Vocabulary Two- Choosing the Right Word

A basketball team will be sent to the Far East under the _____________ of the State Department to play native teams in various countries

aegis

I think it was very inconsiderate of her to wait until this late date before she _________ us of her intention to quit the class show.

apprised

Falstaff, as conceived by Shakespeare, is not just a ________ old braggart but an archetype of human appetites and joy in living.

bibulous

Thankfully, the beach towels are extremely ___________ and they were able to control the spread of water due to the bucket that tipped over in the back of the van.

bibulous

Is it any wonder that the young quarterback is getting a swelled head when he seems always to be surrounded by a __________ of fawning admirers?

claque

It is not enough merely to push aside our prejudices and pretend they don't exist; we must _________ these evils from our minds and personalities

deracinate

Some call our city a cosmopolitan melting pot of cultures, but my grandparents from Eastern Europe felt__________ and even apprehensive at times

deracinated

An _____________ of Virginia Woolf's work reveals that she is an exceptionally modern writer concerned with the psychology and emotion of her subjects

exegesis

For many years, Americans andEuropeans tended to ignore the highly developed_________ cultures of the peoples of Africa.

indigenous

The movie started off well, but the later scenes, with the young heroine slowly dying of a mystery disease, became overwrought and____________

lachrymose

Morality is not a criterion that can be used to judge whether or not a word belongs in a ________ of the language in which it is used.

lexicon

At rush hour, I always have a hard time fighting my way through the _________ of tired commuters scurrying through the station.

melee

In the tragedy that overtakes the pathetic Lennie in Of Mice andMen, we see in ___________ the cruelty and injustice that pervade our society.

microcosm

From the observatory atop the Empire State Building, the pedestrians on the streets below look as________ as ants.

minuscule

Please do not try to____________ your responsibility in this matter by irrelevant criticisms of other people's behavior

obfuscate

I came to resent the company's_________ because it assumed that employees lacked the self-reliance to take care of themselves.

paternalism

If we disregard the emotions and desires of other groups in our area, we are simply going to increase partisanship and ____________ the whole community.

polarize

When light from the sun hits the surface of the pond, the light is _______ and then we see mysterious reflections on the placid water.

polarized

Under the American system of personal liberty, there are many aspects of daily life that are not within the ____________ of any governmental authority.

purview

Even the public opinion polls, which showed a strong tend toward out candidate, did not make us overly__________ about our chances of winning

sanguine

The grandmother was impressed by the child's ____________ complexion and generally healthy appearance.

sanguine

Their standards are so rigid and so devoid of a sense of proportion that they elevate every minor____________ to the level of a major crime

solecism

As a _________ state, its citizens had few rights and were subject to others' whims

vassal

Compared to today's free agents, the ballplayers of yesteryear were practically the __________ of the team owners.

vassals

Those later scenes, in the opinion of many critics, had so much self-conscious pathos that they lacked conviction and__________

verisimilitude