Economist Magazine Vocabulary

THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE
1. raucous marked by quiet and caution and secrecy
unpleasantly loud and harsh def. Done secretly, without anyone seeing or knowing.
Since the nuclear deal with America in 2005, it has
An example of raucous is a party at college with lots shifted towards the west–it tends to vote America's
of drinking. way in the UN, it has cut its purchases of Iranian oil, it
Finally, students at the Stockholm University host a collaborates with NATO in Afghanistan and co-
less formal but more raucous after-party for the ordinates with the West in dealing with regional
laureates and their guests. problems such as repression in Sri Lanka and
P. 84, The Economist Ed. March 23rd-29th 2013 transition in Myanmar–but has done so surreptitiously.
P. 13, The Economist Ed. March 30th-April 5th 2013
2. pomp
7. curb
cheap or pretentious or vain display
the act of restraining power or action or limiting
excess
POMP:impressive and colourful ceremonies,
especially traditional ceremonies on public occasions.
POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE: formal ceremonies. def. to control or limit something that is not wanted.
The Swedish-style pomp and circumstance will come This comes at a politically difficult time for Rahm
on June 25th, when the queen will host the winners at Emanuel, Chicago's mayor, who is also struggling
Buckingham palace. to curb a wave of murders in the city.
P. 84, The Economist Ed. March 23rd-29th 2013 P. 33, The Economist Ed. March 30th-April 5th 2013
3. banter 8. contravene
light teasing repartee go against, as of rules and laws
def.conversation that is funny and not serious. def. To contravene is to go against or contradict.
"SportsCenter features some of America's sparkiest v. 1-An example of contravene is for a soldier to go
sports commentators, whose banter is as irreverent against the commands of his officer.
as an English football chant, minus the swearing." 2-An example of contravene is for a lawyer to give
P. 70, The Economist Ed. March 30th-April 5th 2013 facts that disprove earlier statements.
Most dramatic would be a ruling that all state bans in
gay marriage contravene the equal-protection clause
4. opprobrium of the 14th amendment to the constitution.
a state of extreme dishonor
9. bridle
def. a shameful act or the disgrace of a shameful act.
Together they might share the opprobrium that will headgear for a horse
inevitably result from the measures needed to do a
deal with the IMF and get the economy working.
P. 18, The Economist Ed. March 30th-April 5th 2013 def. The definition of a bridle is a device used to
control an animal, such as the headgear used to
control a horse.
5. parlous e.g. When you control your anger, this is an example
of a time when you bridle your anger.
fraught with danger Now that they are in power, the region's far-left
populists to bridle at any criticism, domestic or
1-Literary perilous; dangerous; risky. foreign, of their self-proclaimed revolutions.
2-Archaic dangerously clever; cunning, mischievous, P. 38, The Economist Ed. March 30th-April 5th 2013
shrewd, etc.
India has also wisely kept generals out of politics (a 10. sop
lesson ignored elsewhere in Asia, no least like by
Pakistan, with usually parlous results). a concession given to mollify or placate
def. something of little importance or value that is
6. surreptitious offered to stop complaints or unhappiness.
In a sop to Ecuador and its friends, the assembly also
agreed "to continue the dialogue" on the commission. a sponsor who books and stages public
P. 38, The Economist Ed. March 30th-April 5th 2013 entertainments
11. mould def. the organizer, manager, or director of an opera or

ballet company, concert series, etc.
make something, usually for a specific function “Googoosha” (her father’s pet name for her) is a 40-
year-old pop diva, fashion designer,
charity impresario, entrepreneur and diplomat.
1-An example of mould is a container used to shape P. 50, The Economist Ed. April 6th-12th 2013
clay into a particular shape.
2-An example of mould is a fungus that grows on top
of old food. 16. nous
Journalist-haters in his mould might not care about that which is responsible for one's thoughts and
the travails of America's news firms, but many feelings
Americans do.
P. 33, The Economist Ed. March 30th-April 5th 2013 def.good judgment and practical ability.
In the uncertain post-Karimov era, the job will demand
12. travail political nous and clout.
P. 50, The Economist Ed. April 6th-12th 2013
use of physical or mental energy; hard work And the technology and managerial nous necessary
to assemble and maintain complex supply chains
were coming into their own, allowing firms to spread
def. Travail is defined as very hard work, especially their operations between countries and across
painful work or work that requires a lot of labor. oceans.
Journalist-haters in his mould might not care about P.21, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND
the travails of America's news firms, but many 2013
Americans do.
17. one-off
13. pummel
a happening that occurs only once and is not
repeated
strike, usually with the fist
def. The definition of a one-off is something that
def. to hit someone or something repeatedly, happens only a single time.
especially with your fists (= closed hands). In the past four years, the federal government has
Pummeled by a growing barrage of ridicule, Egypt's also made a one-off investment of more than $100
Muslim Brotherhood–dominated government has billion through the American Recovery and
gone on the offensive. Reinvestment Act in 2009.
P. 57, The Economist Ed. April 6th-12th 2013 P. 36, The Economist Ed. April 6th-12th 2013
14. barrage 18. resuscitate
the heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area cause to regain consciousness
def. The definition of barrage is a large volume of def.To bring someone who is dying back to life, wake
something, or a huge amount of things happening all someone who is unconscious, to bring something
at once. back into use or existence:
1-An example of a barrage is when 100 reporters all François Hollande can still resuscitate his
shoot questions at the president at the same time. presidency—but he must tell the French the truth.
2-An example of barrage is a large amount of gunfire p. 16 The Econmoist Ed. April 6th-12th 2013
with the purpose of keeping the enemy forces from
moving forward.
Pummeled by a growing barrage of ridicule, Egypt's 19. teeter
Muslim Brotherhood–dominated government has
gone on the offensive. move unsteadily, with a rocking motion
P. 57, The Economist Ed. April 6th-12th 201
Teeter is defined as to wobble in a shaky way, or to
15. impresario change back and forth between two sides of an
opinion.
e.g. France's economy is teetering on the brink of yet energetic electrons are abundant.
another recession. p. 91 The Economist Ed. April 6th-12th 2013
p. 16 The Economist Ed. April 6th-12th 2013
25. esoteric
20. sap
understandable only by an enlightened inner circle
deplete
The definition of esoteric is something only
to weaken someone or to destroy their spirit, energy understood by a chosen group.
or power, especially when done slowly over time. These included 6.4m electrons and 400,000 positrons
An example of sap is a teen who is rebellious and that had energies ranging from 0.5 to 350 giga-
continually drains the energy of her parents. electron-volts (GeV), measured in the esoteric units
The Cahuzac scandal may not be the only one particle physicists like to use.
to sap the president's authority. p. 92 The Economist Ed. April 6th-12th 2013
26. vouchsafe
21. banditry
grant in a condescending manner
the practice of plundering in gangs
to give or grant something as a favor.
In some respects, the aid money and the stream of But the theory of supersymmetry does
flashy Toyota Land Cruisers that come with it have not vouchsafe exactly what a neutralino’s mass
made things worse. Banditry, kidnapping, carjacking should be, so it might not.
and looting persist. p. 92 The Economist Ed. April 6th-12th 2013
27. hobnob
22. chagrin
associate familiarly, especially with someone of high
strong feelings of embarrassment status
The definition of chagrin is a feeling of 1-To spend time being friendly with someone who is
embarrassment caused by failure or disappointment. important or famous.
To physicists’ chagrin, attempts to conjure 2-be on close terms (with someone); associate in a
neutralinos from the LHC have failed. familiar way.
p. 91 The Economist Ed. April 6th-12th 2013 3-NOW RARE to drink together
"In Britain the government hobnobbed with trade
23. lookout unions (“beer and sandwiches in Number 10”),
handed out subsidies to failing nationalised industries
and primed the pump through Keynesian demand
the act of looking out management."
The definition of a lookout is an alert, or a place for
keeping watch. 28. sundry
It is these high-energy electrons and positrons that
AMS is on the lookout for.
p. 91 The Economist Ed. April 6th-12th 2013 consisting of a haphazard assortment of different
kinds
24. plummet
The definition of sundry refers to a collection of
miscellaneous things.
drop sharply More than half of his score of official advisers have
abandoned him, along with his vice-president, his
The definition of a plummet is something that weighs minister of justice and numerous sundry bureaucrats.
something else down. P. 52, The Economist Ed. May 4th-10th 2013
Plummet is defined as to fall down quickly and Most shareholders now see that television networks,
suddenly. newspapers, film studios, music labels and
Beyond that peak, the fraction should plummet, other sundry assets add little value by sharing a
because few high-energy positrons from other parent.
sources would be expected to exist, whereas P. 65, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
29. overweening The stellar returns earned by banks before the crisis
and the massive rewards paid to their employees are
presumptuously arrogant unlikely to recur soon, if at all.
P. 11, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013
On April 23rd Fuad Gadallah, his most senior legal
adviser, angrily resigned, issuing a public letter that 35. limp
cited a lack of vision; failure to achieve revolutionary
goals or to empower the Egyptian youth; failure to walk impeded by some physical injury
accommodate or even consult political opponents;
and the overweening influence of Mr Morsi’s fellow European banks, in contrast, are continuing to shrink
Muslim Brothers in devising policy. their balance-sheets and limp along with insufficient
P. 52, The Economist Ed. May 4th-10th 2013 capital.
30. comeuppance
36. en route
a usually negative outcome or fate that is well
deserved on a route to some place
Across the Atlantic, European politicians saw this as Its targets were believed to be weapons en
the timely comeuppance of American capitalism. route from Iran to Hizbullah, Lebanon’s Shia party-
P. 11, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013 cum-militia, and chemical stockpiles held by Mr
Assad.
31. hedge P. 7, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013
minimize loss or risk 37. unmitigated
Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, blamed her not diminished or moderated in intensity or severity
peers in Washington for not having regulated banks
and hedge funds more rigorously. As a child he listened to the stories of his great-aunt
P. 11, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013 Mariannina, who had witnessed the annexation of the
papal states by the new nation of Italy: an event
32. behemoth middle-class Roman families like hers still regarded
as an unmitigated catastrophe.
someone or something that is abnormally large and P. 102, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013
powerful
38. throng
The share of the investment-banking market held by
European banks has slumped by a fifth since the a large gathering of people
crisis (see our special report), with many of the gains
going to Wall Street’s surviving behemoths. Afterwards, he would be greeted at the door of the
P. 11, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013 church by a throng of beggars to whom he gave
money.
33. plunge P. 102, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013
dash violently or with great speed or impetuosity 39. pantry
Employment has plunged, with London alone a small storeroom for storing food or beverages
shedding 100,000 jobs.
P. 11, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013 He knew them all by name. In his office in parliament
he kept a sort of pantry, hidden behind a curtain,
34. stellar stacked with food for the neediest.
being or relating to or resembling or emanating from
stars 40. ferocity
the property of being aggressive or forceful

Along with his piety, though, went ferocity. animals and compared them with those gleaned from
P. 102, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013 Anurognathus fossils.
41. altar
47. swift
a raised structure on which sacrifices to a god are
made moving very fast
As an altar server, he once stabbed out his lit taper in They were the size of swifts and until now it had
the eye of a boy who was mocking him. been thought that, like swifts, they chased around the
P. 102, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013 sky after insects—a technique known as hawking.
42. quip
48. binary
a witty saying
of or pertaining to a number system having 2 as its
Ambrosoli’s death evoked one of his most base
chilling quips: “se l’andava cercando”, he had it
coming. OF ALL the transitions brought about on the Earth’s
P. 102, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013 surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into
water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land
43. gesticulate beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes
everything.
show, express, or direct through movement
49. waning
In a country where everyone gesticulated, he would
sit with his hands laced in front of him in the style of
the pre-war popes. a gradual decrease in magnitude or extent
The waxing and waning of the ice provides an
44. reprimand unambiguous signal of what is going on—and it is a
signal which can be read in rocks a billion years old
almost as easily as it can be observed today.
an act or expression of criticism and censure P. 84, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013
His reprimands were equally restrained. “Excuse me, 50. piecemeal

Paolo,” he once inquired of a political lieutenant. “Are
you by any chance insinuating that I’m a shit?”
P. 102, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013 a little bit at a time
45. insinuate Until recently studies of the Third Pole

were piecemeal—not surprising, given its
remoteness, the altitude, the harsh weather and the
introduce or insert in a subtle manner fact that little love is lost between the countries among
which it is divided.
His reprimands were equally restrained. “Excuse me, P. 84, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013
Paolo,” he once inquired of a political lieutenant. “Are
you by any chance insinuating that I’m a shit?” 51. precarious
not secure; beset with difficulties
46. glean
Another is to show how precarious and piecemeal
gather, as of natural products data about the area are. Its role as the source of so
many rivers means that absence of data matters.
Using a mix of computerised tomography and P. 84, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013
mundane measurements with callipers, they
assessed the lengths, widths, thicknesses, densities 52. downhill
and bending potential of the bones of the modern
the downward slope of a hill not counterfeit or copied
And that observational pebble, gathering speed as it So first they have to prove the interferometer’s bona
rolled downhill, produced an avalanche which swept fides.
away classical physics and cleared the field for Albert P. 86, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013
Einstein’s theories of relativity—one of which, the
general theory, encapsulates the modern description 58. clique
of gravity.
an exclusive circle of people with a common purpose
53. avalanche
He battled a clique of scholars who hogged the
manuscripts for decades—the “academic scandal of
a sudden appearance of an overwhelming number of the century”, he called it.
things P. 98, The Economist Ed. May 18th-24th 2013
And that observational pebble, gathering speed as it 59. contention

rolled downhill, produced an avalanche which swept
away classical physics and cleared the field for Albert
Einstein’s theories of relativity—one of which, the a dispute where there is strong disagreement
general theory, encapsulates the modern description
of gravity. But Mr Vermes’s real fame came from
P. 86, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013 his contention that the historical Jesus, whatever his
followers came to believe later, was first and foremost
54. bent a Jewish holy man, one of many such itinerant
preachers and wonder-workers.
stooped (used of the back and knees)
60. shun
And on the way there, for those of a practical bent, it
may help in the search for submarine oilfields.
P. 86, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013 avoid and stay away from deliberately
The two young black men who allegedly carried out
the murder appeared bent on maximum dramatic Jewish scholarship and piety shunned the Christian
effect. scriptures: what could be gained by studying a self-
P. 57, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 proclaimed messiah and his mistaken followers?
55. gnat
61. masquerade
any of various small biting flies
pretend to be someone or something that you are not
These are cooled to within a gnat’s whisker of
absolute zero, a temperature at which their vibration That was his watchword. He disliked
vanishes and the wavelike side of their nature is able certainties masquerading as scholarship in
to assert itself. organised religion, whether it was the Catholic
P. 86, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013 hierarchy’s disregard for academic study of the Bible,
or for its blaming Jews for Christ’s death (those both
56. granular changed in the 1960s), or Pope Benedict’s book on
Jesus: “mountains of pious and largely familiar
musings”, he wrote in a scalding review.
composed of or covered with particles resembling P. 98, The Economist Ed. May 18th-24th 2013
meal
62. beset
Rather, it is granular—and since the two daughter
beams from the interferometer pass through different
sets of granules they will be affected differently, and assail or attack on all sides
will not match when they are recombined.
P. 86, The Economist Ed. May 11th-17th 2013 Mr Obama is still beset by scandals.
P. 13, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013
57. bona fide
63. berate Otherwise as Americans age the cost of pensions and
health care will eventually crowd out other public
censure severely or angrily services and imperil the nation’s fiscal health.
Republicans berate his administration for a “cover-up”
after terrorists murdered diplomats in Benghazi; for 69. scaremonger
snooping on journalists; and for letting the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) hound conservatives. a person who spreads frightening rumors and stirs up
P. 13, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 trouble
64. snoop Mr Obama cannot solve any of this alone. Offer the
Republicans too little and they will scaremonger from
watch, observe, or inquire secretly the sidelines.
Republicans berate his administration for a “cover-up”
after terrorists murdered diplomats in Benghazi; 70. revamp
for snooping on journalists; and for letting the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) hound conservatives. patch up or renovate; repair or restore
Letting in dynamic immigrants, revamping the tax
65. hound code and reforming entitlements would make the
Great Society safe for another generation. Not
pursue or chase relentlessly enough to get Mr Obama’s face carved on Mount
Rushmore, but not bad.
Republicans berate his administration for a “cover-up” The smartphone-maker has revamped its range with
after terrorists murdered diplomats in Benghazi; for touchscreen devices, but the 6.8m phones it shipped
snooping on journalists; and for letting the Internal in the three months to June was below the 7.45m that
Revenue Service (IRS) hound conservatives. had been forecast.
P. 13, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 P. 10, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013
He allowed foreigners working for advocacy groups
promoting human rights and democracy to
be hounded, prosecuted and convicted (most of them 71. somnambulate
in absentia) on patently false charges.
P. 11, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013 walk in one's sleep
66. gridlock Someone call a somnambulance, quick

a traffic jam so bad that no movement is possible
72. convalescence
The danger is that Mr Obama will achieve little in his
second term. Congress remains gridlocked. gradual healing through rest after sickness or injury
The euro zone may not be about to collapse, but the
67. subpoena calm in Brussels is not so much a sign
of convalescence as of decay.
a writ issued to compel the attendance of a witness P. 14, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013
Democrats and Republicans could spend the next 73. ensnare

four years squabbling and issuing subpoenas.
P. 13, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 take or catch as if in a trap
68. imperil But, as the pressure has eased, the union has
become ensnared in technicalities and a fundamental
pose a threat to; present a danger to argument about how much historic bank debt, if any,
should be dumped on it—how much, in other words,
Germans, Finns and Dutch should bear the burden of
other people’s mistakes. The rankings irk countries that do not do well—
P. 14, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 notably China, which comes 91st.
74. austere
80. cronyism
of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor
favoritism shown to friends and associates
America has recovered before Europe not just
because it has been less austere, but also because it The other is that it gets to the heart of
rapidly sorted out its banks so that they could lend the cronyism and high-level abuse that plague India
again (see Charlemagne). more widely.
P. 14, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 P. 18, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013
75. hiatus 81. flock
an interruption in the intensity or amount of something come together as in a cluster
This hiatus is partly caused by elections due in They are often the same people. In recent years
September in Germany, the prime mover in almost politicians have flocked to join the Indian cricket
any European policy these days. board, which claims a monopoly on the game in India,
P. 14, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 and earns about $200m a year.
76. mired
82. incursion
entangled or hindered
the act of entering some territory or domain
Italy is mired in recession, yet it cannot seem to
muster a coherent political platform for change. Brief incursions by both armies are routine, but this
P. 14, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 one, exceptionally, lasted for three weeks.
77. poodle
83. abound
an intelligent dog with a heavy curly solid-colored coat
that is usually clipped; an old breed sometimes exist in large quantities
trained as sporting dogs or as performing dogs
On his India trip Mr Li visited an especially successful
Dozens from Miss Suu Kyi’s National League for one, Tata Consultancy Services, in Mumbai.
Democracy, once persecuted, now sit in a parliament Yet exasperation abounds. In April India’s embassy
that people thought would be a poodle but which has in Beijing reported on growing numbers of its firms
shown real bite. targeted in trade disputes in China.
P. 16, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 P. 39, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013
Yet exceptions abound. Mostly middling earners in
78. calibrate Chile supported Augusto Pinochet’s coup in 1973.
P. 56, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
make fine adjustments for optimal measuring
84. piddling
Both deserve credit. So, too, does American
diplomacy, for using calibrated concessions to draw (informal) small and of little importance
the rulers out of their seclusion, culminating in Mr
Thein Sein’s visit to Washington this week. Partly as a result, of proposed Chinese investment
P. 16, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 worth $66 billion in India, only $500m has actually
been realised, a Chinese academic estimates. A
79. irk similarly piddling sum of Indian capital is in China.
irritate or vex
85. maim
injure or wound seriously and leave permanent crime and scuffled with the police.
disfiguration P. 57, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013
AN ACT of terrorism does not have to result in large- 91. purport

scale death and maiming to be profoundly shocking
and therefore to achieve its aims. have the often misleading appearance of being or
P. 57, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 intending
86. throwback Since 2010 these hackers have hidden malware in

documents that purport to contain Indian government
a reappearance of an earlier characteristic secrets, presumably hoping to infect systems run by
Pakistani military or intelligence services.
The appalling daylight murder of an off-duty soldier on P. 61, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013
May 22nd in a quiet suburban street in south-east
London was in some ways a throwback to an earlier 92. sturdy
era.
P. 57, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 having rugged physical strength
87. theatricality Though trivial in itself, that file had slipped through
Apple’s normally sturdy defences.
an artificial and mannered quality P. 61, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013
Late-19th-century anarchists in Europe developed a 93. dipped

theory known as the “propaganda of the deed”, in
which the theatricality of the crime was at least as having abnormal sagging of the spine (especially in
important as the degree of violence employed. horses)
Chinese cyber-attacks dipped in February after
88. spouting researchers traced more than a hundred incidents to
a building in Shanghai.
propelled violently in a usually narrow stream P. 61, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013
Rather than flee the scene, the alleged killers then 94. rummage
waited 20 minutes for the arrival of an armed police
unit, one of them spouting jihadist propaganda in a search haphazardly
south London accent and waving his bloody hands for
the benefit of onlookers who filmed him with their
mobile phones. On May 20th the Washington Post said that Chinese
P. 57, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 cyber-spies who attacked Google in 2009 may
have rummaged around the firm’s servers for a year.
89. lure
95. carrion
provoke someone to do something through
persuasion
the dead and rotting body of an animal; unfit for
human food
In 2008 Parviz Khan was jailed for 14 years after
trying to lure a British Muslim soldier with the promise
of drugs; he had planned to film his beheading. Sharia law forbids meat such as pork and birds of
P. 57, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 prey, plus blood and carrion.
90. scuffle
96. booming
fight or struggle in a confused way at close quarters
very lively and profitable
About 100 supporters of the English Defence League,
some wearing masks, gathered near the scene of the It is not just manufactured products. Services such as
halal holidays are booming, too. Crescent Tours, a
London-based travel agent, books clients into hotels companies seeking to woo them do.
in Turkey that have separate swimming pools for men P. 62, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013
and women, no-alcohol policies and halal restaurants, A second path is to focus on business customers first
and rents out private holiday villas with high walls. and then woo consumers.
P. 62, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 P. 77, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
97. pander 102. seer
yield to; give satisfaction to an observer who perceives visually
Verb: Gratify or indulge (an immoral or distasteful Once caricatured as short-sighted, he is now
desire, need, or habit or a person with such a desire, remembered as a seer. James Gillray, a
etc.). contemporary British satirist, drew him with
This reduces the danger of being seen to pander to spectacles, a big nose and a cross.
Muslim tastes, which has caused problems P. 86, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013
elsewhere.
P. 62, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 103. borough
German politicians in general, and Mrs Merkel in
particular, have pandered to Germans’ small-country
mentality and their belief that responsibility for fixing an English town
the euro lies elsewhere.
P.06, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013 He stood for a rotten borough and he took on a
(SPECIA sinecure in government himself.
98. flak
104. faded
intense adverse criticism
having lost freshness or brilliance of color
The Quick hamburger chain in France drew flak when
in 2010 it considered removing pork from its menu. THE euro crisis grinds on. But, because markets no
P. 62, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 longer fear the single currency’s immediate break-up,
it has faded from the headlines.
99. hub P. 86, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013
a focal point around which events revolve 105. quid pro quo
Dubai is trying to become the hub for Islamic trade in something given in exchange for something else
the Middle East.
P. 62, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 For an Anglo-Saxon readership, his material on the
early years is particularly valuable: how in the early
100. wince 1960s the European Court of Justice established the
supremacy of European law; the story of de Gaulle,
the veto and the so-called Luxembourg compromise;
draw back, as with fear or pain and, in the early 1970s, the arrival of the European
Council of heads of government with, as a quid pro
Muslim consumers, especially the more liberal- quo, direct elections to the European Parliament.
minded ones, can wince at, or enjoy, the uncertainty P. 86, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013
of what is permitted by Islamic law—just as the
companies seeking to woo them do. 106. hanker
desire strongly or persistently
101. woo
He hankers for a bigger role for national parliaments,
seek someone's favor but it is hard to see how this might emerge from
today's institutional set-up.
Muslim consumers, especially the more liberal- P. 87, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013
minded ones, can wince at, or enjoy, the uncertainty
of what is permitted by Islamic law—just as the
107. reinvigorate having two variables
impart new strength, vitality, or energy The debate might be more scholarly if everyone
involved had mastered patterns of association
The critical test will be whether, after three years of in bivariate data—as the Common Core demands of
austerity and 18 months of recession, Europe finds a 13-year-olds.
way to reinvigorate economic growth. Without that, a P. 30, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013
happy ending seems unlikely.
P. 87, The Economist Ed. May 25th-31st 2013 113. scourge
108. Teutonic cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
of or pertaining to the ancient Teutons or their Youth unemployment, a scourge throughout much of
languages the rest of the continent, is at a 20-year low in
Germany.
Mrs Merkel’s third reason for failing to lead is tactical. P.03, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013
Germany, goes the argument, will get more done if it (SPECIAL REPORT)
guides from the rear. With hostility growing around
Europe, too much Teutonic assertiveness will be 114. clout
counter-productive. Moreover, moral hazard is a
problem. If Germany seems ready to open its wallet, special advantage or influence
its southern neighbours will be less willing to change.
P. 12, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013
It is the largest creditor country in the euro zone, and
as chief paymaster it has the biggest clout in
109. instrumentalism determining the single currency’s future.
P.03, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013
a system of pragmatic philosophy that considers idea (SPECIAL REPORT)
to be instruments that should guide our actions and This newspaper has argued many times for doing so
their value is measured by their success on humanitarian grounds; but Iran’s growing clout is
another reason to intervene, for it is not in the West’s
The continents’ banks are still shaky. Incrementalism interest that a state that sponsors terrorism and
and delay still threaten the single currency’s very rejects Israel’s right to exist should become the
survival. regional hegemon.
P. 12, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013 P. 11, The Econ
110. incendiary 115. tandem
arousing to action or rebellion an arrangement of objects or persons one behind

another
Glenn Beck, an incendiary talk-show host, sees an
attempt to indoctrinate the young with “extreme leftist The Franco-German tandem at the core of post-war
ideology”. He provides no evidence that makes European integration has become lopsided.
sense. P.03, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013
P. 30, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013 (SPECIAL REPORT)
111. fret 116. lopsided
worry unnecessarily or excessively having one side lower or smaller or lighter than the
other
Complaints from the left are equally varied. Some
progressives oppose any kind of testing. The Franco-German tandem at the core of post-war
Some fret that schools and teachers will be held more European integration has become lopsided.
accountable for results. P.03, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013
P. 30, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013 (SPECIAL REPORT)
112. bivariate 117. stagnant

not circulating or flowing the relative speed of progress or change
France’s economy is stagnant, statist and If there are differences between the Merkel
uncompetitive and urgently needs reform. government and other mainstream politicians, they
P.03, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013 are about the pace of moving towards a banking
(SPECIAL REPORT) union and the balance between “adjustment” in
The greater danger now is that constitutional reform southern Europe and “solidarity” from Germany and
will distract attention from the urgent need to revive other creditors.
Italy’s distressingly stagnant economy. P.07, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013
P.46, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013 (SPECIAL REPORT)
118. bossy 123. onus
offensively self-assured or exercising unwarranted a burdensome or difficult concern

power
But putting all the onus on Europe’s debtors does not
The “German question”—about the role of a country make sense.
too big for Europe and too small for the world, as P.08, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013
Henry Kissinger famously put it—is back on the (SPECIAL REPORT)
agenda. Many fret that Germany is becoming
too bossy. 124. wobble
P.04, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013
(SPECIAL REPORT)
move unsteadily
119. inaction
Only a year ago Mr Assad’s throne seemed to
be wobbling. While suffering dramatic military losses
the state of being inactive to the rebels, his political response was cack-handed.
Others are worried that Germany is being too passive. In many American eyes, Europeans are already
Radek Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, fears wobbly, tiresome free-riders who do not police their
German inaction more than German power. Islamist extremists properly, breach sanctions, flirt
P.04, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013 with dictatorships and leak secrets to the Russians
(SPECIAL REPORT) and Chinese.
P. 12, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013
120. flinch
125. moot
draw back, as with fear or pain
open to argument or debate
The German world for leader is Führer, the title
adopted by Adolf Hitler. Mention the word “hegemon”, In such circumstances a peace conference in
and German politicians flinch. Mrs Merkel recently Geneva mooted for next month looks increasingly
described the concept as “totally foreign to me”. unlikely to take place on time.
P.04, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013 P. 47, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013
(SPECIAL REPORT) Since the regime will find it hard to regain lost territory
in the east and north, the dissolution of Syria into
121. pygmy several fiefs, even mini-states, as happened in
neighbouring Lebanon during its civil war of 1975-90,
has been mooted.
an unusually small individual P. 48, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013
The former West Germany was a semi-sovereign 126. pulverisation

political pygmy, protected by America’s military might
and with barely any foreign policy of its own.
P.05, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013 the act of grinding to a powder or dust
(SPECIAL REPORT)
The rebels’ backers in the West and in the Gulf find it
122. pace hard to stomach the new reality that Mr Assad, after
the death of at least 80,000 Syrians and
the pulverisation of so many villages and towns, may
be in the ascendant. a person who is tiny or diminutive
As an example, take the human mind. The time-
127. downtrodden honoured idea that the mind is essentially a little man,
or homunculus, who sits in the brain doing clever
abused or oppressed by people in power things soon becomes problematic: who does all the
clever things in the little man’s brain?
Many Syrians originally sympathetic to the rebels
have been horrified by events such as the reported
execution on June 9th of a 14-year-old boy by 133. cascade
jihadists in Aleppo, allegedly for insulting the Prophet
Muhammad. Downtrodden Sunnis who six months a small waterfall or series of small waterfalls
ago were the mainstay of the opposition may be
thinking again. This pump, which Mr Dennett calls a “ cascade of
P. 47, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013 homunculi”, was inspired by the field of artificial
intelligence (AI).
128. hark back P. 81, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013
go back to something earlier 134. subvert
But whispered conversations in the streets of corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality

Damascus and continuing arrests hark back to
darker days under Hafez Assad, the previous IN 2009 Iran was on the verge of electing a reformer
president and father of the present one. as president. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme
P. 48, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013 leader, subverted the vote and crushed the ensuing
protests.
129. grind P. 11, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
reduce to small pieces or particles by pounding or 135. ensuing

abrading
following immediately and as a result of what went
def. Grind on: to drag on endlessly; continue for a before
long time in a wearying or tedious way
So a war of attrition, fought partly by proxies, looks IN 2009 Iran was on the verge of electing a reformer
set to grind on, with horrendous consequences. as president. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme
P. 48, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013 leader, subverted the vote and crushed
the ensuing protests.
130. brim P. 11, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
the top edge of a vessel or other container 136. villain
Mosques in the capital brim with those from the someone who does evil deliberately
suburbs whose houses have been destroyed. Few
Syrians now see a better future. The smiling Mr Rohani’s public pronouncements
P. 48, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013 encourage optimism, for he sounds like a different
sort of president from the comedy-villain, Mahmoud
131. nub Ahmadinejad, who precedes him.
P. 11, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
the choicest or most essential or most vital part of
some idea or experience 137. teetotaller
“Intuition pumps” are what Mr Dennett calls thought a total abstainer

experiments that aim to get at the nub of concepts.
P. 81, The Economist Ed. June 15th-21st 2013 Mr Rohani was indeed the most reformist of the
candidates on offer at the election, but in much the
132. homunculus way that Churchill was more of a teetotaller than
George Brown Intended as a prelude to a more far-reaching deal, the
P. 11, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 offer represented a slight softening of the six powers’
position, by allowing Iran to keep a small amount of
138. inception uranium enriched to 20% (for use in a reactor to make
medical isotopes) and calling only for the suspension
of enrichment at Fordow, a plant buried deep within a
an event that is a beginning mountain, rather than its closure.
The 64-year-old cleric has been a loyal servant of the
Islamic Republic from its inception. 144. complicity
guilt as a confederate in a crime or offense
139. chunk
After being warned unmistakably by Mr Obama that
a compact mass he could not count on any such thing and that
America would not be “complicit” in such an attack, Mr
The Iraqi government is now its ally. It has sway Netanyahu came perilously close to trying to influence
over chunks of Lebanon through Hizbullah, the Shia the presidential election in favour of his friend, the
party-cum-militia it finances. more hawkish Mitt Romney.
P. 11, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 P. 28, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
140. herald 145. cling
a sign indicating the approach of something or hold on tightly or tenaciously

someone
The idea that there will be plenty of time between Iran
This analysis may be too gloomy. It is possible that Mr making the decision to build nuclear weapons and
Rohani’s arrival heralds a more pragmatic and less actually getting them is a comforting conceit that
aggressive position. Western intelligence agencies have clung to.
141. impede 146. reciprocate
be a hindrance or obstacle to act, feel, or give mutually or in return
The West should reciprocate, making it clear that it America could live with an arsenal reduced by up to a
has no intention of impeding Iran’s peaceful third, Mr Obama suggested. That would leave each
development. country with just over 1,000 such weapons, if Mr
P. 11, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 Putin reciprocated.
142. warily
147. ratification
in a manner marked by keen caution and watchful
prudence making something valid by formally confirming it
But it must do so warily. Any deal offered to Iran Mr Obama vowed to seek support for
should include restraints draconian enough, and American ratification of the 1996 Comprehensive
inspection intrusive enough, to prevent it from building Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (a long shot) and called for a
a weapon surreptitiously, otherwise it would be worse global treaty banning the production of nuclear bomb-
than not doing a deal at all. And such a deal would making materials (a hopeless task).
very likely be unacceptable to Iran. P. 33, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
148. bypass
143. isotope
avoid something
atom with same atomic number, different number of
neutrons
Legally, Mr Obama could agree cuts with Mr 154. hilt
Putin, bypassing the Senate.
P. 33, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 the handle of a sword or dagger
149. eviscerate idiom: to the hilt

To the limit; completely: played the role to the hilt.
remove the entrails of It is also generally assumed that he will back Syria’s
embattled president, Bashar Assad, to the hilt, as his
Three days before the poll the reformist camp, all predecessor and the ruling establishment have done.
but eviscerated in 2009, persuaded its most P. 52, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
outspoken candidate, Muhammad Reza Aref, to drop
out of the race to let reform-minded voters rally 155. dither
behind the less abrasive Mr Rohani.
P. 51, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 be undecided or uncertain
150. abrasive CRITICS accuse Barack Obama of dithering in

response to the spreading civil war in Syria.
causing irritation or erosion by friction P. 52, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
Yet these stopgaps allowed Mr Morsi’s government
Three days before the poll the reformist camp, all but to dither, over enacting economic reforms needed to
eviscerated in 2009, persuaded its most outspoken unlock still bigger flows of aid and investment, such
candidate, Muhammad Reza Aref, to drop out of the as a long-proffered $4.8 billion IMF loan.
race to let reform-minded voters rally behind the P. 22, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013
less abrasive Mr Rohani.
P. 51, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 156. stalemate
151. cannily a situation in which no progress can be made
with foresight Mr Obama believes that for all its horrors and rising
death tolls, the fight between rebels and Syria’s
These two events enabled reformists and some in the president, Bashar Assad, is a stalemate: neither side
conservative establishment to converge on the middle can vanquish the other militarily.
ground, where Mr Rohani cannily emerged as a P. 52, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
candidate they could both embrace.
P. 51, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 157. scant
152. rapprochement less than the correct or legal or full amount
the reestablishing of cordial relations American officials have given scant detail, but it is
thought that the CIA will co-ordinate the supply of light
But he has been quick to call for arms to the rebels.
a rapprochement with the United States, Britain and P. 52, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
Saudi Arabia. “Relations between Iran and America
are a complicated and difficult issue,” he said. “After 158. deride
all, there is an old scar.
P. 51, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 treat or speak of with contempt
153. prudent In an interview with PBS television on June 17th, Mr

Obama derided the idea that heavier weapons, such
marked by sound judgment as anti-tank or anti-helicopter rockets and missiles,
could swiftly tip the balance of power away from the
“After all, there is an old scar. We must act prudently Assad regime.
to heal it.” America, he added, must forgo “unilateral P. 52, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
and bullying policies toward Iran.”
P. 51, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 159. beef up
make strong or stronger hitherto vetoed by America. That may be
a forlorn hope. Mr Obama noted this month that
America’s programme, likely to be based in Jordan, some of the most effective opposition fighters are no
on Syria’s southern border, may in effect amount to friends of America, so that arming them “willy-nilly” is
a beefing up of a Saudi operation there, which hardly in America’s long-term interests.
already involves the CIA in training vetted rebels. P. 52, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
165. corridor
160. vet
an enclosed passageway
a person who has served in the armed forces
Setting up humanitarian corridors raises equally
America’s programme, likely to be based in Jordan, thorny questions, Mr Obama told PBS. Would
on Syria’s southern border, may in effect amount to a America be obliged to stop not just attacks by aircraft
beefing up of a Saudi operation there, which already but also missile strikes, he asked?
involves the CIA in training vetted rebels. P. 53, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
166. abut
161. leverage
lie adjacent to another or share a boundary
strategic advantage; power to act effectively
Despite such caution, press reports suggest that
In addition, advocates of arming the opposition have American military commanders have proposed
long argued that America may gain leverage by creating something akin to a no-fly zone over a sliver
sending its own weaponry down supply-lines already of Jordanian territory abutting Syria, shielding rebel
filled with aid from Gulf Arab countries and Turkey. training sites from cross-border attacks with the help
P. 52, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 of American F-16 fighters and Patriot missile batteries
that were this month left in place in Jordan after joint
military exercises.
162. fissiparous P. 53, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
having separated or advocating separation from 167. tilt

another entity or policy or attitude
lean over; tip
Some reckon it is even too late to achieve the more
modest goals of bringing the fissiparous rebel
groups under a single command structure and An increase in the flow of small arms to the rebels is
marginalising more extreme elements, in particular unlikely to tilt the military balance in the short run.
the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra. P. 53, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
P. 52, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 But as public fury spread, the Kurds tilted towards the
protesters.
163. shrivelled
168. creep
(used especially of vegetation) having lost all moisture
move slowly
But it has faltered in part because funding
has shrivelled, prompting defections to stronger
groups, usually more Islamist ones. Syrians keen to deepen American involvement are
P. 52, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 banking on the same mission creep that wary
members of Mr Obama’s administration want to avoid.
164. forlorn
169. overhaul
marked by or showing hopelessness
make repairs, renovations, revisions or adjustments to
Rebel commanders hope that America’s shift includes
a green light for Saudi Arabia to provide them with
man-portable air-defence systems (MANPADs)— Paris metro and bus workers, for instance, may still
retire at the age of 50, rising to 52 only in 2017. Yet a
radical overhaul looks increasingly unlikely. Meanwhile, a witch hunt for so-
P. 56, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 called provocateurs has begun. Hundreds of
And Italy will have few better opportunities demonstrators have been detained.
to overhaul its national decision-making than with a P. 56, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
government uniting the left and right with Mario
Monti’s centrists. 175. nab
P.46, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
take into custody
170. dented
Doctors who tended the wounded, lawyers who
of metal e.g. defended them and others whom Mr Erdogan
denounces as part of a global conspiracy against his
But at what price? Mr Erdogan had been hailed as a government have been nabbed.
visionary who transformed Turkey into a regional P. 56, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
power and proved that political Islam and democracy
were a perfectly workable mix. His international 176. torch
reputation is now badly dented.
Has the prime minister’s popularity been a light usually carried in the hand
irreparably dented?
P. 49, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 Its anti-immigrant rhetoric, swastika-like party emblem
and torch-lit parades led by young men in black T-
171. horde shirts horrify many Greeks.
a moving crowd
177. upsurge
With only hours left before Mr Erdogan’s rally in
Istanbul hordes of riot police ripped out their tents, a sudden or abrupt strong increase
tore down their banners and doused them with tear
gas. Golden Dawn supporters are blamed for
P. 56, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 an upsurge in racist violence.
172. rip out
178. tweak
burst out with a violent or profane utterance
adjust finely
With only hours left before Mr Erdogan’s rally in
Istanbul hordes of riot police ripped out their tents, New Democracy says the existing anti-racism law
tore down their banners and doused them with tear needs tweaking, not rewriting.
gas. P. 57, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
179. hive off
173. douse
remove from a group and make separate
wet thoroughly
On June 28th his company will split in two—shares in
With only hours left before Mr Erdogan’s rally in both parts began trading this week—with most of its
Istanbul hordes of riot police ripped out their tents, lucrative film and television assets being hived
tore down their banners and doused them with tear off into a new group, called 21st Century Fox.
gas. P. 65, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
180. sprawl
174. provocateur
sit or lie with one's limbs spread out
a secret agent who incites persons to commit illegal
acts News Corp is not the only sprawling media
conglomerate that is streamlining its businesses.
P. 65, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 186. hitherto
A few media firms are still bucking the trend and
adding a bit of sprawl. up to this point; until the present time
The summit also produced promises to promote
181. strew transparency regarding the ownership
of hitherto anonymous shell companies.
spread by scattering P. 73, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
The authors argue that emerging-market companies 187. propel

are advancing along eight paths to brand success. All
are strewn with obstacles but each offers a possible give an incentive for action
route to the global heights.
The third “T” was tax. Publicity over the low taxes paid
on foreign profits by American multinationals such as
182. tread Apple, Google and Starbucks has propelled tackling
tax avoidance up the political agenda in the G8,
put down, place, or press the foot including in Britain, the summit’s host.
The most obvious is the path previously trodden by
Japanese firms such as Toyota and Sony, and then 188. dodge
South Koreans such as Samsung and Hyundai: first,
establish a beachhead in the West by selling a good- a quick evasive movement
enough product cheaply; then relentlessly raise your
price and quality.
P. 70, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 On June 19th Swiss lawmakers voted down a bill that
would have enabled Swiss banks to co-operate with
US authorities in their pursuit of American tax
183. beachhead dodgers.
an initial accomplishment that opens the way for
advancement 189. fiendishly
The most obvious is the path previously trodden by as a devil; in an evil manner
Japanese firms such as Toyota and Sony, and then
South Koreans such as Samsung and Hyundai: first,
establish a beachhead in the West by selling a good- Cross-border corporate taxation
enough product cheaply; then relentlessly raise your is fiendishly complex, the lobbying around it furious.
price and quality. P. 74, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
190. domicile
184. latch
housing that someone is living in
catch for fastening a door or gate
Yet in “Through a Latte, Darkly”, a new study of how
One is to latch on to some aspect of the national Starbucks has largely avoided paying tax in Britain,
culture that sounds nice: Havaianas, a Brazilian flip- Edward Kleinbard of the University of Southern
flops maker, taps into the local beach life. California shows that current tax rules make it easy
P. 70, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 for all sorts of firms to generate what he calls
“stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction
that is neither the location of the factors of production
185. pilfer that generate the income nor where the parent firm
is domiciled.
make off with belongings of others P. 74, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013
A habit of pilfering foreigners’ ideas can discourage 191. wreak

them from developing distinctive products and brand
identities. cause to happen or to occur as a consequence
The devastation that the Japanese invasion Mr Mitter does not skimp in narrating the atrocities;
would wreak was indeed shocking. the stench of war infuses his narrative.
192. anvil 199. revelry
a heavy block on which hot metals are shaped by unrestrained merrymaking

hammering
They tend to be ordinary, middle-class people, not
It was the anvil on which the new nation was forged. lobbies with lists of demands. Their mix
P. 83, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 of revelry and rage condemns the corruption,
inefficiency and arrogance of the folk in charge.
193. forged P. 11, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
reproduced fraudulently 200. clamber
It was the anvil on which the new nation was forged. climb awkwardly, as if by scrambling
The 40m Brazilians who clambered out of poverty in
194. wonk the past eight years are able for the first time to
scrutinise the society that their taxes finance.
a student who is ridiculed as being boringly studious
201. vanguard
Mr Mitter may disappoint military wonks hoping for a
blow-by-blow account of every skirmish.
P. 83, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 the position of greatest importance or advancement
195. ineptly Higher education is in the vanguard. Barely a year

from its launch, Coursera, one of the pioneers in
offering “massive open online courses”, now boasts
with ineptitude; in an incompetent manner more than 3.9m students worldwide, taking courses
supplied by 83 partner institutions.
From there it fought on—sometimes ineptly, often P. 13, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
bravely—until victory in 1945
P. 83, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 202. bar
196. insularity expel, as if by official decree
lack of openness to new ideas; narrow-mindedness This is a mistake. Enlargement has been the EU’s
most successful policy bar none. The hope of
As Japan modernised, it became a model for Chinese membership was crucial in fostering and smoothing
reformers and a refuge for Chinese revolutionaries the transition to democracy, first in Greece, Spain and
who opposed their own government’s insularity. Portugal and later across large parts of eastern
P. 83, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 Europe.
197. skimp
203. prosaic
work hastily or carelessly
lacking wit or imagination
Mr Mitter does not skimp in narrating the atrocities;
the stench of war infuses his narrative. For all that, formidable barriers still exist to getting
P. 83, The Economist Ed. June 22ND-28TH 2013 education technology into America’s schools. These
range from the prosaic to the ideological.
198. stench
a distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant 204. procurement

the act of getting possession of something okpal (powerful ombudsman) to combat graft.
America’s 13,000 school districts still upgrade their
texts and equipment on slow, unsynchronised cycles 210. adept
and follow a bewildering range
of procurement processes. having or showing knowledge and skill and aptitude
He calls Arab spring protesters in Egypt an inspiration
205. obtuse for their use of social media, and has
become adept at campaigning, using technology in
of an angle, between 90 and 180 degrees the absence of Mr Hazare to draw crowds.
Unions have filed lawsuits to close down online
charter schools, including what looks like a 211. rickshaw
deliberately obtuse proposal to limit enrolment at
such virtual schools to those who live in their districts. a small two-wheeled cart for one passenger
The trouble is that dirty politics are often more
206. drudgery successful. Delhi’s police make rickshaw drivers
remove Aam Aadmi posters from their vehicles.
hard, monotonous, routine work P. 38, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
The promise in all this for teachers is less drudgery, 212. venality
since some of their duller tasks can be automated,
and interesting new challenges as they work out how susceptibility or openness to bribery and corruption
to reorganise their classes.
Voters may oppose venality, but at elections they
accept politicians’ handouts.
207. jinxed P. 38, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
causing or accompanied by misfortune 213. ebb
Education technology could reverse this trend—if it is the outward flow of the tide
not jinxed by politics, bureaucracy and outdated
institutional structures. Countries where it is not now
have the chance to race ahead. THE tide of street demonstrations that rose across
P. 26, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 Brazil earlier this month, following what began as a
small protest about São Paulo bus fares, seems to
have ebbed.
208. crane P. 34, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
stretch, so as to see better 214. misdemeanour
Upon the appearance of a slight man in a white a crime less serious than a felony
Gandhi cap, phones glowed like fireflies in the dark as
men craned to snap his picture. “Now I have lived,
I’ve seen him!” trilled one. After meeting protest leaders, city mayors and state
P. 37, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 governors, Dilma Rousseff, the president, offered a
“national pact”. Its five points were: a constituent
assembly to consider political reform; making
209. ombudsman corruption a felony (today it is a misdemeanour); a
promise to invest 50 billion reais ($23 billion) in city
an appointee investigating complaints against the transport; more spending on health and education;
government and, contradicting that somewhat, a reiteration of the
importance of fiscal responsibility.
It was led by an ascetic Gandhi lookalike, Anna P. 34, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH
Hazare, who fasted to demand the creation of a l
215. spew
eject or send out in large quantities apparatus that spent decades oppressing Islamists.
Among many others in Egypt, the head of al-Azhar,
Sunni Islam’s leading theological institution, issued a 221. dowdy
sharp rebuke to Salafists spewing sectarian bile.
P. 45, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 lacking in stylishness or taste
216. ire def. primly out of date.

Powerful businessmen who profited under Mr
belligerence aroused by a real or supposed wrong Mubarak also bear grudges, relentlessly reflected in
the privately owned media that far outshine the
Shia leaders such as Iraq’s Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Islamists’ dowdy efforts at propaganda.
who fret that their community could again become P. 46, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
pariahs in the region, have in the past also sought to
calm Sunni-Shia ire. 222. sparring
making the motions of attack and defense with the
217. lumber fists and arms; a part of training for a boxer
move heavily or clumsily In a closely scrutinised speech on June 24th, the

defence minister, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, issued a
IT IS an odd thing when a nation of 84m veiled warning that the army would not stand by while
people lumbers towards a precise appointment with a the country slid into chaos. He gave
wholly unknown destiny. the sparring factions six days to settle their
P. 46, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 differences.
218. queue
223. bludgeon
a line of people or vehicles waiting for something
a club used as a weapon
Worried citizens are stockpiling necessities, with a
panicked run on petrol causing mile-long queues and Another def. overcome or coerce as if by using a
snarled traffic. heavy club
P. 46, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 The 66-year-old prayer leader and three of his
Queues for petrol have lengthened. Farmers are followers were bludgeoned to death.
often not being paid for their wheat. Crime has P. 45, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
soared—the murder rate has tripled since the Sadly, the old man and his thugs will probably try
revolution. to bludgeon their way to a bogus victory.
P. 11, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013 P.10, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND
2013
219. snarled
224. tattling
tangled in knots or snarls
prone to communicate confidential information
Worried citizens are stockpiling necessities, with a
panicked run on petrol causing mile-long queues Germany usually feels obliged to back Israel, but Mrs
and snarled traffic. Merkel was disappointed by Mr Netanyahu’s half-
P. 46, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 hearted peace efforts and his tattling to the Israeli
press about matters she had told him in confidence.
220. stalwart
225. pitted
having rugged physical strength
pitted with cell-like cavities (as a honeycomb)
These include stalwarts of the “deep state”, the
opaque, Mubarak-era civil service and security
As the world ponders whether to intervene in Syria,
with Russia pitted against the West, hopes among
diplomats are low that Germany will do anything at all. Europe has dawned”.
P. 47, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 P. 51, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
226. slyly 232. mend
in an artful manner the act of putting something in working order again
As a big exporter, Germany has national interests Membership cannot mend everything. The process
and slyly defends them. has not overcome the bitterness of Vukovar’s people.
P. 48, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 Nor is it certain to fix the Balkans’s many troubles.
227. convulse
233. huffing
move or stir about violently
an act of forcible exhalation
THE protests that have convulsed Turkey since May
31st are prompting many questions about the future China, under strong pressure from America to sign up
of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. to new rules of internet conduct in the run-up to a
P. 49, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 summit in July, is huffing and puffing, too.
228. fester
234. puffing
generate pus
blowing tobacco smoke out into the air
Most critically, what effect has the turmoil had on his
bold efforts to solve the country’s long-festering China, under strong pressure from America to sign up
Kurdish problem? to new rules of internet conduct in the run-up to a
P. 49, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 summit in July, is huffing and puffing, too.
229. parrot
235. quarry
repeat mindlessly
extract from or as if from an excavation
Mr Demirtas even parroted the government’s view
that coup-plotters and ultranationalists were Journalists have camped at Moscow airport for days,
responsible for them. but caught no sight of their quarry.
230. truce 236. tinge
a state of peace agreed to between opponents affect as in thought or feeling
Murat Karayilan, a PKK commander in Kurdish- In America outrage over the leaking of secrets and
controlled northern Iraq, went so far as to suggest he fear at what may come next is tinged with concerns
might end a three-month truce because Turkey was about the oversight and reach of the NSA.
“preparing for war”. P. 55, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
237. cart away
231. vainglorious
take away by means of a vehicle
feeling self-importance
Social media mean that pictures and video spread
Europe was impotent to stop the bloodshed, despite rapidly; supporters arrive more quickly than police can
the vainglorious claim by Jacques Poos, cart them away, so governments can no longer rely
Luxembourg’s then foreign minister, that “the hour of on quelling minor protests by force.
238. jolly Since 2011 cops in Brazil have tried head-mounted
face-detection cameras, which authorities claim can
be silly or tease one another capture up to 400 faces a second. Hoisting them on
cheap drones would offer an even better view.
Protests in Brazil have inspired a jolly online video
game, in which Facebook-users guide a grinning
demonstrator away from cartoon cops. 244. redress
make reparations or amends for
239. grinning
And they are more skilled at seeking redress through
a facial expression characterized by turning up the courts and complaints, says Daniel Treisman, of the
corners of the mouth; usually shows pleasure or University of California, Los Angeles.
amusement P. 56, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
Protests in Brazil have inspired a jolly online video 245. ponderous

game, in which Facebook-users guide
a grinning demonstrator away from cartoon cops. labored and dull
TRAVELLERS on Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s state-
240. amorphous owned railway, are used to being addressed in a
peculiar language peppered with ponderous English
having no definite form or distinct shape words and phrases, such as Neue Snackbox für Kids.
But rail bosses have decided that this creeping use of
Denglisch has gone too far.
An amorphous digital crowd can find it hard to agree P. 62, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
on demands, accept compromises, or discipline
provocateurs. Online voting and other clever e-
democracy tools may solve this problem. 246. prone
having a tendency
241. throttle
Advertising in Germany is particularly prone to
reduce the air supply Anglicisms.
Protesters in Turkey and Brazil say their mobile
internet access was throttled, though congestion, not 247. garbled
censorship, may be the real culprit.
P. 56, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 lacking orderly continuity
242. culprit Most English slogans used in Germany fall flat

because they are so garbled, says Bernd Samland of
someone or something responsible for harm or Endmark, a brand consultancy.
wrongdoing P. 62, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
Protesters in Turkey and Brazil say their mobile 248. defecation reflex
internet access was throttled, though congestion, not
censorship, may be the real culprit. normal response to the presence of feces in the
P. 56, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 rectum
The main culprit is bigger-than-expected cuts in
public spending that were necessary to keep the bail- Note: There is no definition in Vocabulary.com for
out on track. defecate.
P.47, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013 def. discharge feces from the body.
Sanitation and public hygiene are awful, especially in
243. hoist the north: half of all Indians still defecate in the open,
resulting in many deaths from diarrhoea and
raise or haul up with or as if with mechanical help encephalitis.
249. lagging 255. hype up
used to wrap around pipes or boilers or laid in attics to get excited or stimulated
prevent loss of heat
However much the military brass may hype up the
Worse, its lagging social problems actually serve to threat, states are in fact highly unlikely to use cyber-
drag down economic growth. weapons against each other, Mr Rid argues.
250. verge 256. beguiling
come close to misleading by means of pleasant or alluring methods
A ruling elite defined by caste, but also by gender, def. highly attractive and able to arouse hope or
education and income, has an utter lack of desire
interest— verging on contempt—in improving matters In this beguiling book he describes how, like Kipling,
for the rest. he came back to Horace, and to himself.
251. fend off 257. ponder
prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening reflect deeply on a subject
State agencies demand more power to fend off a Later, as Mr Eyres began to ponder the questions of
dreadful attack by a foreign enemy—a kind of “digital existence, the excesses of a superficial society, the
Pearl Harbour”. problem of how to live well and the inevitability of
P. 75, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 death, he came to realise that even after 2,000 years,
Horace, his old nemesis, can provide some answers.
252. complacent P. 77, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013
contented to a fault with oneself or one's actions 258. nuptials
The difficulty for the citizen and taxpayer is to decide: the social event at which the marriage ceremony is
are people being too paranoid, or too complacent? performed
The impact on federal law of the Supreme Court’s
253. hype recent decision on gay marriage was made clear with
an announcement that green cards would be issued
to foreign spouses in legally recognised same-
blatant or sensational promotion sex nuptials.
He is one of Britain’s leading authorities on, and
sceptics about, cyber-warfare. His provocatively titled 259. ultimatum
book attacks the hype and mystique about sabotage,
espionage, subversion and other mischief on the
internet. a final peremptory demand
The “troika” of international lenders gave Greece
254. gimmick an ultimatum to show it can honour its austerity
promises before a further €8.1 billion ($10.6 billion) in
aid can be unlocked.
any clever maneuver P. 7, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013
He criticises the American air force for using a 260. dampen

“lobbying gimmick” with talk of “cyber” as a fifth
domain of warfare, after land, sea, air and space.
P. 75, The Economist Ed. June 29TH-July 5TH 2013 lessen in force or effect
Officials sought to dampen fears of what would The Egyptian pound and foreign exchange reserves
happen if Greece did not receive aid payments in have both dwindled, inflation is rising and
time. unemployment among those under 24 is more than
P. 7, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013 40%.
261. ordinance
267. finagle
an authoritative rule
achieve something by means of trickery or devious
In India the government passed a law to provide methods
cheap food rations to two-thirds of Indians. It did so
by ordinance without getting Parliament’s approval. He made false, inept or cowardly choices at every
P. 7, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013 turn, finagling constitutional issues, pushing fellow
Brothers into key appointments and feeding the
262. titular secularists’ fears that his brethren were determined,
by hook or by crook, to Islamise every aspect of
society.
existing in name only P. 11, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013
The titular king of Manipur state, in India’s north-east, 268. petulant

ended his hunger strike.
easily irritated or annoyed
263. emit
A petulant European response to the spy row risks
speeding the pull-out.
give off, send forth, or discharge P. 12, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013
In a second vote the European Parliament decided to 269. bellwether

delay issuing more industrial permits to emit carbon.
Gas vehicles emit less carbon dioxide than equivalent someone who assumes leadership of a movement or
petrol-powered ones. activity
P.12, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
The hounding from power of the Islamist Muslim
264. trepidation Brotherhood leaves the most populous and influential
Arab country in a dangerous state of flux, and it will
have sweeping implications for politics across the
a feeling of alarm or dread Muslim world—Egypt has always been
a bellwether for its region.
That is why we regard the events of the past few days P. 21, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013
with trepidation.
P. 11, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013 270. shunt
265. bleak a conductor diverting a fraction of current from a

device
offering little or no hope
Now that the army has shunted Mr Morsi aside, there
The army, which is in part responsible for the is a real question as to whether the country will move
situation, must start Egypt on the path towards new towards a warmed-up version of military-backed rule
elections as swiftly as possible, or the prospects for or towards a more inclusive democracy.
the country will be bleak. P. 21, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013
271. bay
266. dwindle
utter in deep prolonged tones
become smaller or lose substance
On July 1st the army issued an ultimatum calling on
Mr Morsi to “meet the demands of the
people” baying for his departure. capable of life or normal growth and development
Repressed by Mr Mubarak—though he let them
272. flank stay viable enough to serve as a bogeyman to the
regime’s Western supporters—the group soldiered on
the side of military or naval formation with gritty determination.
General al-Sisi was flanked by some of the religious
and political leaders including the Coptic pope, who 278. gritty
had been consulted on the army’s plan. Nearly all
political parties, including Salafist former allies of the determined and willing to face danger
Brotherhood, have endorsed the road map.
P. 21, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013 Repressed by Mr Mubarak—though he let them stay
viable enough to serve as a bogeyman to the
273. forlorn regime’s Western supporters—the group soldiered on
with gritty determination.
marked by or showing hopelessness P. 22, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013
Troops moved to surround a sit-in of angry 279. proffer

and forlorn Brotherhood supporters near Cairo
university. present for acceptance or rejection
Yet these stopgaps allowed Mr Morsi’s government to
274. maladroit dither, over enacting economic reforms needed to
unlock still bigger flows of aid and investment, such
not quick or skillful in action or thought as a long-proffered $4.8 billion IMF loan.
The period of army rule between the fall of Mr
Mubarak and Mr Morsi’s election was marked by 280. lit
ham-fisted mismanagement, maladroit politics and
vicious human-rights abuses. provided with artificial light
The hush of the retirement home hangs over its
275. flypast brightly lit corridors and snail-slow lifts
a flight at a low altitude over spectators on the ground
281. centenary
Yet judging by the ecstatic roars with which the
crowds in Tahrir Square have greeted flypasts by the 100th anniversary, or the celebration of it
army helicopters, a great many Egyptians have
decided to bury their doubts and ugly memories and Wang Huiyao of the China Western Returned
accept the army’s intervention as in the national Scholars Association, which celebrates
interest. its centenary this year, observes that sea turtles have
P. 22, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013 returned in five waves.
276. untainted
282. rampant
(of reputation) free from blemishes
occurring or increasing in an unrestrained way
These people tilted in the Brotherhood’s direction in
the 2012 elections because they thought they Labour and land costs are rising, the theft of
were untainted and competent. intellectual property is still rampant and corruption is
P. 22, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013 widespread.
277. viable
283. tier
a relative position or degree of value in a graded 289. grope
group
feel about uncertainly or blindly
Few top-tier scientists have returned. Mr Wang and
Mr Zweig’s paper explains why: “If China wants to Some of the more go-ahead Arab monarchies, for
bring back the best, it needs a fundamental reform of example in Morocco, Jordan and Kuwait,
its academic and scientific institutions” to break the are groping towards constitutional systems that give
power of politicised administrators over hiring and their subjects a bigger say.
funding. P. 11, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
290. evict
284. trawl
expel or eject without recourse to legal process
a long fishing line with many shorter lines and hooks
attached to it (usually suspended between buoys)
Muhammad Morsi, the Muslim Brother evicted earlier
this month by the generals at the apparent behest of
A deeper controversy surrounds the NSA’s ability to many millions of Egyptians in the street, was
harness its abundant processing power to trawl huge democratically elected, yet did his best to flout the
amounts of data for clues about crime and terrorism. norms of democracy during his short stint as
P. 55, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013 president.
285. limbo
291. squelch
the state of being disregarded or forgotten
suppress or crush completely
On July 2nd, at a summit in Moscow, Bolivia’s
president Evo Morales joked that he might help Mr The Senate, for example, is sure to squelch the
Snowden, who is in limbo at an airport there, seeking House’s 20-week limit on abortions.
asylum from American justice. P. 28, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
292. plumage
286. derail
the covering of feathers on a bird
run off or leave the tracks
Overpriced homes are like the
But the risk that one of the biggest trade deals in extravagant plumage of a peacock, an eye-catching
decades could be derailed by mistrust or bickering encumbrance that only the most resourceful males
has been underlined. can put on display.
P. 66, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013 P. 39, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
287. prickly 293. encumbrance
very irritable an onerous or difficult concern
Europeans are prickly about American agricultural Overpriced homes are like the extravagant plumage
practices, like the use of genetically modified foods. of a peacock, an eye-catching encumbrance that
P. 67, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013 only the most resourceful males can put on display.
288. carve out
294. pepper
remove from a larger whole
climber having dark red berries when fully ripe
Americans will cling to carve-outs for domestic
shipping and transport firms. THE words “civil war” pepper many a conversation in
P. 67, The Economist Ed. July 6TH-12TH 2013 Cairo in the wake of the military coup on July 3rd that
ousted Muhammad Morsi, a Muslim Brother, after
only a year in power. That made it a strange bedfellow of Mr Assad, who is
P. 41, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 seeking to portray Syria’s civil war as a battle
between a secular regime and extremists.
295. bumpy P. 42, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
covered with or full of bumps 301. prop up
On July 8th the judge appointed by the army as an support by placing against something solid or rigid
interim president unveiled a brisk timetable for
bringing in a new constitution and for parliamentary He hailed Mr Morsi’s downfall as “the death of political
and presidential elections. It is bound, at best, to be Islam”, which sounded odd, since he is propped
a bumpy ride. up by a theocracy in Iran.
P. 41, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 P. 42, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
296. whiff 302. glee
a short light gust of air great merriment
The interim president, Adly Mansour, called for an So Saudi Arabia, which detests the Brothers, reacted
inquiry without suggesting its terms, leaving with glee.
the whiff of a would-be cover-up. P. 42, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
303. copious
297. prod
large in number or quantity
push against gently
Al Arabiya, a Saudi-owned satellite television channel,
Keen to bring back stability and to persuade people called the coup a “second revolution” and
that he sincerely wants to cede power as soon as screened copious footage of the protests against Mr
possible, General Sisi moved fast to prod Mr Morsi.
Mansour into setting a rapid return to democracy. P. 42, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
304. cable
298. rector
a telegram sent abroad
a person authorized to conduct religious worship
Qatar’s news agency reported that the new emir,
So further clashes are likely. Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Sheikh Tamim, had sent a cable of congratulations to
grand imam of the al-Azhar mosque and rector of the Mr Mansour.
university of the same name, who is by tradition the P. 42, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
leading authority of Sunni Islam, has called for more
serious efforts to reconcile the main camps and has 305. curfew
warned that Egypt could be heading towards civil war.
an order that after a certain time activities are
prohibited
299. rein
The army tried to enforce a night-time curfew.
one of a pair of long straps used to control a horse P. 42, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
“But they may not be able to rein in young members.” 306. grievance
a resentment strong enough to justify retaliation
300. bedfellow
Most of the gunmen are Bedouin who have long-
a person with whom you share a bed standing grievances against the central government
in Cairo. 312. leafy
having or covered with leaves
307. barred
The same vast, joyous, flag-waving crowds surged
preventing entry or exit or a course of action into the Pearl Roundabout in Manama, the capital of
Bahrain, thronged the Tahrir Squares of Sana’a, the
They say they are barred from joining the army or Yemeni capital, and of Egypt’s great metropolis,
police; they find it hard to get jobs in tourism; and they Cairo, and swarmed the beachfront at Benghazi in
complain that many of their lands have been taken Libya and the leafy avenues of Tunis.
from them. P.02, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
P. 42, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 (SPECIAL REPORT)
308. sham 313. bug
something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to annoy persistently

be
Before it began to stir in December 2010, the world’s
“The Salafist armed groups were putting their trust in 350m Arabs had seemed oddly immune to the
the ballot box,” says Mr Goda. “Now that they see our democracy bug that had infected most corners of the
democracy is a sham, they will trust in bullets again— globe.
and drag the Brothers in, too.” P.02, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
P. 43, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 (SPECIAL REPORT)
309. twitch 314. stiff
make an uncontrolled, short, jerky motion incapable of or resistant to bending
But foreigners working for the government will be Translating religious ideals into practical policies is
twitchy, as Emiratisation speeds up. tough when Islamists themselves are far from agreed
P. 43, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 over what those ideals should be, and tougher still
when resistance to Islamist aims, whether from
entrenched bureaucracies or from secular-minded
310. quota elites, proves stiff and unrelenting.
a proportional share assigned to each participant (SPECIAL REPORT)
Saudi Arabia has also long pursued “Saudi-isation”, 315. stamp out
whereby firms are made to replace foreigners with
Saudi workers. Under the current law, known as end or extinguish by forceful means
nitaqat (“categories”), companies are classified by
green, yellow and red labels that denote the extent to
which they have complied with employment quotas. When the police in the tiny island kingdom of Bahrain
P. 43, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 failed to stamp out a raucous pro-democracy mutiny,
the ruling family panicked.
311. cull (SPECIAL REPORT)
remove something that has been rejected 316. mutiny
Across the region, a further cull of jobs for foreigners open rebellion against constituted authority
looks likely.
Foreign sales provide an external test of their When the police in the tiny island kingdom of Bahrain
progress, allowing the state to “ cull losers”, even if it failed to stamp out a raucous pro-democracy mutiny,
cannot pick winners. the ruling family panicked.
P.72, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 P.03, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
(SPECIAL REPORT)
317. ominous a harsh and strident sound (as of the grinding of
gears)
threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic
developments The Arab political map settled into a varied patchwork
of kingdoms, emirates, civilian dictatorships and
These, ominously, include extreme jihadist factions, army-ruled republics, some grindingly poor and others
among them al-Qaeda, whose ambitions extend far exceedingly rich, some aggressively secularist and
beyond imposing harsh religious laws. others, such as Saudi Arabia, conservative and
P.04, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 puritanical.
(SPECIAL REPORT) P.05, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
(SPECIAL REPORT)
318. schism
323. venal
division of a group into opposing factions
capable of being corrupted
The 1,400-year-old great fitna ( schism) between
Islam’s main branches, given to periodic eruptions, Some rulers were benign and well loved,
rumbles ominously again. others venal or cruel, but common rituals and
P.04, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 touchstones, such as memories of anti-colonial
(SPECIAL REPORT) struggles, served to suggest a shared legitimacy.
(SPECIAL REPORT)
319. stifle
324. cradle
conceal or hide
a baby bed with sides and rockers
def. To stifle is to cut off, hold back, or smother. You
may stifle your cough if you don't want to interrupt a
lecture or you may stifle the competition if you fear Windfall oil revenues in the 1970s encouraged Arab
losing. oil exporters to indulge their people with mammoth
Debate on such crucial issues as the relationship infrastructure projects and cradle-to-grave welfare
between state and religion, central authority and local benefits.
demands, and individual and collective rights could P.06, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
not be indefinitely stifled. (SPECIAL REPORT)
(SPECIAL REPORT) 325. perfunctorily
320. ember in a set manner without serious attention
a hot, smoldering fragment of wood left from a fire The managerial classes in places such as Egypt and
Syria, perfunctorily educated in the factory-like
Yet the embers of revolution smouldered on. Within a schools built to accommodate rapidly expanding
generation of 1848 the whole of Europe had been cohorts of children, fell ever further behind their peers
radically transformed. elsewhere.
(SPECIAL REPORT) (SPECIAL REPORT)
321. smoulder 326. meddle
burn slowly and without a flame intrude in other people's affairs or business
Yet the embers of revolution smouldered on. Within Many of them blamed the murder on Syria, which had
a generation of 1848 the whole of Europe had been long meddled in its neighbour’s affairs.
radically transformed. P.06, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
(SPECIAL REPORT)
327. vigil
322. grinding
a purposeful surveillance to guard or observe The fall in 2003 of the country’s brutal despot,
Saddam Hussein, gave vent to the burning
He had joined a vigil outside the Iranian embassy to resentment of the Shia underclass he had long
protest against Iran’s support for the Syrian regime. persecuted, raising fears among Sunnis who had
P.07, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 ruled the territory since Ottoman times.
(SPECIAL REPORT) P.07, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
At a rain-spattered vigil in Tampa a weeping woman (SPECIAL REPORT)
holding a guttering candle complained that America
deems black lives worthless. 333. disgruntled
in a state of sulky dissatisfaction
328. burly
The country remains divided, the disgruntled,
muscular and heavily built impoverished and violent Sunni part now contrasting
with a relatively quiet and prospering Kurdish north
Burly men wearing yellow armbands attacked the and Shia south.
small crowd with clubs and pistols. P.07, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
(SPECIAL REPORT)
334. ramp
329. nudge
an inclined surface connecting two levels
push against gently
To deter Israel from striking to preserve its regional
These killings barely nudged the daily toll from nuclear monopoly, the Shia superpower
Syria’s civil war, a war that has warped into bloody also ramped up its long-standing sponsorship of
attrition between the majority Sunni and better-armed Hizbullah.
Shia Muslims. P.08, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
(SPECIAL REPORT)
335. bore
330. clinch
make a hole, especially with a pointed power or hand
secure or fasten by flattening the ends of nails or bolts tool
The Brotherhood’s candidate, Muhammad Morsi, Many bore a grudge against the 12% minority of
went on to clinch the presidency. Alawites, an esoteric offshoot of Shiism to which the
P.07, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 ruling Assad clan and much of the officer class
(SPECIAL REPORT) belong.
(SPECIAL REPORT)
331. vilify
336. vigilante
spread negative information about
a person who takes the law into his or her own hands
But more recently a combination of factors has
pushed the two sects apart, ranging from a waning
sense of a shared struggle against the West to the oil- Mysterious attacks against Christians and other
greased rise in the influence of Sunni Saudi Arabia minorities followed, prompting some to form pro-
(whose Wahhabist state ideology vilifies Shias as government vigilante gangs.
heretics) and the empowerment of historically P.08, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
marginalised Shias in other countries. (SPECIAL REPORT)
(SPECIAL REPORT) 337. flea market
332. vent an open-air street market for inexpensive or

secondhand articles
a hole for the escape of gas, air, or liquid
As abandoned Sunni homes were systematically explain their rapid descent into mayhem.
plundered, the country’s newly flourishing flea P.08, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
markets took on a new name, souk al sunna. (SPECIAL REPORT)
(SPECIAL REPORT) 343. mayhem
338. burnish violent and needless disturbance
polish and make shiny The abrupt implosion of Iraq and Syria, which had
been highly centralised and repressive states, helps
Radical jihadist groups can be counted on explain their rapid descent into mayhem.
to burnish his image by committing atrocious acts of P.08, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
vengeance. (SPECIAL REPORT)
(SPECIAL REPORT) 344. intricacy
339. sleek the quality of having elaborately complex detail
having a smooth, gleaming surface reflecting light “More often than not, the intricacies of faith and
theology are about as relevant in Iraqi sectarian
Two years later, in dusty Shia villages just minutes dynamics as Christianity is in the rhetoric of European
from the sleek waterfront of Bahrain’s capital, far-right groups,” writes Fanar Haddad, an Iraqi
Manama, black religious banners and stencilled scholar at the National University of Singapore.
images of martyrs proclaim sullen resistance. P.08, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
(SPECIAL REPORT)
345. dispatch
340. stencil
the act of sending off something
a sheet of material that has been perforated with a
pattern Hizbullah’s recent dispatch of fighters into Syria has
provoked a torrent of Sunni abuse.
Two years later, in dusty Shia villages just minutes P.08, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
from the sleek waterfront of Bahrain’s capital, (SPECIAL REPORT)
Manama, black religious banners
and stencilled images of martyrs proclaim sullen 346. perfidy
resistance.
(SPECIAL REPORT) an act of deliberate betrayal
341. sullen Mosque sermons recalled distant historical episodes

of supposed Shia perfidy.
showing a brooding ill humor (SPECIAL REPORT)
Two years later, in dusty Shia villages just minutes 347. bode
from the sleek waterfront of Bahrain’s capital,
Manama, black religious banners and stencilled
images of martyrs proclaim sullen resistance. indicate by signs
(SPECIAL REPORT) This increasingly ugly tone bodes ill for sectarian
relations across Islam.
342. abrupt P.08, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
(SPECIAL REPORT)
exceedingly sudden and unexpected
348. carping
The abrupt implosion of Iraq and Syria, which had
been highly centralised and repressive states, helps persistent petty and unjustified criticism
As they have now found, running the place is a lot 353. stunt
more difficult than carping from the sidelines.
P.09, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 check the growth or development of
(SPECIAL REPORT)
Egypt has experienced a surge in poverty and
349. bout childhood stunting, a result of poor nutrition.
a period of indeterminate length marked by some (SPECIAL REPORT)
condition
354. hermit
Mr Morsi has shielded the army and police from
scrutiny of repressive tactics that left perhaps a one retired from society for religious reasons
thousand Egyptians dead in repeated bouts of
unrest.
P.09, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 A political street-fighter and activist since student
(SPECIAL REPORT) days, he was an unlikely hermit.
350. whisker
355. posh
a very small distance or space
elegant and fashionable
Following their convincing win in parliamentary
elections at the end of 2011, ten months after Egypt’s When he closed the store and opened one on
revolution, they fared progressively worse at the polls. the posh Kurfürstendamm, thieves promptly broke in
Mr Morsi won the presidency by a whisker in June there and made off with historic watches that are
2012, but after peaking at 80% in September last almost priceless.
year, by last month his popularity had plunged to P.47, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
30%, according to polls.
P.09, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 356. pickpocket
(SPECIAL REPORT)
a thief who steals from the pockets or purses of
351. impeachment others in public places
the act of charging an official with an offense The second trend, of which Askania’s travails are one
committed while in office example, is a sharp rise in specific property crimes.
One fast-growing category is pickpocketing.
Even before the latest mass uprising, described by P.47, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013
one commentator as a “popular impeachment”, and
the army coup, the Muslim Brothers had been heavily 357. flack
defeated in elections for university student councils
and professional syndicates, bodies they had long intense adverse criticism
dominated.
(SPECIAL REPORT) True, like other local politicians, mayors employ
armies of public-relations flacks to big up their
contribution to local business growth, but increasingly
352. syndicate there is substance behind the hype.
an association of companies for some definite
purpose 358. hype
Even before the latest mass uprising, described by publicize in an exaggerated and often misleading
one commentator as a “popular impeachment”, and manner
the army coup, the Muslim Brothers had been heavily
defeated in elections for university student councils
and professional syndicates, bodies they had long True, like other local politicians, mayors employ
dominated. armies of public-relations flacks to big up their
P.09, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 contribution to local business growth, but increasingly
(SPECIAL REPORT)
there is substance behind the hype. Jakarta’s Bank Alley, their growth stunted by the
P.60, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 Asian financial crisis.
359. cow
364. puny
subdue or overcome by affecting with fear or awe
of inferior size
The final secret of Asian success, Mr Studwell
argues, was a cowed financial system. Compared with the scale of the problem, the funds on
P.72, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 offer are puny.
360. bed down
365. taper off
go to bed
become smaller or less active
Its heart is a historical account of how smallholder
farming, export-led manufacturing and financial But that cannot explain why rates have kept falling
repression took root in Asia’s miracle economies, long after such an effect should have tapered off, or
such as Japan and Taiwan, but failed to bed down in why crime rates in Britain, where abortion has been
the Philippines and Indonesia. legal for longer, began falling later.
361. travelogue 366. feisty
a film or illustrated lecture on traveling showing spirit and courage
This is punctuated by travelogues, describing Asia’s Stealing a car for a joyride used to be a “gateway
landscape of economic triumph and tribulation, from crime”, which would lead teenagers on to other
the kitsch houses of rice farmers in Japan’s Niigata crimes; now such escalation is restricted to Grand
prefecture, who have great agricultural know-how but Theft Auto games (which, at least one study
little architectural taste, to the unfinished towers of suggests, may themselves be reducing crime by
Jakarta’s Bank Alley, their growth stunted by the keeping feisty young men occupied).
Asian financial crisis. P.24, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
367. shoplifting
362. tribulation
the act of stealing goods that are on display in a store
an annoying or frustrating or catastrophic event
Even in countries where crime overall continues to
This is punctuated by travelogues, describing Asia’s decline rapidly, such as Britain, certain types of
landscape of economic triumph and tribulation, from property crime—such as pickpocketing
the kitsch houses of rice farmers in Japan’s Niigata and shoplifting—have risen with unemployment (the
prefecture, who have great agricultural know-how but lure of mobile phones, not yet as hard to steal as
little architectural taste, to the unfinished towers of cars, doubtless plays a role).
Jakarta’s Bank Alley, their growth stunted by the P.24, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
Asian financial crisis.
P.72, The Economist Ed. July 13TH-19TH 2013 368. eerie
363. kitsch suggestive of the supernatural; mysterious
excessively garish or sentimental art The predictions can be eerily good, according to Mark
Johnson, a police analyst: “In the first box I visited we
This is punctuated by travelogues, describing Asia’s found a carving knife just lying in the road.”
landscape of economic triumph and tribulation, from P.24, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
the kitsch houses of rice farmers in Japan’s Niigata
prefecture, who have great agricultural know-how but 369. parole
little architectural taste, to the unfinished towers of
a conditional release from imprisonment bonuses and boasts of Japan’s strong growth in the
first three months of the year (an annualised 4.1%)—
And while data-crunching may make it easier to all to wild applause.
identify high-risk offenders—about half of American P.37, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
states use some form of statistical analysis to decide
when to parole prisoners—there is little that it can do 375. meek
to change their motivation.
P.26, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013 very docile
370. embryonic Mr Abe’s dearest wish is to secure the two-thirds

majority, including allies, that he already enjoys in the
of an organism prior to birth or hatching lower house. It would allow him radically to revise
the meek constitution imposed by America after
Identifying true villains among the oddballs and Japan’s wartime defeat.
loudmouths found by social-media searches is tricky. P.37, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
Most police efforts are embryonic.
P.26, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013 376. buoyant
371. intoned tending to float on a liquid or rise in air or gas
uttered in a monotonous cadence or rhythm as in A gap is opening between urban voters and rural
chanting ones living far from the luxury-car salesrooms and
stockbrokers’ bars where the atmosphere is
One participant wore a T-shirt with a picture of Mr most buoyant.
Zimmerman above the caption “guiltyasamuthafucka”. P.37, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
“Make no mistake,” intoned another, “we are at war.”
P.27, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013 377. totter
372. garner move without being stable, as if threatening to fall
acquire or deserve by one's efforts or actions Equal parts “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Sex and
the City” (minus the sex) it has resonated with the
An online petition backing the idea, sponsored by the “me” generation aspiring to the lives of its
NAACP, has already garnered 1m signatures. protagonists, who totter around campus in expensive
P.27, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013 stilettos and buy each other fancy designer gifts.
373. lambast
378. stiletto
censure severely or angrily
a small dagger with a tapered blade
Ms Martinez has mastered the art of sounding tough
on illegal immigration rather than immigrants, says Equal parts “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Sex and
Matt Barreto of Latino Decisions, a polling firm. She the City” (minus the sex) it has resonated with the
urges more border security, for example, while “me” generation aspiring to the lives of its
celebrating the achievements of immigrants and protagonists, who totter around campus in
lambasting Republican colleagues who think expensive stilettos and buy each other fancy
deportation is the answer to everything. designer gifts.
374. excruciating 379. predation
extremely painful the act of preying by an animal that kills and eats the
prey
On the stump in Yamagata prefecture, a farming
heartland in the north of Japan’s main island, he goes It also carries out public works, mending roads and
into excruciating detail about companies’ summer providing food, in contrast to other groups,
whose predations upset the locals. The second was the tabling by the M5S and the
P.45, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013 radical Left, Ecology and Freedom party of a no-
confidence motion in Mr Berlusconi’s protégé, the
380. bog down interior minister, Angelino Alfano. At issue is Mr
Alfano’s responsibility for, or knowledge of, the recent
expulsion to Kazakhstan of Alma Shalabayeva and
get stuck while doing something her six-year-old daughter.
But recently it has been bogged down in a power
struggle with al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by Abu Bakr al- 385. remit
Baghdadi.
send in payment
381. maverick
Britain, too, warned the European Commission that
security matters were outside its remit.
someone who exhibits independence in thought and P.49, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
action
386. prevaricate
Yet for Mr Letta the pivotal event of recent months
was that 8m Italian voters turned their backs on
traditional parties in February’s general election and be deliberately ambiguous or unclear
supported Beppe Grillo’s maverick Five Star
Movement (M5S). Two months before Germany’s election, the
P.46, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013 chancellor is accused of prevaricating, amid
allegations of German collusion with American spies.
382. yoke Now she, too, wants “very strict” data-privacy rules.
a wooden frame across the shoulders for carrying
buckets 387. furore
Already, Mr Letta’s government, which yokes his an interest followed with exaggerated zeal
Democratic Party (PD) to Silvio Berlusconi’s People of
Freedom (PdL), has cut ministers’ salaries and Instead, she has focused on updating the EU’s
approved a bill to phase out direct subsidies of parties outdated data-privacy rules, which will not come into
(the hope is that they can instead get a mix of taxes force for years, long after the furore over Mr
earmarked by individual taxpayers and tax-deductible Snowden has died down.
donations). P.49, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
388. onerous
383. phase out
burdensome or difficult to endure
terminate gradually
Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden hope to water
Already, Mr Letta’s government, which yokes his down the proposed law because they think it is
Democratic Party (PD) to Silvio Berlusconi’s People of too onerous, particularly for small and medium-sized
Freedom (PdL), has cut ministers’ salaries and firms, and could stifle innovation.
approved a bill to phase out direct subsidies of P.49, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
parties (the hope is that they can instead get a mix of
taxes earmarked by individual taxpayers and tax- 389. eavesdrop
deductible donations).
listen without the speaker's knowledge
384. protege
Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
(FISA), which authorises America to eavesdrop on
a person who receives support from an influential international telephone calls and online data,
patron Europeans do not enjoy the same protection and
judicial means of redress as Americans.
390. sifting affecting things past
the act of separating grain from chaff The changes have infuriated everyone. They
are retroactive—affecting current operations as well
No EU law is going to stop spooks trying to get at as new ones—so there will be a deluge of lawsuits
online data. But new rules could place companies in a challenging their legality.
bind and raise the political cost to America of being P.57, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
found sifting through Europeans’ personal data.
P.49, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013 397. punt
391. lax an open flat-bottomed boat used in shallow waters
without rigor or strictness And this is what encourages investors to take

a punt on business ideas that, at first sight, look half-
But this will not resolve the question of spying either: crazy.
the rules governing spooks in European countries are P.60, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
often far laxer than those in America.
P.49, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013 398. falter
392. jiggery-pokery move hesitatingly, as if about to give way
dishonest or underhanded behavior BEFORE the global financial crisis, emerging

economies like China aspired to “decouple”
Multinationals that have put local Chinese managers themselves from the rich world, hoping that local
in charge of their operations in the country are often demand and regional trade would sustain them even
the most vulnerable to jiggery-pokery. if Western markets faltered.
393. collude 399. moribund
act in unison and in secret towards a deceitful being on the point of death
purpose
After the crisis, rich economies aspired to couple
Unless iPads had been replaced by gold bars, it themselves with China, one of the few sources of
seemed that some exporters were colluding with growth in a moribund world.
banks and shipping firms to inflate invoices. P.64, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
400. iron ore
394. bungle
an ore from which iron can be extracted
make a mess of, destroy, or ruin
Carmakers in Germany, iron-ore miners in Australia
Mr Miralda is the victim of a bungled, overambitious and milk-powder makers in New Zealand all benefited
renewables programme. enormously from exports to the Middle Kingdom.
395. brunt 401. endear
the main part, especially of a force or shock make attractive or lovable
If the policies are wrong, the benefits are wasted, the Exposure to China does not always endear a firm to
jobs disappear, the costs remain—and business investors, as GlaxoSmithKline, a British
investors bear the brunt. pharmaceutical giant embroiled in a corruption
P.57, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013 scandal in the country, is now discovering.
396. retroactive
402. embroil 408. betrothal
force into some kind of situation or course of action a mutual promise to marry
Exposure to China does not always endear a firm to His wooing (passionate but pragmatic) of Conchita,
investors, as GlaxoSmithKline, a British the 15-year-old daughter of the fort’s commander,
pharmaceutical giant embroiled in a corruption brought both a deal and a betrothal.
scandal in the country, is now discovering. P.74, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013
409. prodding
403. gauge
a verbalization that encourages you to attempt
an instrument for measuring and indicating a quantity something
As a rough gauge of multinational exposure to China, Their decision to try and restart the peace process
The Economist in 2010 introduced the follows intense prodding from John Kerry, America’s
Sinodependency index, a stockmarket index that secretary of state.
weights American multinationals according to their P.6, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND 2013
China revenues.
P.64, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013 410. cache
404. inter alia a hidden storage space
among other things Kenyan police confiscated a large cache of

explosives on a bus.
Inter alia, these studies recorded homicides and their P.6, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND 2013
circumstances.
P.69, The Economist Ed. July 20TH-26TH 2013 411. embezzlement
405. solicitous the fraudulent appropriation of funds or property
full of anxiety and concern Alexei Navalny, a Russian blogger and vocal critic of
President Vladimir Putin, was freed on bail after being
At home she is cautious, sceptical of government’s found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to five
ability to change things, solicitous of allies and quick years in jail.
to cut down challengers. P.6, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND 2013
412. rack up
406. profligate
gain points in a game
unrestrained by convention or morality
The debts racked up when Detroit was big and rich
From its start in Greece in early 2010, Mrs Merkel has are unpayable now that it is smaller and poor.
been reluctant to lead, careful of committing P.9, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND 2013
taxpayers’ money and insistent on punishing
the profligate. 413. heed
careful attention
407. cow
Other states and cities should pay heed, not because
subdue or overcome by affecting with fear or awe they might end up like Detroit next year, but because
the city is a flashing warning light on America’s fiscal
Spain forbade such trade, but Rezanov (pictured here dashboard.
as the Japanese saw him) was not cowed by rules. P.9, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND 2013
414. grapple
work hard to come to terms with or deal with modernisation have been in vogue.
something P.10, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND
2013
The earlier you grapple with the problem, the easier it
will be to fix. Nebraska, which stopped offering final- 420. hamstring
salary pensions to new hires in 1967, is sitting pretty.
P.9, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND 2013 cripple by cutting the hamstring
415. stranded Last time, in 2008, the MDC won the parliamentary
poll and Mr Tsvangirai comfortably defeated Mr
cut off or left behind Mugabe in the first round of the presidential race,
though hamstrung by chicanery and violence.
But they should help pensioners P.13, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND
left stranded through no fault of their own. 2013
P.9, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND 2013
421. chicanery
416. array
the use of tricks to deceive someone
an impressive display or assortment
Last time, in 2008, the MDC won the parliamentary
But the truth is that America’s whole public sector still poll and Mr Tsvangirai comfortably defeated Mr
operates in a financial never-never land. Uncle Sam Mugabe in the first round of the presidential race,
offers an array of “entitlements” that there is no real though hamstrung by chicanery and violence.
plan to pay for. P.13, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND
P.9, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND 2013 2013
417. stash 422. cahoot
save up as for future use collusion
Even if they did, most emerging economies have This time, despite sporadic violence by Zanu-PF and
better defences than ever before, with flexible the efforts of the army, the police, the state-owned
exchange rates, large stashes of foreign-exchange media, the courts, the electoral commission and the
reserves and relatively less debt (much of it in registrar of the voters’ roll, which are all
domestic currency). in cahoots with Mr Mugabe and his party, the
P.10, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND Zimbabwean people have a chance, however slim, of
2013 booting out their ageing despot.
P.13, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND
2013
418. dozy
423. pep
half asleep
liveliness and energy
Vladimir Putin’s Russia, by contrast, is
a dozy resource-based kleptocracy whose customers
are shifting to shale gas. Voters like the pep he has put back into the
P.10, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND stockmarket, business sentiment and consumer
2013 confidence.
2013
419. vogue
424. lackadaisical
a current state of general acceptance and use
idle or indolent especially in a dreamy way
For the past few years, with China surging, Wall
Street crunched, Washington in gridlock and the euro
zone committing suicide, the old liberal verities have That catching up was somewhat lackadaisical: the
been questioned: state capitalism and authoritarian gap closed at just 1.5% a year.
P.20, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND mix together different elements
2013
Another country where Buddhism is
425. bonanza becoming conflated with a growing ethnic and
nationalist identity is Sri Lanka.
a sudden happening that brings good fortune P.35, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND
2013
Prices surged, generating a bonanza for the
emerging world’s commodity producers and 431. syncretism
contributing to a broad-based boom, to the great
benefit both of fellow-BRICs Russia and Brazil and of the union of different systems of thought or belief
smaller economies, including many in Africa.
P.21, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND On the Muslim side, argues Ahmad Suaedy of
2013 Jakarta’s Abdurrahman Wahid Centre for interfaith
dialogue, some jihadist groups, reared on the
426. glut fundamentalist doctrines of the Arab world, would
regard the Rohingyas’ brand of Islam as unduly
supply with an excess of syncretic, even unIslamic, and thus unworthy of
support.
This reserve accumulation contributed to a global 2013
savings glut, and the resulting low interest rates
encouraged heavy public and private borrowing in the
rich world. 432. outpouring
2013 the pouring forth of a fluid
427. tout The episode was caught on surveillance camera and

published online. It led to a public outpouring, with
advertise in strongly positive terms millions posting their outrage on microblogs.
2013
Other countries have impressive growth potential.
Goldman Sachs touts a list of the “Next 11” which
includes Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and 433. crop up
Turkey.
P.22, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND appear suddenly or unexpectedly
2013
Similar incidents crop up every so often. Also in
428. crutch 2011, an 88-year-old man collapsed in Hubei province
in central China.
something upon which one depends excessively P.37, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND
2013
Many countries will find that commodities no longer
provide a crutch. 434. grisly
2013 shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
429. crimp Videos posted online show bystanders ignoring his

mother’s pleas for help....Such grisly incidents are in
make ridges into by pinching together fact rare.
2013
To critics, that is proof that Oregon’s strict land-use
laws are crimping the city and the state’s growth.
P.27, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND 435. callousness
2013
a lack of sympathy or regard for others
430. conflate
Commentators blame the perceived callousness on Shiny steel taps with plastic stools for ablutions clutter
China’s growth-at-all-costs mentality which, they a once-verdant garden filled with ancient sculptures.
claim, has created a moral vacuum. The China Daily P.45, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND
said the case of Yue Yue symbolised “our moral 2013
decline”.
P.37, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND 441. basilica
2013
an early Christian church designed like a Roman
436. litigious basilica
of or relating to legal proceedings Restoration work on the famous basilica has

continued under a decade of AK rule and Recep
Worse, some say, those who come to the aid of Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, has dismissed
others lack legal protection from a grasping and worries about its fate.
increasingly litigious society. P.45, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND
P.37, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND 2013
2013
442. daft
437. extortion
foolish or mentally irregular
unjust exaction, as by the misuse of authority
Its reasoning was daft: the bank felt its notes would
Cases of extortion, though also rare, are widely not “command respect and legitimacy” unless one of
reported. Yunxiang Yan, an anthropologist at the them featured a woman, apparently forgetting that the
University of California, wrote in an essay on the queen appears on all notes.
subject that they constitute “a heavy blow to social P.48, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND
trust, compassion, and the principle of moral 2013
reciprocity”.
P.37, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND 443. quizzical
2013
playfully vexing, especially by ridicule
438. berm
In these final years, from 1916 to 1924, Kafka
a narrow ledge at the top or bottom of a slope receives letters from quizzical bank managers asking
him to explain his stories (“Sir, You have made me
Indeed, the Iraqi government is so concerned about unhappy. I bought your ‘Metamorphosis’ as a present
Sunni fighters coming over from Syria that it is for my cousin, but she doesn’t know what to make of
physically separating itself from its war-torn neighbour the story”).
by digging deeper trenches and higher berms along P.67, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND
the border. 2013
2013 444. wryly
439. ablution in a humorously sarcastic or mocking manner
the act of washing oneself, as for ritual purposes He is also wryly aware of the academic cottage
industry that has sprung up around Kafka’s work,
Shiny steel taps with plastic stools hints of which had already emerged in his lifetime.
for ablutions clutter a once-verdant garden filled with P.67, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND
ancient sculptures. 2013
2013 445. cottage industry
440. verdure a small-scale business that can be run at home
the lush appearance of flourishing vegetation He is also wryly aware of the academic cottage
industry that has sprung up around Kafka’s work,
hints of which had already emerged in his lifetime. an illegal action inciting resistance to lawful authority
2013 Far from being a pacifist, Jesus for Mr Aslan was the
leader of a nationalist revolt against Rome who was
446. intimacy punished for sedition, not blasphemy.
a feeling of being close and belonging together 2013
When writing to his first fiancée, he refers to himself in 452. quash

the third person and struggles to evoke intimacy.
P.67, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND declare invalid
2013
Once Jewish resistance to Rome was more or
447. armistice less quashed, followers of Jesus consciously or
unconsciously refashioned their faith into one that
a state of peace agreed to between opponents meekly accepted imperial authority and could spread
easily through a multinational empire.
The armistice on July 27th 1953 neither restored 2013
peace (no treaty was signed) nor reunified the newly
divided peninsula.
P.68, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND 453. ransack
2013
steal goods; take as spoils
448. lecherous
Protesters against the move ransacked Congress
given to excessive indulgence in sexual activity offices in one district of AP.
Drawing on a popular Confucian love story, they saw
the two sides as a loyal husband and faithful wife, 454. pip
America as the lecherous charmer and the 1945
division as rape. defeat thoroughly
2013 The combined firm, which will pip Britain’s WPP to
become the industry’s biggest, hopes size will give it
449. ignominious an edge in the growing market for data-driven digital
ads.
deserving or bringing disgrace or shame P.9, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
His first year in office was marked by 455. casuistry

the ignominious Bay of Pigs, his failed effort to eject
Fidel Castro from Cuba. argumentation that is specious or excessively subtle
2013 It was legal casuistry to redefine the torture of
prisoners with waterboarding and stress positions as
450. avert “enhanced interrogation”.
prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening
456. squawk
The book’s core argument—that Kennedy came into
his own during his final 100 days—is not entirely make a harsh, abrupt noise
persuasive.
P.69, The Economist Ed. July 27TH-August 2ND America’s spying agencies cannot function if their
2013 employees squawk—and, when “mass leaking” has
become politically fashionable and technically
451. sedition feasible, deterrents are needed.
457. lean 463. blip
incline or bend from a vertical position a radar echo displayed so as to show the position of a
reflecting surface
But both men also show how America still leans too
far towards security over liberty. Since then demand for oil has, with a couple
P.9, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013 of blips in the 1970s and 1980s, risen steadily
alongside ever-increasing travel by car, plane and
458. rickety ship.
inclined to shake as from weakness or defect
464. extrapolate
That argument is looking ever more rickety: in fact,
the NSA lives under a simulacrum of judicial and draw from specific cases for more general cases
legislative oversight.
P.9, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013 But it would be foolish to extrapolate from the rich
world’s past to booming Asia’s future.
459. linchpin P.12, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
a central cohesive source of support and stability 465. furrow
The linchpin of the system is the secret court, which hollow out in the form of a groove
interprets government powers under the law as well
as issuing routine warrants. But over the weekend, when Egypt’s generals set
P.9, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013 about killing scores of protesters, the West responded
with furrowed brows and pleas for all sides to refrain
460. amend from violence.
make revisions to
466. remittance
But Americans do not know about its rulings, and so
cannot challenge them. In theory if Congress disputes a payment of money sent to a person in another place
the court’s judgments or the NSA’s behaviour, it
can amend the law. The market for remittances has been a hothouse for
P.9, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013 start-ups in Britain, partly because it was lightly
regulated.
461. dragnet P.14, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
a conical fishnet dragged through the water at great 467. fodder

depths
coarse food composed of plants or leaves and stalks
Jim Sensenbrenner, a Republican congressman from
Wisconsin and one of the authors of the Patriot Act, Bad feeling continues to this day, long after the
has said that the NSA’s dragnet was not what the act hostages have become fodder for history books and
intended. Hollywood films.
P.9, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013 P.14, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
462. impinge 468. lupine
infringe upon of or relating to or characteristic of wolves
Every intelligence service will impinge on individual But unlike his predecessor, a straightforward wolf in
liberties—and America’s has succeeded in its main wolf’s clothing when it came to foreign relations, Mr
job: to prevent attacks. Rohani comes with fewer lupine features.
469. calamitous of emergency-room visits and stints in jail can
exceed $100,000 a year for each homeless person.
having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences P.24, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
In BP’s case the big numbers are more calamitous— 475. bail out
it may end up paying out $90 billion in fines and
compensation stemming from the Deepwater Horizon remove water from a boat by throwing it over the side
disaster.
P.20, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013 Her mother believes Melissa needs to be somewhere
secure, so much so that she refused to bail out her
470. stringent daughter from jail because she was not taking her
tablets.
demanding strict attention to rules and procedures P.25, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
In March China introduced stringent fuel standards of 476. mete out

6.9 litres per 100km (34 miles per gallon) by 2015 and
5l/100km (47 mpg) by 2020. distribute or bestow
Millions died in a few short years, as Chinese villages
471. haystack were encouraged to mete out their own punishment
with the aim of creating a blessed “New China”.
a stack of hay P.35, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
The spies claim that all the data are relevant. “You 477. spasm
need the haystack to find the needle,” says the
NSA’s director, General Keith Alexander. a painful and involuntary muscular contraction
Mao’s death in 1976 brought to an end the
472. trigger-happy last spasm of violence in his name, the Cultural
Revolution.
irresponsible in the use of firearms P.35, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
Although officials claimed at the time that the leaks 478. torpor
put lives at risk, they seem mostly to have caused
embarrassment, revealing that America’s soldiers are a state of motor and mental inactivity
sometimes trigger-happy and its diplomats
occasionally duplicitous. For Mrs Merkel, this seasonal torpor is fortuitous, for
P.24, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013 it coincides with a controversy that nobody could have
foreseen a year ago.
473. duplicitous P.45, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
marked by deliberate deceptiveness 479. scrum
Although officials claimed at the time that the leaks (rugby) the method of beginning play in which the
put lives at risk, they seem mostly to have caused forwards of each team crouch side by side with locked
embarrassment, revealing that America’s soldiers are arms; play starts when the ball is thrown in between
sometimes trigger-happy and its diplomats them and the two sides compete for possession
occasionally duplicitous.
P.24, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013 Most recent political polls put the Freedom Party in a
close scrum for the second-largest share of the vote,
474. stint and one poll has it in the lead.
supply sparingly and with restricted quantities
480. quaff
The Lamp Community, a non-profit working for the
mentally ill in Los Angeles, says the desperate cycle swallow hurriedly or greedily or in one draught
But in the Middle East, which now accounts for almost laugh at with contempt and derision
a third of worldwide sales, the target market is the
teetotal majority. In 2012 Iranians quaffed nearly four His stubbornness was, though, his most important
times as much as in 2007. quality. Investors and friends scoffed, but he spent
P.57, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013 two decades poking holes in the land around Fort
Worth.
481. tap P.58, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
strike lightly 487. gunk
Drinking beer, even the non-alcoholic any thick, viscous matter

variety, taps into a popular desire for a globalised
lifestyle that neither fruit juice nor even Coca-Cola can Then, in 1998, with Mr Mitchell approaching his 80s,
offer, argues Guilda Saber, the brand manager of his team hit on the idea of substituting water for gunky
Laziza, a Lebanese non-alcoholic beer. drilling fluids.
482. ogle 488. simulacrum
stare or look at, especially with amorous intentions an insubstantial or vague semblance
Birell has a more blokey image: an ad features a Two of the most advanced neuromorphic
bunch of football-watching men having their heads programmes are being conducted under the auspices
turned by a passing blonde ( ogling women is of the Human Brain Project (HBP), an ambitious
apparently less sinful than swigging alcohol). attempt by a confederation of European scientific
P.57, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013 institutions to build a simulacrum of the brain by
2023.
483. slough P.67, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
a hollow filled with mud 489. hark
THE United States has of late been in a slough of listen; used mostly in the imperative
despond.
P.58, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013 The other machine, Spikey, is being built by Dr
Meier’s group. Spikey harks back to an earlier age of
484. stagnate computing. Several of the first computers were
analogue machines.
cease to flow P.67, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
There are good reasons for this. The political system 490. grid
really is “even worse than it looks”, as another doom-
laden book puts it. Middle-class living standards a pattern of regularly spaced horizontal and vertical
have stagnated. lines
A cross-bar is a dense grid of wires, each of which is
485. civvies connected to a neuron at the periphery of the grid.
The synapses are at the junctions where wires cross.
civilian garb as opposed to a military uniform P.69, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013
On returning to civvy street he displayed a mistrust of 491. periphery

big organisations—he made a career with Texas’s
scrappy independents rather than with the local the outside boundary or surface of something
giants—and a gambler’s cunning.
P.58, The Economist Ed. August 3RD-9TH 2013 A cross-bar is a dense grid of wires, each of which is
connected to a neuron at the periphery of the grid.
486. scoff
The synapses are at the junctions where wires cross. fatal contretemps.”)
492. prune
weed out unwanted or unnecessary things
And, also like those in a real brain, the neurons

remember their recent activities (which synapses they
triggered) and use that knowledge to prune some
connections and enhance others during the process
of rewiring.
493. bequeath
leave or give, especially by will after one's death
Mao had bequeathed a vast new “shovel-ready”

construction site for Deng’s own “‘great enterprise’ of
reform and opening up”.
494. fete
an elaborate party, often outdoors
Generations of Conservatives from the 1930s to today

have feted him as a reforming Tory who improved the
lot of the poor.
495. plutocrat
someone who exercises power by virtue of wealth
He wrote more novels about plutocrats than

paupers, after all.
496. pauper
a person who is very poor
He wrote more novels about plutocrats than paupers,

after all.
497. contretemps
an awkward clash
He continued to revel, despite the threat of debtors’

prison. (“I trust there is no danger of my being
nabbed,” he once said while approaching a
Buckinghamshire dinner, “as this would be a

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THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE

1. raucous marked by quiet and caution and secrecy

light teasing repartee go against, as of rules and laws

11. mould def. the organizer, manager, or director of an opera or

14. barrage 18. resuscitate

the heavy fire of artillery to saturate an area cause to regain consciousness

minimize loss or risk 37. unmitigated

dash violently or with great speed or impetuosity 39. pantry

the property of being aggressive or forceful

His reprimands were equally restrained. “Excuse me, 50. piecemeal

45. insinuate Until recently studies of the Third Pole

And that observational pebble, gathering speed as it 59. contention

66. gridlock Someone call a somnambulance, quick

Democrats and Republicans could spend the next 73. ensnare

75. hiatus 81. flock

an interruption in the intensity or amount of something come together as in a cluster

AN ACT of terrorism does not have to result in large- 91. purport

86. throwback Since 2010 these hackers have hidden malware in

Late-19th-century anarchists in Europe developed a 93. dipped

97. pander 102. seer

yield to; give satisfaction to an observer who perceives visually

108. Teutonic cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly

110. incendiary 115. tandem

arousing to action or rebellion an arrangement of objects or persons one behind

111. fret 116. lopsided

112. bivariate 117. stagnant

118. bossy 123. onus

offensively self-assured or exercising unwarranted a burdensome or difficult concern

The former West Germany was a semi-sovereign 126. pulverisation

go back to something earlier 134. subvert

But whispered conversations in the streets of corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality

reduce to small pieces or particles by pounding or 135. ensuing

the top edge of a vessel or other container 136. villain

“Intuition pumps” are what Mr Dennett calls thought a total abstainer

140. herald 145. cling

a sign indicating the approach of something or hold on tightly or tenaciously

141. impede 146. reciprocate

be a hindrance or obstacle to act, feel, or give mutually or in return

149. eviscerate idiom: to the hilt

150. abrasive CRITICS accuse Barack Obama of dithering in

151. cannily a situation in which no progress can be made

152. rapprochement less than the correct or legal or full amount

153. prudent In an interview with PBS television on June 17th, Mr

having separated or advocating separation from 167. tilt

The authors argue that emerging-market companies 187. propel

A habit of pilfering foreigners’ ideas can discourage 191. wreak

192. anvil 199. revelry

a heavy block on which hot metals are shaped by unrestrained merrymaking

reproduced fraudulently 200. clamber

195. ineptly Higher education is in the vanguard. Barely a year

196. insularity expel, as if by official decree

a distinctive odor that is offensively unpleasant 204. procurement

causing or accompanied by misfortune 213. ebb

stretch, so as to see better 214. misdemeanour

216. ire def. primly out of date.

move heavily or clumsily In a closely scrutinised speech on June 24th, the

226. slyly 232. mend

in an artful manner the act of putting something in working order again

230. truce 236. tinge

a state of peace agreed to between opponents affect as in thought or feeling

Protests in Brazil have inspired a jolly online video 245. ponderous

242. culprit Most English slogans used in Germany fall flat

250. verge 256. beguiling