Word groups 2 Flashcards

Question

sordid

Answer 1

dirty and unpleasant: There are lots of really sordid apartments in the city's poorer areas.

Answer 2

evil (низость, порочность): acts/crimes of moral turpitude

Answer 3

changing mood or behaviour suddenly and unexpectedly: a capricious child He was a cruel and capricious tyrant.

Answer 4

1. literary changing suddenly and often: a mercurial temperament She was entertaining but unpredictable, with mercurial mood swings. 2. literary intelligent, enthusiastic, and quick: a mercurial mind/wit

Answer 5

1. likely to change suddenly and unexpectedly, especially by getting worse: Food and fuel prices are very volatile in a war situation. The situation was made more volatile by the fact that people had been drinking a lot of alcohol. 2. likely to change emotional state very suddenly, especially by becoming angry: He had a volatile temper and couldn't have been easy to live with. She is volatile and unreliable.

Answer 6

a person or thing that has the same purpose as another one in a different place or organization: The prime minister is to meet his European counterparts to discuss the war against drugs.

Answer 7

to copy something achieved by someone else and try to do it as well as they have: They hope to emulate the success of other software companies. Fitzgerald is eager to emulate Martin's record of three successive world titles.

Answer 8

an exact copy, especially of a document: a facsimile of the original manuscript

Answer 9

artificial rather than natural (искусственный, поддельный): The excitement was largely factitious and confined to the media.

Answer 10

a model of something, or a very clear and typical example of something: Some of these educators are hoping to produce a change in the current cultural paradigm.

Answer 11

something that happened or existed before another thing, especially if it either developed into it or had an influence on it: Sulphur dioxide is the main precursor of acid rain. Biological research has often been a precursor to medical breakthroughs.

Answer 12

made to look like or have the features of something else: The community has held training sessions, including a simulated attack. a simulated leather handbag

Answer 13

experienced as a result of watching, listening to, or reading about the activities of other people, rather than by doing the activities yourself: She took a vicarious pleasure in her friend's achievements.

Answer 14

to criticize or make damaging remarks or judgments about someone or something: His opponents cast aspersions on his patriotism.

Answer 15

to make a person or an action seem as if he, she or it is not important: Though she had spent hours fixing the computer, he belittled her efforts. Stop belittling yourself - your work is highly valued.

Answer 16

to criticize or speak in an angry manner to someone: As he left the meeting, he was berated by angry demonstrators. Doctors are often berated for being poor communicators, particularly when they have to give patients bad news.

Answer 17

to criticize someone or something severely: Health inspectors castigated the kitchen staff for poor standards of cleanliness.

Answer 18

to criticize something as bad, without value, or unnecessary: Lawyers decried the imprisonment of several journalists.

Answer 19

the act of harming someone's reputation by saying or writing bad things about them: The lawsuit accused his former associates of defamation. One member of the team is suing for slander and defamation of character. a defamation lawsuit/case/action

Answer 20

to criticize something or someone strongly and publicly: The government's economic policy has been denounced on all sides. We must denounce injustice and oppression.

Answer 21

to laugh at someone or something in a way that shows you think they are stupid or of no value: He derided my singing as pathetic. This building, once derided by critics, is now a major tourist attraction. They treated his suggestion with derision. Her speech was met with hoots/howls of derision.

Answer 22

an angry speech or piece of writing that severely criticizes something or someone: He launched into a long diatribe against the lack of action in Congress.

Answer 23

to criticize someone or something in a way that shows you do not respect or value him, her, or it: The actor's work for charity has recently been disparaged in the press as an attempt to get publicity.

Answer 24

to write or say that a play, book, political action, etc. is very bad: His latest novel received excoriating reviews. The president excoriated the Western press for their biased views.

Answer 25

to refuse to accept something as the truth: Certainly there's no gainsaying (= it is not possible to doubt) the technical brilliance of his performance.

Answer 26

to speak to someone or a group of people, often for a long time, in a forceful and sometimes angry way, especially to persuade them: A drunk in the station was haranguing passers-by.

Answer 27

to cause people to doubt someone's character, qualities, or reputation by criticizing them: Are you impugning my competence as a professional designer?

Answer 28

to strongly criticize something or someone: There were politicians who inveighed against immigrants to get votes.

Answer 29

to criticize someone or something severely: His first novel was well and truly lambasted by the critics.

Answer 30

попрекать, бранить

Answer 31

very strong public criticism or blame: His controversial essays have brought him much obloquy.

Answer 32

severe criticism and blame: International opprobrium has been heaped on the country following its attack on its neighbours.

Answer 33

to severely criticize someone, especially in a public way: Although regularly pilloried by the press as an obnoxious loudmouth, he is, nonetheless, an effective politician.

Answer 34

to speak angrily to someone because you disapprove of what they have said or done: I was rebuked by my manager for being late.

Answer 35

to complain to someone or about something: I went to the boss to remonstrate against the new rules. The editor remonstrated with him about the inaccuracies in the story.

Answer 36

to express your strong official disapproval of someone or something: The agency was reprehended for taking on average two years to deal with complaints. There were those who reprehended the practice of wearing one's hair long. Of course you must be the one to reprehend him. His behaviour cannot be too strongly reprehended. We may not reprehend what we cannot comprehend.

Answer 37

to tell someone that you disapprove of their bad or silly behaviour (admonish, scold, порицать, корить): The teacher gently reproved the boys for not paying attention.

Answer 38

to criticize someone strongly, or say unpleasant things to or about someone: The judge was reviled in the newspapers for his opinions on rape.

Answer 39

a long, angry speech expressing strong disapproval: She launched into an angry/furious tirade about how she had been unfairly treated. In a furious tirade of abuse, the opposition spokesperson demanded the minister's resignation.

Answer 40

поносить, бронить vituperation - language that is full of hate, or angry criticism: No one else attracted such vituperation from him. The personal vituperation merely illustrated his general contempt for everything and everybody.

Answer 41

to feel or express great sadness, especially because of someone's death: Queen Victoria mourned Prince Albert/Prince Albert's death for 40 years. She was still mourning for her brother. They mourned the passing of an older, simpler way of life (= felt sad because it had stopped existing).

Answer 42

to have a close relation or friend who has died: Everyone who has been bereaved has to find his or her own way of coping.

Answer 43

a dead human body

Answer 44

no longer existing, living, or working correctly: members of a now defunct communist organization humorous I think this TV is defunct!

Answer 45

the end of something that was previously considered to be powerful, such as a business, industry, or system: The demise of the company was sudden and unexpected.

Answer 46

sad, or causing sadness or emotional suffering What we have is the opportunity of learning from the dolorous conditions of the present conflict how it may never happen again.

Answer 47

a sad poem or song, especially remembering someone who has died or something in the past: Gray's ""Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"" is a famous English poem.

Answer 48

a death knell - погребальный звон, страшное предзнаменование Diagnosis of breast cancer is no longer the death knell it once was. The ringing of a church bell to announce a death is called a death knell.

Answer 49

to express sadness and feeling sorry about something: The poem opens by lamenting (over) the death of a young man. My grandmother, as usual, lamented the decline in moral standards in today's society. The late lamented (= dead and remembered with love) Frank Giotto used to live here.

Answer 50

used to describe something that is very strange and unpleasant because it is connected with death or violence: Even the police were horrified at the macabre nature of the killings. She has a pretty macabre sense of humour.

Answer 51

(especially of an organization or business) not active or successful: How can the department be revived from its present moribund state?

Answer 52

things that are formally said and done at a funeral: A vast congregation filled the cathedral for the final obsequies.

Answer 53

suggesting death or places where the dead are buried (могильный): The curtain rose to reveal a gloomy, sepulchral set for the play.

Answer 54

1. a spirit of a dead person, sometimes represented as a pale, transparent image of that person (ghost, призрак) 2. something that is pale or weak and without a clear shape: He watched the misty wraiths of moisture making patterns on the window pane. Her wraith of a voice (= her weak voice) gave the songs a moving quality.

Word groups 2 Flashcards

(78 cards)