p18

Question 1

somatic

Answer 1

of the body

My doctor speaks to me over Zoom, monitoring my somatic information.

Question 2

soporific

Answer 2

Causing sleep; sleepy, drowsy (adj); something that causes sleep (noun)

this medication is soporific, so do not drive after taking it

Question 3

sound

Answer 3

Measure the depth of (usually of water) as with a sounding line; penetrate and discover the meaning of, understand (usually as sound the depths)

Question 4

spartan

Answer 4

Very disciplined and stern; frugal, living simply, austere; suggestive of the ancient Spartans

Question 5

spate

Answer 5

Sudden outpouring or rush; flood

Beijing tightened entry rules this month, amid a spate of new outbreaks, requiring a week of quarantine for those arriving

Question 6

specious

Answer 6

Seemingly true but actually false; deceptively attractive

In April, cops in Georgia pulled over a busload of mostly Black college athletes for the most specious of reasons.

Question 7

squalid

Answer 7

Disgusting, filthy, foul, extremely neglected

Several of her family members are among the 900,000 Rohingya who have been living in squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh, where food insecurity and crime reportedly have surged since the start of the pandemic.

Question 8

squelch

Answer 8

Crush, squash; suppress or silence; walk through ooze or in wet shoes, making a smacking or sucking sound

Major central banks are seeking to raise interest rates to squelch surging inflation, often at the cost of throttling back growth.

Question 9

stasis

Answer 9

Equilibrium, a state of balance or inactivity, esp. caused by equal but opposing forces

Economic decline was one of the most alarming threats early in the pandemic, and businesses are just now finding economic stasis.

Question 10

steeped

Answer 10

Immersed (in), saturated (with)

Steep the tea for three minutes.

Question 11

stentorian

Answer 11

Very loud and powerful (generally of a human voice)

the professor’s stentorian voice was enough to keep even the drowsiest student awake

Question 12

stigma

Answer 12

Mark of disgrace, a figurative stain or mark on someone’s reputation

There’s a social stigma attached to receiving welfare.

Question 13

stingy

Answer 13

Not generous with money, reluctant to spend or give

The company was too stingy to raise salaries.

Question 14

stipulate

Answer 14

Specify; make an open demand, esp. as a condition of agreement

The rules stipulate that players must wear uniforms.

Question 15

stoic

Answer 15

Indifferent to pleasure or pain, enduring without complaint; person indifferent to pleasure or pain (noun)

He remained resolutely stoic even in adversity

Question 16

stolid

Answer 16

Unemotional, showing little emotion, not easily moved

In a culture shaped by the point-and-click entertainments of Twitter, TikTok and YouTube, many younger Americans might regard a visit to one of the nation’s great historic houses as a stolid affair.

Question 17

stratagem

Answer 17

Military maneuver to deceive or surprise; crafty scheme

Since returning to power in 2010, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has deliberately increased Hungary’s reliance on Russian imports as a political stratagem.

Question 18

stratum

Answer 18

One of many layers (such as in a rock formation or in the classes of a society)

the lower strata of society have been hit especially hard by this economic downturn
The hit to Gangnam estate prices signals the impact of policy tightening is now reaching into the upper stratum of Korea’s 51 million people.

Question 19

strut

Answer 19

A structural support or brace; a pompous step or walk

… confident strut and swagger has returned

Question 20

stymie

Answer 20

Block, hinder, or thwart (verb); an obstacle (noun)

Progress on the project has been stymied by lack of money.
Americans have been bracing for higher borrowing costs, with the Federal Reserve starting an interest rate hiking cycle to stymie soaring inflation.

Question 21

sublime

Answer 21

Lofty or elevated, inspiring reverence or awe; excellent, majestic; complete, utter

Question 22

subpoena

Answer 22

A court order requiring a person to appear in court and give testimony

Question 23

subside

Answer 23

Sink, settle down, become less active; return to a normal level

After his anger had subsided, he was able to look at things rationally.
Only when the Fed raised interest rates substantially above inflation for several years in the early 1980s, provoking two deep recessions, did inflation finally subside.

Question 24

sully

Answer 24

Make dirty, stain, tarnish, defile

a once-gleaming marble interior sullied by decades of exposure to cigarette smoke
In her testimony, she accused The Times of deliberately fabricating lies to sully her reputation.

Question 25

supersede

Answer 25

Replace, take the position of, cause to be disregarded as void or obsolete

Scientific studies that are wrong will be superseded by better studies with different results.

Question 26

supplant

Answer 26

Take the place of, displace, especially through sneaky tactics

Five years into Uber’s war to supplant the taxi industry, executives at the ride-hailing app were in danger of losing a crown jewel in their global conquest: Paris.
The businessman visited Algeria to announce a gas deal by which that country will supplant Russia as Italy’s biggest gas supplier.

Question 27

supplicate

Answer 27

Pray humbly; ask, beg, or seek in a humble way

But while its competitors were giving grandiose speeches and supplicating at the White House, the company’s content-moderation choices stood out as an example of a social network with a moral compass.

Question 28

supposition

Answer 28

Assumption, hypothesis, something that has been supposed

… a supposition that proved correct

Question 29

surfeit

Answer 29

Excess, excessive amount, overindulgence

having surfeited ourselves on raw oysters, we had to decline the rest of the restaurant’s offerings
Decades later, the resulting surfeit of pine has pushed log prices to their lowest levels in decades even as the resurgent housing market has lifted prices for lumber and other wood products to records.

Question 30

surly

Answer 30

Bad-tempered, hostile, unfriendly, or rude

went about his chores in a surly huff, totally annoyed that he was stuck at home on this beautiful Saturday

Question 31

surmise

Answer 31

Guess, infer, think, or make an opinion with incomplete information

my surmise is that the couple’s “good news” is the announcement that they are going to have a baby
Western military observers surmise that Ukraine’s strategy is to draw as many Russian troops as possible into Kherson to defend it, cut off their paths of exit and wear them down.

Question 32

surrogate

Answer 32

Substitute, person who acts for another (noun); acting as a replacement (adj)

He could not attend the meeting, so he sent his surrogate.

Question 33

sybarite

Answer 33

Person devoted to pleasure and luxury

the prince was remembered as a self-indulgent sybarite, not as a statesman or warrior

Question 34

sycophant

Answer 34

Servile flatterer, parasitic person who fawns in order to get ahead

be careful not to mistake sycophants for true friends
Pence had been among the most loyal soldiers of Trump’s presidency, defending him against multiple ethics charges and praising him so effusively that many ridiculed him as a sycophant.

Question 35

impudence

Answer 35

not showing due respect for another person; impertinent

Question 36

venality

Answer 36

showing or motivated by susceptibility to bribery:

Question 37

benign

Answer 37

gentle and kindly; mild; not harmful in effect

Question 38

supine

Answer 38

failing to act or protest as a result of moral weakness or indolence

… supine in the face of racial injustice.

Question 39

maladroit

Answer 39

ineffective or bungling; clumsy

both men are unhappy about the maladroit way the matter has been handled.

Question 40

galvanize

Answer 40

shock or excite (someone) into taking action

the urgency of his voice galvanized them into action.

Question 41

expatiate

Answer 41

speak or write at length or in detail

Question 42

explicate

Answer 42

analyze and develop (an idea or principle) in detail

attempting to explicate the relationship between crime and economic forces.