Question 1

aberration

Accepted Answer

(n.) a temporary change from the typical or usual way of behaving (In a moment of aberration, she agreed to go with him.)

Question 2

abhor

Accepted Answer

(v.) to hate, detest (Because he always wound up getting hit in the head when he tried to play cricket, Marcin began to abhor the sport).

Question 3

acquiesce

Accepted Answer

(v.) to agree without protesting (Though Mr. Pospieszny wanted to stay outside and work in his garage, when his wife told him that he had better come in to dinner, he acquiesced to her demands.)

Question 4

alacrity

Accepted Answer

(n.) eagerness, speed (For some reason, Simon loved to help his girlfriend whenever he could, so when his girlfriend asked him to set the table he did so with alacrity.)

Question 5

amiable

Accepted Answer

(adj.) friendly (An amiable fellow, Neil got along with just about everyone.)

Question 6

appease

Accepted Answer

(v.) to calm, satisfy (When Jerry cries, his mother gives him chocolate to appease him.)

Question 7

arcane

Accepted Answer

(adj.) obscure, secret, known only by a few (The professor is an expert in arcane Kashubian literature.)

Question 8

avarice

Accepted Answer

(n.) excessive greed (The banker's avarice led him to amass an enormous personal fortune.)

Question 9

brazen

Accepted Answer

(adj.) excessively bold, brash, clear and obvious (Critics condemned the writer's brazen attempt to plagiarise Frankow-Czerwonko's work.)

Question 10

brusque

Accepted Answer

(adj.) short, abrupt, dismissive (Simon's brusque manner sometimes offends his colleagues.)

Question 11

cajole

Accepted Answer

(v.) to urge, coax (Magda's friends cajoled her into drinking too much.)

Question 12

callous

Accepted Answer

(adj.) harsh, cold, unfeeling (The murderer's callous lack of remorse shocked the jury.)

Question 13

candor

Accepted Answer

(n.) honesty, frankness (We were surprised by the candor of the politician's speech because she is usually rather evasive.)

Question 14

chide

Accepted Answer

(v.) to voice disapproval (Hania chided Gregory for his vulgar habits and sloppy appearance.)

Question 15

circumspect

Accepted Answer

(adj.) cautious (Though I promised Marta's father I would bring her home promptly by midnight, it would have been more circumspect not to have specified a time.)

Question 16

clandestine

Accepted Answer

(adj.) secret (Announcing to her boyfriend that she was going to the library, Maria actually went to meet George for a clandestine liaison.)

Question 17

coerce

Accepted Answer

(v.) to make somebody do something by force or threat (The court decided that David Beckham did not have to honor the contract because he had been coerced into signing it.)

Question 18

coherent

Accepted Answer

(adj.) logically consistent, intelligible (William could not figure out what Harold had seen because he was too distraught to deliver a coherent statement.)

Question 19

complacency

Accepted Answer

(n.) self-satisfied ignorance of danger (Simon tried to shock his friends out of their complacency by painting a frightening picture of what might happen to them.)

Question 20

confidant

Accepted Answer

(n.) a person entrusted with secrets (Shortly after we met, he became my chief confidant.)

Question 21

connive

Accepted Answer

(v.) to plot, scheme (She connived to get me to give up my plans to start up a new business.)

Question 22

cumulative

Accepted Answer

(adj.) increasing, building upon itself (The cumulative effect of hours spent using the World English website was a vast improvement in his vocabulary and general level of English.)

Question 23

debase

Accepted Answer

(v.) to lower the quality or esteem of something (The large raise that he gave himself debased his motives for running the charity.)

Question 24

decry

Accepted Answer

(v.) to criticize openly (Andrzej Lepper, the leader of the Polish Self Defence party decried the appaling state of Polish roads.)

Question 25

deferential

Accepted Answer

(adj.) showing respect for another's authority (Donata is always excessively deferential to any kind of authority figure.)

Question 26

demure

Accepted Answer

(adj.) quiet, modest, reserved (Though everyone else at the party was dancing and going crazy, she remained demure.)

Question 27

deride

Accepted Answer

(v.) to laugh at mockingly, scorn (The native speaker often derided the other teacher's accent.)

Question 28

despot

Accepted Answer

(n.) one who has total power and rules brutally (The despot issued a death sentence for anyone who disobeyed his laws.)

Question 29

diligent

Accepted Answer

(adj.) showing care in doing one's work (The diligent researcher made sure to double check her measurements.)

Question 30

elated

Accepted Answer

(adj.) overjoyed, thrilled (When he found out he had won the lottery, the postman was elated.)

Question 31

eloquent

Accepted Answer

(adj.) expressive, articulate, moving (The best man gave such an eloquent speech that most guests were crying.)

Question 32

embezzle

Accepted Answer

(v.) to steal money by falsifying records (The accountant was fired for embezzling €10,000 of the company's funds.)

Question 33

empathy

Accepted Answer

(n.) sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own (I feel such empathy for my dog when she's upset so am I!)

Question 34

enmity

Accepted Answer

(n.) ill will, hatred, hostility (John and Scott have clearly not forgiven each other, because the enmity between them is obvious to anyone in their presence.)

Question 35

erudite

Accepted Answer

(adj.) learned (My English teacher is such an erudite scholar that he has translated some of the most difficult and abstruse Old English poetry.)

Question 36

extol

Accepted Answer

(v.) to praise, revere (Kamila extolled the virtues of a vegetarian diet to her meat-loving boyfriend.)

Question 37

fabricate

Accepted Answer

(v.) to make up, invent (When I arrived an hour late to class, I fabricated some excuse about my car breaking down on the way to work.)

Question 38

feral

Accepted Answer

(adj.) wild, savage (That beast looks so feral that I would fear being alone with it.)

Question 39

flabbergasted

Accepted Answer

(adj.) astounded (Whenever I read an Agatha Christie mystery novel, I am always flabbergasted when I learn the identity of the murderer.)

Question 40

forsake

Accepted Answer

(v.) to give up, renounce (I won't forsake my conservative principles.)

Question 41

fractious

Accepted Answer

(adj.) troublesome or irritable (Although the child insisted he wasn't tired, his fractious behaviour - especially his decision to crush his jam sandwiches all over the floor - convinced everyone present that it was time to put him to bed.)

Question 42

furtive

Accepted Answer

(adj.) secretive, sly (Claudia's placement of her drugs in her sock drawer was not as furtive as she thought, as the sock drawer is the first place most parents look.)

Question 43

gluttony

Accepted Answer

(n.) overindulgence in food or drink (Helen's fried chicken tastes so divine, I don't know how anyone can call gluttony a sin.)

Question 44

gratuitous

Accepted Answer

(adj.) uncalled for, unwarranted (Every evening the guy at the fish and chip shop gives me a gratuitous helping of vinegar.)

Question 45

haughty

Accepted Answer

(adj.) disdainfully proud (The superstar's haughty dismissal of her co-stars will backfire on her someday.)

Question 46

hypocrisy

Accepted Answer

(n.) pretending to believe what one does not (Once the politician began passing legislation that contradicted his campaign promises, his hypocrisy became apparent.)

Question 47

impeccable

Accepted Answer

(adj.) exemplary, flawless (If your grades were as impeccable as your brother's, then you too would receive a car for a graduation present.)

Question 48

impertinent

Accepted Answer

(adj.) rude, insolent (Most of your comments are so impertinent that I don't wish to dignify them with an answer.)

Question 49

implacable

Accepted Answer

(adj.) headstrung, incapable of being appeased or mitigated (Watch out: once you shun Grandmother's cooking, she is totally implacable.)

Question 50

impudent

Accepted Answer

(adj.) casually rude, insolent, impertinent (The impudent young woman looked her teacher up and down and told him he was hot.)

Question 51

incisive

Accepted Answer

(adj.) clear, sharp, direct (The discussion wasn't going anywhere until her incisive comment allowed everyone to see what the true issues were.)

Question 52

indolent

Accepted Answer

(adj.) lazy (Why should my indolent children, who can't even pick themselves up off the sofa to pour their own juice, be rewarded with a trip to Burger King?)

Question 53

inept

Accepted Answer

(adj.) not suitable or capable, unqualified (She proved how inept she was when she forgot two orders and spilled a pint of cider in a customer's lap.)

Question 54

infamy

Accepted Answer

(n.) notoriety, extreme ill repute (The infamy of his crime will not lessen as time passes.)

Question 55

inhibit

Accepted Answer

(v.) to prevent, restrain, stop (When I told you I needed the car last night, I certainly never meant to inhibit you from going out.)

Question 56

insatiable

Accepted Answer

(adj.) incapable of being satisfied (My insatiable appetite for blondes was a real problem on my recent holiday in Japan!)

Question 57

insular

Accepted Answer

(adj.) separated and narrow-minded; tight-knit, closed off (Because of the sensitive nature of their jobs, those who work for MI5 must remain insular and generally only spend time with each other.)

Question 58

intrepid

Accepted Answer

(adj.) brave in the face of danger (After scaling a live volcano prior to its eruption, the explorer was praised for his intrepid attitude.)

Question 59

inveterate

Accepted Answer

(adj.) stubbornly established by habit (I'm the first to admit that I'm an inveterate cider drinker—I drink four pints a day.)

Question 60

jubilant

Accepted Answer

(adj.) extremely joyful, happy (The crowd was jubilant when the firefighter carried the woman from the flaming building.)

Question 61

knell

Accepted Answer

(n.) the solemn sound of a bell, often indicating a death (Echoing throughout our village, the funeral knell made the grey day even more grim.)

Question 62

lithe

Accepted Answer

(adj.) graceful, flexible, supple (Although the dancers were all outstanding, Joanna's control of her lithe body was particularly impressive.)

Question 63

lurid

Accepted Answer

(adj.) ghastly, sensational (Barry's story, in which he described a character torturing his neighbour's tortoise, was judged too lurid to be published on the English Library's website.)

Question 64

maverick

Accepted Answer

(n.) an independent, nonconformist person (John is a real maverick and always does things his own way.)

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