TỪ VỰNG TOEIC unit 30

Unit 30TOXI TEN/TENU TECHNI/TECHNO LONG IDIO AER/AERO CAD TRIB Words from Mythology and History Quiz 30-1 Quiz 30-2 Quiz 30-3 Quiz 30-4 Quiz 30-5 Review Quizzes 30 TOXI comes from the Gr

Unit 30

TOXI TEN/TENU TECHNI/TECHNO LONG IDIO AER/AERO CAD

TRIB Words from Mythology and History

Quiz 30-1 Quiz 30-2 Quiz 30-3 Quiz 30-4 Quiz 30-5 Review Quizzes 30

TOXI comes from the Greek and Latin words for “poison,” something the

Greeks and Romans knew a good deal about Socrates died by taking asolution of poison hemlock, a flowering plant much like wild carrot that nowalso grows in the U.S Rome's enemy Mithridates, king of Pontus, wasobsessed with poisons, experimented with them on prisoners, and tried tomake himself immune to them by eating tiny amounts of them daily Nero'smother Agrippina poisoned several of her son's rivals to power—andprobably did the same to her own husband, the emperor Claudius

toxin A substance produced by a living organism (such asbacteria) that is highly poisonous to other organisms

• Humans eat rhubarb stems without ill effects, while cattle may die fromeating the leaves, which seem to contain two different toxins

Long before chemists started creating poisons from scratch, humans wereemploying natural toxins for killing weeds and insects For centuries SouthAmerican tribes have used the toxin curare, extracted from a native vine, totip their arrows The garden flower called wolfsbane or monkshood is thesource of aconite, an extremely potent toxin The common flower known asjimsonweed contains the deadly poison scopolamine And the castor-oil plantyields the almost unbelievably poisonous toxin called ricin Today we hearhealth advisers of all kinds talk about ridding the body of toxins; but they'reusually pretty vague about which ones they mean, and most of these “toxins”wouldn't be called that by biologists

toxicity The state of being poisonous; the degree to whichsomething is poisonous

• Though they had tested the drug on animals, they suspected the only way tomeasure its toxicity for humans was by studying accidental human exposures

Toxicity is often a relative thing; in the words of a famous old saying, “Thedose makes the poison.” Thus, it's possible to die from drinking too muchwater, and lives have been saved by tiny doses of arsenic Even though

botulinum toxin is the most toxic substance known, it's the basic ingredient in

Botox, which is injected into the face to get rid of wrinkles With somepoisons, mere skin contact can be lethal; others are lethal when breathed intothe lungs in microscopic amounts To determine if a chemical will beofficially called a poison, researchers often use the “LD50” test: If 50milligrams of the substance for every kilogram of an animal's body weightresults in the death of 50% of test animals, the chemical is a poison But thereare problems with such tests, and toxicity remains a very individual concept

toxicology A science that deals with poisons and theireffect

• At medical school he had specialized in toxicology, hoping eventually tofind work in a crime laboratory

Even though most of us are aware of toxicology primarily from crime shows

on TV, toxicologists actually do most of their work in other fields Many are

employed by drug companies, others by chemical companies Many work forthe government, making sure the public is being kept safe fromenvironmental poisons in the water, soil, and air, as well as unhealthysubstances in our food and drugs These issues often have to do withquantity; questions about how much of some substance should be considereddangerous, whether in the air or in a soft drink, may be left to toxicologists.But occasionally a toxicology task may be more exciting: for instance,discovering that what looked like an ordinary heart attack was actuallybrought on by a hypodermic injection of a paralyzing muscle relaxant

neurotoxin A poisonous protein that acts on the nervoussystem

• From her blurred vision, slurred speech, and muscle weakness, doctorsrealized she had encountered a neurotoxin, and they suspected botulism

The nervous system is almost all-powerful in the body: all five senses depend

on it, as do breathing, digestion, and the heart So it's an obvious target forpoisons, and neurotoxins have developed as weapons in many animals,including snakes, bees, and spiders Some wasps use a neurotoxin to paralyzetheir prey so that it can be stored alive to be eaten later Snake venom is often

neurotoxic (as in cobras and coral snakes, for example), though it may

instead be hemotoxic (as in rattlesnakes and coppermouths), operating on the circulatory system Artificial neurotoxins, called nerve agents, have been

developed by scientists as means of chemical warfare; luckily, few have everbeen used

TEN/TENU comes from the Latin tenuis, meaning “thin.” So to extend

something is to stretch it, and lots of things get thin when they're stretched

The ten- root is even seen in pretend, which once meant to stretch something

out above or in front; that something came to be a claim that you weresomething that you actually weren't

tenuous Having little substance or strength; flimsy, weak

• It's a rather tenuous theory, and the evidence supporting it has beenquestioned by several researchers

Something tenuous has been stretched thin and might break at any time Aperson with a tenuous hold on his sanity should be watched carefully If a

business is only tenuously surviving, it will probably go bankrupt in the next

recession If there seems to be only a tenuous connection between twocrimes, it means the investigators have more work to do

attenuated Thinned or weakened

• The smallpox shot is an injection of the virus in an attenuated form tooweak to produce an actual case of smallpox

A friendship can become attenuated if neither person bothers to keep intouch Radio waves can become attenuated by the shape of the landscape, byfoliage, by atmospheric conditions, and simply by distance Factory workersand rock musicians often use noise-attenuating ear plugs to save their

hearing To attenuate something isn't to stop it, just to tone it down.

extenuating Partially excusing or justifying

• A good college rarely accepts someone who has dropped out of high schooltwice, but in his case there were extenuating circumstances, including thedeath of both parents

Extenuating is almost always used today before “circumstances.” Extenuating

circumstances are an important concept in the law If you steal to feed yourchildren, you're naturally less guilty than someone who steals just to getricher; if you kill someone in self-defense, that's obviously an extenuatingcircumstance that makes your act different from murder Juries will usuallyconsider extenuating circumstances (even when they're instructed not to), andmost judges will listen carefully to an argument about extenuatingcircumstances as well And they work outside of the courtroom as well; ifyou miss your daughter's performance in the middle-school pageant, she mayforgive you if it was because you had to race Tigger to the vet's emergencyroom

distended Stretched or bulging out in all directions; swelled

• All the children's bellies were distended, undoubtedly because of inadequatenutrition or parasites

Before giving you a shot, the nurse may wrap a rubber tube around your

upper arm to distend the veins When the heart isn't pumping properly, the

skin of the feet and ankles may become distended A doctor who notices that

an internal organ has become distended will always want to find out the

cause As you can see, distended tends to be a medical term.

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

1 flimsy a toxicity

2 nerve poison b distended

3 study of poisons c attenuated

TECHNI/TECHNO comes from the Greek techne, meaning “art, craft,

skill,” and shows up in dozens of English words Some, such as technical,

technology, and technique, have long been familiar Others, such as thriller, were only coined in the current computer age, which has also seen

techno-the new cut-down terms techno (for techno-pop, techno-the electronic dance music) and tech (for technician or technology).

technocrat A scientist or technical expert with power inpolitics or industry

• The new president, a great fan of science, had surrounded himself with animpressive team of technocrats

In 1919 W H Smyth coined the term technocracy to mean basically

“management of society by technical experts.” Technocracy grew into amovement during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when politicians andfinancial institutions were being blamed for the economic disaster, and fans

of technocracy claimed that letting technical experts manage the countrywould be a great improvement (They also suggested that dollars could be

replaced by “energy certificates” representing energy units called ergs.) Today technocrat and technocratic are still popular words for experts with a

highly rational and scientific approach to public policy issues But theseexperts aren't always the best politicians, and when a terrific technologicalsolution to a problem is opposed by a powerful group or industry, lawmakersfind it easier to just ignore it

technophobe One who fears or dislikes advanced technology

or complex devices and especially computers

• The new employee was a middle-aged technophobe, who seemed startledevery time a new page popped up on her computer screen

The condition known as technophobia got its name around 1965 (though its synonym Luddite had been around for a long time), and since then we've

been flooded with electronic gadgetry But even today few people actuallyunderstand any electrical technology more complicated than a lightbulb, sothere's still plenty of technophobia around And it isn't limited to computerusers The explosion of the atomic bomb made technophobes out of millions

of people; and since human-caused climate change has been a result of

technology, it's not surprising that it too has produced a technophobic

response But if technology turns out to be part of a solution, maybe that willchange

technophile One who loves technology

• Back in my day, the high-school technophiles subscribed to Popular

Mechanics, built ham radios, and were always taking apart the engines of

their clunkers

The word technophile came along soon after technophobe, which seemed to need an antonym Its own synonyms include geek, gearhead, and propeller-

head (for the characters in 1950s comic books who wore propeller beanies to

indicate that they were sci-fi fans) Even before American inventors beganamazing the world with their “Yankee ingenuity” in the 19th century, mostAmericans could be described as technology lovers Today, American

technophilia may be seen most vividly when a new version of a popular

video game sells millions of copies to young buyers on the day of its release

pyrotechnic Of or relating to fireworks

• Her astonishing, pyrotechnic performance in the concerto left the audiencedazed

You've read about funeral pyres, and you may even have survived a

pyromaniac (“insane fire-starting”) stage in your youth, so you might have

guessed that pyr means “fire” in Greek Pyrotechnic refers literally to

fireworks, but always seems to be used for something else—something just

as exciting, explosive, dazzling, sparkling, or brilliant The performances ofsports stars and dancers are often described as pyrotechnic, and a critic may

describe the pyrotechnics of a rock guitarist's licks or a film's camerawork A

pyrotechnic performance is always impressive, but the word occasionallysuggests something more like “flashy” or “flamboyant.”

LONG comes from Latin longus, which, as you might guess, means “long.”

The English word long shows up in many compound terms such as

long-suffering (“patiently enduring lasting offense or hardship”) and long-winded

(“boringly long in speaking or writing”), but the long- root also sometimes shows up less obviously To prolong something is to lengthen it, for example, and a chaise longue (not lounge!) is “a long reclining chair.”

longitude Distance measured by degrees or time east or westfrom the prime meridian

• Checking the longitude, she was surprised to see that the tip of SouthAmerica is actually east of New York City

The imaginary (but very important) lines of longitude run from the NorthPole to the South Pole Each is identified by the number of degrees it lies east

or west of the so-called prime meridian in Greenwich, England (part ofLondon) A circle is divided into 360°; so, for example, the longitude of theEgyptian city of Cairo is about 31°E—that is, about 31° east of London The

“long” sense of the root may be easier to see in some uses of the adjective

longitudinal: A longitudinal study is a research study that follows its subjects

over many long years, and a longitudinal engine is one that drives acrankshaft that runs lengthwise under a vehicle (as in rear-wheel-drive cars)rather than crosswise

elongate (1) To extend the length of; stretch (2) To grow inlength

• When mammals gained the ability to fly, it wasn't by means of featheredwings; instead, over thousands of years the digits of their “hands” elongatedand a web formed between them

Elongate is often found in scientific writing, but the adjective elongated is

more common, and frequently used to describe body parts in discussions ofanatomy This was even the case when the superhero Elongated Man madehis appearance back in 1960 But some other characters with the same powers

—Plastic Man, Elastic Lad, and Mr Fantastic—ended up having longercareers

longueur A dull and boring portion, as of a book

• She tells me the book is extremely rewarding, in spite of some longueursduring which she occasionally drops off to sleep

Longueur comes straight from French, a language based on Latin When we

borrow a foreign word, it's usually because English doesn't have a really good

synonym, which is the case here Longueur is used mostly when talking

about books, but also when describing lectures and speeches Like certain

other French words, longueur tends to be used mainly by critics and

professors—but lots of us who aren't either could find plenty of use for it too

oblong Longer in one direction than in the other

• Their apartment was awkwardly oblong, with a long skinny hall runningpast the cramped rooms

Oblong is a general but useful term for describing the shape of things such as

leaves There's no such thing as an oblong circle, since a stretched circle has

to be called an oval, and any rectangle that isn't square is oblong, at least if

it's lying on its side (such rectangles can actually be called oblongs) Pills are

generally oblong rather than round, to slide down the throat more easily Anoblong table will often fit a living space better than a square or round onewith the same area And people are always buried in oblong boxes

B Fill in each blank with the correct letter:

2 Even the Greeks knew how to calculate latitude from the sun and stars, but

no one managed to measure _ accurately until the 18th century

3 All through high school and college, computer jocks like him were callednerds or geeks, but he always preferred to be described as a _

4 The talk was just one _ after another, and she finally got up and tiptoedout of the lecture hall

5 The shields used by Celtic warriors were _ rather than round, and thusable to protect much of the body

6 As governor, he had the reputation of being a _, convinced that much ofthe state's problems could be solved by using proper technology and data

7 The debate between these two remarkable minds was a _ display ofbrilliant argument and slashing wit

8 My father is making a real effort to master e-mail, but my mother is agenuine _ who just wishes the computer would go away

Answers

IDIO comes from the Greek idios, meaning “one's own” or “private.” In

Latin this root led to the word idiota, meaning “ignorant person”—that is, a

person who doesn't take in knowledge from outside himself And that led to afamiliar English word that gets used too often, usually to describe people whoaren't ignorant at all

idiom An expression that cannot be understood from themeanings of its separate words but must be learned as a whole

• As a teacher of foreign students, you can't use idioms like “Beats me!” and

“Don't jump the gun” in class unless you want to confuse everyone

If you had never heard someone say “We're on the same page,” would youhave understood that they weren't talking about a book? And the first timesomeone said he'd “ride shotgun,” did you wonder where the gun was? Amodern English-speaker knows thousands of idioms, and uses many everyday Idioms can be completely ordinary (“first off,” “the other day,” “make apoint of,” “What's up?”) or more colorful (“asleep at the wheel,” “bite the

bullet,” “knuckle sandwich”) A particular type of idiom, called a phrasal

verb , consists of a verb followed by an adverb or preposition (or sometimes

both); in make over, make out, and make up, for instance, notice how the meanings have nothing to do with the usual meanings of over, out, and up.

idiomatic In a manner conforming to the particular forms

speaking and writing idiomatically in another language is the greatest

challenge Even highly educated foreign learners—professors, scientists,doctors, etc.—rarely succeed in mastering the kind of idiomatic Englishspoken by an American 7th-grader

idiosyncrasy An individual peculiarity of a person'sbehavior or thinking

• Mr Kempthorne, whose idiosyncrasies are well known to most of us, hasrecently begun walking around town talking to two ferrets he carries on hisshoulders

Idiosyncrasies are almost always regarded as harmless So, for example,filling your house with guns and Nazi posters might be called something

stronger than idiosyncratic But if you always arrange your Gummi candies

in table form by color and type, then eat them in a special order starting withthe pterodactyls (purple ones must die first!), you might qualify Harmlessthough your strange habits might be, they may not be the kind of thing you'dtell people about; most Americans are careful to hide their idiosyncrasies,since our culture doesn't seem to value odd behavior The British, however,are generally fond of their eccentrics, and English villages seem to be filled

with them By the way, few words are harder to spell than idiosyncrasy—be

careful

idiopathic Arising spontaneously or from an obscure orunknown cause

• After her doctor hemmed and hawed and finally described her condition as

“idiopathic,” she realized she needed a second opinion

Words with the -pathy suffix generally name a disease or condition (see

PATH), so you might think idiopathic should describe a disease or conditionthat's unique to an individual But the word is actually generally used todescribe any medical condition that no one has yet figured out Most facialtics are called idiopathic by doctors, since no cause can be found Other well-known conditions, including chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowelsyndrome, and fibromyalgia, still perplex the medical community And eventhough doctors expect that the causes of all of them will eventually be found,and that those causes will turn out to be the same for hundreds of thousands

of people, the conditions are still called idiopathic

AER/AERO comes from the Greek word for “air.” The aerospace industry

manufactures vehicles that travel through the atmosphere and beyond into

space Aerodynamic designs move through the air with maximum speed And

aerophobia is the technical name for what we usually just call fear of flying.