TỪ VỰNG TOEIC unit 21

Unit 21 SUB HYPER PRE PARA META PER ANT/ANTI CONTRA Greek and Latin Borrowings Quiz 21-1 Quiz 21-2 Quiz 21-3 Quiz 21-4 Quiz 21-5 Review Quizzes 21 SUB means “under.” So a subway runs under the streets, and a submarine moves under the ocean's surface A subject is a person under the authority of another A movie's subplot is lower in importance than the main plot Subscribe once meant “to write one's name underneath,” so subscription was the act of signing a document or agreement subconscious awareness Existing in the mind just below the level of • After dropping three dishes in a week, she began thinking there might be some kind of subconscious agitation behind her case of butterfingers We're rarely aware, or at least fully aware, of our subconscious mental activity But subconscious thought does affect our feelings and behavior, and it's often revealed in dreams, artistic expression, and slips of the tongue The subconscious mind can be a hiding place for anxiety, a source of creativity, and often the reason behind our own mysterious behavior subjugate conquer, subdue To bring under control and rule as a subject; • The country's government claimed it was just trying to protect national security, but some saw its actions as an attempt to subjugate the news media Since jugus means “yoke” in Latin, subjugate means literally “bring under the yoke.” Farmers control oxen by means of a heavy wooden yoke over their shoulders In ancient Rome, conquered soldiers, stripped of their uniforms, might actually be forced to pass under an ox yoke as a sign of submission to the Roman victors Even without an actual yoke, what happens to a population that has come under the control of another can be every bit as humiliating In dozens of countries throughout the world, ethnic minorities are denied basic rights and view themselves as subjugated by their country's government, army, and police subliminal perceived consciously Not quite strong enough to be sensed or • A few worried parents claimed that some heavy-metal songs contain subliminal messages—in the form of words recorded backwards—that urge young fans to take up devil worship Since the Latin word limen means “threshold,” something subliminal exists just below the threshold of conscious awareness The classic example of a subliminal message is “Eat popcorn” flashed on a movie screen so quickly that the audience doesn't even notice it consciously Actually, no such advertising has ever been shown to work But ordinary ads, both in print and on TV, contain all kinds of images that shape our response to the product being advertised even when we don't realize it Try looking carefully at some ads that you like, in order to discover how many ways they may be subliminally affecting you subversion (1) An attempt to overthrow a government by working secretly from within (2) The corrupting of someone or something by weakening their morals, loyalty, or faith • It's sometimes easier for a government to combat attack from outside than subversion from within Subversion is literally the “turning over” of something In the 1950s and '60s, many people worried about communist subversion of the U.S government, though they often saw subversive activities where none existed Nondemocratic governments often claim that anyone who disagrees with them or joins a demonstration is a subversive But subversion isn't always quite so serious a matter; when words like weekend, sandwich, job, and camping started being used by the French, for example, some of them began claiming that America was subverting their language HYPER is a Greek prefix that means “above or beyond,” so hyper- often means about the same thing as super- Hyperinflation is inflation that's growing at a very high rate To be hypercritical or hypersensitive is to be critical or sensitive beyond the normal And if you hyperextend a knee or elbow, it means you're actually bending it backward hyperactive Excessively active • Stephen King's hyperactive imagination has produced dozens of fantastical stories, not to mention countless nightmares in his readers For doctors and psychologists, hyperactive describes a condition with unpleasant consequences Hyperactive children usually have a very short attention span and can't sit still, and hyperactivity can lead to difficulty in learning or just get them in trouble for disturbing their classes But not every high-spirited child is hyperactive Having a high energy level is pretty normal for children, and some parents think that prescribing drugs for hyperactivity is mostly just good for the drug companies hyperbole Extreme exaggeration • The food at Chez Pierre was good, but it couldn't live up to the hyperbole of the restaurant critics Advertisers and sports commentators make their living by their skillful use of hyperbole Presenting each year's Superbowl as “the greatest contest in the history of sports” certainly qualifies as hyperbole, especially since the final scores are usually so lopsided Equally hyperbolic are advertisers' claims that this year's new car model is “the revolutionary vehicle you've been waiting for” when it's barely different from last year's—which of course was once described in the same glowing terms Politicians love hyperbole too; some of them seem convinced that calling a new bill “the worst bill ever passed by Congress” or comparing the president to Hitler is a great way to win votes hypertension High blood pressure • Pregnancy is often accompanied by mild hypertension that doesn't threaten the mother's life You might have thought that hypertension was what a movie audience feels near the climax of a thriller, but you would have been wrong High blood pressure—that is high pressure against the walls of your veins and arteries caused by blood flow—often occurs when the arteries or veins become blocked or narrowed, making the heart work harder to pump blood But many cases seem to be the result of smoking or taking in too much salt, and many are genetically caused Hypertension is serious, since it can lead to heart attacks and strokes Though it often produces no warning symptoms, your blood pressure can be checked quickly and easily by a nurse If it's high, it can usually be controlled by stopping smoking, losing weight, lowering your salt intake, and exercising—and if all else fails, by medication hyperventilate To breathe rapidly and deeply • They laughed so hard they began to hyperventilate and feel giddy Hyperventilating can be a response to fear and anxiety A test pilot who panics and hyperventilates faces a dangerous situation When the level of carbon dioxide in your blood goes down and the oxygen level goes up, blood vessels constrict because of the chemical changes and the body can't get enough oxygen (even though it's there in the blood), and the pilot can become lightheaded and may even faint To guard against this, pilots are taught to control their breathing On the ground, the usual remedy for hyperventilation is breathing into a paper bag, which raises the level of carbon dioxide and restores normal breathing contrarian A person who takes a contrary position or attitude, especially an investor who buys shares of stock when most others are selling or sells when others are buying • My father was basically a contrarian, who never accepted the common wisdom and loved nothing so much as a good argument Anyone who thinks that most of what the public believes is wrong would be called a contrarian And contrarian is a basic term in the vocabulary of investing In fact, most successful investors often behave like contrarians by “buying low and selling high”—that is, buying stocks that are cheap because most investors put a low value on them but that have the possibility of rising, and selling stocks that most investors are valuing highly but that seem likely to decline The word may be most common as an adjective; so you may express a contrarian opinion, hold a contrarian view, or pursue a contrarian investment strategy Quiz 21-4 A Complete the analogy: champion : hero :: antagonist : _ a comrade b supporter c opponent d thug harm : benefit :: contraindication : _ a denial b refusal c injection d indication truth : fact :: antithesis : _ a same b opposite c enemy d friend opposite : equal :: contrarian : _ a contrast b conformist c contradiction d conflict misery : joy :: antipathy : _ a disgust b confusion c opposition d liking accept : oppose :: contravene : _ a go around b violate c obey d distrust cause : effect :: antigen : _ a germs b blood c antibody d genes idol : adored :: contraband : _ a useful b opposed c smuggled d expensive Answers B Indicate whether the following pairs of words have the same or different meanings: antithesis / opposite same _ / different _ contrarian / opponent same _ / different _ antipathy / affection same _ / different _ contraindication / benefit same _ / different _ contravene / violate same _ / different _ antigen / antibody same _ / different _ antagonist / enemy same _ / different _ contraband / antidote same _ / different _ Answers Greek and Latin Borrowings in memoriam In memory of • The message on the pedestal begins “In memoriam” and then lists the names of the local young men who died in World War I Since the days of the Roman empire, the words In memoriam, followed by a name, have been found on monuments and gravestones They may also appear in the dedication of a book or poem; Alfred Tennyson's greatest poem is his immense In Memoriam, written over a period of 17 years to mourn the death of his dear friend Arthur Hallam magnum opus A great work, especially the greatest achievement of an artist, composer, or writer • No one was exactly sure what the massive novel was about, but everyone was certain that it was his magnum opus The greatest work of a great artist may be hard to agree on Many would pick Rembrandt's The Night Watch, Mozart's Don Giovanni, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Dante's Divine Comedy, Wren's St Paul's Cathedral, and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel murals But for Shakespeare, would it be Hamlet or King Lear? For Mahler, The Song of the Earth or the Ninth Symphony? For the Marx Brothers, A Day at the Races or A Night at the Opera? memento mori human skull symbolizing death A reminder of mortality, especially a • The first twinges of arthritis often serve as a vivid memento mori for middle-aged jocks trying to ignore their advancing years Memento mori literally means “Remember you must die.” The early Puritan settlers were particularly aware of death and fearful of what it might mean, so a Puritan tombstone will often display a memento mori intended for the living These death's-heads or skulls may strike us as ghoulish, but they helped keep the living on the straight and narrow for fear of eternal punishment In earlier centuries, an educated European might place an actual skull on his desk to keep the idea of death always present in his mind habeas corpus An order to bring a jailed person before a judge or court to find out if that person should really be in jail • The country has a primitive legal system with no right of habeas corpus, and suspects often are shot before they ever see a judge The literal meaning of habeas corpus is “You shall have the body”—that is, the judge must have the person charged with a crime brought into the courtroom to hear what he's been charged with Through much of human history, and in many countries still today, a person may be imprisoned on the orders of someone in the government and kept behind bars for years without ever getting a chance to defend himself, or even knowing what he's done wrong In England, the right to be brought before a judge to hear the charges and answer them was written into law over 300 years ago, and the U.S adopted the British practice in its Constitution rigor mortis in after death The temporary rigidity of muscles that sets • The coroner could tell from the progress of rigor mortis that death had occurred no more than six hours earlier Rigor mortis, which translates from Latin as “stiffness of death,” sets in quickly and usually ends three or four days after death The condition results from a lack of certain chemicals in the muscles; it may be affected by muscular activity before death as well as the external temperature Mystery writers frequently make use of rigor mortis as a means by which the detective or the examiner can determine the time of the victim's death, which often turns out to be all-important in solving the case sine qua non An essential thing • Good planning is the sine qua non of a successful dinner party Sine qua non can be translated literally as “Without which, not.” Though this may sound like gibberish, it means more or less “Without (something), (something else) won't be possible.” Sine qua non sounds slightly literary, and it shouldn't be used just anywhere But it actually shows up in many contexts, including business (“A solid customer base is the sine qua non to success”), show business (“A good agent is a sine qua non for an actor's career”), and politics (“His support was really the sine qua non for her candidacy”) tabula rasa (1) The mind in its blank or unmarked state before receiving any impressions from outside (2) Something existing in its original pure state • As for knowing what life outside of his little village was like, he was practically a tabula rasa In ancient Rome, a student in class would write on a wax-covered wooden tablet, or tabula, using a sticklike implement At the end of the day, the marks could be scraped off, leaving a fresh, unmarked tablet—a tabula rasa —for the next day's lessons But even before the Romans, the Greek philosopher Aristotle had called the mind at birth an “unmarked tablet.” We still use the term today, but usually not very seriously; with what we know about biology and genetics, most of us don't really think there's nothing in a mind at birth terra incognita knowledge An unexplored country or field of • We've been to Phoenix once, but otherwise Arizona is terra incognita When Roman mapmakers drew a land area that no one had yet explored, they often labeled it “Terra Incognita”—that is, “Unknown Territory”—and the term continued to be used for centuries afterward When Columbus and his successors first crossed the Atlantic, they entered upon terra incognita, a land that came to be called the “New World.” But the term is just as useful for mental exploration For most of us, subjects such as particle physics, French 17th-century drama, and soil mechanics are terra incognita, and we can only hope to live long enough to be able to explore some of them someday Quiz 21-5 Fill in each blank with the correct letter: a rigor mortis b magnum opus c sine qua non d habeas corpus e in memoriam f terra incognita g memento mori h tabula rasa The entire field of quantum physics is _ to me She claimed there was no such thing as the _ of a successful novel, since great novels are so different The Rite of Spring is often regarded as Igor Stravinsky's _ To judge from the degree of _, she appeared to have died no later than 4:00 a.m The monument listed the brave men and women who had died in the war, under the words “ _.” As for knowledge about home repair, his mind is a _ In legal systems without _, individuals are often locked up for years without ever knowing the charges against them Just accept those first gray hairs as a little _ Answers Review Quizzes 21 A Complete the analogy: brief : extended :: hyperactive : _ a exaggerated b young c required d calm unconscious : aware :: subliminal : _ a underneath b noticeable c deep d regular prefer : favor :: preclude : _ a assume b expect c prevent d avoid awareness : ignorance :: hyperbole : _ a exaggeration b understatement c calm d excitement permit : allow :: permeate : _ a ignore b move c penetrate d recover night : dark :: sine qua non : _ a necessary b nonessential c thorough d objective fondness : affection :: antipathy : _ a love b rejection c solution d distaste edit : revise :: paraphrase : _ a dedicate b praise c restate d compose tolerate : accept :: contravene : _ a argue b violate c oppose d throw out 10 dispute : argument :: antithesis : _ a dislike b agreement c danger d opposite Answers B Fill in each blank with the correct letter: a pervade i rigor mortis b memento mori j contraindication c metaphysics k antigen d antagonist l subconscious e metadata m metaphorical f in memoriam n contrarian g precocious o subjugate h hyperventilate She was a smart and _ child who could read by the age of three He senses that a negative tone has begun to _ the school in the last couple of years The preserved body sits on a chair behind glass in public view like a strange _ In Iraq, many years of government brutality failed to fully _ the people called the Kurds There's so much difficult _ language in the poem that critics have had a hard time interpreting it The death was so recent that _ hadn't yet set in Late-night discussions in the dorm often became arguments about deep topics such as _ Pregnancy is a _ to taking the measles vaccine The initial tests look for the _ associated with tumors of this kind 10 The _ for the photos on his blog site includes identification of every single person in them 11 At the end of each year, the magazine includes a section called “ _,” which lists all the important figures who died that year 12 The chief _ of the Republican Party is the Democratic Party, and vice versa 13 He keeps dinner parties lively with his _ arguments, which nobody ever agrees with 14 When my 12-year-old gets anxious, he often starts to _, and it's caused him to pass out a couple of times 15 Was it some _ fear that made her forget the interview? Answers C Choose the closest definition: metaphorical a symbolic b literary c descriptive d extensive subversion a sabotage b undertow c turnover d overture predispose a recycle b subdue c spread d influence sine qua non a requirement b exception c allowance d objection antithesis a opponent b opposite c disadvantage d argument precocious a previous b ripe c early-maturing d clever tabula rasa a partial truth b complete ignorance c slight contamination d pure trash percolate a boil b spread c restore d seep contravene a go against b retrieve c dance d object 10 terra incognita a new information b unknown cause c unexplored territory d old suspicion 11 contraband a smuggled goods b trade surplus c customs d imports 12 prerequisite a requirement b reservation c influence d decision 13 metonymy a rate of growth b exaggeration c model of perfection d use of a related word 14 persevere a carry off b resume c inquire d carry on 15 hypertension a anxiety b tightness c high blood pressure d duodenal ulcer Answers ... into a paper bag, which raises the level of carbon dioxide and restores normal breathing Quiz 21- 1 A Fill in each blank with the correct letter: a hyperactive b subliminal c hypertension d subversion... office itself, but today it's common to study for a paraprofessional certificate or degree at a community college or university paramedic A specially trained medical technician licensed to provide... personnel who carry out illegal violence, often at night, with the quiet support of a government Quiz 21- 2 A Choose the closest definition: prerequisite a pattern b requirement c preference d direction