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ESSENTIAL WORDS FOR THE GREThis passage uses a lot of quite advanced vocabulary (indelible, domin ion, retroaction, ensuing) as well as some very advanced vocabulary (effi cacious, plastic, sanction, precipitate, vicissitudes). You should already befamiliar with the first group of words, while you may not know the moreadvanced words. Not knowing any of these words would make it difficultto understand this passage. The word plastic is especially important,because it expresses one of the central concepts discussed by theauthor—the human ability to consciously shape nature.Advanced vocabulary is also used in the questions. It is not possibleto answer the first question without knowing the meaning of inherently,esoteric, viable, and aesthetics. (The correct answer is A.) You can arriveat the answer to the second question if you know the meaning of sanc tion in the passage. (The answer is D.) The third question contains a lotof advanced vocabulary [futile, intractable, malleable, pathological,verisimilitude), so once again it is not possible to answer this questionwith confidence without knowing the meanings of these difficult words.If you don’t know that malleable means capable of being shaped, youwill not be able to decide that choice (C) makes the best sense.From our analysis, it is clear that vocabulary plays a critical part inanswering GRE Verbal Reasoning questions. Many of the questionsmake extensive use of advanced vocabulary. Therefore, what it boilsdown to is that, to give yourself a good chance to correctly answer ques tions with a lot of advanced vocabulary, you should learn the words thatare most likely to appear in such questions.LEARN FREQUENTLY TESTED GRE WORDSLet’s look at the advanced words that appeared in a sample verbal sec tion of the GRE published recently by the Educational Testing Service.As a college graduate (or soon to be college graduate), you shouldalready be familiar with many of these words. However, there are somewith which you are probably not familiar. Look through the list. Howmany of these advanced words do you know? You probably know someof them, while others look familiar but you are not sure what they mean.Soon, you will have a chance to take a test to tell you exactly what yourvocabulary situation is for the GRE. Words that appear in bold arewords that have appeared with the most frequency on the GRE over thepast 25 cularorthodoxy

INTRODUCTION: MASTERING ADVANCED VOCABULARY FOR THE citurntensileunorthodoxTurn to 300 Absolutely Essential GRE Words on page 22 and check tosee if it contains the high frequency words in bold from the list above.Yes, these words, or one of their forms, are all on the list of the 300words that appear repeatedly on the GRE and thus can be learnedspecifically for the test. These 300 words, as well as an additional 500important, frequently occurring GRE words, will be taught to you inEssential Words fo r the GRE.HOW ESSENTIAL WORDS W ILL HELP YOUDO W ELL ON THE GREEssential Words for the GRE teaches 800 advanced words that frequentlyappear on the GRE. Each word has been carefully selected through ref erence to published GRE lists and on the basis of my many years of expe rience in preparing students for the test. These 800 words also appear inBarron’s GRE Master Word List and High-Frequency Word List.The principle behind this book is that the best way to learn new wordsfor the GRE is to see how these words are used in complex sentencesand practice on exercise material that is similar in content, structure,and level of difficulty to that which appears on the actual test. Practic ing on such material will improve your skills in understanding complexsentences and arguments, and increase your familiarity with importantideas that appear on the GRE.7

ESSENTIAL WORDS FOR THE GREThis book teaches the important words you need to know in units often words each, along with their parts of speech, most commonly useddefinitions on the GRE, and illustrative sentences showing how wordsare used. The content, style, and tone of the illustrative and exercisematerial are consistent with that of material appearing on the actualGRE. Because sentences generally deal with subjects in the arts, sci ences, and social sciences, and definitions of important terms are pro vided, you will build up your general knowledge while you learnimportant advanced words. Comprehensive exercises at the end of eachunit ensure that you know the words and provide practice in their cor rect use. Many of the words taught in a given unit reappear in subse quent units, both in illustrative sentences and in exercises, providingsystematic reinforcement of learning.Keep a good college dictionary handy as you work through this book.This will allow you to explore additional meanings of words you learnand fine-tune your understanding of nuances in meaning between sim ilar words. Two of the best college dictionaries are The American Her itage College Dictionary (4th Edition) and Merriam-Webster’s CollegiateDictionary (11th Edition). If you prefer to use an online dictionary, theexcellent American Heritage Dictionary o f the English Language, (4th edi tion) is available online for free at Bartelby.com.M ASTERING HIGH FREQUENCY W ORD ROOTSOther than learning the difficult words likely to appear on the GRE, howelse can you improve your chances of doing well on the GRE Verbal Rea soning test? The answer is simple: learning important word roots.Essential Words fo r the GRE features extensive information on wordroots, prefixes, and suffixes in the High Frequency Word Roots section.This section contains a list of the 300 most important Latin and Greekroots and prefixes that commonly appear in English words. It also givesyou hundreds of derivative words and includes exercises to improveyour ability to make use of roots in remembering words you havelearned in this book and in deciphering the meaning of words you don’tknow. In addition to being useful for students taking the GRE, aknowledge of word roots provides a great foundation for the studentembarking on a career in fields such as law, science, and medicine thatuse many specialized terms based on Latin and Greek.8

INTRODUCTION: MASTERING ADVANCED VOCABULARY FOR THE GREGETTING STARTEDSo, what do you do now? First, take the Pretest on the following pages.This will tell you how many advanced words you already know. ThePretest contains sentence completion exercises and reading passageswith vocabulary questions. If you don’t do well on the Pretest, it wouldbe a good idea to get hold of a good book that teaches a comprehensivelist of college-level words, such as Barron’s Wordfest!, and review thesewords before starting Essential Words fo r the GRE.Philip Geerdirector@mentaurs.com9

PretestIt’s time to test your readiness fo r graduate-level reading. Don’t worry. Ifyou aren’tfamiliar with the GRE words tested below, you can be sure youwill learn them in Essential Words for the GRE.In the questions below, choose the answer that is most nearly oppositein meaning to the capitalized word.1. nsouciantimplacable2. iumpanegyric3. ESSAY(A)(B)(C)(D)(E)suggestattemptgive upleaveremember4. squeaustere11

ESSENTIAL WORDS FOR THE GRE5. fytell the truthforestallIn the questions below, choose the answer that gives the pair of wordswhose relationship is most like the relationship expressed in the pair ofcapitalized words.6. METTLESOME : SOLDIER ::(A)(B)(C)(D)(E)wise : sageerudite : professorsardonic : lawyerofficious : governorpedantic : teacher7. ONOMATOPOEIA : SOUND ::(A)(B)(C)(D)(E)mnemonic : memorysimile : comparisonphysiognomy : faceparrot : actionenunciation : pronunciation8. TRYST : LOVER ::(A)(B)(C)(D)(E)assignation : paramourmeeting : companyrendezvous : friendparty : childexam : student9. SKEPTIC : DOUBT ::(A)(B)(C)(D)(E)12plutocrat : investsycophant : fawnraconteur : laughzealot : vituperateegotist : brag

PRETEST10. FILIBUSTER : TACTIC ::(A)(B)(C)(D)(E)ruse : subterfugeriposte : strategylitigation : lawgerrymandering : quibblehieroglyphic : writingChoose the best word or set of words to fill in the blanks in each o f thesentences below.11. The statement “India has recently made great progress inpoverty” should be seen in thecontext of India’s vastpopulation of one billion, of which 320 million remain ocalalleviating.abject12. In his book Knowledge and Wisdom, the distinguished twentiethcentury philosopher Bertrand Russell said, “Although our age farsurpasses all previous ages in knowledge, there has been noincrease in ogousprodigiousimminent13. Increased tariffs in the 1930s a collapse in worldtrade, the Great d.ridiculinginstigated.forgivingcaused. amelioratingprecipitated.exacerbating13

ESSENTIAL WORDS FOR THE GRE14. The main impetus behind America’s development of the hydrogenbomb was Edward Teller, a Hungarian refugee who had fledNazism and w h o th e system that was inplace in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc nevolentmaligned.meritorious15. Physicists now believe that what had been considered the mostbasic constituents of the universe are in turn comprised of evenmore fundamental units, called quarks— given thatby a physicist familiar with James Joyce’s novel,Finnegan’s ntically.anomaly16. The English expert regards concern about slight redundancies asand senseless did. abrogation17. According to the view of the nineteenth-century apologist forcapitalism, was an unfortunate but unavoidableof both capitalism and of the natural order ofthe world.(A)(B)(C)(D)(E)14abnegation, .ramificationsubjugation.preceptindigence, .concomitantprivation, .grandiloquencepenury, .transgression

PRETEST18. In the final stage in the impeachment process of an Americanpresident, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides overthe Senate, which sits as a body to a jury to decidewhether to convict the entconcomitantanalogous19. The geological theory of uniformitarianism is the antithesis of thegeological theory of catastrophism; it asserts that it i sthat natural law and processes do not fundamentally change, andthat what we observe now is essentially the same as whatoccurred in the tantaxiomatic20. It is interesting t o the bromide,* “Haste makes waste”and th e , “Better safe than ate.aphorism*A bromide is a commonplace remark or idea.15

ESSENTIAL WORDS FOR THE GRERead the following passage carefully. Then answer the questions thatfollow.The term “the arts,” when used to classify a group of aca demic disciplines at schools and universities, subsumes thestudy of languages, history, and literature, while universi ties use the term “fine arts” to refer to painting and sculp(5) ture as an object of study. Elsewhere the term “the arts”includes painting and sculpture (usually grouped togetheras “the plastic arts”), music and literature, and is oftenextended to embrace dance, mime, and cinema; the word“artist” being used to refer to a practitioner of any of these.(10) Art is commonly opposed to science (as “subjective,” wherescience is “objective”) and its sense is distinguished frometymologically related words such as “artifact,” “artificial,”and “artisan.”21. The word “subsumes” as it is used in line 2 most nearly means(A)(B)(C)(D)(E)assumes to be truemakes inferior tounderminesincludes in a less comprehensive categoryincorporates in a more comprehensive category22. The word “plastic” as it is used in line 7 most nearly related to performancewhimsical23. The word “etymologically” as it is used in line 12 most nearlymeans(A) related to insects(B) related to the study of the relationship between art andlanguage(C) related to the study of the connotations of words(D) concerned with the dichotomy between art and science(E) related to the origin of words16

PRETEST24. Based on the information in lines 10-13 (“Art . artisan”), whichstatement would the author be most likely to agree with?(A) Two words can be related etymologically but have differentmeanings.(B) The word “art” has only an accidental and tangentialsimilarity to the words “artifact,” “artificial,” and “artisan,”since it originated from a different word.(C) Artifacts can only be studied subjectively.(D) “Artisan” is an older word than the modern word “artist.”(E) The words “artifact,” “artificial,” and “artisan” are notcognate.Read the following passage carefully. Then answer the questions thatfollow.You may have heard the cynic’s version of the goldenrule, namely, he who has the gold makes the rules. That isthe thrust of this treatise on power by 75-year-old NoamChomsky, a professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts(5) Institute of Technology (MIT). He has written more than 30books on linguistics and current affairs, including the best selling Language and Politics (1990), Manufacturing Consent(1994), and 911 (2001). Once called “arguably the mostimportant intellectual alive” by The New York Times, this(10) very politically incorrect academic has taught at MIT since1955, immediately after graduating with a Ph.D. in linguis tics from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently oneof MITs institute professors, which means he can teach inany department of the university. But, as he notes wryly in(15) this book, “If I even get near political science, you can feelthe bad vibes starting.”The book is an edited collection of his lectures andtutorials from 1989 to 1999. Published as a book for thefirst time, his talks offer high-definition snapshots of the ills(20) of the twentieth century, even as he slices through historyto serve up unpalatable truths—like how America’s found ing fathers actually loathed the idea of democracy, why theUnited States hires rogue states to fight its wars, and whynation-states are the wrong political model for a post(25) modern world.17

ESSENTIAL WORDS FOR THE GREHe reserves one of his biggest knives for the media, whichhe takes methodical stabs at for being dictated by thedesires of the elite. With the same vigor, the gleeful icono clast tells his students why there is not only no such thing(30) as a free lunch, but also no such thing as a free market. Ashe puts it: “Of course, the ‘free market’ ideology is veiyuseful—it’s a weapon against the general population (in theU.S.), because it’s an argument against social spending,and it’s a weapon against poor people abroad, because we(35) can hold it up to them and say, ‘You guys have to followthese rules,’ then just go ahead and rob them.”He also sees the world’s current economic star, China,and its people as “brutal,” and so finds no profit in cozyingup to either. Still, conceding that its ascendance to power is(40) unstoppable, he says, “I don’t think we should be askingthe question, ‘How do we improve relations with China?’ Weshould be asking other questions like, ‘What kind of rela tions do we want to have with China?”’The saddest cautionary tale in this book is that of Prince ss] ton University graduate Norman Finkelstein, a bright youngman who committed career suicide by exposing best-sellinghistorian Joan Peters—whose book From Time Immemorialsaid Palestinians never existed—as a charlatan. The prob lem was that her work had been embraced by most of Amer(50) ica’s finest intellectuals—including writer Saul Bellow andhistorian Barbara Tuchman—so Mr. Finkelstein’s exposewas akin to calling them frauds.Eyebrow-raisers aside, the question-and-answer formatof this book captures the rhythm of intellectual repartee(55) between Chomsky and his audience but, more importantly,breaks the monotony of what would otherwise be hismarathon soliloquy on the world’s ills. Indeed, his mind issuch a ragbag of ideas that it is not above pondering suchthings as the validation of vegetarianism. Yet, in the end,(60) his brilliance falls prey to a certain kind of intellectual snob bery, the sort which asserts that heroes are not to be found“mentioned in the newspapers.” As he puts it: “If they’rethere, you know probably they’re not heroes, they’re antiheroes.”(65)Still, love him or hate him, there are not many thinkersaround who can proffer credible alternative perspectives onhow power corrupts today. This book is as much an antidoteto apathy as it is a counterweight to elitist thought. As inthis paradox he surfaces: “You’ll see that so long as power(70) remains privately concentrated, everybody, everybody, has18

PRETESTto be committed to one overriding goal: To make s

ESSENTIAL WORDS FOR THE 2ND EDITION Philio Geer. Ed.M. I 800 college- and graduate-level words you need to know for success on the Graduate Record Exam I A diagnostic pretest to help you gauge the strength of your current vocabulary I Extensive sentence-completion exercises with answers I Words d