Vocabulary 6 test

Directions: select the word that best completes the sentence.

1. His feverish and (lucid, incessant) activity cannot hide the fact that he doesn’t know what he is doing.

2. The penniless adventurer is a character so familiar to fiction readers as to render further description of the type (sardonic, superfluous).

3. (Hampered, Impoverished) by the weight I had gained over the summer, I was dropped from the basketball squad after the first practice session.

4. In a totalitarian state, people who do not (hew, supplant) firmly to the party line are likely to find themselves in hot water with the authorities.

5. What real use is financial independence if a person remains forever in (bondage, tenacity) to foolish fears and superstitions?

6. Frankly, I am tired of your endless (credible, doleful) complaints about all the people who have been unfair to you.

7. The author’s writing style is as (lucid, intricate) as the sparkling waters of a mountain lake on a spring morning.

8. The novel’s grim humor and (posthumous, sardonic) portrayal of the futility of all human endeavor make it an intensely disturbing book.

9. I was amazed when I looked through the microscope and observed the (incessant, intricate) pattern of blood vessels in the specimen’s body.

10. That village is famous all over the world for its demure cottages, well-manicured lawns, and (prim, diligent) gardens.

11. She is very slow to form opinions; but once she does, she hold on to them (tenaciously, dolefully).

12. “The witness has changed his story so often that no jury on earth is likely to find his testimony (lucid, credible),” the district attorney observed.

13. If we want government to provide services, we must pay taxes to (defray, hamper) the costs.

14. Even after the most systematic and (ghastly, diligent) search, we could not find missing documents.

15. In some early societies, people who had committed certain crimes could (atone, defray) for them by paying sums of money to their victims.

16. If we were to lose the basic freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, we would truly be (taunted, impoverished).

17. I know that love is fickle, but I never expected to be (atoned, supplanted) in her affections by such an unworthy suitor.

18. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me” is an old saying I try to keep in mind whenever someone (hews, taunts) me.

19. Loss of blood very quickly turned the victim’s normally rosy face a (prim, ghastly) hue of white.

20. Royalties from a novel that is published (superfluously, posthumously) normally go to the author’s estate.