Jeffrey Friedl’s Blog » Blog Archive » “Word Power”: SAT words

October 17th, 2005 12:43pm JST (2 years, 7 months ago)

Cumulative Reader's Digest “Word Power” posts:
(in reverse order of posting)

7.	Science Words
6.	Jon Stewart / The Daily Show
5.	Summer (“dog” and “can” words)
4.	Culinary Words
3.	Financial Parlance
2.	Scholastic Aptitude Test
1.	George Washington Inaugural Address

Here's another Reader's Digest “Word Power”, this time from June 2005. It features words likely to be on the SAT, as taken from, oddly, a vocabulary shower curtain study aid.

True to form, never quite “exceptional” with words, I missed the “exceptional” level by two. How will you do?

Choose which of the four possible selections best represents the meaning of the word

1.	enhance v.	to weaken. improve. undergo, as in hardship. sign up for.
2.	antagonist n.	murder victim. ancestor. scientist. opponent.
3.	diligent adj.	very careful. excessively late. harmful. unprepared.
4.	scrutinize v.	to examine closely. ignore completely. consider skeptically. view casually.
5.	procrastinate v.	to produce offspring. show interest in. delay. disappear.
6.	disdain v.	to throw away. regard with scorn. humiliate. disappoint.
7.	spurious adj.	authentic. reluctant. false. casting blame on others.
8.	empathy n.	pity. identification with others' feelings. strength. mixture.
9.	venerable adj.	green. stripped bare. corrupt. respected because of age.
10.	querulous adj.	constantly complaining. curious. cooperative. compact.
11.	florid adj.	smelling of flowers. bright, as a light. ruddy. cheap.
12.	impute v.	to calculate. pierce with a sharp object. attack as false. attribute to.
13.	evanescent adj.	mild, as with weather. brightly lit. religious in nature. short-lived.
14.	superfluous adj.	extra. overly proud. heavenly. believing in the supernatural.
15.	sagacity n.	history of a city. courage. wisdom. ignorance.
16.	perfidious adj.	marked by foul odor. treacherous. wandering. routine, mechanical.

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Comments so far....

aah excellent here as well, 3 wrong.. I have an affinity with 3. I got 3 wrong in the recent DMV driver’s license test as well.

— comment by Ravi Dronamraju on October 28th, 2005 at 12:30pm JST (2 years, 6 months ago) — comment permalink

Exceptional. . . but I taught SAT prep classes for a couple of years, including vocab. I tend to dislike the “word power” quizzes — they give general answers, and then rely on fine distinctions.

Oh, and I agree with you, Jeff — a “shelter” on the finance quiz is more properly a protection of assets. One may be protecting them from taxation, or from something else (legal liability, creditors, etc.).

— comment by Sam on January 31st, 2006 at 8:01am JST (2 years, 3 months ago) — comment permalink