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Vocabulary Lesson 8E Exercises
· ACER <L. “sharp,” ACERBO, ACERBARE, ACERBAVI, ACERBATUM <L. “to make sour”
ACERBUS <L. “bitter,” “sour,” “harsh”
acerbic, acrid, exacerbate, acrimony
· ACUS, ACUERE, ACUI, ACUTUM <L. “to sharpen” ACUS <L. “needle”
acumen, acute
· EMO, EMERE, EMPTUM <L. “to buy”
peremptory, preempt, redemption
· KRATOS <G. “strength,” “power”
technocracy, plutocrat
· PECUNIA<L. “money,” “wealth”
pecuniary, impecunious
· PORTO, PORTARE, PORTAVI, PORTATUM <L. “to carry”
comportment, purport
EXERCISE 8A
Circle the letter of the best SYNONYM for the word(s) in bold-faced type.
1. pecuniary legerdemain
a. epicurean b. surprising c. monetary d. cataclysmic e. sumptuary
2. the purported discovery of ancient ruins
a. professed b. validated c. renounced d. unrequited e. traduced
3. politic comportment.
a. courtesy b. comfort c. habit d. agreement e. demeanor
4. a(n) acerbic medicine
a. bitter b. soothing c. meretricious d. unpleasant e. wholesome
5. to redeem a tarnished reputation
a. establish b. retrieve c. interpose d. induce e. purport
6. a demagogue’s preemption
a. withdrawal b. purchase c. priority d. disagreement e. eviction
7. acute embarrassment
a. slight b. endemic c. puissant d. exacerbating e. severe
8. impecunious during the Great Depression
a. unskilled b. impoverished c. wealthy d. employed e. avaricious
9. a(n) peremptory tone
a. querulous b. self-effacing c. dictatorial d. opportunistic e. reproachful
Circle the letter of the best ANTONYM for the word in bold-faced type.
10. the debater’s acrid rebuttal
a. conciliatory b. deft c. harsh d. acrimonious e. offensive
11. the architect’s acumen
a. brilliance b. clarity c. transcendence d. stupidity e. sarcasm
12. exacerbation of the violence
a. deepening b. analysis c. elimination d. preemption e. alleviation
13. acrimonious rivals
a. unrequited b. friendly c. opportunistic d. gregarious e. antagonistic
EXERCISE 8B
Circle the letter of the sentence in which the word in bold-faced type is used incorrectly.
1. a. The presence of civilian technocrats and business investors in South Korea’s authoritarian government in the
1980s helped to redistribute some wealth and encourage democratic processes.
b. In his play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), Karel Capek satirizes a technocracy that frees people from
tedious labor but also threatens human independence and purpose.
c. Small businesses depend upon technocratics to handle advertising and bookkeeping.
d. During the 1980s tension arose in Mexico between younger technocrats (técincos) and older professional
politicians (politicos).
2. a. When Clarissa Harlowe rejects a wealthy suitor she abhors, her acrimonious family disowns her, making her
vulnerable to a relentless rake.
b. The Octopus portrays the acrimony of midwestern wheat farmers exploited by railroad magnates and greedy
grain speculators who control the price of grain.
c. In Brown Girl, Brownstones Selina Brooks reacts with acrimony to stereotypical comments about servants
and accents.
d. Used in medicine, the bitter aloes plant has an acrimonious taste.
3. a. Sonia’s redemption in Crime and Punishment occurs when a witness avers that she has not stolen the money
discovered in her pocket.
b. The U.S. Constitution protects citizens against redemption— being tried more than once for the same crime.
c. Imprisoned for murdering her illegitimate child, Marguerite is nevertheless redeemed and ascends to heaven
in Gounod’s opera Faust
d. The Taos Pueblo’s redemption from the US government of the sacred Blue Lake became a symbolic
acknowledgment of Native American land rights.
4. a. The plutocratic Medici dynasty exerted not only political power as papal bankers but also cultural influence
as patrons of the arts.
b. In 1895 a sociologist reasoned that plutocrats’ wealth should benefit the economy rather than be unproductive
in banks.
c. Asked to name a reward for his exceptional hospitality, King Midas chose plutocracy, the power to turn
everything he touched into gold.
d. Granting more power to the average worker in Japan after World War II required limiting the power of the
plutocracy, or zaibtsu.
EXERCISE 8C
Fill in each blank with the most appropriate word from Lesson 8. Use a word or any of its forms only once.
1. In cases of national emergency—earthquakes, hurricanes, floods—television and radio broadcasters ____________________ scheduled programs with on-the-spot information.
2. Frank Thompson, a Union soldier exemplary in military ____________________ and performance of duty, was actually Sarah Emma Emmonds, who served for two years before illness caused her to desert n order to avoid detection.
3. Always quotable and usually ____________________, H.L. Mencken observed, “There are no dull subjects. There are only dull writers.”
4. Victoria Ocampo’s literary ____________________ enabled her to translate and publish the works of writers from South America, North America, and Europe in her magazine, Sur.
5. The Kwakiutl people of the Northwest acquire power from becoming ____________________ when they ceremoniously give away their prized possessions in the ritual of potlatch.
6____________________ because another officer wins the promotion he desires, Iago takes revenge by undermining Othello’s faith in his wife, Desdemona.
7. When motorists hear the ____________________ siren of an approaching emergency vehicle, they should slow down and stop in the right-hand lane.
8. The ____________________ smell that lingers after a fire dissipates slowly.
9. Although the overseers of the dam at the South Fork Reservior above Johnstown, Pennsylvania, ____________________ it to be secure, inadequate repair and heavy rains in 1889 sent the water raging down the valley with a cost of two thousand lives.
10. By marrying Khadija, a wealthy widow, the impecunious Muhammad gained a fortune, a faithful convert and access to the ____________________ society of traders in Mecca.
11. Robert Frost contemplates ____________________ matters in these lines : “Never ask of money spent/ Where the spender thinks it went.”
12. A(n) ____________________ attempts to find a solution to satisfy a particular need without necessarily being concerned with its social, material, or moral implications.
13. Using archival data and the latest technology, scientists have determined that solar energy has ____________________ the continuing tilt of the leaning tower of Pisa.
14. The andromeda strain carried by a contaminated satellite sends the population into a(n) ____________________panic, but four technocrats control the lethal organism and avert a national catastrophe.
EXERCISE 8D
Replace the word or phrase in italics with a key word or any of its forms from Lesson 8.
The forerunner of the automobile, a Chinese steam-powered cart, appeared in the ninth century B.C. Developments in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries climaxed as internal combustion engine using gasoline (1)took precedence over steam, coal-gas, and electricity as a source of power. Between 1886 and 1906 cars with the eponymous names of Benz, Daimler, and Rolls-Royce were excellently constructed and luxurious, but only (2) members of the wealthy class were affluent enough to buy them. Believing that cars ought to be affordable for workers, Henry Ford used his mechanical and business (3) insight to invent the assembly line that enabled Ford Motor Company to mass-produce fifteen million inexpensive cars between 1908 and 1927.
After World War II, a similar development from larger to smaller and more economical cars took place. At first, companies led by (4) people trying on technology catered to the (5) seeming preference of American buyers for large gas guzzlers. In the 1950s, however, smaller fuel-efficient imports from Japan and Germany challenged the American market. A(n) (6) severe shortage of oil in 1973 (7) increased the severity of this threat, forcing (8) arrogantly dictatorial American manufacturers to acquiesce to the economic logic of smaller automobiles.
1. ____________________________ 2. ____________________________
3. ____________________________ 4. ____________________________
5. ____________________________ 6. ____________________________
7. ____________________________ 8. ____________________________