SAT Special (Vocabulary II)

...continued

• Vacillate (v) to waver back and forth; remain indecisive. When buying a pizza, I vacillated between Pepperoni, Ham and Sausage. Most of us vacillate between what is right and wrong under peer pressure. She vacillates when it comes to buying just one junk food.
• Fervor (n) passionate enthusiasm or intensity or simple passion. Before the final game the stadium was bubbling with fervor. The patriotic fervor in the soldiers was extremely pleasing to see.
• Dispassionate (adj) lacking passion; objective and not easily influenced by emotion. Like all hunters a Tiger kills its pray dispassionately. The dispassionate fans were really hurtful for the team considering the controversy they have been through.
• Pragmatic (adj) concerned more with practical outcomes; learning lessons from history. Haily was a pragmatic person, concerned more with how a practical demonstration would end rather than what is behind it. He was a successful and pragmatic ruler, concerned with solutions that made the most sense. I am just being pragmatic in my approach, a bottle of acid will open up the drain equally well as digging it up and taking out the obstruction.
• Rigorous (adj) severe; taxing; precise. A rigorous fitness program. Hiking in rigorous conditions.
• Solemn (adj) showing seriousness or gravity. He wore a solemn expression as the death of his friend was announced before him.
• Alleviate (v) lessen something so it becomes bearable, usually temporarily. The painkiller shot alleviated the excruciating pain for half and hour before it escalated again.
• Negligence (n) carelessness. The crime took place because of the negligence of the police officers.
• Conspicuous (adj) standing out, obtrusive; highly noticeable. She found herself increasingly conspicuous as she was the only one wearing an informal dress on the event.
• Advocate (v) to speak in favor of; to endorse; to support. The senator advocated the use force to suppress the rebellion.
• Ascetic (adj) choosing austerity and self denial to practice religion or for personal reasons. Elvin always wanted to live an ascetic life with the monks but his desire never became practical.
• Profound (adj) deep, strong or intense. Capturing and caring for stray cats is a profound interest of mine.
• Ironic (adj) words stating opposite of their literal meaning (satire), incongruous, something that doesn't happen contrary to expectations. Irony was evident in the laughable ranking of inventors who got killed by their own inventions. The discipline master, quite ironically, didn't punish Ron and let him go unscathed over his serious wrong doing.
• Dogmatic (adj) prone to expressing strongly held beliefs or opinions. The dogmatic guy had the talk show on fire, letting out contradictory statements every now and then. The dogmatic mouse said that all cats feared his animosity.
• Condone (v) be willing to overlook something that is bad or immoral. Joey's parents condoned his late night comings and then had the shock of their lives when their son got jailed for burglary.
• Dissent (v/n) expressing disagreement on widely held opinion (v); discord. Emily expressed her dissent by shrieking at her parents. Hamish dissented from the opinions of the committee.
• Volition (n) ability to choose or exercising free will. The prisoner, although present in the discourse, wasn't allowed to say or do anything much like a finely molded statue rather than a man having life and volition. Jane accepted her guild and went into exile by her own volition.
• Voluntary (adj) of free will. His response never looked voluntary, it was more of a reflex for survival in the face of danger. 
• Didactic (adj) tending to give instructions even when they are not needed or welcomed. The didactic lab assistant stood over me and without doubt was a pain in the ass. Nerds are often labelled as didactic.
• Disparate (adj) strongly differing; incomparable. The two guys were too disparate to be friends but they surprised everyone when they became bosom buddies. My personality is divided into two disparate halves, wait till you see the other one. [!] Don't confuse with desperate (overwhelmed with urgency and anxiety).
• Disparage (v) to refer disapprovingly or contemptuously; to belittle. The elite, fashionable girls disparaged Jennifer because of her modest looks and attire. Joshua's teacher disparaged him because of his lack of interest in class.
• Ephemeral (adj) short lived. The success of the movie was ephemeral and collections dropped into the second week as the word spread about its insipid story line.
• Compliant (adj) ready to confirm or agree; submissive. I drove my car in compliance to the speed limit. The new-found compliant behavior of the child was heart-warming for her mother. The compliant servant was treated miserably by his master.
• Prosaic (adj) lacking imagination; without complexities. Let me be prosaic as the facts are; there is no time for an imaginative narration. Lilly, Cristinna's 2-year-old daughter, is so sharp for her age that yesterday she made a pirate hat out of paper, albeit a prosaic one. The prosaic story line received bad reviews from every critic.
• Profuse (adj) copious; abundant; extravagant; volubly expressed. The profuse bleeding went on unabated and his friends started to fear for his life. Linda's profuse apologies went in vain as the headmaster mad her stay and clean the lab.
• Expedient (adj) appropriate or advantageous in situation; serving self-interest. She found waiting for her aunt in the torrential rain expedient because of all the hardships she had born for her. The hunt for the black orchid came to an expedient end as all the mean members of the group were killed by the anaconda.
• Fastidious (adj) meticulous (pain-staking & precise) or delicate (easily disgusted) or difficult to please.  Eyre is fastidious about her appearance; spending hours on getting the makeup and hairstyle right. Judges at the American Idol are fastidious when it comes to the singing ability of the contestants. She was fastidious when it comes to the shave of boys, even the slightest carelessness in grooming would turn her off.
• Belligerent (adj) hostile, aggressive. Belligerent Bob is known throughout the town for his frequent, vicious bar fights.
• Astute (adj) clever and discerning especially where personal benefit is in question. The astute investor was very perspicacious about his investments, investing only on profitable and future-proof locations. The astute possum carried her children on her back to keep track of them.
• Languish (v) to be neglected or deprived; to lose vitality or strength. The languished park has become a dump-yard and a hideout for criminals. Thousands of people in Pakistan are languishing in makeshift camps in the wake of recent floods.
• Censure (v) to criticize or condemn. The politician censured the approach of the government towards dealing with terrorism.
• Stagnation (n) to remain static or motionless. The stagnation of vehicles on the main road didn't clear until the early hours of yesterday. Industrial stagnation lead to many workers becoming redundant.
• Mitigate (v) to lessen the severity of something. The lollipop did a lot to the mitigate the whining of the kid. She found sewing to have a mitigating effect on her melancholy surrounding. Only she can mitigate the suffering of my wretched heart.
• Reprehensible (adj) highly unacceptable and deserving censure or blame. The human rights violation in many 3rd world countries are reprehensible. Lil' Monty was reprehensible for breaking the window.
• Engender (v) to create or give rise to. Stuart's hesitance in going through the metal detector engendered suspicion in the heart of the security officer. The abstract painting engendered questions in the heart of the viewers.
• Exemplary (adj) setting an example. The steadfastness displayed by Josh in those hard times was exemplary.