TỪ VỰNG TOEIC unit 21

Unit 21
SUB HYPER PRE PARA META PER ANT/ANTI CONTRA Greek and
Latin Borrowings
Quiz 21-1 Quiz 21-2 Quiz 21-3 Quiz 21-4 Quiz 21-5 Review Quizzes 21
SUB means “under.” So a subway runs under the streets, and a submarine
moves under the ocean's surface. A subject is a person under the authority of
another. A movie's subplot is lower in importance than the main plot.
Subscribe once meant “to write one's name underneath,” so subscription was
the act of signing a document or agreement.


subconscious
awareness.

Existing in the mind just below the level of

• After dropping three dishes in a week, she began thinking there might be
some kind of subconscious agitation behind her case of butterfingers.
We're rarely aware, or at least fully aware, of our subconscious mental
activity. But subconscious thought does affect our feelings and behavior, and
it's often revealed in dreams, artistic expression, and slips of the tongue. The
subconscious mind can be a hiding place for anxiety, a source of creativity,
and often the reason behind our own mysterious behavior.


subjugate
conquer, subdue.

To bring under control and rule as a subject;

• The country's government claimed it was just trying to protect national

security, but some saw its actions as an attempt to subjugate the news media.
Since jugus means “yoke” in Latin, subjugate means literally “bring under
the yoke.” Farmers control oxen by means of a heavy wooden yoke over their
shoulders. In ancient Rome, conquered soldiers, stripped of their uniforms,
might actually be forced to pass under an ox yoke as a sign of submission to
the Roman victors. Even without an actual yoke, what happens to a
population that has come under the control of another can be every bit as
humiliating. In dozens of countries throughout the world, ethnic minorities
are denied basic rights and view themselves as subjugated by their country's
government, army, and police.


subliminal
perceived consciously.

Not quite strong enough to be sensed or

• A few worried parents claimed that some heavy-metal songs contain
subliminal messages—in the form of words recorded backwards—that urge
young fans to take up devil worship.
Since the Latin word limen means “threshold,” something subliminal exists
just below the threshold of conscious awareness. The classic example of a
subliminal message is “Eat popcorn” flashed on a movie screen so quickly
that the audience doesn't even notice it consciously. Actually, no such
advertising has ever been shown to work. But ordinary ads, both in print and
on TV, do contain all kinds of images that shape our response to the product
being advertised even when we don't realize it. Try looking carefully at some
ads that you like, in order to discover how many ways they may be
subliminally affecting you.

subversion
(1) An attempt to overthrow a government by
working secretly from within. (2) The corrupting of someone or something
by weakening their morals, loyalty, or faith.
• It's sometimes easier for a government to combat attack from outside than
subversion from within.
Subversion is literally the “turning over” of something. In the 1950s and '60s,
many people worried about communist subversion of the U.S. government,
though they often saw subversive activities where none existed.
Nondemocratic governments often claim that anyone who disagrees with
them or joins a demonstration is a subversive. But subversion isn't always
quite so serious a matter; when words like weekend, sandwich, job, and
camping started being used by the French, for example, some of them began
claiming that America was subverting their language.


HYPER is a Greek prefix that means “above or beyond,” so hyper- often
means about the same thing as super-. Hyperinflation is inflation that's
growing at a very high rate. To be hypercritical or hypersensitive is to be
critical or sensitive beyond the normal. And if you hyperextend a knee or
elbow, it means you're actually bending it backward.


hyperactive

Excessively active.

• Stephen King's hyperactive imagination has produced dozens of fantastical
stories, not to mention countless nightmares in his readers.

For doctors and psychologists, hyperactive describes a condition with
unpleasant consequences. Hyperactive children usually have a very short
attention span and can't sit still, and hyperactivity can lead to difficulty in
learning or just get them in trouble for disturbing their classes. But not every
high-spirited child is hyperactive. Having a high energy level is pretty normal
for children, and some parents think that prescribing drugs for hyperactivity
is mostly just good for the drug companies.


hyperbole

Extreme exaggeration.

• The food at Chez Pierre was good, but it couldn't live up to the hyperbole of
the restaurant critics.
Advertisers and sports commentators make their living by their skillful use of
hyperbole. Presenting each year's Superbowl as “the greatest contest in the
history of sports” certainly qualifies as hyperbole, especially since the final
scores are usually so lopsided. Equally hyperbolic are advertisers' claims that
this year's new car model is “the revolutionary vehicle you've been waiting
for” when it's barely different from last year's—which of course was once
described in the same glowing terms. Politicians love hyperbole too; some of
them seem convinced that calling a new bill “the worst bill ever passed by
Congress” or comparing the president to Hitler is a great way to win votes.


hypertension

High blood pressure.

• Pregnancy is often accompanied by mild hypertension that doesn't threaten
the mother's life.
You might have thought that hypertension was what a movie audience feels
near the climax of a thriller, but you would have been wrong. High blood
pressure—that is high pressure against the walls of your veins and arteries
caused by blood flow—often occurs when the arteries or veins become
blocked or narrowed, making the heart work harder to pump blood. But many
cases seem to be the result of smoking or taking in too much salt, and many
are genetically caused. Hypertension is serious, since it can lead to heart
attacks and strokes. Though it often produces no warning symptoms, your
blood pressure can be checked quickly and easily by a nurse. If it's high, it
can usually be controlled by stopping smoking, losing weight, lowering your
salt intake, and exercising—and if all else fails, by medication.


hyperventilate

To breathe rapidly and deeply.

• They laughed so hard they began to hyperventilate and feel giddy.
Hyperventilating can be a response to fear and anxiety. A test pilot who
panics and hyperventilates faces a dangerous situation. When the level of
carbon dioxide in your blood goes down and the oxygen level goes up, blood
vessels constrict because of the chemical changes and the body can't get
enough oxygen (even though it's there in the blood), and the pilot can become
lightheaded and may even faint. To guard against this, pilots are taught to
control their breathing. On the ground, the usual remedy for hyperventilation
is breathing into a paper bag, which raises the level of carbon dioxide and
restores normal breathing.

Quiz 21-1
A. Fill in each blank with the correct letter:
a. hyperactive
b. subliminal
c. hypertension
d. subversion
e. subjugate
f. hyperventilate
g. subconscious
h. hyperbole
1. Stealing elections through fraud represents a ___ of democracy.
2. She's warned me that there's plenty of ___ in her brother's big talk and that
I shouldn't take it too seriously.
3. Accident-prone people may have a ___ desire to do themselves harm.
4. In yoga class we're often warned not to ___ during our breathing exercises.
5. Napoleon hoped to ___ all of Europe and make it his empire.
6. Both my parents are on medication for ___, and the doctor monitors their
blood pressure regularly.
7. He claims the ice cubes in whiskey ads contain images that send ___
messages to readers.
8. A ___ imagination can transform every creak and rustle in a dark house
into a threat.
Answers


B. Match the word on the left to the correct definition on the right:
1. hyperactive a. breathe deeply and rapidly
2. subjugate
b. secret effort to overthrow

3. hyperventilate c. extreme overstatement
4. subconscious d. not strong enough to be sensed
5. hypertension e. beneath the level of consciousness
6. subversion
f. overly active
7. hyperbole
g. conquer
8. subliminal
h. high blood pressure
Answers


PRE, one of the most common of all English prefixes, comes from prae, the
Latin word meaning “before” or “in front of.” So a prediction forecasts what
will happen before it occurs. The 5:00 TV news precedes the 6:00 news. And
someone with a prejudice against a class of people has judged them before
having even met them.


preclude

To make impossible beforehand; prevent.

• If we accept this cash offer from the company, that will preclude our joining
in the big suit against it with the other investors.
Preclude is often used in legal writing, where it usually refers to making
something legally impossible. A new law may be passed by Congress to
preclude any suits of a certain kind against a federal agency, for example.
Some judges have found that the warnings on cigarette packs preclude any
suits against the tobacco companies by lung-cancer sufferers. But there are

plenty of nonlegal uses as well. Bad weather often precludes trips to the
beach, and a lack of cash might preclude any beach vacation at all.


precocious
an unusually early age.

Showing the qualities or abilities of an adult at

• Everyone agrees that their seven-year-old daughter is smart and precocious,
but she's also getting rather full of herself.
Growing from a child to an adult is like the slow ripening of fruit, and that's
the image that gave us precocious. The word is based on the Latin verb
coquere, meaning “to ripen” or “to cook,” but it comes most directly from the
adjective praecox, which means “ripening early or before its time.” Precocity
can occasionally be annoying; but precocious children don't come precooked,
only “preripened.”


predispose
(1) To influence in advance in order to create a
particular attitude. (2) To make one more likely to develop a particular
disease or physical condition.
• Growing up in a house full of sisters had predisposed her to find her
friendships with other women.
Predispose usually means putting someone in a frame of mind to be willing
to do something. So a longtime belief in the essential goodness of people, for
example, will predispose us to trust a stranger. Teachers know that coming
from a stable family generally predisposes children to learn. And viewing
television violence for years may leave young people with a predisposition to

accept real violence as normal. The medical sense of the word is similar.
Thus, a person's genes may predispose her to diabetes or arthritis, and
malnutrition over a long period can predispose you to all kinds of infections.


prerequisite
Something that is required in advance to
achieve a goal or to carry out a function.
• In most states, minimal insurance coverage is a prerequisite for registering
an automobile.
Prerequisite is partly based on requirere, the Latin verb meaning “to need or
require.” So a prerequisite can be anything that must be accomplished or
acquired before something else can be done. Possessing a valid credit card is
a prerequisite for renting a car. A physical exam may be a prerequisite for
receiving a life-insurance policy. And successful completion of an
introductory course is often a prerequisite for enrolling in a higher-level
course.


PARA is a Greek prefix usually meaning “beside” or “closely related to.” So
parallel lines run beside each other. And a Greek paragraphos was originally
a line written beside the main text of a play to show where a new person
begins speaking; today we just start a new paragraph on a new line.


paraphrase
To restate the meaning (of something written or
spoken) in different words.
• She started off the class by asking one of the students to paraphrase the
Tennyson poem, to make sure everyone understood its basic meaning.

When we paraphrase, we provide a version that can exist beside the original
(rather than replace it). We paraphrase all the time. When you tell a friend
what someone else has said, you're almost always paraphrasing, since you're
not repeating the exact words. If you go to hear a talk, you might paraphrase
the speaker's main points afterward for your friends. And when writing a
paper on a short story, you might start off your essay with a paraphrase of
the plot. Paraphrasing is especially useful when dealing with poetry, since
poetic language is often difficult and poems may have meanings that are hard
to pin down.


paralegal
lawyer.

Of, relating to, or being a trained assistant to a

• Part of the firm's business involved researching real-estate properties, which
the senior lawyers regarded as paralegal work.
Much of the work in a law office can be done by paralegal assistants, also
called legal aides or simply paralegals, who work alongside licensed
lawyers. Often a paralegal is trained in a narrow field and then entrusted with
it. In this respect, paralegals are similar to paraprofessionals in other fields,
such as engineering. Paraprofessionals used to be trained in the office itself,
but today it's common to study for a paraprofessional certificate or degree at a
community college or university.


paramedic
A specially trained medical technician licensed
to provide a wide range of emergency services before or during transportation

to a hospital.
• Five ambulances had already arrived, and a dozen paramedics were
crouched over the victims with bandages and IVs.
In ground warfare, wounded troops must usually be transported from the
front lines back to field hospitals, and trained paramedical personnel—that
is, nondoctors, usually known as medics or corpsmen—were first widely used
in such situations. It took many decades for the wartime model to be applied
effectively to ordinary peacetime medicine. With advances in medical
technology (such as defibrillators, for restarting a heart after a heart attack),
paramedics became an essential part of emergency medicine, and today
hundreds of thousands of people owe their lives to paramedics.
Paraprofessionals who work only in hospitals and clinics usually go by other
titles.


paramilitary
Relating to a force formed on a military
pattern, especially as a possible backup military force.
• In the country's most remote regions, the real power was held by large
landowners, who actually kept paramilitary forces, their own private armies,
on their estates.
This term paramilitary can take in a wide range of organizations, but is
usually applied to forces formed by a government. Groups opposing a
government, even when organized along military lines, are more often
referred to as guerrillas or insurgents. In countries with weak central
governments (such as, in recent times, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, or Congo),
warlords may form their own paramilitary forces and take over all local
police and military functions. Paramilitary often has a sinister sound today,
since it's also applied to groups of off-duty military or police personnel who
carry out illegal violence, often at night, with the quiet support of a

government.


Quiz 21-2
A. Choose the closest definition:
1. prerequisite
a. pattern b. requirement c. preference d. direction
2. paramedic
a. medical technician b. hypodermic c. surgeon d. nurse's aide
3. predispose
a. recycle b. eliminate c. demonstrate d. influence
4. paraphrase
a. spell out b. shorten c. lengthen d. reword
5. preclude
a. come before b. come after c. prevent d. predict
6. paralegal
a. lawful b. lawyer-assisting c. above the law d. barely legal
7. precocious
a. nearly cooked b. maturing early c. self-contradictory d. necessary
8. paramilitary
a. basic-training b. skydiving c. semimilitary d. police
Answers


B. Fill in each blank with the correct letter:
a. paraphrase
b. preclude
c. precocious
d. paralegal
e. predispose

f. paramedic
g. prerequisite
h. paramilitary
1. No one in her class of high-school seniors was able to ___ the proverb
“Blood is thicker than water.”
2. At 13 she was ___ enough to mingle with the guests at her parents' cocktail
parties.
3. Everything I had heard about the guy from my friends didn't exactly ___
me to like him.
4. After a year as a ___ she knew she had the stomach for anything a doctor
might have to face.
5. Any felony conviction in your past would ___ your getting a job with the
state government.
6. At his law firm they treated almost everything involving real estate as ___
work.
7. The only ___ for taking the Galaxies course is a strong background in
high-school math and physics.
8. Many of the crimes are apparently being carried out by members of secret
___ organizations made up of off-duty police and former soldiers.
Answers


META is a prefix in English that generally means “behind” or “beyond.” In
medicine, for example, the metacarpal bones are the hand bones that come
right after, or beyond, the carpal or wrist bones. And metalanguage is
language used to talk about language, which requires going beyond normal
language.