Unit Three: Chapter 13 curtail indispensable devastate intermittent digress rigor incentive squander incorporatesuccumb

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. 1 curtail Curtail means A. to combine. B. to shorten. C. to extend. – verb Upon hearing reports of a huge snowstorm, the principal curtailed the school day so students could go home early. I need to curtail my volunteer activities so that I can spend more time earning money to pay back a loan.

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. 1 curtail Curtail means A. to combine. B. to shorten. C. to extend. – verb Upon hearing reports of a huge snowstorm, the principal curtailed the school day so students could go home early. I need to curtail my volunteer activities so that I can spend more time earning money to pay back a loan. If the students went home early, the school day must have been shortened. In order to spend more time earning money, one would have to shorten one’s volunteer activities.

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. 2 devastate – verb Devastate means A. to thrill. B. to annoy. C. to upset greatly. Learning that their son had been arrested for armed robbery devastated the Huttons. They couldn’t believe he’d do such a terrible thing. Vera is so fond of Andy. She’ll be devastated to hear he has cancer.

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. 2 devastate – verb Devastate means A. to thrill. B. to annoy. C. to upset greatly. Learning that their son had been arrested for armed robbery devastated the Huttons. They couldn’t believe he’d do such a terrible thing. Vera is so fond of Andy. She’ll be devastated to hear he has cancer. It would be greatly upsetting to learn one’s son had been arrested for armed robbery. If Vera is fond of Andy, she will be upset greatly to learn he has cancer.

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. 3 digress Professor Rubin never digresses during a lecture. Even his jokes relate to the day’s topic. I tried to teach my three-year-old niece our phone number, but we digressed to a discussion of whether Winnie the Pooh has a telephone. – verb Digress means A. to listen carefully. B. to go off the subject. C. to get up.

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. 3 digress Professor Rubin never digresses during a lecture. Even his jokes relate to the day’s topic. I tried to teach my three-year-old niece our phone number, but we digressed to a discussion of whether Winnie the Pooh has a telephone. – verb Digress means A. to listen carefully. B. to go off the subject. C. to get up. If even Professor Rubin’s jokes relate to the the day’s topic, he must never go off the subject during his lectures. A discussion of whether Pooh has a telephone is off the subject of learning the phone number.

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT The insurance company offers an incentive—free vacation—to encourage its representatives to make more sales. The thought of myself in a bathing suit next summer provides me with an adequate incentive to exercise. 4 incentive Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Incentive means A. encouragement. B. liberty. C. change. – noun “I’m going to give you an incentive to get up and go back to work—it’s my bill.”

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT The insurance company offers an incentive—free vacation—to encourage its representatives to make more sales. The thought of myself in a bathing suit next summer provides me with an adequate incentive to exercise. 4 incentive Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Incentive means A. encouragement. B. liberty. C. change. – noun In the first item, the word encourage tells you that an incentive is an encouragement. Thinking about how one will look in a bathing suit would provide encouragement to exercise. “I’m going to give you an incentive to get up and go back to work—it’s my bill.”

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Incorporate means A. to give up. B. to join together. C. to raise. 5 incorporate – verb Jerry incorporated all of his favorite desserts into one: a chocolate-covered banana-cream pecan pie. Since the number of young children has gone down in my neighborhood, the two elementary schools have been incorporated into one.

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Incorporate means A. to give up. B. to join together. C. to raise. 5 incorporate – verb Jerry incorporated all of his favorite desserts into one: a chocolate-covered banana-cream pecan pie. Since the number of young children has gone down in my neighborhood, the two elementary schools have been incorporated into one. In the first item, the words into one are a clue that incorporate means “to join together.” In the second item, if the two schools are now one, they must have joined together.

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Indispensable means A. free. B. needed. C. expensive. Because there’s no bus or train service nearby, a car is indispensable in my neighborhood. When you’re broke, you find that many things you thought were indispensable aren’t actually necessary after all. 6 indispensable – adjective

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Indispensable means A. free. B. needed. C. expensive. Because there’s no bus or train service nearby, a car is indispensable in my neighborhood. When you’re broke, you find that many things you thought were indispensable aren’t actually necessary after all. 6 indispensable – adjective If there is no bus or train service, a car would be needed. In the second sentence, the word necessary is a clue that indispensable means “needed.”

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Intermittent means A. irregular. B. too much. C. steady. You have to work steadily with your dog to train him well. Intermittent practice won’t work. Dora realized that her weight loss on a diet would be intermittent, so she didn’t give up when the losses stopped. She knew they would start again. 7 intermittent – adjective

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Intermittent means A. irregular. B. too much. C. steady. You have to work steadily with your dog to train him well. Intermittent practice won’t work. Dora realized that her weight loss on a diet would be intermittent, so she didn’t give up when the losses stopped. She knew they would start again. 7 intermittent – adjective In the first item, the word steadily is a clue because it means the opposite of irregular. In the second item, if the weight losses stopped but would start again, they were irregular.

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Rigor means A. a gamble. B. an expense. C. a hardship. 8 rigor – noun New Marines must go through the rigors of boot camp, such as completing an obstacle course and running several miles a day. The rigor of working at two part-time jobs while going to school proved too much for Jamal. Exhausted, he quit both jobs.

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Rigor means A. a gamble. B. an expense. C. a hardship. 8 rigor – noun Completing an obstacle course and running several miles a day are hardships. Working two jobs while going to school was a hardship that exhausted Jamal. New Marines must go through the rigors of boot camp, such as completing an obstacle course and running several miles a day. The rigor of working at two part-time jobs while going to school proved too much for Jamal. Exhausted, he quit both jobs.

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Squander means A. to share. B. to misuse. C. to upset. It’s sad to see such a wonderful artist squander her talent designing labels for baked-bean cans. The company lunchroom now closes promptly at one o’clock so that workers can’t squander time on long lunch breaks. 9 squander – verb

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Squander means A. to share. B. to misuse. C. to upset. It’s sad to see such a wonderful artist squander her talent designing labels for baked-bean cans. The company lunchroom now closes promptly at one o’clock so that workers can’t squander time on long lunch breaks. 9 squander – verb A wonderful artist who designs labels for baked-bean cans would be misusing her talent. The company would consider long lunch breaks a misuse of workers’ time.

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Succumb means A. to yield. B. to delay. C. to anger. 10 succumb Leah succumbed to her daughter’s begging and bought her a pet lizard for her birthday. Once the suspect was arrested, he quickly succumbed and confessed to stealing the car stereo. – verb

TEN WORDS IN CONTEXT Choose the meaning closest to that of the boldfaced word. Succumb means A. to yield. B. to delay. C. to anger. 10 succumb Leah succumbed to her daughter’s begging and bought her a pet lizard for her birthday. Once the suspect was arrested, he quickly succumbed and confessed to stealing the car stereo. – verb If Leah bought the lizard, she yielded to her daughter’s begging. If the suspect confessed, he yielded or stopped resisting.