Ultimate Vocabulary – Vocabulary Building Software

Building Academic Vocabulary: Art and Architecture

April 26, 2010

“I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like.”

Have you ever gone to an art gallery or museum exhibit and listened to the people around you discussing various aspects of the works, without knowing what they’re referring to? The fields of art and architecture have very specific vocabularies, and it’s helpful to know some of the terminology, especially since these words often appear in the vocabulary section of the SAT and GRE. Here are seven words you’ll find useful:

chiaroscuro (noun)
Definition: An Italian word referring to how light (chiare) and shadow (scure), and the contrast between them, are shown in paintings or drawings.
Example: The painters Caravaggio and Rubens used chiaroscuro to emphasize key figures in their religious works, portraying holy men and women as lit by a divine light, while the devils lurk in the shadows.

stucco (noun)
Definition: Plaster or cement coating used on walls, or sometimes formed into molded ornaments or raised reliefs.
Example: The stucco houses of the Mediterranean are a distinctive feature of that area, painted white and topped with colorful tile roofs.

rococo (noun or adjective)
Definition: A European decorative style from the 18th century using an abundance of ornaments, scrollwork, and other motifs, often covered in gold paint.
Example: The new Princess of Wales arrived for the wedding in the rococo horse-drawn carriage that had been used by the monarchy for generations.

caryatid (noun)
Definition: A supporting pillar or column in the form of a woman.
Example: Each caryatid on that temple has a different face, and the guide told us that they were probably carved to represent members of prominent families in Rome during that era.

triptych (noun)
Definition: A painting or carving that has been done on three panels, which are often connected with hinges.
Example: The altar at this Greek Orthodox church displays a 13th-century triptych depicting the birth, crucifixion, and ascent to heaven of Jesus.

finial (noun)
Definition: An ornament or carved object topping a post.
Example: The fences at the zoo are decorated with finials carved in the shape of the various animals there.

mullion (noun)
Definition: A vertical bar dividing the panes of a window.
Example: Anna painted the frames and mullions of each window a bright pink, which contrasted oddly with the yellow-green color of the walls surrounding them.

One of the best ways to learn vocabulary related to art and architecture is to visit your local museums, or join in a guided tour of your city’s landmark buildings. The museum docents and tour guides are generally knowledgeable and should be able to answer your questions and define unfamiliar words. You can also check your library for magazines such as ARTnews, which has been providing information about art and artists for over a hundred years, or The Architectural Review, also over a century old. In addition, many community colleges have introductory classes in art or architecture that you may be able to attend for free. Get creative in your vocabulary study!

Building Academic Vocabulary: Literature and Literary Analysis

April 25, 2010

Every area of study has its own vocabulary, and it’s important to be familiar with the specific terms and concepts in a certain field when starting a course or working towards a career in that area. In fact, it’s useful to have a general idea of the vocabulary and terminology used in a variety of areas outside of your own field of study as well. Having a broad range of knowledge and familiarity with a wide scope of information will help you on examinations such as the GRE, which test your knowledge in multiple areas, and on many college entrance examinations.

One type of test that is common to the GRE and SAT is literary analysis. In a literary analysis, you are asked to read one or more passages and write your conclusions about the characters, the relationships between them, the plot and subplots, and whether the author uses any literary device, such as allegory or motif. You might also be asked a set of questions about the content of the passage, or your interpretation of what the author intended to say. Here are some terms and definitions that you might find useful in this type of exercise, and which also often appear in the instructions on exam questions regarding the analysis of a passage of text:

personification (noun or verb)
Definition: The act of giving an abstract idea or an inanimate object the qualities of a human being (a synonym is anthropomorphism).
Example: The forest fire hissed and roared angrily, reaching out arms of flame to pull in helpless animals to their death.

allusion (noun) / allude (verb)
Definition: A reference to another already-published and generally (or so the author assumes) well-known work.
Example: The novel’s main characters, four motorcycle-riding men who take over and destroy towns by first preventing food deliveries and then slaughtering the citizens, are an obvious allusion to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Bible.

protagonist (noun)
Definition: The main character in a story.
Example: Scrooge, the protagonist in Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” is cold-hearted and unsympathetic character until he is finally redeemed at the end of the story.

How to Increase Your Vocabulary: The Importance of Practice

April 24, 2010

Unless you have an eidetic memory (eidetic: able to recall and visualize information with great accuracy – also called photographic memory) you’ll have to spend some time practicing your new vocabulary words. There are many different ways to study vocabulary, and some may work better than others for you. Keep experimenting until you find the study techniques that suit you best. Here are some suggestions:

Set aside some time to study every day. Instead of reading the morning newspaper over your cup of coffee or tea, review the vocabulary words you learned the day before, or pick a few new words to focus on that day. At night, do another vocabulary review, and think about the words you’ve learned right before you fall asleep.
Everyone has a different learning style: some people learn more quickly if they hear something spoken aloud, while others learn best if they actively write out information they’re trying to learn. Make sure you know what your strong point is, but don’t forget the other areas. The more ways you learn something, the easier it will be to remember it. Write down new words and definitions, say them out loud, and read them over again.
Instead of just memorizing a word and its definition, use imagery to create a context for the meaning of the word. For example, if you’re trying to learn the word cantankerous (cranky, stubborn, difficult to get along with), can you think of a person you’ve met who might be described by that word? If not, build a visual image in your mind of a cantankerous person, and attach that image to the word.
Spend time on learning basic root words, suffixes, and prefixes – you’ll be surprised how quickly they will multiply the number of words you know. For example, if you know that the Greek root proto means “first,” you’ll understand the basic meaning of words like prototype (the original, something that serves as an example) and protocol (a set of rules to be followed).

What study methods work best for you? Share your tips in the comments.

How to Increase Your Vocabulary: The Importance of Reading

April 23, 2010

The more you read, the more words you’ll learn. That might seem obvious, but it’s worth repeating. Many people think of vocabulary study as boring class work or repetitious recitals of endless word lists – not something enjoyable at all. While some effort is needed to memorize new vocabulary words or learn strategies for identifying word meanings, when you combine vocabulary study with reading, you’ll be entertained as well as educated.

One of the skills that you can develop is called “active reading.” When you are an active reader, you’re operating on two levels. On the first level, you’re reading the words on the page, one after another, combining them into sentences and paragraphs. On the second level – the important one – you’re actively thinking about what you’re reading, asking questions, and seeing words in context rather than in sequence. When you do this, you create connections in your brain between the words your eyes are seeing and the meaning of those words as they relate to your personal experience, because you’ve made yourself an active part of the text.

Making these connections is an important step in committing new vocabulary words to memory, and being confident in using them correctly in context in the future. Whether you’re reading fiction or non-fiction, a short magazine article or a six-hundred-page novel, don’t just let your eyes skim over the words. Actively participate in the exchange of information between author and audience by asking yourself questions:

Why did the main character (or the author) just say that?
What does the author want to say by using this word rather than another?
Who is the author speaking to in this passage?
What is the main point the author wants to communicate?
Where did I see this word used before?

As always, keep a list of unfamiliar words so that you can look them up later if you don’t have the opportunity to do so while you’re reading. Afterwards, go back and re-read the text using your newly-defined word list, and see if you have new questions to ask yourself.

Don’t feel like asking yourself questions? Join a book group and get into a lively discussion with other people. Adding their perspectives to yours will expand your horizons and give you new ideas for future reading projects.

Building Vocabulary Skills: How to Understand Analogy

April 22, 2010

Analogies are ways to describe different things by noting how they are the same in certain respects. One common analogy is to compare the human brain to a computer. On the analogy section of an SAT or GRE test, you will need to be able to look at two sets of words and make the same sort of comparison between the words in each set. Here’s an example, using a common format for this type of question:

SHELL : PECAN

a) sandwich : filling
b) helmet : head
c) peel : banana
d) icing : cupcake
e) fur : dog

You can read this question format as follows: “‘shell’ is to ‘pecan’ as ‘X’ is to ‘Y.’” That is, the relationship between ‘shell’ and ‘pecan’ is the same as the relationship between ‘X’ and ‘Y’ (the two words in the correct answer).

Which answer would you choose? A shell is a hard protective barrier over something relatively soft, and that’s the function of a helmet protecting a head. However, a shell goes all the way around a pecan, and a helmet does not go all the way around a head. Neither does a sandwich completely contain its filling or icing completely cover a cupcake on all sides. A dog is (almost) completely covered with fur, but it’s not a protective barrier in the same sense. That leaves us with answer (c), because a banana peel protects the soft fruit inside, and completely covers it.

Here’s another example:

REHEARSAL : PERFORMANCE

a) recital : concert
b) draft : publication
c) test : examination
d) preliminary : secondary
e) characters : play

The correct answer here is (b). A rehearsal is the practice session before a performance, not intended to be heard or seen by the final audience. A draft of a paper or publication is writing in “practice” mode, making changes and corrections, until it is ready to be released to its final audience. The word pair at (d) has the same sense, but not exactly, because “secondary” does not necessarily mean “final” (there might be something tertiary or quaternary as well).

We’ll do more analogy practice in future posts. If you have any questions about the analogy section of the GRE and SAT, leave them in the comments section.

Building Academic Vocabulary

April 21, 2010

Knowing the answers to questions is important, but if you don’t understand the questions being asked, you won’t be able to answer them correctly. One of the aspects of vocabulary development that’s often overlooked is a focus on the words that are frequently used as part of the instructions on a test or the explanations in a textbook. This is particularly important for people who are learning English as a second language: the information that is being requested might be part of what they know, and know well, but because the question uses words that are unfamiliar, they’re not able to respond.

The following academic vocabulary words are often used as part of instructions or explanations on common tests such as the GRE and SAT. Study these words so that you’ll be able to give the correct answers.

speculate (verb) / speculation (noun)
When you are asked to speculate, it means that you are required to use the information that you have been given and come up with your own conclusion about something. This type of question is most often found on tests that have essay sections, where you are asked to give your own opinion on a topic.

plagiarism (noun) / plagiarize (verb)
One thing you don’t want to do on a test is plagiarize someone else’s answers! To plagiarize means to copy someone else’s work, quoting them directly without referencing the original words or results.

summarize (verb) / summary (noun)
To summarize means to take all of the essential meaning or facts of a specific block of text and to restate it in a few short sentences. You will be asked to do this as part of the reading comprehension sections on tests.

paraphrase (verb or noun)
Paraphrasing is like summarizing, but with one important difference: to paraphrase means to restate a concept using your own words, not just by repeating some of the sentences in the text that you have been given. This type of exercise will require knowledge of synonyms and antonyms.

analogy (noun) / analogize (verb [uncommon])
The analogy section of the SAT often confuses people, as the format of these question is not common (outside of the test environment). An analogy is a comparison between two things, showing how they are similar. In the analogy portion of a test, you will be required to look at two pairs of words and to find the word that completes the second pair, using your understanding of the relationship between the first pair. In the next post, we’ll go into analogies in more detail.

How Reading Can Develop Vocabulary

April 19, 2010

When children first begin to speak, they learn new words from listening to people talking to them and around them. Parents are encouraged to read to their children every day, to increase the number of words their children are exposed to, and to help them develop their reading and word identification skills. Studies around the world have shown that children whose parents (or other caretakers) read to them show, in general, measurable improvements in their working vocabulary and communication skills.

This process doesn’t have to end with childhood. One of the best ways you can improve your own vocabulary is to read as much as you can, choosing your reading materials from a wide range of topics.

Read About Things That Interest You

Reading should be fun, even if it’s reading for a school or work project. If you’re interested in sports, look for biographies of famous athletes, or books on the history of a sport. Mixing fiction and non-fiction will give you the largest selection of new words, and will help keep your interest in the topic. When you come across a word that’s new to you:

write it down
look it up
create two new sentences using the word

Practice the words you’ve learned several times to help you remember them. Make a note of any new words you’ve learned that appear in more than one book; these words are important ones to learn and use so that you can speak knowledgeably about the topic.

Read About Things You Didn’t Know Would Interest You

Have you ever been reading a book or newspaper, a magazine or on-line article, and said to yourself, “Hey – that’s interesting; I didn’t know that before”? When you find your interest piqued by something, follow up on it. You’ll be led into a new area of research and publications which will provide you with even more new vocabulary. The more varied your vocabulary, the better able you’ll be to express yourself. In addition, learning one new word will often give you clues to the meaning of other new words that might be related (for example, they might share a root or a suffix) and that will increase your ability to accumulate and assimilate these new words into your working vocabulary.

Keep reading throughout your life, and you’ll never run out of things to say!

For more information, see the publication “Mother-Child Bookreading in Low-Income Families: Correlates and Outcomes”

Word of the Day: Propitious

April 12, 2010

Expanding and improving your vocabulary will create positive changes in your life. Your conversational style will become more fluid and creative. You’ll find it easier to communicate in your professional life, and be more confident in speaking with a wide range of people, from co-workers to peers in other companies to managers and investors. Being able to express yourself clearly, using exactly the right words for any situation, will benefit your career and your personal life. The fact that you’re reading this vocabulary improvement blog is a propitious sign that bodes well for your future success.

Propitious means favorable or promising, a good omen and a sign of a good result to come. Some synonyms of propitious are auspicious and advantageous.

Example 1: With the decline in the housing market, it does not seem to be a very propitious time to start a career in real estate.

Example 2: The south-facing slopes of the coastal hills in California create a propitious climate for growing many varieties of grapes.

Example 3: Switching from paper to e-mail memos had the propitious effect of reducing the company’s monthly costs for office supplies and recycling services.

There are many things that you can do to increase your chances of success in vocabulary improvement study:

When you’re learning a word, practice saying it out loud, or use the Ultimate Vocabulary system to listen to the word being correctly pronounced.
Write the word down several times to make sure you know the correct spelling. By engaging your hand as well as your ear and eye, you’ll help lock the word into your brain.
Create sample sentences using the word. Learning how to use a word in context is key to remembering and correctly using it in conversation. The Ultimate Vocabulary system gives you dozens of examples of vocabulary words used in different contexts.

Good luck, and happy studying!

Improve Your Vocabulary: Onomatopoeia

April 10, 2010

In March 2010, the Oxford English Dictionary added the word arf to its official English word listing, as an interjection meaning “the sound of a dog’s bark, or a human imitating a dog’s bark.” Arf and woof (and meow and moo) are words that sound like the noises they’re describing. Using a word because it sounds like the noise being described is called onomatopoeia. This word comes from the Greek roots onoma, or ‘name’ (remember this root from our discussions of homonyms and antonyms?) and poieo, meaning ‘to make, to produce.’ A snake makes a sound like sssssss – the English word hiss creates the same sound.

You might think of onomatopoeia as splashes of color that you use to make your speech more interesting. Using these descriptive and poetic words will add a new dimension to your conversation, and will attract people to listen to your presentations. Because these words relate to sound, and rely upon sound to convey their meaning, they’re most effective when used in spoken communication. In addition, many onomatopoeic words are interjections (poof! bam! whew! ssh!) that are more suited to casual chatter than formal discourse, and aren’t as appropriate for written documents.

Here are four interesting onomatopoeic words that you can use in any circumstance:

burble
Definition: a bubbling sound, like water in a fountain, or a stream flowing over stones
Example: The waiting room in the dentist’s office has a tabletop fountain in the corner; its soothing burble helps to keep the patients calm.

pitter-patter
Definition: a soft, rhythmic sound
Example: I woke up this morning to the pitter-patter of raindrops on the skylight above my bed.

guffaw
Definition: a loud, hearty laugh
Example: There must have been a comedy playing at the theatre tonight, because we could hear the guffaws of the audience as we walked by.

susurrus
Definition: a rustling sound
Example: The only noise in the town hall was the susurrus of the audience’s excited whispers as they waited for the President to appear.

An interesting thing about onomatopoeia is how it differs between languages. In English, we use the word arf or woof to describe a dog’s bark. But like people, animals speak different languages in different countries!

If you’re in France, a dog says ouah ouah.
In Japan, a dog cries wan wan.
Dogs in Turkey yell hov hov.

What other onomatopoeic words can you think of?