SAT Prep Deck #2

Question 1

callous

Answer 1

No guilt or feeling; heartless; hard
Ex. When Darcy recites his story about keeping Bingley from seeing Jane in London without feeling a moment’s guilt, Elizabeth is convinced she had never met a more callous man.

Question 2

candor

Answer 2

openness; honesty; frankness
Ex. Used to politicians who rarely answered personal questions, the audience at the debate was impressed by the candor of the candidate as he spoke about his divorce.

Question 3

debauchery

Answer 3

excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures
Ex. Sadly, many college students engage in lifestyles of debauchery and drunkenness.

Question 4

effulgent

Answer 4

radiant; shiny; emitting light
Ex. The beauty of the effulgent sunset on this island paradise made the vacationers never want to leave.

Question 5

laconic

Answer 5

Short in speech; using very few words
Ex. The psychiatrist noted the lack of animation in the patient’s face and his laconic responses and concurred with the diagnosis of depression.

Question 6

obfuscate

Answer 6

to make harder to understand; to obscure or make confusing
Harold had so little understanding of the basics of modern physics that the professor’s attempts to explain the phenomenon merely obfuscated it more.

Question 7

maxim

Answer 7

wise old saying, rule of thumb
Ex. Polonius’ speech to Laertes is replete with maxims which the father hopes will guide his son while at college, but he also sends a spy after him to Paris, just to make sure.

Question 8

oblique

Answer 8

diverging from direct course, not straight
Ex. Instead of going straight to the car as he was told, the little boy took the most oblique route to it.

Question 9

palette

Answer 9

range of color
Ex. Picasso rarely used a wide palette for his paintings; he most often limited his colors to a very controlled range.

Question 10

palliative

Answer 10

(of a medicine or medical care) relieving pain without dealing with the cause of the condition
Ex. Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness that will likely not be cured.

Question 11

panacea

Answer 11

a cure all, universal cure or remedy
Ex. The snake oil salesman, peddling his bogus panacea to everyone who had a medical complaint of any kind, claimed it worked on everything.

Question 12

paramount

Answer 12

of highest importance, imperative
Ex. The president considered securing the nuclear arsenal paramount in the days following the fall of the empire.

Question 13

pariah

Answer 13

outcast
Ex. The being created by Dr. Frankenstein is made a pariah and suffers from solitude for which he resents his creator.

Question 14

reconcile

Answer 14

to restore friendly relations between; make consistent with
Ex. After the Theory of Relativity, Einstein worked the rest of his career to reconcile it with quantum mechanics.

Question 15

tantamount

Answer 15

equivalent in seriousness to; virtually the same as
Ex. Some of the deceptive practices of mortgage lending before the housing crash were tantamount to stealing.

Question 16

defile

Answer 16

stain, taint, ruin the sanctity or purity of
Ex. The protestors are attempting to defile the temple by smearing blood on the lectern.

Question 17

impetuous

Answer 17

acting or done quickly and without thought or care
Ex. As a young man, Ming often got in trouble from his impetuous behavior, so, as a man, he learned to think before he acted.

Question 18

impinge

Answer 18

have an effect or impact…especially a negative one
Ex. The sudden storm impinged upon the planned picnic, and the family settled for an afternoon in the bowling alley.

Question 19

malicious

Answer 19

characterized by malice; intending or intended to do harm
The malicious teacher gave pop quizzes every other day just to make the students mad.

Question 20

objective

Answer 20

not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.
Ex. The judge and jury must do their best to weigh the facts of the case with an objective approach.