TỪ VỰNG TOEIC unit 11

Unit 11CANT LINGU SPIR VER TURB VOLU/VOLV FAC LUM Words fromMythology and History Quiz 11-1 Quiz 11-2 Quiz 11-3 Quiz 11-4 Quiz 11-5 Review Quizzes 11 CANT, from the Latin verb cantare, m

Unit 11

CANT LINGU SPIR VER TURB VOLU/VOLV FAC LUM Words fromMythology and History

Quiz 11-1 Quiz 11-2 Quiz 11-3 Quiz 11-4 Quiz 11-5 Review Quizzes 11

CANT, from the Latin verb cantare, meaning “sing,” produces several words

that come directly from Latin But some others came to English by way of

French, which added an h to the root, giving us such words as chant and chantey.

cantata A musical composition, particularly a religious workfrom the 17th or 18th century, for one or more voices accompanied byinstruments

• Composers of the 18th century composed sacred cantatas by the dozen, andBach's friend G P Telemann actually wrote over a thousand

A cantata is sung, unlike a sonata, which is played on instruments only Themost famous cantatas are by Johann Sebastian Bach, who wrote the music forabout 200 religious cantatas, using hymns and new religious poems as histexts His cantatas consisted of several different sections for different voices

—solos, duets, and choruses Some of his nonreligious cantatas have beenperformed like mini-operas

incantation (1) A use of spells or verbal charms spoken

or sung as part of a ritual of magic (2) A formula of words used in, or as if

in, such a ritual

• He repeated the words slowly over and over like an incantation

Incantation comes directly from the Latin word incantare, “enchant.” Incantare itself has cantare as a root, which reminds us that magic and ritual

have always been associated with chanting and music Incantations haveoften been in strange languages; “Abracadabra” is a not-so-serious version of

an incantation

cantor An official of a Jewish synagogue who sings or chants themusic of the services and leads the congregation in prayer

• The congregation waited for the cantor to begin the prayers before joiningin

The cantor is, after the rabbi, the most important figure in a Jewish worshipservice A cantor not only must possess an excellent singing voice but alsomust know by heart long passages of Hebrew Cantors such as Jan Peerce andRichard Tucker became international opera stars The comedian and singerEdward Israel Iskowitz renamed himself Eddie Cantor for his originalprofession and became enormously popular on stage, screen, radio, andtelevision for over 40 years

descant An additional melody sung above the principal melody.

• The soprano added a soaring descant to the final chorus that held thelisteners spellbound

The prefix des-, meaning “two” or “apart,” indicates that the descant is a

“second song” apart from the main melody In popular songs a descant willoften be sung at the very end to produce a thrilling climax

LINGU comes from the Latin word that means both “tongue” and

“language,” and in English today tongue can still mean “language” (as in “her

native tongue”) Our expression “slip of the tongue” is just a translation of

the Latin phrase lapsus linguae The root even shows up in a slangy-sounding word like lingo And since lingu- changed to langu- in French, our word language is related as well.

linguistics The study of human speech

• The new speechwriter, who had majored in linguistics, was soon putting hisknowledge of the deceptive tricks of language to good use

Any analysis of language, including 8th-grade grammar, can be calledlinguistics As recently as 200 years ago, ordinary grammar was about the

only kind of linguistics there was Today a linguist may be a person who

learns foreign languages, but the term usually refers to people who devotethemselves to analyzing the structure of language Many linguists concentrate

on the history of a language; others study the way children learn to speak;others analyze the sounds of a language—and still others just study Englishgrammar, a subject so big that you could easily spend your entire life on it

multilingual Using or able to use several languages

• She soon discovered that he was truly multilingual, fluent in not only theGerman and Polish he had grown up speaking but in English and Arabic aswell

The roots of multilingual come from Latin (see MULTI) If you happen to

prefer Greek, use the synonym polyglot, in which poly- has the same meaning

as multi-, and -glot means the same thing as -lingual The best way to become multilingual is probably to be born in a bilingual (two-language) household;

learning those first two seems to give the mind the kind of exercise thatmakes later language-learning easy

lingua franca A language used as a common orcommercial language among peoples who speak different languages

• That first evening in Tokyo, she heard English being spoken at the nexttable, and realized it was serving as a lingua franca for a party of Korean andJapanese businessmen

In the Middle Ages, the Arabs of the eastern Mediterranean referred to allEuropeans as Franks (the name of the tribe that once occupied the land wecall France) Since there was plenty of Arab-European trade, the traders in theMediterranean ports eventually developed a trading language combiningItalian, Arabic, and other languages, which almost everyone could more orless understand, and it became known as the “Frankish language,” or linguafranca Some languages actually succeed in becoming lingua francas withoutchanging much So, when the Roman empire became vast and mighty, Latinbecame the important lingua franca; and at a meeting between Japanese andVietnamese businesspeople today, English may well be the only languagespoken

linguine A narrow, flat pasta

• As a test of her clients' table manners, she would serve them challengingdishes and watch to see how gracefully they could handle chopsticks or dealwith long, slithery linguine

The modern language closest to Latin is Italian, and the Italian word linguine

means literally “little tongues.” Linguine is only one of the types of pasta

whose names describes their shapes Others include spaghetti (“little strings”), fettuccine (“little ribbons”), penne (“little quills”), orzo (“barley”), farfalle (“butterflies”), vermicelli (“little worms”), capellini (“little hairs”), fusilli (“little spindles”), and radiatori (“little radiators”) If you're thinking

about learning Italian, you could make a good start by just visiting an Italianrestaurant

B Indicate whether the following pairs of words have the same or different meanings:

1 lingua franca / pasta dish

SPIR comes from the Latin words meaning “breath” and “breathe.” When we

inspire others—that is, give them inspiration—it's as though we're breathing new energy and imagination into them When you expire, or die, you

“breathe out” your soul in your last breath A license, membership, credit

card, or free offer may also expire, at a time indicated by its expiration date.

spirited Full of energy or courage; very lively or determined

• The team put up a spirited defense, but they were doomed from the start

You may see spirited used to describe a conversation, a debate, a horse, or a campaign And it often shows up in such words as high-spirited (“bold and energetic”), mean-spirited (“spiteful”), and public-spirited (“generous to a community”), all of which reflect the original meaning of spirit, a notion

much like “soul” or “personality.”

dispiriting Causing a loss of hope or enthusiasm

• It was terribly dispiriting for them to lose yet another game, and he had toreassure his daughter that she'd actually done a great job as goalie

Lots of things can be dispiriting: a bad job interview, an awful film, a

relationship going sour Maybe for that reason, dispiriting has lots of synonyms: discouraging, disheartening, demoralizing, depressing, etc.

respirator (1) A device worn over the nose and mouth tofilter out dangerous substances from the air (2) A device for maintainingartificial respiration

• His lungs had been terribly damaged by decades of heavy smoking, and he'dbeen living on a respirator for the last year

Respiration means simply “breathing.” We usually come across the word in artificial respiration, the lifesaving technique in which you force air into the

lungs of someone who's stopped breathing Respirators can take severaldifferent forms Scuba-diving equipment always includes a respirator, though

it doesn't actually do the breathing for the diver Medical respirators, whichare used especially for babies and for emergency care and actually take overthe job of getting oxygen into the lungs, are today usually called ventilators,

so as to distinguish them from simple oxygen systems (which merely provide

a steady flow of oxygen into the nostrils) and face masks

transpire (1) To happen (2) To become known

• We kept up our questioning, and it soon transpired that the boys had knownabout the murder all along

Since the prefix trans- means “through” (see TRANS), transpire's mostliteral meaning is something like “breathe through.” Thus, the originalmeaning of the English word—still used today—is to give off a watery vaporthrough a surface such as a leaf From there, it came to mean also the gradualappearance of previously secret information, as if leaking out of the pores of

a leaf (as in “It transpired that she was not only his employee but also hisgirlfriend”) And soon it was being used to mean simply “happen” (as in “Iwondered what had transpired in the cafeteria at lunchtime”)

VER comes from the Latin word for “truth.” A verdict in a trial is “the truth

spoken” (see DICT) But a just verdict may depend on the veracity, or

“truthfulness,” of the witnesses

verify (1) To prove to be true or correct (2) To check or test theaccuracy of

• It is the bank teller's job to verify the signature on a check

During talks between the United States and the former Soviet Union onnuclear weapons reduction, one big problem was how to verify that weaponshad been eliminated Since neither side wanted the other to know its secrets,

verification of the facts became a difficult issue Because of the distrust on both sides, many doubted that the real numbers would ever be verifiable.

aver To state positively as true; declare

• The defendant averred that she was nowhere near the scene of the crime onthe night in question

Since aver contains the “truth” root, it basically means “confirm as true.” You may aver anything that you're sure of In legal situations, aver means to

state positively as a fact; thus, Perry Mason's clients aver that they areinnocent, while the district attorney avers the opposite If you make such astatement while under oath, and it turns out that you lied, you may havecommitted the crime of perjury

verisimilitude (1) The appearance of being true orprobable (2) The depiction of realism in art or literature

• By the beginning of the 20th century, the leading European painters werelosing interest in verisimilitude and beginning to experiment with abstraction

From its roots, verisimilitude means basically “similarity to the truth.” Most

fiction writers and filmmakers aim at some kind of verisimilitude to give theirstories an air of reality They need not show something actually true, or evenvery common, but simply something believable A mass of good details in aplay, novel, painting, or film may add verisimilitude A spy novel withoutsome verisimilitude won't interest many readers, but a fantastical novel maynot even attempt to seem true to life

veracity (1) Truth or accuracy (2) The quality of beingtruthful or honest

• We haven't been able to check the veracity of most of his story, but weknow he wasn't at the motel that night

People often claim that a frog placed in cold water that then is graduallyheated will let itself be boiled to death, but the story actually lacks veracity

We often hear that the Eskimo (Inuit) peoples have dozens of words for

“snow,” but the veracity of the statement is doubtful, since Eskimo languages

seem to have no more snow words than English (with flake, blizzard, powder, drift, freezing rain, etc.) In 2009 millions accepted the veracity of the claim

that, against all the evidence, the elected president wasn't a native-bornAmerican Not all the “facts” we accept without thinking are harmless

3 The prosecutor expected the witness to _ that the suspect was guilty.

4 Critics complained about the lack of _ in his crime writing, saying itsounded as if he'd never even been inside a police station

5 There's always a _ exchange of opinions around the Thanksgiving table,but nobody ever takes offense

6 His father has been living on a _ for the last two weeks, but now hislungs seem to be improving

7 She was never able to _ anything he had told her about his past

8 The boys claim they never went near the river that afternoon, but wesuspect their _

Answers

B Complete the analogy:

1 believe : doubt :: aver : _

a state b mean c deny d subtract

2 transfer : hand over :: transpire : _

a breathe out b cross c encourage d come to light

3 illusion : fantasy :: verisimilitude : _

a appearance b realism c style d proof

4 gloomy : glum :: spirited : _

a spiraling b alcoholic c lively d complex

5 loyalty : treason :: veracity : _

a dishonesty b truthfulness c ideals d safekeeping

6 exciting : thrilling :: dispiriting : _

a dreary b calming c relaxing d soothing

7 praise : ridicule :: verify : _

a testify b contradict c establish d foretell

8 pacemaker : heart :: respirator : _

a kidneys b brain c liver d lungs

Answers

TURB comes from the Latin verb turbare, “to throw into confusion or

upset,” and the noun turba, “crowd” or “confusion.” So a disturbance, for

example, confuses and upsets normal order or routine

turbid (1) Thick or murky, especially with churned-up sediment.(2) Unclear, confused, muddled

• The mood of the crowd was restless and turbid, and any spark could haveturned them into a mob

The Colorado River in spring, swollen by melting snow from the highmountains, races through the Grand Canyon, turbid and churning A chemicalsolution may be described as turbid rather than clear And your emotions may

be turbid as well, especially where love is involved: What did he mean bythat glance? Why did she say it like that?

perturb To upset, confuse, or disarrange

• News of the new peace accord was enough to perturb some radicalopponents of any settlements

With its per- prefix, perturb meant originally “thoroughly upset,” though today the word has lost most of its intense edge Perturb and perturbation are

often used by scientists, usually when speaking of a change in their dataindicating that something has affected some normal process When someone

is referred to as imperturbable, it means he or she manages to remain calm

through the most trying experiences

turbine A rotary engine with blades made to turn and generatepower by a current of water, steam, or air under pressure

• The power plant used huge turbines powered by water going over the dam

to generate electricity

The oldest and simplest form of turbine is the waterwheel, which is made torotate by water falling across its blades and into buckets suspended fromthem Hero of Alexandria invented the first steam-driven turbine in the 1stcentury A.D., but a commercially practical steam turbine wasn't developeduntil 1884; steam turbines are now the main elements of electric power

stations Jet engines are gas turbines A turbojet engine uses a turbine to

compress the incoming air that feeds the engine before being ejected to push

the plane forward; a turboprop engine uses its exhaust to drive a turbine that

spins a propeller A wind turbine generates electricity by being turned by thewind; the largest now have vanes with a turning diameter of over 400 feet

turbulent (1) Stirred up, agitated (2) Stirring up unrest,violence, or disturbance

• The huge ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II was never much troubled by

turbulent seas that might have sunk smaller boats

Some people lead turbulent lives, and some are constantly in the grip ofturbulent emotions The late 1960s are remembered as turbulent years ofsocial revolution in America and Europe Often the captain of an airplane will

warn passengers to fasten their seatbelts because of upper-air turbulence,

which can make for a bumpy ride El Niño, a seasonal current of warm water

in the Pacific Ocean, may create turbulence in the winds across the UnitedStates, affecting patterns of rainfall and temperature as well

VOLU/VOLV comes from the Latin verb volvere, meaning “to roll, wind,

turn around, or twist around.” Thus, revolve simply means “turn in circles.” And a volume was originally a scroll or roll of papyrus.