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Kaplan top words 1
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| abate | to reduce in amount, degree, or severity |
| castigate | to punish or criticize harshly |
| decorum | appropriatenenss of behaviour or conduct; propriety |
| enervate | to reduce in strength |
| fervid | intensely emotional; feverish |
| gregarious | outgoing, sociable |
| iconoclast | one who opposes established beliefs, customs, and institutions |
| malinger | to evade responsibility by pretending to be ill |
| obdurate | hardened in feeling; resistant to persuasion |
| paragon | model of excellence or perfection |
| quiescent | motionless |
| quiescent | Many animals are _______ over the winter months, minimizing activity in order to conserve energy. |
| rarefy | to make thinner or sparser |
| rarefy | Since the atmospher ___________ as altitudes increase, the air at the top of the very tall mountains is too thin to breathe. |
| soporific | causing sleep or lethargy |
| soporific | The movie proved to be so __________ that soon loud snores were heard throughout the theater. |
| tacit | done without words |
| tacit | Although not a word had been said, everyone in the room knew that a ________ agreement had been made about which course of action to take. |
| paragon | She is the ___________ of what a judge should be: honest, intelligent, hardworking, and just. |
| obdurate | The president was completely _________ on the issue, and no amount of persuasion would change his mind. |
| malinger | A common way to avoid the draft was by _______ pretending to be mentally or physically ill so as to avoid being taken by the Army. |
| iconoclast | His lack of regard for traditional beliefs soon established him as an _______. |
| gregarious | She was so __________ that when she found herself alone, she felt quite sad. |
| fervid | The fans of Maria Callas were unusally _ doing anything to catch a glimpse of the great opera singer. |
| enervate | The guerrillas hoped that a series of surprise attacks would _______ the regular army. |
| decorum | The countess complained that the vulgar peasants lacked the _____ appropriate for the visit to the palace. |
| castigate | Many Americans are amazed at how harshly the authorities in Singapore ____ perpetrators of what would be considered minor crimes in the United States. |
| abate | As the hurricane's force _, the winds dropped and the sea became calm. |
| inchoate | not fully formed; disorganized |
| inchoate | The ideas expressed in Nietzsche's mature work also appear in an ___________ form in his earliest writing. |
| engender | to produce, cause, or bring about |
| engender | His fear and hatred of clowns was ______________ when he witnessed the death of his fater at the hands of a clown. |
| erudite | learned, scholarly, bookish |
| erudite | The annual meeting of philosophy professors was a gathering of the most _________, well-published individuals in the field. |
| desultory | jumping from one thing to another; disconnected |
| desultory | Dian had a _______ academic record; she had changed majors 12 times in three years. |
| abscond | to leave secretly |
| abscond | The patron ________ from the restaurant without paying his bill by sneaking out the back door. |
| capricious | Queen Elizabeth I was quite ______ her courtiers could never be sure which of their number would catch her fancy. |
| deference | respect, courtesy |
| deference | The respectful young law clerk treated the Suprem Court Justice with the utmost ___________. |
| elegy | a sorrowful poem or speech |
| elegy | Although Thomas Gray's "_____ Written in a Country Churchyard" is about death and loss, it urges its readers to endure this life and to trust in spirituality. |
| florid | excessively decorated or embellished |
| florid | The palace had been decorated in a _ style; every surface had been carved and gilded. |
| guile | deceit or trickery |
| guile | Since he was not fast enought to catch the roadrunner on foot, the coyote resorted to ___ in an effort to trap his enemy. |
| implacable | unable to be calmed down or made peaceful |
| implacable | His rage at the betrayal was so great that he remained ______ for weeks. |
| laconic | using few words |
| laconic | She was a _____ poet who built her reputation on using words as sparingly as possible. |
| misanthrope | a person who dislikes others |
| misanthrope | The character Scrooge in A Christmas Carol is such a _ that even the sight of children singing makes him angry. |
| obsequious | overly submissive and eager to please |
| obsequious | The __ new associate made sure to compliment her supervisor's tie and agree with him on every issue. |
| pedant | someone who shows off learning |
| pedant | The graduate instructor's tedious and excessive commentary on the subject soon gained her a reputation as a _________. |
| repudiate | to reject the validity of |
| repudiate | The old woman's claim that she was Russian royalty was _ when DNA test showed she was of no relation to them. |
| specious | deceptively attractive; seemingly plausible but fallacious |
| specious | The student's __ excuse for being late sounded legitimate but was proved otherwise when her teacher called her home. |
| ameliorate | to make better; to improve |
| ameliorate | The doctor was able to __ the patient's suffering using painkillers. |
| chicanery | deception by means of craft or guile |
| chicanery | Dishonest used care sales people often use __ to sell bheir beat-up old cars. |
| disabuse | to set right; to free from error |
| disabuse | Galileo's observations ____ scholars of the notion that the sun revolved around the earth. |
| enigma | a puzzle; a mystery |
| enigma | Speaking in riddles and dressed in old robes, the artist gained a reputation as something of an __. |
| ephemeral | lasting a short time |
| ephemeral | The lives of mayflies seem __ to us, since the flies' average life span is a matter of hours. |
| euphemism | use of an inoffensive word or phrase in place of a more distateful one |
| euphemism | The funeral director preferred to use the _ spleeping instead of the word dead. |
| ingenuous | showing innocence or childlike simplicity |
| ingenuous | She was so _- that her friends feard that her innocence and trustfulness would be exploited when she visited the big city. |
| obviate | to prevent; to make unnecessary |
| obviate | The river was shallow enough to wade across at many points, which __ the need for a bridge. |
| anachronism | something out of place in time |
| anachronism | The aged hippie used ___________ phrases like groovy and far out that had not been popular for years. |
| antipathy | extreme dislike |
| antipathy | the ___ between the French and the English regularly erupted into open warfare. |
| convoluted | intricate and complicated |
| convoluted | Although many people bought a "|A Brief History of Time", few could follow its ________ ideas and theories. |
| dilatory | intended to delay |
| dilatory | The congressman used ________ measures to delay the passage of the bill. |
| disparate | fundamentally different; entirely unlike |
| disparate | Although the twins appear to be identical physically, their personalities are _________. |
| equivocate | to use expressions of double meaning in order to mislead |
| equivocate | When faced with criticism of her policies, the politician _________ and left all parties thinking she agreed with them. |
| exculpate | to clear from blame; prove innocent |
| exculpate | The adversarial legal system is intended to convict those who are guilty and to _________ those who are innocent. |
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