

travail

Answer 753

n. work, especially arduous work; tribulation; anguish America's early pioneers endured great travail, but persevered and eventually settled much of the vast continent. travail v. to work strenuously

Question 754

travesty

Answer 754

n. parody; exaggerated imitation; caricature The playwright complained that the musical comedy version of his play was a travesty of his work.

Question 755

treatise

Answer 755

n. article treating a subject systematically and thoroughly The thesis of the philosopher's treatise is that reality is, ultimately, opaque to human understanding.

Question 756

tremulous

Answer 756

adj. trembling; quivering; frugal; timid One of the most famous poems in English literature is Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach," in which the speaker listens to the "tremulous cadence slow" of waves on the shore.

Question 757

trepidation

Answer 757

n. fear and anxiety John tried to hide his trepidation when he proposed to Susie, the girl he loved.

Question 758

truculence

Answer 758

n. aggressiveness; ferocity The principal warned the student that his truculence might one day land him in a jail.

Question 759

tryst

Answer 759

n. agreement between lovers to meet; rendezvous In his novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy describes an ancient Roman amphitheater where lovers often arranged secret trysts.

Question 760

tumid

Answer 760

adj. swollen; distended The prose of writers discussing lofty subjects sometimes becomes tumid.

Question 761

turbid

Answer 761

adj. muddy; opaque; in a state of great confusion The poem captures the restless and turbid state of the soldier's mind the night before the decisive battle was set to begin.

Question 762

turgid

Answer 762

adj. swollen; bloated; pompous The professor's editor advised him to change his writing style so that it was less pedantic and turgid if he wanted to appeal to a mass audience.

Question 763

tutelary

Answer 763

adj. serving as a guardian or protector Most of the people of ancient Rome believed in the existence of tutelary spirits.

Question 764

uncanny

Answer 764

adj. mysterious; strange Some people believe that the psychic has an uncanny ability to accurately predict the future.

Question 765

undulating

Answer 765

adj. moving in waves The undulating terrain of the area has made it difficult for engineers to build roads there.

Question 766

unfeigned

Answer 766

adj. not false; not made up; genuine The child smiled in unfeigned delight when she opened the Christmas present.

Question 767

untenable

Answer 767

adj. indefensible Skeptics are inclined to regard arguments for God's existence from design as meaningless, since they rely on a logically untenable position that assumes the conclusion of their argument -- God's existence.

Question 768

untoward

Answer 768

adj. not favorable; troublesome; adverse; unruly Police were called in to investigate whether anything untoward had happened to the missing man.

Question 769

usury

Answer 769

n. practice of lending money at exorbitant rates In the 1980s, Delaware Governor Pierre S. Du Pont succeeded in having the state's usury laws liberalized, with the result that many large New York banks set up subsidiaries in Delaware. usurious adj. The consumer advocate's group complained about the bank's usurious interest rates.

Question 770

vacillate

Answer 770

v. to waver; oscillate The senator's position keeps vacillating between remaining neutral and lending his support to the proposal.

Question 771

vacuous

Answer 771

adj. empty; void; lacking intelligence; purposeless In Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, the youngest of the five Bennett daughters, Lydia, is portrayed as a vacuous young woman with few interests other than having fun.

Question 772

valedictory

Answer 772

adj. pertaining to a farewell The 80-year-old actor came out of retirement to give a valedictory performance on Broadway.

Question 773

vapid

Answer 773

adj. tasteless; dull To relax in the evening the judge likes to watch vapid situation comedies on TV.

Question 774

variegated

Answer 774

adj. varied; marked with different colors Botanists are still working to catalog the variegated species of the tropical rain forest.

Question 775

vaunt

Answer 775

v. to boast; brag The head coach warned her players not to vaunt their undefeated record. vaunted adj. boasted about Since every human activity depends on the integrity and proper functioning of the biological system, its destruction through pollution would cause out vaunted technological and economic systems to founder.

Question 776

venal

Answer 776

adj. bribable; mercenary; corruptible The depressing though inescapable conclusion the journalist reached is that the mayor went into politics for motives that were almost entirely venal.

Question 777

vendetta

Answer 777

n. prolonged feud marked by bitter hostility The judge warned both families that the vendetta between them had to end at once.

Question 778

venerate

Answer 778

v. to adore; honor; respect Mother Teresa is venerated for her compassion for the poor people of India. venerable adj. respected because of age, character, or position In the plain-language edition of the venerable Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy the original definition of a hangnail -- "Acute or chronic inflammation of the periungual tissues" -- is transmogrified into "An infection around the edge of a fingernail or toenail."

Question 779

veracious

Answer 779

adj. truthful; accurate The witness' testimony appeared to be veracious at first, but under cross-examination, several inconsistencies appeared.

Question 780

verbose

Answer 780

adj. wordy The skillful editor cut 20 percent of the words from the verbose manuscript without appreciable altering its meaning.

Question 781

vertigo

Answer 781

n. dizziness The physician diagnosed the patient's vertigo as being caused by an acute anxiety attack.

Question 782

vexation

Answer 782

n. irritation; annoyance; confusion; puzzlement Some people have the ability to prosper and live happily despite life's inevitable vexations.

Question 783

viable

Answer 783

adj. practicable; capable of developing Since the early 1950s, government planners have faced a dilemma: Spend a great deal of money to keep cities viable by rebuilding decrepit infrastructure, or allow them to decay. viability n. According to the historian Arnold Toynbee, there is a strong relationship between a society's view of itself relative to other societies and its continued viability.

Question 784

vindictive

Answer 784

adj. spiteful; vengeful; unforgiving The Treaty of Versailles, which concluded World War I, was deliberately vindictive, imposing tremendous penalties on Germany.

Question 785

virtuoso

Answer 785

n. someone with masterly skills; expert musician The British guitar virtuoso John Williams has entertained thousands of people during his long career. virtuoso adj. Raymond is a virtuoso pianist.

Question 786

visage

Answer 786

n. countenance; appearance; aspect The infant studied its mother's visage intently.

Question 787

viscous

Answer 787

adj. thick, syrupy, and sticky The maple syrup is so viscous we had trouble pouring it.

Question 788

vitiate

Answer 788

v. to impair the quality of; corrupt morally; make inoperative Unfortunately, one error in the study's methodology vitiates the entire body of work.

Question 789

vituperative

Answer 789

adj. using or containing harsh, abusive censure The young music critic's vituperative comments aroused the wrath of nearly every serious composer.

Question 790

vivisection

Answer 790

n. dissection, surgery, or painful experiments performed on a living animal for the purpose of scientific research The book Animal Rights by the philosopher Tom Regan contains a long discussion of vivisection.

Question 791

vogue

Answer 791

n. prevailing fashion or practice Although protectionist policies are not in vogue today, great capitalist democracies, such as Great Britain and the United States, flourished for long periods of their histories under protectionist trade policies that were nearly mercantilist -- policies that imposed high tariffs on many foreign goods to promote domestic production.

Question 792

volatile

Answer 792

adj. tending to vary frequently; fickle volatility n. Some contemporary economists believe that advances in the understanding of the business cycle virtually preclude a recurrence of the crash of 1929, because governments can take steps to forestall depression. However, others worry that new factors are developing that are, to a significant extent, beyond the control of governments: notably, the ability of investors to quickly switch capital into and out of markets, a situation that could lead to volatility in prices and destabilize markets.

Question 793

vortex

Answer 793

n. whirlpool; whirlwind; center of turbulence Inexorably, the country was drawn into the vortex of war.

Question 794

warranted

Answer 794

adj. justified The book argues that a new investigation into Marilyn Monroe's death is warranted by new evidence released by the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act. warrant v. to attest to the accuracy or quality; justify; grant authorization Throughout most of America, procedures in criminal law cases are essentially the same: The government, through a prosecutor, presents its case against a suspect to a grand jury, which decides if there is sufficient evidence to warrant a full trail.

Question 795

wary

Answer 795

adj. careful; cautious According to psychologists, human beings are naturally wary of strangers.

Question 796

welter

Answer 796

v. to wallow or roll; toss about; be in turmoil The pigs weltered about happily in the mud.

Question 797

whimsical

Answer 797

adj. fanciful; unpredictable Many children appreciate Dr. Seuss' whimsical stories. whimsy n. a playful or fanciful idea Despite its rigorous and systematic methodology, there is still considerable room in science for imagination and even whimsy.

Question 798

wistful

Answer 798

adj. vaguely longing; sadly thoughtful The poem casts a wistful look back at a way of life that has vanished forever.

Question 799

zealot

Answer 799

v. one who is fanatically devoted to a cause The crusades of the eleventh to thirteenth centuries were conceived of by Christian zealots as a way to drive the Islamic interlopers from the Holy Land. zealotry n. fanaticism The fact that the judicial branch is relatively undemocratic compared to the other two branches of government is justified by some theorists of democracy on the grounds that it serves as a check not only on the legislative branch and executive branch, but also on democratic zealotry. zealous adj. enthusiastically devoted to a cause It is heretical to suggest to a zealous capitalist that free enterprise is not the only conceivable realistic economic system.