13 adjectives, 7 nouns, 2 verbs - Test your higher level vocabulary!

Word Bank:

virulent – quite strong, extreme 

unkempt – not neat, messy

transient – fleeting, not lasting, temporary 

threadbare – shabby, worn out

a sycophant – a butt kisser, someone who sucks up to authority figures

rudimentary – basic 

quiescent – passive, refusing to act 

pragmatic – practical

pessimism – a belief that life is evil, the world is evil 

ornate – really fancy

oblivion – a state of being forgotten 

to nullify – to wipe out, to extinguish

a misanthrope – one who hates humanity 

lassitude – laziness, languor

judicious – showing sound judgment 

intrepid – without fear

laconic – not wordy 

heresy – a belief contrary to the opinion of authorities

gratuitous – random, not necessary 

frugality – the quality of not spending alot; economical 

fickle – changeable, not predictable 

to exonerate – to find innocent

1. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus wanted to convey how ___________ time and our lives are by saying, “Time is a river and you cannot step into the same river twice.”

2. Knut Hamsun won a Nobel Prize for his novel Hunger, in which he describes a period of time in his youth when he wandered through Oslo homeless, not having eaten for days, wearing a _____________ coat that showed his true state of impoverishment.

3. Now the housing and banking industries know that it was not especially _____________ for them to provide huge amounts of loan money to people who had previously defaulted on loans.

4. The month of August seems to encourage a sense of ______________ in everyone. Nobody wants to do anything other than travel or rest with family members.

5. In Ang Lee’s film Lust/Caution, the Chinese female protagonist, although knowing she can be caught and tortured or killed, still acts in an ____________ manner and pursues a mission she feels can help her people against the Japanese oppressors of her country.

6. It’s ironic. We all seem to spend years studying advanced mathematics, but by the time we reach the age of 40, all we remember are the most _____________ aspects of math!

7. Thomas Jefferson believed in states’ rights. Therefore, he believed that any state could ____________ a federal law that it did not agree with. The Civil War ended this concept.

8. Giocomo Leopardi was an Italian poet who wrote poems that expressed a philosophy of ____________________ - he believed that life was meaningless, filled with sorrow and that all human endeavor was absurd; nevertheless, he believed that universal love and compassion was a necessary response to the evils of the world.

9. In the early 1950s people in the United States learned how ______________ racism was in the South when they read about how the 12 year-old African American child, Emmet Til, had been beaten to death by white men in Mississippi.

10. Spartan youth, unlike Athenian youth, were taught to be ____________ and to let actions speak louder than words.

11. The interior of that restaurant was so ___________, it looked like the interior of the Titanic! I’ve never been to such a glitzy restaurant!

12. They say that, basically, Euripides was a _______________ who avoided human company and who thought humanity was capable of the worst abuses; yet, his plays are highly idealistic and he seemed to believe that we can all overcome the savage tendencies within us.

13. There’s a lot of sexism in literature. Hamlet says, “Frailty, thy name is woman!” while Virgil wrote: “Varia et mutabile femina!” “Random and _________ is woman!” meaning that no woman’s actions can be predicted.

14. I have always liked foreign film more than Hollywood film; Hollywood films seem to have a lot of _________________ violence and sex that foreign films avoid; foreign films are clearly more cerebral and thought-provoking.

15. Americans had become a bit too wasteful. But, with the 2008 economic crisis, they had to learn how to show more _________________ and to live more simply and sensibly.

16. Although Joe Hill, famous American labor leader, had been a person of integrity, he was falsely accused of murder and all attempts to _____________ him failed; he was shot by firing squad in Utah in 1915.

17. It used to be considered __________________ to say that the Bible should be interpreted non-literally and symbolically; now many Christians seem to believe this.

18. Many people admire pacifist leaders like Gandhi and the Dalai Lama, but I wonder whether the type of _____________ approach to evil they take, the “turn-the-other-cheek” approach, might be furthering the cause of evil in the world.

19. When my father, the accountant, learned I wanted to study philosophy, he went ballistic! “You need to study something ____________,” he yelled! “Philosophy! You’ll be a waiter when you graduate from school with philosophy!”

20. After traveling from California by bus for four days, without benefit of a shower, it was impossible not to appear ____________ upon arriving in Boston.

21. Every class seems to have at least one ______________ who will try to benefit from doing whatever he/she can to please the teacher or the administration of the school.

22. DeWitt Clinton was one of the greatest of New York’s Governors, but he has now been consigned to _______________. This was the person who conceived the Erie Canal!

Answers are below:

Answers:

1. transient

2. threadbare

3. judicious

4. lassitude

5. intrepid

6. rudimentary

7. nullify

8. pessimism

9. virulent

10. laconic

11. ornate

12. misanthrope

13. fickle

14. gratuitous

15. frugality

16. exonerate

17. heresy

18. quiescent

19. pragmatic

20. unkempt

21. sycophant

22. oblivion



I love this song about a ghost horse....

4 nouns, 3 adjectives, 1 adverb

I took these 8 vocabulary words from the ending of Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World.


turpitude - something disgustingly wrong; a severe violation of morality that comes from something ugly about one's nature (the word is often used with the word 'moral' - Conservative archeologists of the past were upset and embarrassed by what they felt to be the moral turpitude in ancient Roman art, where sexuality was depicted openly.)

propitiation - to try to make someone feel more favorable toward you; to please someone so that they do not look unfavorably on you

to be plaintive - being sad, sorrowful, mournful, expressing grief

a strumpet - a slut, a woman who sleeps around, a loose woman, a woman who has sex a lot or even a prostitute (this is an old fashioned word - Huxley wrote this novel in the 1930s).

gingerly - carefully, cautiously

to be coquettish - to be flirtatious (only a woman can be coquettish and only when she is being playful with a guy in order to indicate to him that she likes him and might want to go out with him)

to be ingratiating - deliberately nice or kind in order to get something from someone else

compunction - a feeling that one has done something wrong, the feeling one gets when one's conscience kicks in and makes one feel bad for something (to feel compunction over something - it's mostly used in a non-countable way)


1. Bob and I had hiked for several miles and Bob wasn't used to doing this much walking. The next day I could see he was in some pain because of the ________________ manner in which he sat down to breakfast. I could see his legs were killing him.

2. Joe didn't feel that he had done anything wrong, but out of a need for _________________ he told Becky that he was sorry and that he hoped she would forgive him. 

3. Bob, my anthropologist friend, pointed something interesting out to me. He said that human beings are the only animals that sometimes kill and eat their food with a sense of _________________. Some people feel so guilty about eating other creatures that they become vegetarians.

4. So Dave faced a dilemma, did Jackie really like him or was she just being _________________ because he had so much money and she was hoping to be treated to an expensive dinner.

5. After the baby dropped her lollipop on the floor, she looked at me in such a ________________ manner that I had to immediately get another lollipop for her to make her feel better.

6. An ethical relativist would assert that behavior which was considered a form of ______________ in the past, might now be considered morally acceptable or at the very least benign (harmless). 

7. There's often a lot of sexual experimentation in US colleges, so a female student who travels abroad to study has to be aware that if she acts the same way in other countries, she may get the reputation of being a ________________.

8. Francis was very confused. His female friend Bridgette kept smiling at him today during lunch and touching his arm as they talked. Was she being ____________________ and signaling a change in their relationship or was this just wishful thinking on his part?

Answers are below.





Answers:

1. gingerly
2. propitiation
3. compunction
4. ingratiating
5. plaintive
6. turpitude
7. strumpet
8. coquettish



Please enjoy one of my favorite 70s bands - Mott the Hoople

6 adjectives, 2 verbs, 2 nouns

parochial - narrow minded, having a limited perspective, not open-minded

heedless - not taking enough care while doing something, careless, reckless

libidinous - being motivated by one's sex drive, slang: being 'horny'

duplicity - dishonesty

to parry - to defend oneself from an attack (this word comes from the sport of fencing - to parry a thrust is to stop one's opponent from hitting you with his sword tip by using your sword to deflect his thrust away)

overweening - too confident, too filled with pride, smug, arrogant

conciliatory - trying to make another happy or satisfied instead of making the person angrier; pacifying

to disabuse - to show someone that what he/she believed was inaccurate or false

a martinet - someone who values discipline excessively; someone who is super strict when it comes to leadership

prudish - someone who is too easily offended or embarrassed by sexual discussions or topics


Answers are below the exercise:


1. After the Civil War President Lincoln's policy toward the South was quite _________________. He indicated that he did not want to seek revenge but, instead, he wanted to welcome the South back into the Union and to help develop the South economically.

2. It was Icarus and not Daedalus who had been ________________; Daedalus knew that flying too high or too quickly would bring disaster, but Icarus failed to show this type of humble self-restraint.

3. Some parents have been complaining that the Diary of Anne Frank contains references to an adolescent's curiosity concerning the development of one's own sexual organs. They feel this book should not be read by young students. Other parents feel these parents are being ____________ and that there is no harm in reading the Diary of Anne Frank.

4. Do you think that a person who does not travel much will have a _______________ outlook on the world? Or, can a person be open-minded and intelligent without visiting other countries?

5. When she saw the child fall into the lake, Mary was ______________ of all risk and jumped in to save him. 

6. During the Middle Ages there was much corruption in the Catholic Church and you see this in the tales of _________________ priests in Boccaccio's book Il Decameron.

7. A young officer in the military should try to avoid excessive discipline in regard to his squad lest he acquire the reputation for being a _________________.

8. Bob was able to ____________ Mary's criticism that he was not a strong disciplinarian by saying that he felt positive reinforcement was more effective in regard to raising a child than punishment.

9. You seem to believe that the Persian Empire was run by a series of inhuman dictators, but I would like to _____________ you of that misconception by pointing out that Cyrus was loved by his people and admired around the Mediterranean area.

10. Bob was a straight-forward and honest guy and any form of ________________ bothered him deeply.

Answers are below:







Answers:

1. conciliatory
2. overweening
3. prudish
4. parochial
5. heedless
6. libidinous
7. martinet
8. parry
9. disabuse
10. duplicity

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http://djg51qu.wix.com/gauss

5 adjectives, 3 nouns (2 non-countable, 1 countable)

a milieu - a surrounding environment

pious - very devoted to one's religious beliefs

dingy - dirty, shabby, old and discolored

astute - to be sharp or very clever or very discerning

despicable - disgusting, shameful, something that appalls you because it is so bad

fidelity - faithfulness

reverence - extreme respect for a person or thing

blithe - carefree, showing little concern for things


Answers are below the exercise:


I prefer reading the Economist magazine because of its _______________ analysis of world events.

Because she was very young and came from a wealthy background, Victoria had a ______________ attitude toward life in general.

Is a person born a genius or does his/her childhood ________________ have to do with his/her intellectual development?

I once knew a remarkable woman named Estelle who had been married to her husband for over 50 years. Indeed, when I knew her they still loved each other and their _______________ was beyond question.

Bob goes to church each Sunday and observes all the religious holidays and even prays before he eats.  He is one of the most _______________ people I know.

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibet, but many people around the world treat him with _______________ since he seems to be a man who represents peace and mercy. 

I used to do volunteer work in which I delivered meals to senior citizens (people over 65) who could not leave their homes easily.  It was sometimes sad to see the _______________ apartments with the very old and torn furniture where some of these poor elderly people lived.

Many people were upset that the basketball player, Dennis Rodman, recently traveled to North Korea and sang "Happy Birthday" to Kim Jong Un.  Almost everybody in the world recognizes Kim as a __________________ dictator who enjoys life while his people suffer. (a dictator is a leader of a country who controls everything in the country)

Answers are below:



Answers:

astute
blithe
milieu
fidelity
pious
reverence
dingy

2 adjectives, 2 verbs, 1 (non-countable) noun

conciliating - when you try to make an angry person feel more calm about a situation

to quell something - basically it means to stop something or to suppress something

prudence - if you are a careful person, you are probably prudent.  Prudence means doing things only after you've really considered what the consequences might be.

lustrous - shining

to solicit s/t - to ask for something

Answers are below the exercise:

I love going to the MET Museum in New York City and seeing the _____________ armor that the knights of the Middle Ages wore.

Gout is a very painful disease that makes one of your big toes hurt (alot!).  Luckily there is an ointment that can _______________ the pain while your body takes care of eliminating the gout.
(An ointment is a liquid type of medicine that you rub on a body part.)

I really don't think we should give anything to beggars who _________________ money.  There are many free food and clothing programs for them in the city, and the city will even help them find jobs and housing.

Sophia was wonderfully ___________________ with me.  I became so angry but she was very kind and understanding and helped me get rid of my negative feelings.

If a person is going to take out a loan, he/she should show great ________________.  Only take out a loan if you are pretty sure you can pay it back some day.

Answers are below:




Answers:

lustrous
quell
solicit
conciliatory
prudence

2 verbs, 2 adjectives, 1 noun

1. to capitulate - to give up, to surrender
2. to feel dismayed - to suddenly lose your excitement for something due to a bad experience, to be shocked and to lose interest in doing something
3. to denote something, to be denoted - to indicate something
4. woeful - something that fills one with deep grief or extreme sadness
5. a paroxysm (of) - when emotion comes pouring out,  an outburst of emotion



I had been listening to him lie to me for about an hour.  Suddenly I exploded in a ________________ of anger! I yelled, "You disgusting liar!  How dare you lie to me!"

The coach of the football team was so __________________ after his team's loss, that he quit his job and went into retirement.

Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther told such a ______________ story, that many people killed themselves after reading it in the 1800s.

In the contract, the obligations of the purchaser are __________________ in paragraph 3.

In the 1700s, pirates gave captains of the ships they attacked two choices.  The captains could try to defend their ships and fight the pirates, or the captains could ______________ without a fight.  If they fought and lost, the pirates would kill everyone on the ship; otherwise the pirates would not hurt anyone on the ship, but would take all the valuables on board.

answers are below:





answers:


paroxysm
dismayed
woeful
denoted
capitulate

3 adjectives, 2 nouns ---> SAT, GRE, TOEFL words

a conflagration - a huge fire that destroys property and perhaps even kills people
to be indifferent - not interested in something, not worried about something
scrupulous - someone who is careful to always do something right
tranquility - feeling peaceful, serene, calm
whimsical - playful, silly, not serious


Is there one goal that every religion seems to shoot for?  If there were, I would guess it is a type of ___________________.  Every religion seems to promise that peace is possible and that it is a goal worth attaining.

Bill's father was the most _______________ man he had ever known.  He could not remember hearing his father ever tell a lie and, in everything he did, he seemed to be as honest as a person could be.

Why did only about 25% of New York registered voters vote in the last mayoral election? Well, it seems that most people are ________________ to local politics.  Perhaps they feel that it doesn't matter who the mayor is.

Joe had two uncles.  One was very studious (very serious about his studies) and serious but the other one took a more ________________ approach to life.  Joe learned a lot from his first uncle but loved being around the second. (Or:  Joe learned a lot from the latter but loved being around the former.)

Until September 11, 2001, the most people in New York City who had died in one day was 1,019, due to the _________________ on the ship called The SS General Slocum. Nobody knows how the fire started, but it spread quickly causing such a huge death toll. 

answers are below:





answers:

tranquility
scrupulous
indifferent
whimsical
conflagration

3 verbs, 2 nouns, 1 adjective ---> SAT, GRE, TOEFL vocabulary

to appease s/o - to try to satisfy or make someone happy
to deride s/o - to make fun of someone, to mock someone, to ridicule someone
fastidious - to be very detail oriented
to impede - to stop someone's progress
a recluse - a hermit, someone who lives alone, someone who seeks solitude
a virtuoso - someone who has an amazing skill at something (like a musical instrument)


1)  Paganini is considered to have been one of the greatest violin _______________ in history. He was so great that some people rumored that he had sold his soul to the devil to gain his super-human skills.

2)  Bob is the most ______________ dresser I have ever met.  His clothing has to look perfect before he goes out.  His shoes must be polished and there can't be one wrinkle in his suit.

3) Mitt Romney was often _______________ during the last presidential campaign because he was so rich and did not seem to understand how poorer people lived. Someone even made a video called: Mitt Romney Style (based on Gangnam Style).

4) Even if a customer is wrong, it is sometimes better to ______________ him/her than to argue with him/her.  

5) Republican politicians and businessmen in New York City are worried that the new mayor's plan to increase taxes might _______________ economic development.

6)  One of America's most famous ____________ was Howard Hughes.  After becoming a successful airplane engineer and Hollywood producer, he seemed to disappear into a Las Vegas hotel room for the last several years of his life.

answers are below:




answers:

1) virtuosi or virtuosos 
2) fastidious
3) derided
4) appease
5) impede
6) recluses

10 common SAT vocabulary words

1. innocuous - harmless, not bothering anyone
2. miserly - cheap, parsimonious
3. nonchalant - easy going, not in a hurry, casual, very relaxed
4. ostentatious - very flamboyant, showy, deliberately showy to draw attention
5. a quandary - a dilemma, being unable decide what to do next (to be in a quandary)
6. to repudiate something - to turn away from something, to refuse to be associated with something
7. surreptitiously - secretly, in a sneaky way
8. trite - an expression which is used too commonly, a cliche
9. to venerate - to respect highly, to worship
10. a zealot - someone who is extraordinarily passionate about something (usually a cause)

1.  I'm in a bit of a _______________. I am not sure whether to go to graduate school or take this new job.

2.  As a young man the politician had belonged to a club that did not allow women members.  He, of course, _________________ his membership in that club and stated it was a youthful mistake.

3.  Foreigners have to realize that in Thailand they do not just respect their king, they _______________ him and a person can be thrown in jail for showing disrespect to the Thai king.

4.  The security guard threw the homeless man out of the public library because he had been sleeping.  I felt that this was wrong - the homeless guy was ____________________; he wasn't really bothering anyone.

5.  One of the reasons Americans have turned against the Tea Party is that members of that political party often seemed to act like ________________.  They were very emotional, aggressive and passionate in expressing their hatred for Obama and for liberal government policies.

6.  Bob is getting married and I want to write something meaningful in the card I am going to give him.  Can you help me think of something that won't sound ______________?  I don't want to write, "Congratulations on your marriage!" or "Best of luck in the coming years!"  Those expressions have been used too many times before.

7.  Our boss is OK but his big problem is that he seems to be a bit ________________. He tries to save money in regard to everything we do and this makes it hard to operate effectively.

8.  The American people were shocked to learn that their president, Bill Clinton, had been ___________________ seeing and having an affair with one of his interns in the 1990s.  He was married but secretly pursuing this affair.

9.  The attitude of some clerks at coffee houses really bothers me.  In the morning I am always in a hurry and need to get my cup of coffee quickly.  But the clerks are often quite ____________________ and they take their sweet time.

10.  I am getting sick of seeing all the women in New York walking around with these big __________________ Louis Vuitton bags.  Oh my God!  Whom are they trying to impress!?  I don't care whether a woman owns such a bag.

answers are below:






answers:

1. quandary
2. repudiated
3. venerate
4. innocuous
5. zealots
6. trite
7. miserly
8. surreptitiously
9. nonchalant
10. ostentatious

3 nouns, 4 adjectives

1. an analgesic - a drug that eliminates pain
2. to be absolved of something - to be made clean or pure, to be determined innocent
3. a harbinger - something that happens which indicates something else will happen
4. punitive - something done to punish someone
5. inveterate - you usually hear this adjective with 'liar' (an inveterate liar); someone is an inveterate liar if he always lies; if you are inveterate in regard to something, you can't help yourself, you have to do it: an inveterate alcoholic
6. meticulous - very detail oriented
7. apathy - a lack of concern

The economic reports of the past few months have shown high unemployment trends.  Economists fear this may be a ______________ of another economic recession (severe downturn). 

Progressive educators tend to steer clear of various ______________ measures in their classrooms.  They try to be positive and provide rewards for good behavior instead of punishments for bad behavior.

The president of the company turned out to be an ______________ liar. Everything he ahd said over the past three years had been false.

Anthony Weiner, an American politician who resigned from his congressional position due to a personal scandal, claimed that he had sought psychological counseling and felt he was now ________________ of all of his previous questionable activities. However, when he was running for a new political office, new scandals emerged, showing he had not truly cleansed himself of his former demons. 

Toshiro was in the USA to set up a Japanese branch of the company he worked for. he needed American assistants but was afraid they would not be as ______________ as his Japanese assistants.  He needed people truly dedicated to details.  He was pleasantly surprised to find such assistants here in America as well.

In the last mayoral election in New York City, only 24% of eligible New Yorkers voted.  This is probably due to _______________.  Most people simply do not care who the mayor is since they do not think most politicians are honest and do not think any mayor can really change anything for the better.   

Sun ae told me that I should avoid taking any type of ________________ for my back pain.  She said it removes the pain but not the ultimate cause of the pain.  But I have discovered that after I take that type of pill my back feels better for weeks.

answers are below:







answers:

harbinger
punitive
inveterate
absolved
meticulous
apathy
analgesic 

6 adjectives and 1 noun

amiable - friendly, warm
bellicose - warlike
complaisant - eager to please
decrepit - very old, falling apart because of the old age of the object
empirical - based on the evidence of the senses, based on real experience
formidable - difficult to defeat, something which seems intimidating, fearful
guile - deceitfulness, trickery


Bob was one of the most straight-forward guys I knew.  He never acted with any type of ____________; I could truly trust him.

The photos of the building had not been recently taken.  When we arrived to look at the property we expected to buy, it was ________________ and looked as if it might collapse at any moment.

When I first met Bill he seemed like an _______________ guy.  He was outgoing and warm.  But, when he moved in as my roommate he seemed to be a totally different person - rude, selfish and loud.

We went to one of the most expensive restaurants in town and, as you might expect, the waiters were especially _________________ and catered to our every need.

Many liberal American presidents - like Carter and Obama - begin their presidencies in a peaceful manner but seem to become more __________________ as time goes on.

At its beginning stages psychology was very theoretical and there were many competing concepts.  Now the subject has become more ________________ and many concepts have been proved through experiments.

Was there ever a more _______________ basketball team than the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s? They regularly and easily humiliated the New York Knicks, as well as just about every other basketball team in the NBA.

answers are below:






answers:

guile
decrepit
amiable  
complaisant
bellicose
empirical
formidable


Chicago Bulls:

9 intermediate level words

Word Bank:

hereditary, to be offended by something, to be slain, deliberately, to collaborate with, abundant, to plummet, to emit something, to accommodate someone, 

Exercise:

1. The difference between murder and manslaughter depends on whether a person was killed _______________ or accidentally.  If it was an accident but the death was caused through carelessness, a person can be charged with manslaughter.

2. The two political parties in the USA rarely ________________ each other.  This is why the US government recently had to shut down for several days.

3. There are two types of the disease called diabetes.  Type one diabetes is _____________ while type two is acquired through bad eating habits and other factors a person can control.

4. A supervisor has to make it clear to an employee that he/she should not be ________________ by any type of job evaluation.  An evaluation is meant to help an employee assess how he/she has been doing and to also allow the employee to provide some feedback on what he/she might need in the future.

5. Everyone read some terrible news over the weekend in New York City.  A mother and her four children were ________________ by a mentally ill relative in Brooklyn.  He killed the entire family.  

6. The air in Los Angeles is polluted because of all the carbon monoxide gas that is ____________ by all the cars in that city every day.

7. The waiter was very kind.  Even though we were a large group and we had very specific and hard to meet requests, he was able to ___________________ us and give us the types of  meals we wanted.

8. The stock market can often be quite unstable.  If investors are confident in the government, stock prices can soar.  If investors lose confidence at any time, stock prices can _________________.

9. Many people think there is hunger throughout the world because we lack food.  No. Food is actually __________________.  But, even though there is more than enough food, political and economic systems are not efficient enough to distribute the food adequately.

Answers are below:





Answers:

1. deliberately
2. collaborate with
3. hereditary
4. offended
5. slain
6. emitted
7. accommodate
8. plummet
9. abundant

Intermediate-level English vocabulary challenge

to abandon – to get rid of, to leave behind

abundant – more than enough

an optimist – someone who always sees the bright side of things

to plummet – to drop quickly, to fall

a quest – a search for something important or meaningful

chronological order – to order a set from earliest to latest

to collaborate – to work together with others instead of competing

retaliation – getting revenge

unanimous – everyone agrees

to dissent – to disagree with what a majority of people believe

domestic – dealing with your home

to vow – to promise

meager – not much

a controversy – a topic or issue that causes people to argue

an innovation – something new

 

King Arthur and his knights were never bored – each of them was constantly engaged in some type of ___________ and they all sought to find the Holy Grail.  
 

When students learn US History they often go through it in _________________, although some teachers like to teach ‘themes’ instead. 
 

Are our schools too competitive?  Might it not be better if students _______________ with each other and learned better social skills? 
 

A jury’s decision has to be ________________.  If even one person dissents, there can be no real verdict. 
 

This will be my first international flight, although I have taken many ____________ flights around the USA. 
 

I loved my old Converse All Stars but they were getting old and I needed a new pair of casual shoes, so I _______________ them for some cool new running shoes.
 

The internet seems to have been around forever, but I can still remember in the 90s when this was an ___________________ and people were thinking about what might be possible from it. 
 

Capital punishment remains a huge ______________.  Should the state have the right to execute criminals if they have killed others? 
 

Many economists have pointed out that there should not be any cases of world hunger since the amount of food being produced now is ___________________. 
 

Many world religions do not believe in the morality of _________________. They recommend that a person should show mercy and forgive others.

Answers are below: 

Answers:

quest
chronological order
cooperated
unanimous
domestic
abandoned
innovation
controversy
abundant
retaliation

10 SAT-level words and fill-in-the-blanks

to usurp - to take power away from someone who should have it
liberated - freed
to appease - to make someone happy, to satisfy someone even though they might be wrong
brevity - briefness, something lasting a short time
to be intrigued by something/someone - to become deeply interested in something
a detractor - someone who believes that something is wrong; a critic
to exhort - to forcefully encourage
frantically - panicky; to something nervously and quickly because of pressure or fear
sluggish - slow moving
to be rash - to do something impulsively or without thinking about it too much


Answers are below the fill-in-the-blanks:


1.  A perfect example of the _____________ of life is the Mayfly, which only exists for one day before dying.

2.  In his essay "Common Sense,"  Thomas Paine ____________ the American people to continue fighting against the English king and to not stop until they had created a better system of government.

3.  Although Bob was generally reticent and did not speak much about his life, there was something about him that ____________ Irene. 

4.  Because the deadline for his paper was approaching, Bob _____________collected all of his sources and tried to organize them as quickly as possible.

5.  Although the capitol of Afghanistan was ___________ by American forces, who overthrew the Taliban in 2002, the war in Afghanistan has lingered (continued slowly) to this present day.

6.  When Bob wakes up in the morning, he goes about his morning routine somewhat ______________. Yet, by the time he gets to work he is a dynamo! (a dynamo is like a little powerful engine)

7.  Many people feel that the US entered the war against Iraq too ____________.  It would have been better if the Congress had shown more courage and asked more questions. 

8.  Even though American independence is celebrated each year, many people do not realize that there were many ________________ of the concept of independence. Indeed, many people in many states wished to remain English subjects and thought the American Revolution was wrong.

9.  After the military coup in Burma, the power of the president was ____________ by a military junta (a group of generals).

10. Everyone who studies diplomacy knows that Neville Chamberlain's attempt to ___________ Adolph Hitler backfired (it had the opposite effect).  Instead of making Hitler satisfied, Chamberlain's apparent weakness encouraged Hitler to pursue military conquest.

Answers are below:







Answers:

1. brevity
2. exhorted
3. intrigued
4. frantically
5. liberated
6. sluggishly
7. rashly
8. detractors
9. usurped
10. appease

Test your higher-level English vocabulary

resentment - the way you feel if a person hurts you and you can't forget it; a grudge
fortitude - strength
elation - extreme joy
eloquence - being able to speak beautifully
elite - among the very top or best
colloquial - conversational
peripatetic - moving around a lot
remunerative - receiving money for a service
vivacious - lively
garrulous - talking too much
amiable - friendly
reticent - not speaking much
symbiotic - a relationship in which two organisms benefit each other
regressive - going backwards
empirical - that which can be sensed, touched, heard etc.
to coerce - to force
intuitive - a feeling that something is right or wrong which cannot be verified
to retract - to take back
to consolidate - to bring a bunch of things together
to disseminate - to spread out


1) Many educators believe that a child will not learn anything that he/she is __________ into learning.  To learn, a child needs to be motivated by something other than fear.

2) Although many state universities are not considered to be as selective as the ________ Ivy League schools, they are less expensive and provide excellent educational opportunities, perhaps as excellent as the Ivy schools.

3) We don't often think of the bacteria in our stomachs as being our friends, but we have an important ____________ relationship with these bacteria.  They help us break down food and we provide them a place to survive.

4)  When the internet was started most people felt this would be a great way to ___________ useful information around the world.  At that time nobody could have anticipated all of the abuses and problems that have come with it.

5)  Martin Luther King Jr. was not only a principled person who fought for human rights.  People were amazed by his _____________.  He speeches were always well-written and beautifully spoken.

6)  When we look at a work of art we often can't really say what it means, but we often have an ________________ understanding of it.

7)  Although the professor was known as one of the greatest physicists in modern history, students were surprised by how ______________ his lectures were.  It was as if he were having friendly conversations with his students instead of formal lectures.

8)  If a person wants to be a great leader, perhaps the most important character trait will be ______________.  A great leader must be able to withstand a great amount of adversity.

9)  It's true that Jake was amazingly smart, but it was hard for people to tell that because he was so _______________.

10)  In order to go to college, many American students take out loans from several sources.  When it is time to pay the loans back, it is wise to have the loans _______________. This means all the loans are handled by one agency and one payment is made each month to the agency, which disseminates the payment equally to the different loan organizations.



Answers are below:







Answers:

1. coerced
2. elite
3. symbiotic
4. disseminate
5. eloquence
6. intuitive
7. colloquial
8. fortitude
9. reticent
10. consolidated