Barron 3500 SAT List 43

Question 0

serendipity

Answer 0

N. /有发现意外之财的运气/gift for finding valuable or desirable things by accident; accidental good fortune or luck. Many scien¬tific discoveries are a matter of serendipity. Newton was not sitting under a tree thinking about gravity when the apple dropped on his head.

Question 1

sequester

Answer 1

V. /隐退；隔离/isolate; retire from public life; segregate; seclude. Banished from his kingdom, the wizard Prospero sequestered himself on a desert island. To prevent the jurors from hearing news broadcasts about the case, the judge decided to sequester the jury.

Question 2

serenity

Answer 2

N. /平静/calmness; placidity. The sound of air raid sirens pierced the serenity of the quiet village of Pearl Harbor. serpentine ADJ. winding; twisting. The car swerved at every curve in the serpentine road.

Question 3

serrated

Answer 3

ADJ. /锯齿状的/having a sawtoothed edge. The beech tree is one of many plants that have serrated leaves.

Question 4

servile

Answer 4

ADJ. /奴隶的；奴性的/slavish; cringing. Constantly fawning on his employer, humble Uriah Heap was a servile creature.

Question 5

servitude

Answer 5

N. /奴隶身份；苦工/slavery; compulsory labor. Born a slave, Fred¬erick Douglass resented his life of servitude and plotted to escape to the North.

Question 6

sever

Answer 6

V. /切断/cut; separate. The released prisoner wanted to begin a new life and sever all connections with his criminal past. Dr. Guillotin invented a machine that could neatly sever an aristocratic head from its equally aristocratic body. Unfortu¬nately, he couldn’t collect any severance pay. severance, N.

Question 7

severity

Answer 7

N. /严肃；严格；激烈/harshness; intensity; sternness; austerity. The severity of Jane’s migraine attack was so great that she took to her bed for a week.

Question 8

shackle

Answer 8

V. /手铐；枷锁；脚镣/chain; fetter. The criminal’s ankles were shack¬led to prevent his escape. also N.

Question 9

sham

Answer 9

V. /佯装；假的；赝品/pretend. He shammed sickness to get out of going to school. also N.

Question 10

shambles

Answer 10

N. /混乱的地方；肉铺/wreck; mess. After the hurricane, the Car¬olina coast was a shambles. After the New Year’s Eve party, the apartment was a shambles.

Question 11

shard

Answer 11

N. /碎片（陶瓷的）/fragment, generally of pottery. The archaeologist assigned several students the task of reassembling earth¬enware vessels from the shards he had brought back from the expedition.

Question 12

sheaf

Answer 12

N. /捆；扎（秸秆）/bundle of stalks of grain; any bundle of things tied together. The lawyer picked up a sheaf of papers as he rose to question the witness.

Question 13

shear

Answer 13

V. /剪；修剪/cut or clip (hair, fleece); strip of something. You may not care to cut a sheep’s hair, but Sarah shears sheep for Little Bo Peep.

Question 14

sheathe

Answer 14

V. /插入鞘/place into a case. As soon as he recognized the approaching men, he sheathed his dagger and hailed them as friends.

Question 15

sheer

Answer 15

ADJ. /纯粹的,，绝对的；透明的；峻峭的；避开，躲避；偏航，避开/very thin or transparent; very steep; absolute. Wearing nothing but an almost sheer robe, Delilah draped herself against the sheer temple wall. Beholding her, Sam¬son was overcome by her sheer beauty. Then she sheared his hair.

Question 16

shimmer

Answer 16

V. /微光/glimmer intermittently. The moonlight shim¬mered on the water as the moon broke through the clouds for a moment. also N.

Question 17

shirk

Answer 17

V. /逃避，推卸；避免/avoid (responsibility, work, etc.); malinger. Brian has a strong sense of duty; he would never shirk any responsibility.

Question 18

shoddy

Answer 18

ADJ. /以次充好的；赝品/sham; not genuine; inferior. You will never get the public to buy such shoddy material.

Question 19

shrewd

Answer 19

ADJ. /精明；敏锐/clever; astute. A shrewd investor, he took clever advantage of the fluctuations of the stock market.

Question 20

shroud

Answer 20

V. /裹尸；隐藏/hide from view; wrap for burial. Fog shrouded Dracula’s castle, hiding the ruined tower beneath sheets of mist.

Question 21

shun

Answer 21

V. /避免/keep away from. Cherishing his solitude, the recluse shunned the company of other human beings.

Question 22

shyster

Answer 22

N. /讼棍；政界的奸诈之徒/lawyer using questionable methods. On L.A. Law, Brackman is horrified to learn that his newly-discov¬ered half brother is nothing but a cheap shyster.

Question 23

sibling

Answer 23

N. /兄弟姐妹/brother or sister. We may not enjoy being sib¬lings, but we cannot forget that we still belong to the same family.

Question 24

simian

Answer 24

ADJ. /像猴的/monkeylike. Lemurs are nocturnal mammals and have many simian characteristics, although they are less intelligent than monkeys.

Question 25

simile

Answer 25

N. /明喻；比较/comparison of one thing with another, using the word like or as. "My love is like a red, red rose" is a simile.

Question 26

simper

Answer 26

V. /痴笑；傻笑/smirk; smile affectedly. Complimented on her appearance, Stella self-consciously simpered.

Question 27

Simplistic

Answer 27

ADJ. /过分单纯化的/oversimplified. Though Jack's solution dealt adequately with one aspect of the problem, it was simplistic in failing to consider various complications that might arise.

Question 28

simulate

Answer 28

V. /模仿；冒充/feign. He simulated insanity in order to avoid punishment for his crime.

Question 29

sinecure

Answer 29

N. /闲职，报纸茶水的工作/well-paid position with little responsibility. My job is no sinecure; I work long hours and have much responsibility.

Question 30

sinewy

Answer 30

ADJ. /结实；硬朗的/tough; strong and firm. The steak was too sinewy to chew.

Question 31

singular

Answer 31

ADJ. /奇的；独一无二的/unique; extraordinary; odd. Though the young man tried to understand Father William's singular behavior, he still found it odd that the old man incessantly stood on his head. singularity, N.

Question 32

sinister

Answer 32

ADJ. /邪恶的/evil. We must defeat the sinister forces that seek our downfall.

Question 33

sinuous

Answer 33

ADJ. /蜿蜒的；弯曲复杂的；不老实的/winding; bending in and out; not morally hon¬est. The snake moved in a sinuous manner.

Question 34

skeptic

Answer 34

N. /怀疑论者/doubter; person who suspends judgment until the evidence supporting a point of view has been exam¬ined. I am a skeptic about the new health plan; I want some proof that it can work. skepticism, N.

Question 35

skiff

Answer 35

N. /小船/small, light sailboat or rowboat. Tom dreamed of owning an ocean-going yacht but had to settle for a skiff he could sail in the bay.

Question 36

skimp

Answer 36

V. /节约的使用/provide scantily; live very economically. They were forced to skimp on necessities in order to make their limited supplies last the winter.

Question 37

skinflint

Answer 37

N. /守财奴；吝啬鬼/stingy person; miser. Scrooge was an ungener¬ous old skinflint until he reformed his ways and became a notable philanthropist.

Question 38

skirmish

Answer 38

N. /小规模战争；小打小闹/minor fight. Custer's troops expected they might run into a skirmish or two on maneuvers; they did not expect to face a major battle. alsoV.

Question 39

skulk

Answer 39

V. /偷懒；偷偷的移动/move furtively and secretly. He skulked through the less fashionable sections of the city in order to avoid meeting any of his former friends.

Question 40

slacken

Answer 40

V. /放松；放慢/slow up; loosen. As they passed the finish line, the runners slackened their pace.

Question 41

slag

Answer 41

N. /矿渣；炉渣；渣滓/residue from smelting metal; dross; waste matter. The blast furnace had a special opening at the bottom to allow the workers to remove the worthless slag.

Question 42

slake

Answer 42

V. /结束；平息；消除；伺候舒服/quench; sate. When we reached the oasis, we were able to slake our thirst.

Question 43

slander

Answer 43

N. /诽谤/defamation; utterance of false and malicious statements. Considering the negative comments politicians make about each other, it's a wonder that more of them aren't sued for slander. alsoV.

Question 44

slapdash

Answer 44

ADJ. /匆促的/haphazard; careless; sloppy. From the number of typos and misspellings I've found in it, it's clear that Mario proofread the report in a remarkably slapdash fashion.

Question 45

sleeper

Answer 45

N. /睡眠；卧铺；枕木；冬眠的动物/something originally of little value or importance that in time becomes very valuable. Unnoticed by the critics at its publication, the eventual Pulitzer Prize winner was a classic sleeper.

Question 46

sleight

Answer 46

N. /灵巧的/dexterity. The magician amazed the audience with his sleight of hand.

Question 47

slight

Answer 47

N. /怠慢；斥责；侮辱/insult to one's dignity; snub. Hypersensitive and ready to take offense at any discourtesy, Bertha was always on the lookout for real or imaginary slights. alsoV.

Question 48

slipshod

Answer 48

ADJ. /邋遢的；慢吞吞的；漫不经心的/untidy or slovenly; shabby. As a master craftsman, the carpenter prided himself on not doing slip¬shod work.

Question 49

slither

Answer 49

V. /滑动/slip or slide. During the recent ice storm, many people slithered down this hill as they walked to the station.

Question 50

slothful

Answer 50

ADJ. /懒的/lazy. Lying idly on the sofa while others worked, Reggie denied he was slothful: "I just supervise better lying down."

Question 51

slough

Answer 51

V. /脱落；蜕皮/cast off. Each spring, the snake sloughs off its skin.

Question 52

slovenly

Answer 52

ADJ. /邋遢的；漫不经心的/untidy; careless in work habits. Unshaven, sitting around in his bathrobe all afternoon, Gus didn't seem to care about the slovenly appearance he presented. The dark ring around the bathtub and the spider webs hanging from the beams proved what a slovenly housekeeper she was.

Question 53

sluggard

Answer 53

N. /懒人/lazy person. "You are a sluggard, a drone, a parasite," the angry father shouted at his lazy son.

Question 54

sluggish

Answer 54

ADJ. /行动迟缓的/Slow; lazy; lethargic. After two nights without sleep, she felt sluggish and incapable of exertion.

Question 55

slur

Answer 55

V. /模糊不清的说/speak indistinctly; mumble. When Sol has too much to drink, he starts to slur his words: "Washamatter? Cansh you undershtand what I shay?"

Question 56

slur

Answer 56

N. /诽谤；侮辱/insult to one's character or reputation; slander. Polls revealed that the front-runner's standing had been badly damaged by the slurs and innuendoes circulated by his opponent's staff. also V. (secondary meaning)

Question 57

smelt

Answer 57

V. /冶炼；精炼/melt or blend ores, changing their chemical com¬position. The furnaceman smelts tin with copper to create a special alloy used in making bells.

Question 58

smirk

Answer 58

N. /傻笑/conceited smile. Wipe that smirk off your face! alsoV.

Question 59

smolder

Answer 59

V. /闷烧；随时准备爆发/burn without flame; be liable to break out at any moment. The rags smoldered for hours before they burst into flame.

Question 60

snicker

Answer 60

N. /窃笑/half-stifled laugh. The boy could not suppress a snicker when the teacher sat on the tack. alsoV.

Question 61

snivel

Answer 61

V. /流鼻涕；啜泣；鼻子一把泪一把/run at the nose; snuffle; whine. Don't you come sniveling to me complaining about your big brother. sobriety N. moderation (especially regarding indulgence in alcohol); seriousness. Neither falling-down drunks nor stand-up comics are noted for sobriety. sober,ADJ.

Question 62

sodden

Answer 62

ADJ. /湿透的/soaked; dull, as if from drink. He set his sod¬den overcoat near the radiator to dry.

Question 63

sojourn

Answer 63

N. /逗留/temporary stay. After his sojourn in Florida, he began to long for the colder climate of his native New Eng¬land home.

Question 64

solace

Answer 64

N. /安慰/comfort in trouble. I hope you will find solace in the thought that all of us share your loss.

Question 65

solder

Answer 65

V. /焊接/repair or make whole by using a metal alloy. The plumber fixed the leak in the pipes by soldering a couple of joints from which water had been oozing.

Question 66

solecism

Answer 66

N. /语法错误；谬误/construction that is flagrantly incorrect gram¬matically. I must give this paper a failing mark because it contains many solecisms.

Question 67

solemnity

Answer 67

N. /严肃的；一本正经的/seriousness; gravity. The minister was con¬cerned that nothing should disturb the solemnity of the mar¬riage service. solemn,ADJ.

Question 68

solicit

Answer 68

V. /恳求/request earnestly; seek. Knowing she needed to have a solid majority for the budget to pass, the mayor tele¬phoned all the members of the city council to solicit their votes.

Question 69

solicitous

Answer 69

ADJ. /担心的；关切的；期望的/worried; concerned. The employer was very solicitous about the health of her employees as replace¬ments were difficult to get.

Question 70

soliloquy

Answer 70

N. /自言自语；独白/talking to oneself. The soliloquy is a device used by the dramatist to reveal a character's innermost thoughts and emotions.

Question 71

solitude

Answer 71

N. /独身/state of being alone; seclusion. Much depends on how much you like your own company. What to one per¬son seems fearful isolation to another is blessed solitude.

Question 72

soluble

Answer 72

ADJ. /可溶解的；可解决的/able to be dissolved; able to be explained. Sugar is soluble in water; put a sugar cube in water and it will quickly dissolve.

Question 73

solvent

Answer 73

ADJ. /有偿付能力的/able to pay all debts. By dint of very frugal liv¬ing, he was finally able to become solvent and avoid bank¬ruptcy proceedings.