TỪ VỰNG TOEIC unit 12

Unit 12UMBR VEST THE/THEO ICON URB CULT DEM/DEMO POPUL AnimalWords Quiz 12-1 Quiz 12-2 Quiz 12-3 Quiz 12-4 Quiz 12-5 Review Quizzes 12 UMBR comes from the Latin umbra, meaning “shadow.”

Unit 12

UMBR VEST THE/THEO ICON URB CULT DEM/DEMO POPUL AnimalWords

Quiz 12-1 Quiz 12-2 Quiz 12-3 Quiz 12-4 Quiz 12-5 Review Quizzes 12

UMBR comes from the Latin umbra, meaning “shadow.” Thus, the familiar

umbrella, with its ending meaning “little,” casts a “little shadow” to keep off

the sun or the rain

umber (1) A darkish brown mineral containing manganese andiron oxides used for coloring paint (2) A color that is greenish brown to darkreddish brown

• Van Dyke prized umber as a pigment and used it constantly in his oilpaintings

The mineral deposits of Italy provided sources of a number of naturalpigments, among them umber Since the late Renaissance, umber has been ingreat demand as a coloring agent When crushed and mixed with paint, it

produces an olive color known as raw umber; when crushed and burnt, it produces a darker tone known as burnt umber.

adumbrate (1) To give a sketchy outline or disclose in part.(2) To hint at or foretell

• The Secretary of State would only adumbrate his ideas for bringing peace toBosnia

A synonym for adumbrate is foreshadow, which means to present a shadowy

version of something before it becomes reality or is provided in full Toughquestioning by a Supreme Court justice may adumbrate the way he or she isplanning to rule on a case A bad review by a critic may adumbrate the failure

of a new film And rats scurrying off a ship were believed to adumbrate acoming disaster at sea

penumbra (1) The partial shadow surrounding a completeshadow, as in an eclipse (2) The fringe or surrounding area where somethingexists less fully

• This area of the investigation was the penumbra where both the FBI and theCIA wanted to pursue their leads

Every solar eclipse casts an umbra, the darker central area in which almost no

light reaches the earth, and a penumbra, the area of partial shadow where part

of the sun is still visible Penumbra can thus be used to describe any “gray

area” where things aren't all black and white For example, the right toprivacy falls under the penumbra of the U.S Constitution; though it isn'tspecifically guaranteed there, the Supreme Court has held that it is implied,and thus that the government may not intrude into certain areas of a citizen'sprivate life Because its existence is still shadowy, however, the Court is stilldetermining how much of an individual's life is protected by the right toprivacy

umbrage A feeling of resentment at some slight or insult, oftenone that is imagined rather than real

• She often took umbrage at his treatment of her, without being able topinpoint what was offensive about it

An umbrage was originally a shadow, and soon the word also began to mean

“a shadowy suspicion.” Then it came to mean “displeasure” as well—that is,

a kind of shadow blocking the sunlight Umbrage is now generally used in

the phrase “take umbrage at.” An overly sensitive person may take umbrage

at something as small as having his or her name pronounced wrong

VEST comes from the Latin verb vestire, “to clothe” or “to dress,” and the

noun vestis, “clothing” or “garment.” Vest is the shortest English word we

have from this root, and is the name of a rather small piece of clothing

divest (1) To get rid of or free oneself of property, authority, ortitle (2) To strip of clothing, ornaments, or equipment

• In protest against apartheid, many universities in the 1980s divestedthemselves of all stock in South African companies

If you decide to enter a monastery, you may divest yourself of most of yourpossessions When a church is officially abandoned, it's usually divested ofits ornaments and furnishings A company that's going through hard timesmay divest itself of several stores, and investors are constantly divestingthemselves of stocks that aren't performing well enough And when it turnsout that athletes have been using steroids, they're usually divested of anyawards they may have won

investiture The formal placing of someone in office

• At an English monarch's investiture, he or she is presented with the crown,scepter, and sword, the symbols of power

In its original meaning, an investiture was the clothing of a new officeholder

in garments that symbolized power The Middle Ages saw much debate overthe investiture of bishops by kings and emperors These rulers felt that highreligious offices were theirs to give as rewards for someone's loyal service or

as bribes for someone's future support; the popes, on the other hand, regardedthese investitures as the improper buying and selling of church offices Theinvestiture struggle caused tension between popes and monarchs and even led

to wars

transvestite A person, especially a male, who wears theclothing and adopts the mannerisms of the opposite sex

• In Handel's operas, the heroic male leading roles are today often sung byfemale transvestites, since he originally wrote them for the soprano range

Transvestite includes the prefix trans-, “across,” and thus means literally

“cross-dresser.” In the theater, from ancient Greece to Elizabethan England,

transvestism was common because all parts—even Juliet—were played by

men Traditional Japanese Kabuki and Noh drama still employ transvestism

of this sort In everyday life, it's now so acceptable for women to wear men's

clothing that the word transvestite is generally applied only to men The much newer word transgender describes people who think of themselves as

having changed sex, or who simply don't believe in the idea that they're eitherone sex or the other

travesty (1) An inferior or distorted imitation (2) A broadlycomic imitation in drama, literature, or art that is usually grotesque andridiculous

• The senator was shouting that the new tax bill represented a travesty of taxreform

The word travesty comes from the same prefix and root as transvestite Since

cross-dressing often isn't very convincing, the word has usually referred tosomething absurd So a verdict that angers people may be denounced as a

“travesty of justice.” Saturday Night Live specializes in dramatic travesties

mocking everything from political figures and issues to popular culture

—“disguised” versions intended for entertainment Travesty may also be a

verb; thus, Mel Brooks has travestied movie genres of all kinds—westerns,thrillers, and silent films, among others

2 The _ of the prime minister was an occasion of pomp and ceremony.

3 Some people are quick to take _ the moment they think someone mighthave been disrespectful

4 Since all the judges were cronies of the dictator, the court proceedingswere a _ of justice

5 The new director planned to _ the museum of two of its Picassos

6 The farther away a source of light is from the object casting a shadow, thewider will be that shadow's _

7 The young model became a notorious success when she was discovered to

be a _

8 The increasing cloudiness and the damp wind seemed to _ a stormynight

Answers

B Match the definition on the left to the correct word on the right:

1 resentment a penumbra

2 brownish color b travesty

3 installing in office c transvestite

4 cross-dresser d adumbrate

5 bad imitation e divest

6 get rid of f umbrage

7 near shadow g investiture

8 partially disclose h umber

Answers

THE/THEO comes from the Greek word meaning “god.” Theology, the

study of religion, is practiced by theologians Monotheism is the worship of a single god; Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are monotheistic religions, and all three worship the same god Polytheistic religions such as those of ancient

Greece and Rome, on the other hand, worship many gods

apotheosis (1) Transformation into a god (2) Theperfect example

• Abraham Lincoln's apotheosis after his assassination transformed thecontroversial politician into the saintly savior of his country

In ancient Greece, historical figures were sometimes worshipped as gods InRome, apotheosis was rare until the emperor Augustus declared the deadJulius Caesar to be a god, and soon other dead emperors were being

apotheosized as well In older paintings you may see a heroic figure—

Napoleon, George Washington, or Shakespeare, for example—being raisedinto the clouds, symbolizing his or her apotheosis But today any great classicexample of something can be called its apotheosis You might hear it said, forexample, that Baroque music reached its apotheosis in the works of J S.Bach, or that the Duesenberg Phaeton was the apotheosis of the touring car

atheistic Denying the existence of God or divine power

• The atheistic Madalyn Murray O'Hair successfully sought the removal ofprayer from American public schools in the 1960s

In the Roman Empire, early Christians were called atheistic because theydenied the existence of the Roman gods And once the Christian church was

firmly established, it condemned the Romans as atheists because they didn't

believe in the Christian God In later centuries, English-speaking Christians

would often use the words pagan and heathen to describe such Christians, while atheist would be reserved for those who actually denied the existence of any god Atheism is different from agnosticism, which claims

non-that the existence of any higher power is unknowable; and lots of people who

simply don't think much about religion often call themselves agnostics as

well

pantheon (1) A building serving as the burial place of orcontaining memorials to the famous dead of a nation (2) A group of notablepersons or things

• A Hall of Fame serves as a kind of pantheon for its field, and those admitted

in the early years are often the greatest of all

Each of the important Roman gods and goddesses had many temples erected

in their name But in 27 B.C a temple to all the gods together was completed

in Rome; twice destroyed, it was ultimately replaced by a third temple aroundA.D 126 This extraordinary domed structure is still one of the importantsights of Rome, and the burial place for the painters Raphael and Carracciand two kings In Paris, a great church was completed in 1789–90; named thePanthéon, it was announced as the future resting place of France's greatfigures, and the bodies of Victor Hugo, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and manyothers now rest within its walls

theocracy (1) Government by officials who are regarded asdivinely inspired (2) A state governed by a theocracy

• The ancient Aztecs lived in a theocracy in which guidance came directlyfrom the gods through the priests

In the Middle Ages, the Muslim empires stretching around much of theMediterranean were theocracies, and the pope ruled most of modern-dayItaly But theocracies are rare today Modern Iran and Saudi Arabia (and

perhaps half a dozen others) are usually regarded as theocratic governments,

since, even though Iran's president is elected by popular vote and SaudiArabia is ruled by a royal family, the countries' laws are religious laws Butwhen a government tries to follow all the teachings of a single religion,things usually don't work out terribly well, so U.S Constitution and Bill ofRights forbid using religion as the principal basis for democracy

ICON comes from the Greek eikon, which led to the Latin icon, both

meaning “image.” Though the icon- root hasn't produced many English

words, the words that is does appear in tend to be interesting

icon (1) A religious image usually painted on a small wooden panel:idol (2) Emblem, symbol

• Henry Ford's assembly line captured the imagination of the world, and heand his company became icons of industrial capitalism

In the Eastern Orthodox church, much importance is given to icons, usuallysmall portraits on wood—sometimes with gold-leaf paint—of Jesus, Mary, or

a saint, which hang in churches and in the houses of the faithful TheOrthodox church favors icons partly because they communicate directly andforcefully even to uneducated people They are regarded as sacred; somebelievers actually pray to them, and many believe that icons have carried out

miracles The common modern uses of icon grew out of this original sense The fact that Orthodox icons have a symbolic role led to icon being used to

mean simply “symbol.” Because of the icon's sacredness, the term also came

to mean “idol.” And once we began to use idol to refer to pop-culture stars, it wasn't long before we began using icon the same way But for the little

computer-desktop images that you click on, the older meaning of “symbol” isthe one we're thinking of

iconic (1) Symbolic (2) Relating to a greatly admired andsuccessful person or thing

• The 1963 March on Washington was the iconic event in the history of thecivil-rights movement, now familiar to all American schoolchildren

The original meaning of iconic was essentially “resembling an icon,” but

today it more often seems to mean “so admired that it could be the subject of

an icon.” And with that meaning, iconic has become part of the language of

advertising and publicity; today companies and magazines and TV hosts areconstantly encouraging us to think of some consumer item or pop star orshow as first-rate or immortal or flawless—absolutely “iconic”—when he orshe or it is actually nothing of the kind

iconoclast (1) A person who destroys religious images oropposes their use (2) A person who attacks settled beliefs or institutions

• She's always rattling her friends by saying outrageous things, and sheenjoys her reputation as an iconoclast

When the early books of the Bible were being written, most of the otherMiddle Eastern religions had more than one god; these religions generallyencouraged the worship of idols of the various gods, which were oftenregarded as magical objects But in the Ten Commandments given to Moses

in the Old Testament, God prohibits the making of “graven images” or

“idols” for worship, proclaiming that the Jews are to worship only one God,who is too great to be represented in an idol However, by the 6th centuryA.D., Christians had begun to create religious images in order to focus the

prayers of the faithful Opposition to icons led to the Iconoclastic

Controversy in A.D 726, when, supported by the pope, iconoclasts began

smashing and burning the images in churches and monasteries (clast- comes

from the Greek word meaning “to break”) In time, peace was restored, andalmost all Christians have since accepted depictions of Jesus, Mary, and thesaints Today an iconoclast is someone who constantly argues withconventional thinking, refusing to “worship” the objects of everyone else's

“faith.”

iconography (1) The imagery and symbolism of a work

of art or an artist (2) The study of artistic symbolism

• Today scholars pore over the advertisements in glossy magazines, studyingthe iconography for clues to the ads' hidden meanings

If you saw a 17th-century painting of a man writing at a desk with a lion athis feet, would you know you were looking at St Jerome, translator of theBible, who, according to legend, once pulled a thorn from the paw of a lion,which thereafter became his devoted friend? And if a painting showed ayoung woman reclining on a bed with a shower of gold descending on her,would you recognize her as Danặ, locked up in a tower to keep her awayfrom the lustful Zeus, who then managed to gain access to her by

transforming himself into golden light (or golden coins)? An iconographic

approach to art can make museum-going a lot of fun—and amateur

iconographers know there are also plenty of symbols lurking in the images

that advertisers bombard us with daily

7 They had come back from Russia with a beautiful _ of Mary and another

of St Basil

8 The high priest in this medieval _ was equivalent to a dictator

Answers

B Match the word on the left to its definition on the right:

1 icon a state ruled by religion

2 pantheon b symbolic

3 apotheosis c symbol

4 iconography d nonbelieving

5 atheistic e artistic symbolism

6 iconoclast f hall of fame

7 theocracy g dissenter

8 iconic h perfect example

Answers

URB comes from the Latin noun for “city.” Our word urban describes cities

and the people who live in them With its sub- prefix (see SUB), a suburb is a town “near” or “under” a larger city, and suburban houses are home to suburbanites.

urbane Sophisticated and with polished manners

• He was remembered as a gentlemanly and urbane host of elegant dinnerparties

Urbane's synonyms include suave, debonair, and especially cosmopolitan Urbanity was a trait of such classic movie stars as Fred Astaire, Cary Grant,

William Powell, Leslie Howard, Charles Boyer, and George Sanders (Notice

that, for some reason, urbane is almost always used to describe men rather

than women.) Teenagers in the 1960s read James Bond novels and watchedhis character onscreen to get tips about acquiring an urbane identity But it'shard to acquire urbanity without actually having had wide social experience

in sophisticated cities And, since times have changed, the whole notiondoesn't seem to attract young people quite the way it used to

exurban Relating to a region or settlement that lies outside acity and usually beyond its suburbs and often is inhabited chiefly by well-to-

do families

• Exurban areas typically show much higher education and income levelsthan closer-in suburbs or nearby rural counties

With its prefix ex-, (“outside of,” the noun exurb was coined around 1955 to

describe the ring of well-off communities beyond the suburbs that werebecoming commuter towns for an urban area Most exurbs were probablyquiet little towns before being discovered by young city dwellers with goodincomes looking for a pleasant place to raise their children Planners,advertisers, and political strategists today often talk about such topics asexurban development, exurban trends, exurban migration, and exurbanvoters

interurban Going between or connecting cities or towns

• Businesspeople in the two cities have been waiting for decades for a truehigh-speed interurban railway on the Japanese model

Interurban is generally used to describe transportation As a noun (as in “In

those days you could take the interurban from Seattle to Tacoma”),

interurban has meant a fairly heavy but fast electric train, something between

an urban trolley and a full-fledged long-distance train, that offers morefrequent service than an ordinary railway Interurban transit today mayinclude bus, ferry, and limousine—and, in a few lucky areas, a regionalrailway With oil supplies dwindling, there's hope that interurban railwayswill be coming back into wider use

urbanization The process by which towns and citiesare formed and become larger as more and more people begin living andworking in central areas

• The area has been undergoing rapid urbanization, and six or seven of the oldsmall towns are now genuine suburbs

The word urbanization started appearing in print way back in the 1880s,

which says something about the growth of American cities The expansion ofLos Angeles was an early example of uncontrolled urbanization.Urbanization is often seen as a negative trend, with bad effects on quality oflife and the environment But apartments require much less heat than houses,and commuting by mass transit rather than cars can reduce pollution andenergy use, and cities offer improved opportunities for jobs (and often foreducation and housing as well), so city growth doesn't make everyoneunhappy

CULT comes from the Latin cultus, meaning “care.” So cultivation is care of

something, such as a garden, in a way that encourages its growth And

culture is what is produced by cultivating human knowledge, skills, beliefs,

manners, science, and art over many years