TOEFL Advanced Vocabulary 2

Some More Advanced Vocabulary

My students each year take the TOEFL exams for several reasons:  mainly so that they can go abroad and study at one of my institution's partner universities -- as in any other higher learning institution -- but also as a measure of their skills and ability.  Some advanced students need to be pushed a little farther, so I have developed and continue to develop some more advanced vocabulary exercises for them, and I thought I would share one of them with you today.  

Below, you will find a series of words and the review exercises to go along with them.  Take your time going through these exercises, as I did write them for a clearly upper intermediate to advanced (C1-C2) level.  If they are too difficult for you, leave them for a while until you make some progress, then come back to them.  Take as many notes as you want, and don't hesitate to consult one or another online dictionary or thesaurus for some help.

The answers will be forthcoming at the end of the exercises.

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Contents

• Part 1.  Odd One Out
• Part 2. Review of Target Words
• Part 3. Review of Odd Ones Out
• Part 4. Where would you…?
• Part 5. ???

Part 1. Odd One Out

DIRECTIONS:  Choose which term in the list is not a synonym of each word.

1. Acrimonious

1. Caustic
2. Tart
3. Mordant
4. Affable

2. Biased

1. Bigoted
   
2. Equitable
   
3. Partial
   
4. Partisan
   

3. Commodious

1. Roomy
   
2. Ample
   
3. Cramped
   
4. Spacious
   

4. Demure

1. Coy
   
2. Unassuming
   
3. Manor
   
4. Prim
   

5. Ecclesiastic

1. Sacred
2. Sacerdotal
3. Lay
4. Clergy

6. Egregious

1. Glaring
2. Slight
3. Flagrant
4. Scandalous

7. Fathom

1. Gather
2. Estimate
3. Understand
4. Figure Out

8. Glib

1. Smooth-talking
2. Eloquent
3. Articulate
4. Tongue-tied

9. Hiatus

1. Continuity
2. Vacation
3. Gap
4. Breach

10. Impervious

1. Impermeable
2. Unaffected
3. Susceptible
4. Hermetic

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Part 2. Review of Target Words

DIRECTIONS:  Write one of the target (underlined) words from Part 1 on each line according to the context of the given example.

1. With rents as high as they currently are, I could never afford something this ____________, or even a smaller place.
   
   
2. Only a few years after it happened did the American public realize that the 2001 invasion of Iraq was an ____________ mistake made by the George W. Bush administration.
   
   
3. I find that the more I push, the more my boss remains ____________ to any new ideas but his own, unless we convince him that he came up with them.
   
   
4. In the current presidential debates, the Republican candidates hurl ____________ remarks at each other as if they were in a professional wrestling bout.
   
   
5. Con men are known to be ____________ liars, able to make even the least gullible people believe anything these swindlers want them to.
   
   
6. Fox News has got to be one of the most ____________ sources of news I have ever heard – no one could believe that they don’t support ultra-conservative issues.
   
   
7. I cannot for the life of me ____________ why you would do something so plainly stupid as to drive a car under the influence. Did you not expect to get picked up?
   
   
8. Following a 9-year ____________, silent film goddess Gloria Swanson made her return to the big screen in the 1950 classic Sunset Boulevard and was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar.
   
   
9. Rebekah Brooks arrived for her questioning dressed soberly in navy with a ____________ little heart-shaped pendant around her dainty neck.
   
   
10. As the leading ____________ in the state, a bishop must be beyond reproach in everything he does, hence the scandal that has erupted in the Roman Catholic church.

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Part 3.  Review of Odd Ones Out

DIRECTIONS:  Fill in the blank with one of the antonyms -- the odd ones out that you identified -- in Part 1.  Even though other words may also work in the sentence, use only those seen in this exercise.

1. The two Presidents were so ____________ with each other that the participants were under the impression that the men had been friends for years.
   
   
2. The Board proceeded to vote on an ____________ division of the dividends, with all shareholders receiving the same amount.
   
   
3. Conditions on board the I.S.S. could appear ____________ to the unexperienced, but not to a seasoned astronaut.
   
   
4. At the end of Rebecca, Alfred Hitchcock filmed that character of Mrs. Danvers gazing from a window with a look of pure hatred even as the ____________ house became an inferno of flames.
   
   
5. Due to the lack of trained clergy, many religious services are carried out by ____________ people.
   
   
6. Damage following the tornado was surprisingly ____________, in stark contrast to the next town only 3 miles away.
   
   
7. Without any empirical data, researchers were unable even to make an educated  ____________ at what the final outcome may be.
   
   
8. In front of a camera, Patsy Stone suddenly found herself totally ____________, so much so that the host had to jump in and improvise.
   
   
9. Great irregularity and the lack of any ____________ in that product’s manufacturing cycle contributed to its lack of cost effectiveness.
   
   
10. It’s best to avoid making any comments to my colleague. He’s so ____________ to flattery that he might not even recognize it as a jibe.
    

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Part 4. Where would you…? 

DIRECTIONS:  Choose the best context -- i.e. the best situation -- to use the word in question.

1. Acrimonious

1. Describing a meeting
2. Relating the minutes of a conference
3. Making a report on production figures
4. Informing a group about a competitor’s sales growth

2. Biased

1. Chatting around the coffee machine
2. While sourcing a supplier
3. In an informative presentation
4. Making an assessment on data or information

3. Commodious

1. Describing office space
2. Convincing someone to rent office space
3. Building new office space
4. Furnishing and outfitting new office space

4. Demure

1. Asking someone out on a date
2. Describing a young man
3. Painting an attractive picture of a charming young woman
4. Talking to one of your parents

5. Ecclesiastic

1. Talking to a rabbi
2. Initiating a discussion on original sin and its beginnings in early Semitic philosophy
3. Describing a woman wearing a habit
4. Highlighting a point you wish to bring up

6. Egregious

1. Making light of someone else’s lack of seriousness
2. Deflecting attention from yourself to someone else
3. Typifying someone else’s inaccuracy
4. Talking about a recent film

7. Fathom

1. Describing something negative or difficult to understand
2. Providing an estimation on commercial real estate
3. Pointing out something positive or perfectly comprehensible
4. Going into detail about the depth of a report

8. Glib

1. Describing someone’s eloquence
2. Giving a personal and negative viewpoint about someone’s language
3. Reporting on market trends or tendencies
4. Marveling at another person’s ability to persuade

9. Hiatus

1. Describing someone else’s holidays
2. Making light of another person’s absence
3. Recording an out of office message for your director
4. Reporting on someone’s prolonged leave of absence

10. Impervious

1. Praising your adversary on scoring a point
2. Making and defending a point during a negotiation
3. Reporting on stalling or hindrance to development
4. Describing the waterproof qualities of new all-weather protection for a product

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Part 5.  Your own research

DIRECTIONS:  Now that you have seen and reviewed all the terms in this list, go on to the internet and find actual contextualizations in the news and other media to see how they are used in real sources.

Answers to Exercises