GRE六选二练习题(附解析)

2021年2月2日发(作者：hovercraft)

Unit 1

1. After successfully conning the investors out of

millions of dollars, the crook ____ with the money in the

middle of the night and managed to avoid arrest.

indicted

absconded

squandered

converged

divested

decamped

2. Because there is now such a ____ of vampire novels on

the market, the excitement they once evoked has been

deadened by their sheer number.

lack of

dogma

glut

inundation

dearth

deviance

3. Although the accusations against the politician were

____, they were believed by enough voters to seriously

damage his bid for office.

credible

specious

虚有其表

ephemeral

presumptuous

冒昧的

spurious

欺骗的

transient

4. Even though the curator actually spent several months

arranging the exhibit, the paintings seemed as if they had

been hung with ____.

guile

haste

deliberateness

creativity

celerity

敏捷

快速

slowness

5. The critical analysis of the works of Shakespeare is

not, as yet, ____; the sheer volume and complexity of his

writings ensure that there will always be more to analyze.

abstruse

pedantic

comprehensive

elaborate

1

learned

exhaustive

6. Both Darius and Xerxes continued the Persian

波斯人

tradition of showing leniency

仁慈

to beaten foes

俘虏

who showed themselves to be ____, while punishing

ruthlessly those who chose to remain defiant

挑衅

.

Bellicose

好斗的

complaisant

彬彬有礼

obeisant

鞠躬

prolix

冗长

turbulent

狂暴的

venerated

尊敬

7. Most historians credit the influence of Clovis’s deeply

religious wife, Clotild, for his decision to ____ paganism

异

教

in favor of Christianity.

Desiccate

干燥脱水

Abjure

放弃

Exacerbate

激怒

Legitimize

使合法

Espouse

支持

Renounce

中止

Unit 2

1. Widely disseminated

传播

since its publication during

the reign of Caesar Augustus, Virgil’s Aeneid has served as

the ____ of perfect Latin expression for hundreds of

generations of students.

Paragon

模范

Epithet

绰号

anomaly

异常的

epitome

典范

nadir

最低点

epitaph

碑文

2. The analyst’s report indicated that Gaines Corp. had

significantly underreported its capital depreciation

贬值

;

rather than remaining steady, the company’s value had

actually ____.

grown

declined

underestimated

diminished

augmented

amortized

分期付款

3. Elements of the author’s work are undeniably

autobiographical

自传

; however, the piece as a whole has

been ____ to such an extent that it cannot properly be called

a historical record.

Narrated

讲述

Inscribed

雕刻

documented

fabricated

contrived

catalogued

4. The obligation to perform charitable acts is a central

____ of many world religions.

Tenet

教义

原则

Paradigm

模范

model

模范

idyll

田园诗歌

precept

训诫

sanctity

神圣

5. Words rely on their contexts as well as their texts to

create meaning, but this does not mean that language is

inherently incapable of possessing ____ definitions; after all,

many words have only one meaning that can be reasonably

inferred regardless of the situation in which they are

uttered.

Concrete

具体的

Hermetic

深奥的

definitive

明确的

heterogeneous

异质的

iconoclastic

破坏偶像主义的

diverse

多样的

6. Charitable appeals often feature a single individual,

whether animal or human, because people tend to react

more ____ to individuals than to groups.

Magnanimously

崇高地

quietly

discreetly

谨慎的

perniciously

有害的

nefariously

邪恶的

benevolently

善意的

7. Dean always seemed to go along with the group and

changed his opinion to complement those around him, and

this ____ nature often irritated his friends.

Vociferous

大声喧闹的

Indelible

不能消除的

malleable

延展性的

tractable

可察觉的

strident

刺耳尖锐的

2

immutable

不可变的

Unit 3

1. The members of the team were already upset that they

were losing, but their anger escalated when the ____

members of the opposing team boasted about their

considerable lead in points.

Fortunate

幸运的

Vigorous

精力旺盛的

haughty

傲慢的

incensed

激怒的

humble

谦卑的

arrogant

傲慢的

2. The president of the company was shocked when he

arrived at the quiet boardroom the day after the stock

market crash; rather than exhibiting outrage, the members

of the board were completely ____.

Impassive

冷淡的

Histrionic

戏剧性的

Stoic

禁欲主义的

impassioned

激动的

empathetic

移情的

fetid

臭的

3. The law student was bent on augmenting his transcript

with challenging classes; as a result he was completely

vexed by the involute, ____ tax law textbooks.

transparent

luculent

容易了解的

convocational

召集的

labyrinthine

错综复杂的

byzantine

错综复杂的

perspicuous

明白的

4. In the new age of the internet, blogs and chat rooms

have become forums for some normally ____ people to

say what they might not otherwise have the intrepidity to

utter out in the real world.

Pusillanimous

胆怯的

mettlesome

精神抖擞

ingenious

纯朴的

plucky

大胆的

recreant

胆怯的

impudent

放肆无礼的

5. While her neighbors found her new

lawn decorations absurdly ____, Josie thought they were

tasteful, even sophisticated.

cosmopolitan

unkempt

粗野的

meretricious

俗丽的

tawdry

俗丽的

viridian

svelte

6. The newly appointed chief financial officer had saved

millions for the company in the last year; unfortunately,

his ____ attitude was making the employees miserable, as

they were forced to give up some of the luxuries afforded

to them in previous years.

Magnanimous

宽容大量

Penurious

小气

Prodigal

浪费

Parsimonious

吝啬的

Dispassionate

冷静的

Hedonistic

快乐主义的

7.

When the town’s water supply ran low during the

summer drought, the residents received a notice that ____

them to take heed

留意

of the dearth of water and avoid

any water-

related activities that weren’t necessary.

Lambasted

谴责

beseeched

恳求

wheedled

哄骗

inundated

淹没

castigated

惩罚

importuned

禁止

Unit 4

1. Although the President had been accused of reducing

defense spending, the new report revealed that during his

administration military ____ had actually increased.

Adventurism

冒险主义

Outlays

花费

successes

成功

gaffes

过失

expenditures

花费

efficiencies

效率

2. The government assistance program provided both

subsidized and free meals to children from ____ families.

Imperious

傲慢的

Imperturbable

镇静的

impecunious

impious

无信仰的

impennate

impoverished

3. The ____ of available housing units meant that supply

surpassed demand and drove down the price that renters

were willing to pay.

Dearth

缺乏

glut

paucity

少量的

decrepitude

衰老

excess

temerity

鲁莽

4. Supported as it was by legislators from across the

ideological spectrum, the recently enacted parks bill was

rightly labeled a successful ____ of bipartisanship.

Rostrum

讲台

exemplar

antithesis

对立面

illustration

例证

forum

座谈会

tenet

教义

原则

5. Many Britons were surprised by the results of the

ethnographic

人种

survey, which revealed that nearly five

percent of the population of England and Wales were of

South Asian ____.

extraction

pretense

虚假

arbitration

仲裁

affectation

虚假

descent

antecedence

6. While the film critic was ____ in her conviction that

sequels are generally inferior to their predecessors, she did

acknowledge occasional exceptions such as The Godfather

Part II, a film she considered superior to the original.

Wavering

摇摆

Vacillating

踌躇的

adamant

坚硬的

perturbed

使扰乱的

disconsolate

孤独的

resolute

坚决的

7. After decades of stability, the past 15 years have borne

witness to a remarkably ____ period for airlines, during

which virtually every airline has been part of a merger, filed

for bankruptcy, or both.

fallow

avionic

航空电子的

erratic

不稳定的古怪的

3

malignant

恶意的

volatile

挥发性

不稳定

desolate

荒芜的

Unit 5

1. Despite its ____ as a plot device in films and television

programs, multiple- personality disorder is in reality

remarkably rare.

Simplicity

天真

Coincidence

巧合

Pervasiveness

遍布的

Correlation

相关

Ubiquity

到处存在的

facility

辅助的

2. Psychologists define “confirmation bias” a

s a fallacy

whereby facts that ____ one’s previously held beliefs are

emphasized and those that diverge are downplayed.

calibrate

corroborate

facilitate

extrapolate

qualify

substantiate

3. While the ascent of online classified advertising has

coincided with the ____ of newspapers, the journalist was

reluctant to attribute the diminution of the latter to the

former.

appropriation

concatenation

wane

consolidation

aggregation

dwindling

4. Aspirant

怀抱大志者

writers may take ____ in the

example of Frank Herbert, whose magnum opus Dune was,

at the outset

开始

, rebuffed

拒绝

by every publishing house

in the country.

Consolation

安慰

Insinuation

含蓄批评

Succor

救援人员，安慰

Allusion

暗指

solstice

instruction

5. In an era in which mass media is but a thrall of its

4

corporate masters, the amateurish ____ of commercials for

local businesses provide a tonic for the slick homogeneity

of most advertising.

Amalgamations

合并

eccentricities

synergies

协作

conglomerations

混合物

syllogisms

演绎法

idiosyncrasies

特质

6.

Though the futurist conceded that Apple’s iPhone was

a revolutionary device, she was adamant that it would not

be immune to the same forces that caused such previous

“game changing” products as Ford’s Model T and Sony’s

Walkman to be considered ____.

avant-garde

electronic

circuitous

antediluvian

古风的

;

上古的

;

大洪水前的

superannuated

古老的

radical

彻底地

极端的

7. Unlike Lacey, who is nearly emaciated

消瘦

due to

her eating habits, Marty’s other cat, Marco, has ____

appetite.

an edacious

贪吃的

a meager

不足

a spurious

伪造

a scanty

不足

a sporadic

零星的

a voracious

贪吃的

Unit 6 2013.9.5

1. The economics professor had a plan to discourage her

____ students who thought blandishments would get them

higher grades: any wheedling student would have to

complete an additional 15-page research paper by the end of

the semester.

lumbering

viable

fawning

candid

obsequious

ingenuous

2. Most singers of a style of Portuguese music called

“fado” sound and appear appropriately ____ as they sing

lyrics about lost love and regret.

fatuous

morose

buoyant

melancholy

nonplused

discordant

3. The horse trainer thought her newest client had a

penchant for picking ironic names for their ____ horses;

one example was Tractable, a horse that did not live up to

his name.

auspicious

compliant

obdurate

serendipitous

tranquil

recalcitrant

4. The guileless politician’s responses a

t the debate

disconcerted some of her potential voters, and she was

worried that her opponent’s ____ statements would

encompass a wider range of voters’ interests.

affable

ambiguous

conspicuous

benevolent

equivocal

candid

5. When Becca brought home the irascible puppy, her

more quiescent dogs were rattled by their new ____

housemate.

pugnacious

languid

bellicose

juvenile

diminutive

phlegmatic

6. When Howard began his career as a professional

mediator, he had no idea that some of his clients would be

so ____; he thought that having a job that requires one to

deal with disputing parties would entail placating their

enmity.

acquiescent

indignant

churlish

disparate

amenable

distinct

7. The newspaper’s humor columnist, while talented,

puts off writing her columns until the last minute; as a result,

she submits pieces that are so ____ that her editor emails

her after almost every deadline to remind her of the

minimum line requirement.

fallacious

terse

jocular

waggish

laconic

erroneous

Unit 7 2013.9.6

1. In the summer of 1911, merchant Nathan Steinberg

beamed with pride as he placed his order for 3,000 pairs of

high-button shoes; little did he know that they would be

____ come that fall!

Outmoded

过时

Passé

已过盛年的，凋谢的

Chic

别致的

inapplicable

不适用

repulsive

令人反感的

disagreeable

2. The port city of Galveston, Texas, was once a great

____ of economic activity, but though great effort went into

its reconstruction after the floods of 1900, it never returned

to its former prosperity.

bounty

maritime

abundance

hub

中心

chronicle

center

3. Anthony’s general sense of restlessness and rash

approach to life have compelled him to rush headlong into

decisions that less ____ men would think twice about.

Lethargic

昏睡的

audacious

勇敢的

torpid

麻痹的

exotic

异国的

aggrandized

intrepid

无畏的

4. The misapprehension that lemmings commit mass

5

suicide by jumping off cliffs has been fostered by legends,

films, and television commercials; one reason people

believe the myth may be that lemmings are ____ to

Scandinavia, a region with an unusually high suicide rate.

Inherent

内在的

本质的

organic

endemic

风土的

地方的

prodigious

很大的异常的惊人的

indigenous

土产的土著的生而具有的

titanic

5. An exceptionally sophisticated predator, the platypus

uses the electroreceptors on its bill to locate ____, resulting

in a remarkably efficient and effective hunting practice.

Iniquity

不公正

provender

食物

quintessence

精华

pith

骨髓

victuals

食物

lassitude

厌倦

6. Though Salsa takes its roots from various countries in

Central and South America, it is fundamentally and

essentially Cuban: its development was a ____, but

ultimately the music belongs to one country.

collaboration

mé

lange

混合物

feat

coup

妙计

lyric

denouement

结局收场

7. The praise the students received for their flashy

presentation and detailed handouts was utterly unwarranted,

for their apparent diligence was motivated merely by

_____.

prepossession

cronyism

assiduity

sycophancy

torpidity

obsequiousness

Unit 8 2013/9/10

gh we had planned the vacation trip to the sunny

spa for weeks, no one could have predicted the ____ onset

of rainy weather that spoiled most of our outdoor activities.

welcome

precipitous

6

unforeseen

fortunate

fruitless

lethargic

2. The ____ outcries from the disgruntled union workers

were apparently to no avail; the supervisor decided to reject

the enhanced benefits package without any further

discussion.

pristine

fervent

quizzical

redolent

allusive

impassioned

3

. David’s report card stated he is sometimes regarded as a

____ student by his teachers when his narrow-minded

interpretations and adamant attitudes dominate his

classroom discussions.

intransigent

assiduous

intractable

gregarious

pensive

diligent

the inception of numerous exorbitant tolls

throughout the state’s major highways, the popularity of

long-distance automobile travel ____ while the rate of train

travel experienced a concomitant upswing.

waned

equivocated

intensified

importuned

abated

surged

5. An aspiring pop star should be ____, playing concert

after concert and sending out hundreds of demo tapes, even

though in the end, fame may depend solely on having the

right connections.

idolatrous

dogged

tenuous

notorious

tenacious

advantageous

6. In many Western cultures, the four-leaf clover is easily

identified as ____ symbol; in Buddhist cultures, it is the

wheel that is widely recognized as a good omen.

an auspicious

a facetious

a pious

a pervasive

a propitious

a prophetic

7. Because he had initially feared public displays of outrage

from constituents who felt their taxes were already too high,

the governor was shocked to hear so many people ____ his

decision to sign the new bill that would generate much

needed revenue for the state.

effectuate

reproach

annul

laud

extol

flout

8. After a brief, but vexing, attempt at living in the

countryside without the amenities which are readily

accessible to the modern urbanite, the young lawyer, who

previously had found a certain ____ charm in the lifestyle

of the Pennsylvania Dutch, quickly changed his mind.

bucolic

erudite

pedestrian

idyllic

banal

lugubrious

Unit 9 2013/9/11

1.

Not only did the exhibit clearly show the health

benefits of a vegetarian diet, it showed how those benefits

often translate into a greater sense of _________.

vitality

mendacity

remorse

vigor

contrition

7

persecution

2. While the author clearly identifies the importance of

Victorian culture to twentieth- century technological

advances, he _________ the importance of British Regency

to the development of the social factors that influenced

Victorian culture.

intimates

corroborates

neglects

placates

trumpets

omits

speaker, though well-read and articulate, had a

tendency to be _________.

eloquent

elegant

bombastic

gregarious

pompous

affable

that conditions were quite amenable to fruit trees

during the growing season this year, the _________ of

apples this fall is surprising.

dearth

countenance

surfeit

spate

amalgamation

paucity

5. Although she was such a bad-mannered child that she

was sent to a boarding school, as an adult she is the very

model of ____________.

friendliness

diffidence

propriety

reticence

decorum

brashness

6. Politicians sometimes appear to act in a manner that is

almost ____________; however, when all the information is

released after the fact, it is apparent that they were acting

according to a deliberate plan.

pithy

conventional

conformist

whimsical

flawless

capricious

7.

Forced to take an alternate road when a massive oil

spill closed the highway, the two-hour detour made their

already arduous trip even more ____________.

irksome

onerous

facile

glib

implacable

immutable

8.

Though many of her contemporaries found her odd,

Ella Wilkins is now much admired for her

____________spirit, especially her willingness to reject

prevailing feminine roles and to travel to foreign lands

alone.

forlorn

magnanimous

adventurous

bellicose

desolate

doughty

9. Plato, an important philosopher, is primarily known

because he wrote down Socrates’s ____________

conversations. It is through Plato’s record of these dialogues

that Socrates’s teachings have survived and continue to

enlighten seekers of wisdom.

inspiring

edifying

tedious

grating

rousing

didactic

10.

Even the colossal meal failed to ____________her

voracious appetite.

cadge

8

exacerbate

provoke

satiate

mendicate

allay

--- ---------------------------------------

11.

Slicks of oil on a rain-soaked street are ____________

and beautiful, but the lovely rainbows they produce on the

asphalt can seem rather ugly when one reflects upon the

road hazards they create and the environmental damage

they entail.

Anodyne

iridescent

monocoque

pavonine

parietal

saturnine

12. He had not always been so callous, but with time he

became ____________to the violence around him.

adorned

cauterized

sensitized

ostracized

inured

attuned

13.

George was a mercurial character; one moment he

was optimistic about his prospects, and the next he was

____________.

immoral

hopeful

witty

morose

dour

buoyant

14. Growing up in a wealthy suburb, she felt quite the

____________as she began her first job as a llama caretaker

on a rural farm.

tyro

concierge

agronomist

cultivator

neophyte

curator

15.

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth was based upon a

highly ____________version of events that the playwright

wrought from Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England,

Scotland, and Ireland; King Duncan’s death at the hand of

reticence

adversity

repudiation

quiescence

verisimilitude

tribulation

19. The Mayan pyramid of Kukulkan is more than just

____________edifice; this imposing structure was built to

Macbeth comprises the play’s only historical truth.

anachronistic

effusive

embellished

prosaic

serpentine

colored

16. While comic book artists such as Neal Adams

demonstrated a more thorough mastery of human anatomy

than did the generation that preceded them, some readers

wondered whether the superheroes they drew were really

supposed to be so ____________ that every detail of their

musculatures would be visible through their clothing.

thewy

sinewy

superfluous

pneumatic

flocculent

atrophies

17. Owing to a combination of its proximity and

____________atmosphere, Mars is the only planet in our

solar system whose surface details can be discerned from

the Earth.

viscous

ossified

rarefied

estimable

copious

meager

18. Using the hardships of the Joad family as a model,

John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath effectively

demonst

rated how one clan’s struggles epitomized the

____________experienced by an entire country.

create a chirping echo whenever people clap their hands on

the staircase. This echo sounds just like the chirp of the

Quetzal, a bird which is sacred in the Mayan culture.

a venerable

a humble

a beguiling

an august

a specious

a prosaic

20. Some wealthy city-dwellers become enchanted with the

prospect of trading their hectic schedules for a bucolic life

in the countryside, and they buy property with a pleasant

view of farmland

—

only to find the stench of the livestock

so ____________that they move back to the city.

bovine

pastoral

noisome

atavistic

olfactory

mephitic

Unit 10

1. Despite their initial fears, most environmentalists now

concede that the artificial reefs have had a largely _______

effect on surrounding ecosystems.

unfounded

benign

caustic

interminable

innocuous

plaintive

2. Scholarship reductions and player defections

notwithstanding, the new coach applied himself to

rebuilding the program with such _______ that the rest of

9

the staff struggled to match his enthusiasm.

cessation

indifference

rhetoric

fervency

heedlessness

zeal

3. After hours of practice and innumerable fruitless attempts

to catch the balls, Allen was finally forced to admit that he

wasn’t

sufficiently _______ to be a juggler.

sedate

lumbering

dexterous

implicit

adroit

awkward

4. The cohesion of Alexander the Great

’s vast empire was

_______; at his death, Alexander’s lands were divided

among his generals, Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Antigonus the

One-Eyed.

abiding

precarious

protracted

redoubled

renowned

tenuous

5.

is wife’s icy stare and aloof demeanor told Johann

unequivocally that his propitiatory gifts had failed to

_______ her anger.

vilify

garner

exacerbate

aggravate

placate

appease

6. By consuming _______ numbers of power bars, some

athletes believe they will have proportionally greater

amounts of endurance and strength because of the

energy-producing ingredients these products claim to

contain.

10

scant

furtive

copious

solvent

measured

profuse

comprehensive bill, signed into law by the president

late last week, was _______ 249 new regulations on the

fishing industry.

elucidated by

rife with

deficient in

unencumbered by

replete with

exempted from

former employees started a blog that revealed the

embarrassing quirks of the boss, an act which had _______

impact on the company’s CEO.

a virulent

an assuaging

a monumental

a discomfiting

a bolstering

a mortifying

late Samuel Huntington was well known for his

_______ opinions on relations among different cultures;

many of his ideas are still passionately debated today.

zealous

pedantic

polemical

rhetorical

divisive

hegemonic

_______ plant life on the previously barren

volcanic rock created by the Kilauea lava flow is strong

evidence that humans, too, will one day be able to inhabit

the area.

incipient

nascent

waning

fervent

flagging

static

less of the long-winded answers Michael

consistently gave in class, his teachers remember him as

_______ student, rather than a garrulous one, because he

generally kept to himself.

a taciturn

a voluble

an uncommunicative

a querulous

a disinterested

an eccentric

the cities at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains,

where the shortage of rain often leaves wells and rivers

empty, a winter without liberal snowfall will mean a

_______ of the run-off that normally provides fresh water

in the summer months.

proliferation

conduit

paucity

surfeit

dearth

burgeoning

13.

Despite her father’s endeavors to placate his daughter

every time she had a grievance, the young girl was simply

_______ complainer, and so could always find something

else that displeased her.

an inveterate

an impertinent

a plaintive

an oblique

a chronic

an abysmal

want to believe that Lisa de Giocondo, the woman

popularly believed to have been the model for da Vinci’s

Mona Lisa, was a(n) _______ person and prefer instead to

think that there is an enigma behind the celebrated smile.

dulcet

artless

comely

facile

inscrutable

11

ingenuous

15.

Though the futurist conceded that Apple’s iPhone was a

revolutionary device, she was adamant that it would not be

immune to the same forces that caused such previous “game

changing” products as Ford’s Model T and Sony’s Walkman

to be considered _______.

avant-garde

electronic

circuitous

antediluvian

superannuated

radical

results of a survey of movie-goers gainsaid the

scholar’s claim that the filmmakers’ intent would remain

opaque to most viewers; it seems the metaphors employed

were rather _______.

perspicuous

abstruse

manifest

aesthetic

cryptic

recalcitrant

call the area _______ was perhaps hyperbolic; while

it was quaint and abstracted from the modern life of nearby

cities, the presence of mining equipment was decidedly

imposing.

Germane

gentrified

aplomb

bucolic

rancorous

quiescent

an era in which mass media is but a thrall of its

corporate masters, the amateurish _______ of commercials

for local businesses provide a tonic for the slick

homogeneity of most advertising.

amalgamations

eccentricities

synergies

conglomerations

syllogisms

idiosyncrasies

19. Despite having earned over two hundred million dollars

during his career, the boxer’s _______ spending and bad

investments left him insolvent within a few years of

retirement.

parsimonious

penurious

perfidious

prodigal

profligate

pugnacious

a Roman emperor visited a provincial city, an

important part of the ceremony of receptio was the delivery

of _______, in which a local poet or orator would lavish

praise on the imperial visitor.

a compendium

an elegy

an encomium

a jeremiad

a philippic

a panegyric

Unit 11

e having steeled herself for the worst, the new band

director was disheartened to hear the _______ sounds

emanating from the freshman orchestra.

arduous

euphonious

cacophonous

ample

discordant

harmonious

, the author of A History of the English Church and

People, was so widely _______ that he has been almost

universally known as “The Venerable Bede” since the ninth

century.

defamed

consoled

revered

esteemed

mitigated

12

reviled

addition to the detailed written regulations regarding

play, a novice golfer must also learn the _______, but

nonetheless important, rules of etiquette.

implicit

laconic

express

tacit

reclusive

manifest

on the desire to restrict further water pollution, the

Clean Water Act of 1972 began under _______ terms, but

opponents soon assailed the bill in the court system and

discouraged those who had fought for its ratification.

bleak

auspicious

unfavorable

suspicious

promising

ineffectual

5.

Jane Austen’s novel, Emma, paints a comedy of errors

that results when its heroine tries her hand at creating love

matches, an effort which she attributes to her own _______

instead of a selfish need to meddle.

gaiety

benevolence

elegance

viscosity

refinement

magnanimity

interviewing for a job as a computer consultant,

Robert consciously provided a _______ of references,

knowing full well that he had few former employers who

would be laudatory about his past projects.

multitude

array

myriad

potpourri

paucity

dearth

7. While most of the tasks undertaken by the interns were

undemanding, a fact that led to the flood of applicants for

the positions each year, there was one _______ duty:

cleaning out the garbage bins in the laboratory.

unambiguous

facile

arduous

onerous

tenebrous

lucid

an attempt to _______ voters to support her, the

incumbent politician beguilingly greeted a room full of

constituents and pledged to lower taxes

—

even though she

had only ever done the opposite while in office.

alienate

abase

inveigle

eviscerate

estrange

entice

a series of storms, the once arid landscape became

_______ for the first time in many months.

innocuous

barren

verdant

desolate

bountiful

limpid

gh he received many visitors, the _______ old

man shooed them away after only a few minutes.

misanthropic

curmudgeonly

sarcastic

chauvinistic

garrulous

affable

used to be a picky eater, but since a new complex

of fine dining and ethnic restaurants opened in her

neighborhood, she has become quite _______.

13

corpulent

finicky

epicurean

ponderous

gourmandizing

persnickety

SW

AT team entered the dark building on high alert,

their guns drawn and their night vision goggles on; each

agent’s eyes and ears were attuned to the slightest

disturbance in the _______ recesses of the rooms.

empty

cacophonous

stygian

gloomy

functional

useful

no delusions about his actual financial situation,

the man’s desire to present a frugal picture to his friends

and avoid being labeled _______ caused him to go to such

an extreme that he ended up being called a Scrooge.

a spendthrift

a prodigal

a miser

a hedonist

a skinflint

an epicure

_______ pirate plundered every trade ship that came

near his own ship; it was almost as if he could never loot or

pillage enough to satisfy his craving for gold and jewels.

raffish

ebullient

voracious

showy

rapacious

effusive

15.

The homicide detectives didn’t truly understand the

_______ of the criminal until they found the secret hideout

where he stored his instruments of torture and carried out

his heinous acts.

pulchritude

enormity

ingenuity

iniquity

canniness

perfidy

blood and human sacrifices performed to mollify

the gods were ubiquitous in ancient cultures, the Mayans’

propensity for sacrificing prisoners from neighboring tribes

_______ all the other tribes.

imprisoned

engendered

disquieted

expatiated

condoned

affronted

contrast to the stark facades of their surviving ruins,

medieval castles were depicted in contemporary tapestries

as _______ with colorful banners and pennants.

ablated

attenuated

bedizened

caparisoned

extirpated

fomented

young minister was startled to learn that his

parishioners considered him _______; he had been unaware

that his message was being undermined by his

sanctimonious and self-righteous tone.

ingenuous

moralistic

punctilious

salacious

sententious

unaffected

19. Many senior faculty members who were accustomed to

being addressed in a more collegial and egalitarian manner

were alienated by the _______ tone of the new department

chair’s introductory remarks.

ignominious

imperious

peremptory

propitious

14

sanguine

saturnine

to demonstrate an air of sophistication and

worldliness, the comments that Hannah made upon exiting

the building served only to emphasize her _______

mentality and reinforce Mr. Hassan’s conviction that her

dismissal was justified because she was not yet mature

enough for the corporate world.

adroit

venal

puerile

callow

indolent

audacious

Unit 12

Plath was not as _______ a poet as was her

husband Ted Hughes, having produced just two volumes of

poetry in her short lifespan.

dejected

celebrated

satiric

jubilant

prolific

fruitful

unfounded fear that some children, and even adults,

have of the circus clown is rather ironic considering that he

is meant to be _______ character who invokes laughter and

enjoyment.

an ace

a surly

a genial

an artful

a crackerjack

an affable

photographer _______ posed the bride for her portrait,

carefully adjusting each fold of her dress and each curl of

her hair before taking the picture.

meticulously

frantically

subversively

hectically

fastidiously

hysterically

finishing the editing workshop, the writers found

that they were able to give each other _______ comments,

instead of the general and unhelpful suggestions they had

been making beforehand.

cursory

derisive

superficial

amateurish

critical

constructive

5. Many admirers of art _______ the beauty of Jackson

Pollock’s paintings, while others disparage the splatters of

color as simplistic.

defame

overlook

ignore

commend

underrate

extol

ing Tom to protest the poor grade on his

psychology paper, the professor was disheartened when he

_______ tossed it in his bag and left the room.

gingerly

flippantly

timidly

prudently

thoughtlessly

delicately

stock market having plunged drastically, the

investor’s _______

mood on the trading floor seemed

incongruous.

enervated

sanguine

inconsolable

sardonic

funereal

buoyant

ds of _______ fans waited in line for hours at the

comic book convention to talk to their favorite artists and

15

buy limited-edition toy variants otherwise unavailable.

staunch

malodorous

hirsute

zealous

noisome

impecunious

9.

The group’s final paper, replete with errors in spelling,

diction, and idiom, showed every sign of having been given

only _______ proofreading.

an artless

a cursory

an extraneous

a fastidious

a meticulous

a perfunctory

ing a series of solo recordings, collaborating

with such musicians as David Byrne and Robert Fripp, and

producing artists from Devo to U2 made Brian Eno so

_______ for a time that one music industry observer was

moved to note that “Brain Eno is everywhere—

like God, or

salt.”

omnivorous

ignoble

fortuitous

omnipresent

odious

ubiquitous

11.

Some of Dr. Seuss’s most famous characters had

_______ meanings that would be lost on his young readers

until adulthood; the title character in Yertle the Turtle, for

instance, was based on Hitler, and the imperiled Who

people in Horton Hears a Who represented the citizens of

post- World War II Japan.

banal

manifest

oblique

nascent

allusive

lucid

ous to the magnitude of his costly mistake,

Whitman was unprepared to be _______ at so public a

forum as the annual shareholder’s meeting.

censured

excoriated

instigated

lauded

repatriated

extolled

e they were written to entertain both parents

and children, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies served an

unexpectedly _______ purpose: vex, parry, and overture,

for example, are among the advanced vocabulary that the

young audience could learn in context from The Bugs

Bunny Show.

Didactic

obfuscating

edifying

aggrandizing

ephemeral

mystifying

known to go out of his way to get along with

people, the reclusive author nonetheless managed to

surprise the interviewer with his _______ comments.

simpatico

abstruse

recondite

splenetic

winsome

churlish

decision to continue the investigation was not so

much about doubting the veracity of the witn

ess’s statement,

which had been corroborated by other reliable interviews,

as it was about a conviction that there was further evidence

that could play a _______ role in the case.

paramount

negligible

salient

perjurious

mendacious

marginal

16.

Boycotting companies that engage in unethical

16

behavior, such as promoting wars or violating privacy rights,

can be an effective way to pressure corporations to stop

inherently unacceptable behaviors; nonetheless, such

demonstrations of consumer _______ can also have

negative consequences including inflation and increased

unemployment.

endorsement

ratification

censure

debilitation

machinations

disapprobation

17.

Instead of saying “killed” when reporting on war

situations, the military often uses more anodyne phrases

such as “neutralizing the target” or “collateral damage;”

these attempts to gloss reality with _______ do nothing to

alleviate the impact of the news.

elucidation

periphrasis

prevarication

circumlocution

hyperbole

dysphemisms

understanding literary theory requires a greater

academic investment than simply memorizing descriptions

of aestheticism, deconstructionism, and post- modernism;

one must also be willing to study philosophy, history, and

society to develop an interdisciplinary _______ of how

humans build meaning.

discernment

incognizance

acumen

somnolence

nescience

belletrism

animals such as the poison dart frog, the tiger

moth, and the black widow spider give predators advanced

warning of their unpalatability or danger through

aposematic warning signs, while other animals such as the

harmless scarlet kingsnake simply mimic the bright colors

of the _______ species to keep predators away.

pernicious

amicable

comestible

pulchritudinous

deleterious

esculent

some mummies, those of Egyptian pharaohs for

example, were intentionally preserved with substances such

as natron to dry out the bodies and prevent decomposition,

others, such as the Tarim mummies found in present-day

Xinjiang, China, were _______ naturally by the searing

desert conditions.

smelted

disinterred

espied

vitiated

exsiccated

anhydrated

Unit 13

the valedictorian of his graduating class, Thomas was

tasked with delivering a(n) _______ speech, dutifully

rehearsing in front of both his mirror and the cat.

languid

extended

eloquent

listless

articulate

enduring

d that he had lost the support of his party, the

Prime Minister forcefully _______ his controversial

statement that healthcare would not be a priority.

recanted

affirmed

validated

overlooked

disavowed

ignored

recent advances in technology allowing for

convenient online access to reading material, many

forecasters expect to see hardcover book sales _______.

multiply

17

abate

prevail

assimilate

dwindle

appreciate

over for speeding and nervous about receiving

an unpleasant lecture, Natalie’s fears were easily relieved

by the _______ policeman.

exacting

affable

atypical

stringent

sober

genial

among statisticians, who fully understand that

true randomness includes repetition, there is often a

misguided attempt to _______ one’s chances of winning the

lottery by declining to select numbers that have recently

appeared on winning tickets.

augment

escalate

divulge

mitigate

squander

curtail

6.

“Out of sight, out of mind” is a useful _______ for

those who cannot develop a logical argument to defense

their failure to be concerned about poverty in foreign

nations.

fallacy

allusion

maxim

query

waiver

proverb

gh it initially seemed that the ideological gap

between them was insurmountable

—

he believed in

_______ while she believed in accumulating wealth, he in

sensitivity towards others while she in self- interest

—

the

marriage ultimately lasted 52 years until his death.

largess

avarice

empathy

parsimony

cupidity

philanthropy

8.

Those who criticized Coco Chanel’s later clothing

designs misjudged as _______ the style that generations of

women to come would regard as the epitome of high

fashion.

defamatory

prohibitive

contrite

mundane

insipid

exorbitant

receiving a promotion to departmental chair,

Brookstone has been even more prone to _______ against

the university’s administration, a

nd consequently has lost

several professional allies.

approbations

tirades

diatribes

precursors

commendations

canons

10.

Sergei’s belie

f in astrology, a pseudoscience whose

practitioners provide results than can never be conclusively

proven or falsified, left him vulnerable to _______.

censure

chicanery

vindication

authentication

wile

vexation

_______ international aid agencies have toward

selecting a fresh cause to champion approximately every

five years is indicative of their desire to avoid apathy due to

overexposure and, instead, continue to stimulate donor

interest.

ambivalence

predilection

18

affectation

propensity

wariness

callousness

sions about the use of high-fructose corn

syrup as a sweetener lead to _______ among nutritionists,

and the use of aspartame, which is also common, is just as

controversial.

discord

concurrence

gratification

dissension

veracity

convergence

r recognition of the destructive effects of

targeting fast food advertising at young children may lead

to more efforts to _______ such tactics: there is already

clear evidence that the necessary prohibitive regulations

have widespread support.

rally

check

embellish

curb

pirate

muster

though the judge personally found the law

_______, his moral objection did not provide a legal basis

on which to rule the law unconstitutional.

anodyne

abhorrent

propitious

permissible

invidious

salubrious

tely impenetrable to the layperson, the ancient

text was _______ even to experts in the field.

abstruse

unequivocal

opaque

lucid

incontrovertible

obtuse

feudalism practiced by Carolingian rulers was

still in its _______ stage; only later did features such as

subinfeudation and the consequent necessity of designating

a liege lord lead to the fully-developed system familiar to

students of the High Middle Ages.

refractory

byzantine

nascent

labyrinthine

inchoate

perfidious

17.

A key element of The Smiths’ recognizable sound

came from the tension between Morrissey’s _______ lyrics

and the cheerful, almost bouncy music composed by Johnny

Marr.

lubricious

euphoric

sanguine

saturnine

recondite

lachrymose

bride was mortified to learn that her

dress

—

which had appeared delicate, even _______, in the

artificial light of the boutique

—

was nearly transparent in

the bright sunlight of her outdoor wedding.

ephemeral

diaphanous

ponderous

mettlesome

cumbersome

gossamer

19.

The public’s fascination with celebrities coupled with

the innovations of the electronic age may inspire a new

cadre of amateur “paparazzi”: there are certainly indications

that such a trend is _______.

looming

attenuating

calumniating

deliquescing

flagging

19

impending

20.

The doctor’s real mistake, from the perspective of his

_______ professional friends who quickly jilted him, was

not that his choice of treatment was inappropriate, but

rather that it was viscerally objectionable to the medical

establishment.

squeamish

fickle

staunch

inconstant

orthodox

stodgy

Unit 14

reordering the sentences in the problem and adding

distracting figures, the professor successfully _______ a

previously easy exam question and made it almost

impossible to solve.

engendered

muddled

interpreted

erased

obliterated

obfuscated

2.

Because she always had the correct answers to life’s

difficult dilemmas, my grandmother was sought after for

her ______ by family members and neighbors.

duplicity

wisdom

bewilderment

ignorance

sagacity

guile

_______ road, made what seemed like a short trip

on a map much longer in reality; it twisted its way through

mountains to get from one valley to another.

abbreviated

invigorating

fleeting

immense

serpentine

tortuous

ates who had pre-judged Lucy as unaware were

surprised when she made the _______ observation that their

professor’s missing coffee mug indicated that

he had left for

the day.

asinine

perceptive

obtuse

transparent

astute

lucid

5.

Madeline’s guests all agreed that had it not been for t

he

terrible weather, her wedding day, complete with white

dress and three- tiered cake, would have been _______.

urban

divine

excessive

disproportionate

idyllic

rustic

Shakespeare scholar argued that in all of the

playwright’s 37 works, he had never written the part of a

_______ character, only relying on vibrant and colorful

individuals to propel his stories forward.

pedestrian

original

imperial

domineering

extraordinary

mundane

gh it initially seemed that the ideological gap

between them was insurmountable

—

he believed in

_______ while she believed in accumulating wealth, he in

sensitivity towards others while she in self- interest

—

the

marriage ultimately lasted 52 years until his death.

largess

avarice

empathy

parsimony

cupidity

philanthropy

20

8.

Those who criticized Coco Chanel’s later clothing

designs misjudged as _______ the style that generations of

women to come would regard as the epitome of high

fashion.

defamatory

prohibitive

contrite

mundane

insipid

exorbitant

receiving a promotion to departmental chair,

Brookstone has been even more prone to _______ against

the university’s administration, and consequently has lost

several professional allies.

approbations

tirades

diatribes

precursors

commendations

canons

10.

Sergei’s belief in astrology, a pseudoscience whose

practitioners provide results than can never be conclusively

proven or falsified, left him vulnerable to _______.

censure

chicanery

vindication

authentication

wile

vexation

11.

The _______ international aid agencies have

toward selecting a fresh cause to champion approximately

every five years is indicative of their desire to avoid apathy

due to overexposure and, instead, continue to stimulate

donor interest.

ambivalence

predilection

affectation

propensity

wariness

callousness

sions about the use of high-fructose corn syrup

as a sweetener lead to _______ among nutritionists, and the

use of aspartame, which is also common, is just as

controversial.

discord

concurrence

gratification

dissension

veracity

convergence

r recognition of the destructive effects of

targeting fast food advertising at young children may lead

to more efforts to _______ such tactics: there is already

clear evidence that the necessary prohibitive regulations

have widespread support.

rally

check

embellish

curb

pirate

muster

though the judge personally found the law

_______, his moral objection did not provide a legal basis

on which to rule the law unconstitutional.

anodyne

abhorrent

propitious

permissible

invidious

salubrious

tely impenetrable to the layperson, the ancient

text was _______ even to experts in the field.

abstruse

unequivocal

opaque

lucid

incontrovertible

obtuse

feudalism practiced by Carolingian rulers was

still in its _______ stage; only later did features such as

subinfeudation and the consequent necessity of designating

a liege lord lead to the fully- developed system familiar to

21

students of the High Middle Ages.

refractory

byzantine

nascent

labyrinthine

inchoate

perfidious

17.

A key element of The Smiths’ recognizable sound

came from the tension between Morrissey’s _______ ly

rics

and the cheerful, almost bouncy music composed by Johnny

Marr.

lubricious

euphoric

sanguine

saturnine

recondite

lachrymose

bride was mortified to learn that her

dress

—

which had appeared delicate, even _______, in the

artificial light of the boutique

—

was nearly transparent in

the bright sunlight of her outdoor wedding.

ephemeral

diaphanous

ponderous

mettlesome

cumbersome

gossamer

19.

The public’s fascination with celebrities coupled with

the innovations of the electronic age may inspire a new

cadre of amateur

“paparazzi”: there are certainly indications

that such a trend is _______.

looming

attenuating

calumniating

deliquescing

flagging

impending

20.

The doctor’s real mistake, from the perspective of his

_______ professional friends who quickly jilted him, was

not that his choice of treatment was inappropriate, but

rather that it was viscerally objectionable to the medical

establishment.

squeamish

fickle

staunch

inconstant

orthodox

stodgy

Unit 15

1. The con artist was so _______ that he most often left

his victims feeling pleased that they had given him their

money.

innocuous

crafty

cunning

maladroit

discrete

unskillful

gh the book reveals some surprising information

about the sharp- eyed Secret- Service employees, most

people already know that such people are far more _______

than the average citizen.

potent

robust

weary

vulnerable

vigilant

mindful

_______ at the gala was not conducive to

enjoyment; the presence of many direct political rivals

filled the air with tension.

decor

discourse

ambience

etiquette

atmosphere

diversion

is generally assumed to be _______ to increase taxes

on the middle class without a proportional increase on the

taxes of the upper class as well.

untenable

22

sporadic

indefensible

subtle

dignified

pardonable

5. It is difficult to provide _______ proof for the

existence of ghosts and other spiritual beings that remain

unseen by the majority of the population.

indisputable

daunting

uncanny

momentous

skeptical

demonstrable

politician insisted that he did not seek to enrich

himself during the campaign, but the ethics committee

concluded that he was motivated by _______.

charity

greed

estrangement

avarice

compassion

apprehension

calamitous event transformed the once unspoiled

seascape into the very embodiment of _______.

cataclysm

conflict

determination

melancholy

tenacity

obliteration

8.

The company’s new president immediately embarked

upon a strategy of reorganization, but informed investors

that these steps, while the most _______ and therefore

undertaken first, would be among many required to turn the

company around.

unappealing

trivial

paramount

exigent

dispassionate

insipid

ned about being assigned the job of

analyzing a poem which might be esoteric in meaning,

Erika was delighted to be given instead Roethke’s “The

Waking,” the _______ of which she embraced.

cadency

ambiguity

cogency

melancholy

lucidity

opacity

10.

To highlight Albert Einstein’s image as a _______

scholar, there is an exaggerated tale floating around that his

request to shut a window was the first sentence he had

uttered in five years.

loquacious

consummate

reticent

judicious

laconic

garrulous

ned about the noxious effects of pesticides on

local rivers, Tess petitioned her local farmers to employ

_______ amount of the repellent.

a capacious

an abiding

a nominal

an enduring

a negligible

a profuse

e his lack of education and somewhat obtuse

demeanor, the night watchman was relied upon by many for

his _______ advice on matters of love and romance.

insightful

jejune

pragmatic

vapid

expedient

perspicacious

to the transient nature of her career, Emily could

23

not guarantee that she would get an immutable paycheck

every two weeks, and therefore warned her husband that he

would need to _______ overtime work from his

supervisors.

rebuke

amass

eschew

garner

relinquish

disseminate

hout the mid-2000s, many corporations viewed

internet applications such as personal email and social

media as detractors from productivity; however, most

businesses have now embraced the power of these

applications not only to _______ productivity, but also

further their brands in the marketplace.

bolster

engender

vilipend

ameliorate

depreciate

supplant

15.

Darryl argued that the poet’s latest volume was

ultimately _______, containing no new ideas, indeed

nothing but overt drivel.

platitudinous

natty

jejune

labyrinthine

lax

amorphous

Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald has created a conundrum of

a character: as he grows progressively more flagrant in his

spending and his lifestyle, Gatsby also becomes

progressively more charming such that readers are forced to

simultaneously admire and abhor his _______.

ignominy

dissipation

repute

volubility

profligacy

stature