Week 3

Vocabulary Quiz
Time: 30 minutes Number of Questions: 20

Instructions: For the following questions, choose the one entry best suited for each
blank from its corresponding set of choices.

(Note: Answers are given at the end of quiz).

1. Dollar General on Thursday forecast sales and profit for 2022 above estimates, as
higher prices of everyday essentials make more Americans ________ and turn to
discount stores for their groceries and household supplies.

A) distaff

B) emaciated

C) frugal

D) diurnal

E) egalitarian

2. They were close friends in college, but after graduation, their lives _________.

A) embellished

B) dissented

C) facilitated

D) diverged

E) fathomed

3. Otto von Bismarck, the architect of unification, understood that to hold the
ceremony in a German city would ________ jealousy among the fractious states that
had reluctantly agreed upon unity.

A) foment

B) flag
C) exculpate

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D) exemplify

E) fathom

4. Extremely well-read, knowledgeable and an excellent _____________ public speaker

as a three-term New Hampshire governor in the 1970s, my father had lost the power
to generate speech.
A) emaciated

B) evanescent

C) evasive

D) even-handed
E) extemporaneous

5. My colleague makes an ___________ and persuasive case that administrative actions

are less durable policy tools than statutes.

A) exasperated

B) fatuous

C) eloquent

D) dormant

E) fecund

6. The declining retirement security faced by growing numbers of Americans is being

___________ by increasing longevity and quickly rising health care costs.

A) dissipated

B) exacerbated

C) galvanized

D) fulminated

E) forestalled

7. For nearly a decade, Harvard University has been the target of sit-ins, protests, and
petitions, all calling for the university to __________ its massive endowment of
investments in fossil fuels.

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A) fortify

B) exculpate

C) excoriate

D) divest

E) dither

8. Outwardly, where Morgan is __________ and unabashedly enthusiastic, Gates is

more methodical and low-key.

A) docile
B) ebullient

C) egregious

D) fastidious

E) dubious

9. In answer, a furious Trump weaved and bobbed, ___________ about walls, fake
news, and hoaxes, but of course, never going near the question.

A) fathoming

B) emulating

C) duping

D) fulminating

E) dovetailing

10. Ralph Lauren is admired throughout the fashion industry as the quintessential
American designer, and singer-songwriter John Legend’s success is evident from
countless __________ and a shelf full of awards.

A) encomiums

B) dissonances

C) echelons

D) fringes

E) flukes

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11. As social media has grown to account for a larger share of internet content, that
content has become more ______________, vulnerable to the disappearance of the
platform on which it was shared or deletion by the user who created it.

A) futile

B) fractious

C) dyspeptic
D) ephemeral

E) eccentric

12. Those who dislike Trump are leafing through looking for only that which
incriminates, those who like him search only for what _________ and exonerates.

A) eclipses
B) gainsays

C) exculpates

D) fulminates

E) galvanizes

13. Marley found it _____________ to maintain social relationships with gunmen and
politicians from both political parties.

A) expedient

B) frugal

C) even-handed

D) florid

E) dormant

14. The newspaper had to _______________ the expletive-laden speech that the
criminal made upon being sentenced to life imprisonment.
A) dovetail

B) dither

C) expurgate

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D) gainsay

E) fortify

15. Obviously, some degree of packaging is necessary to transport and protect the
products we need, but all too often manufacturers add _____________ wrappers over
wrappers and layers of unnecessary plastic.
A) extraneous

B) fractious

C) dubious

D) dyspeptic
E) furtive

16. This academic year, schools were instructed by the Legislature not to go online,
with a requirement that at least four days a week be held in-person unless the four
state leaders gave express permission in a/an __________ circumstance.

A) ebullient

B) dyspeptic

C) fallacious

D) fatuous

E) exigent

17. Those who are doomed to become artists are seldom blessed with _____________.
They are tossed to drunken heights, only to be brought down into a sludge of
headachy despair; their arrogance gives way to humiliation at the next curve of the
switchback.

A) fidelity
B) equanimity

C) ersatz

D) duplicity

E) duress

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18. For as much as the series does to decipher her, or at least the cultural fascination
with her, Anna Delvey remains a/an ___________ both onscreen and off.

A) encomium

B) epicure
C) enigma

D) fracas

E) euphemism

19. A fair number of academics __________ the simple title "professor" and call
themselves economists, astronomers, historians, philosophers.
A) eschew

B) galvanize

C) fulminate

D) gainsay

E) forage

20. Russian President Vladimir Putin went on television Wednesday to ________

Russians who don’t back him.

A) excoriate

B) foment

C) galvanize

D) distend

E) doff

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 Answers

1. C 2. B 3. A 4. E

5. C 6. B 7. D 8. B

9. D 10. A 11. D 12. C

13. A 14. C 15. A 16. E

17. B 18. C 19. A 20. A