1. The leader’s profligate behavior was mirrored in the character of his administration.
Profligate means
A. Immoral
B. Generous
C. Productive
D. Excessive
2. The executive has charged his staff with expediting this matter.
Expediting means
A. Getting rid of
B. Speeding up
C. Relieving of
D. Making easier
3. The beautifully dressed woman at the ball was extremely querulous.
Querulous means
A. Fashionable
B. Questioning
C. Complaining
D. Flirtatious
4. She acquiesced to the entire process.
Acquiesced to means
A. Objected to
B. Enthused over
C. Commented on
D. Submitted to
5. The settlers found the new territory to be fecund.
Fecund means
A. Filthy
B. Rotten
C. Fertile
D. Pretty
6. The researchers had to control their data for participant attrition during the study.
Attrition means
A. Gain
B. Loss
C. Attitude
D. Variety
7. The candidate maintains that he abhors most forms of socialism.
Abhors means
A. Loves
B. Grasps
C. Hates
D. Uses
8. Everybody regarded Rita as frugal in her behavior, with good reason.
Frugal means
A. Flighty
B. Economical
C. Old-fashioned
D. Generous
9. This philosopher’s treatises are quite esoteric for the common reader.
Esoteric means
A. Accessible
B. Controversial
C. Enigmatic
D. Lengthy
10. The doctor was concerned that his patient’s lunulae were bluish.
Lunulae are in the
A. Whites of the eyeballs
B. Gums inside the mouth
C. Bodily extremities
D. Beds of fingernails
Answers – Vocabulary
1. A: Profligate means immoral, degraded, debased, or dissolute. Its Latin root means broken down in character.
2. B: Expediting means speeding up, accomplishing promptly, or dispatching. To expedite comes from a Latin word meaning to disengage or set the feet free.
3. C: Querulous means constantly complaining, peevish, petulant, whining, or fretful. The Latin root queri means to complain.
4. D: To acquiesce to something means to submit without protest to something, or to assent to, comply with, or consent to something silently. The Latin root means to find rest in something.
5. C: The adjective fecund means fertile, fruitful, productive, or capable of bearing vegetation, offspring, or ideas. Its roots are related to fetus, suckle, produce/yield, and nourishing.
6. B: Loss is the closest synonym to attrition, which means reduction in numbers or size. It can also mean loss through wearing down/weakening or through wearing away/erosion. The Latin root means wearing/rubbing away or abrasion.
7. C: To abhor means to hate, despise, loathe, detest, reject, abominate, or find repugnant. It comes from a Latin word meaning to tremble or shudder away from something.
8. B: Frugal means economical or thrifty. Its origin, the Latin adjective, developed from meaning useful to profitable to economical, and was a case of frux, meaning fruit, profit, or value.
9. C: Esoteric, from a Greek root meaning inner, means arcane, cryptic, abstruse, enigmatic; understandable to, or belonging to, only a select few; or meant only for a few who have special knowledge or interest. It can also mean private, confidential, or secret.
10. D: The lunulae are the white crescents at the bases of human fingernails. The word lunula (singular) means half-moon, from the Latin word for small moon because these features in the fingernail beds look like crescent moons.