Up Your Score (12 page)

loss of memory

We forgot our sentence for this word because we have
amnesia
. (See, after this long wild night of vicious partying, combined with excessive exposure to the sun, we became so fried that we lost our ability to recall things and to function normally in society, and . . . what word are we on?)

freaked out and violently pissed off

The sch
muck
in the
muck
got s
tuck
, ran
amok
, and guess what word he screamed? (Answer: Sh
ucks
.)

shapeless

Note:
This word is decodable if you know all the pieces:

If you take too much
morph
ine, you’ll feel like an
amorphous
blob.

humanlike

Note:
The root “anthropo-” means “human.”

C-3PO is an
anthropoid
dr
oid
. SAT proctors try to appear as
anthropoid
as possible, but we know better.

hatred; aversion; dislike

Note:
This word is also decodable:

By this time you should be developing a strong
antipathy
to studying these words and their ridiculous definitions. Take a break. Put the book down, get a soda, or drink a bottle of Vitamin Water. Then return to your work refreshed and ready to continue.

indifferent; showing lack of interest

indifference; lack of interest

Note:
Another decodable word:

It’s
a pathetic
thing to be
apathetic
.

“They found the cure for
apathy
, but no one showed any interest in it.”—George Carlin

tip; peak; summit; way up there

Note:
This word is likely to be found in the analogy section. Its opposites are words such as
nadir
and
bottom
.

The
ape ex
ercised by jumping off the
apex
of the monkey house in the zoo.

to soothe; placate (think: apeace; see
ASSUAGE
)

He
appeased
his parents by eating
a piece
of slimy okra.

the head of a fish

Just checking to see if you’re still awake.

chosen at random or without apparent reason

If a college rejects you, its admissions process must be
arbitrary
.

heat; passion; zeal

With
ardor
my prom date shouted, “Come in! And if you have to, break down
our door
.”

crooked; off to one side

Don’t tell us our type is askew. Did we
ask you
?

to ease; pacify (see
APPEASE
)

Buying
a suede
fringed jacket might
assuage
Donna’s compulsive desire to shop.

shrewd; wise; observing

A stud
ent must be
astute
to outwit the Evil Testing Serpent.

(n.) a characteristic, usually a good one

(v.) to explain by indicating a cause

In her article on Pamela Anderson, the mean-spirited reporter
attributed
the actress’s most prominent
attribute
to plastic surgery.

not typical

Note:
The prefix “a-” usually means “not.” For example, amoral means “not moral,” asexual means “not sexual,” apolitical means “not into politics,” and, as we have seen, amorphous means “not shaped.”

Lady Gaga’s face, voice, clothing, and habits are
atypical
for an earthling.

boldness

Their
audacity
was evident when they published their
odd SAT
book.

majestic; awe-inspiring

When Cleopatra saw
August
us in all his finery, she said, “
Aw
,
Gus
, you look
august
.”

severity; strictness

His
austerity
is actually a rarity; sev
erity
is not his specialty.

opposed; unwilling

I was
averse
to writing
a verse

So at the teacher I did curse

And put mounds of coleslaw in her purse.

My verse started well but then got worse

As I ran out of things that rhymed with -erse.

Note:
Averse
is a lot like
adverse
. It probably wouldn’t matter if you got the two confused on the SAT, but for the record, you use
averse
when you want to say that a person or thing is opposed to something else. For example: Eggbert was
averse
to eating Frisbees. (Note that
to
usually follows
averse
.)

Adverse
, on the other hand, is used when you want to say that something else is opposed to a person or thing. For example: Eggbert received
adverse
criticism for not eating Frisbees; Eggbert had to eat the Frisbee under
adverse
conditions.

In the first example Eggbert is
averse
to eating, whereas in the second and third examples the criticism and the conditions are
adverse
to Eggbert.

a funky word meaning “like an uncle”

This word does not deserve a sentence because only your
avuncular
Uncle
Herbert would ever use it.

twisted; crooked; out of whack; askew; wrong

“Waiter, there is something
awry
in my bread,” she complained. “That thing?” he replied. “Why, that’s just
a rye
seed.”

It is helpful to make up a story using as many of the vocabulary words as possible from the list you have just learned. We have
written some sample stories, but you should write your own, too. Here is the first one.

The
audacious
aardvark
was rooting around in the grass for some lunch with which to
assuage
his hunger when his
adroit
friend Bob the baboon waddled up with
alacrity
and
accosted
him. “Hey man,” Bob said, beginning an
altercation
. “Why do you
abase
yourself in that
atypical
way? I
advocate
the
agile
use of a knife and fork.”

“You are a moron,” the
aardvark
replied politely. “It would be more
aesthetically
pleasing were I to eat that way, but the use of utensils would be too
affected
for a simple
aardvark
. In addition, I am
averse
to such an idea because it might
alleviate
my
acne
, which looks good on me.”

“That has to be the
apex
of stupidity,” Bob said,
aghast
. “And while we’re on the subject of your appearance, I must ask why you are so
apathetic
about your hygiene. At least you could
ameliorate
your looks and odor by taking a bath.”

“Never
allude
to my
alleged antipathy
to cleanliness again,” the
aardvark
said with
austerity
. “May I remind you that even with your nearly
anthropoid
form, you still pick lice out of strangers’ hair.”

Sensing that the conversation had gone
awry
and feeling
abashed
, Bob’s
audacity abated
and he too began to
amass
a pile of grubs from the grass.

Note:
The characters in this story are entirely fictitious. Any resemblance to real people, alive or dead, is entirely coincidental.

orgiastic; like wild drunken revelry

Bacchus was the Roman god of wine, and the Bacchanalia was the festival devoted to him.

He gave a
bacchanalian
party to welcome
back an alien
.

Note:
These words are similar in meaning but not entirely synonymous.
Baleful
refers to something that exerts an evil influence or foreshadows evil.
Baneful
refers to something that really is poisonous or deadly. (To remember this:
Baneful
rhymes with painful—which deadly things tend to be.)

We could see from the proctor’s
baleful
look that he was going to do something
baneful
to us.

lawyer

What do
barristers
and sperm have in common?

Both have a one in a million chance of turning out human. (Sorry, but we had to have a lawyer joke in here somewhere. Please don’t sue us.)