TỪ VỰNG TOEIC unit 24

Unit 24
MAND UND SANCT LOQU VIR VAL CRE/CRET FUS Greek and Latin
Borrowings
Quiz 24-1 Quiz 24-2 Quiz 24-3 Quiz 24-4 Quiz 24-5 Review Quizzes 24
MAND comes from mandare, Latin for “entrust” or “order.” A command is
an order; a commandment is also an order, but usually one that comes from
God. And a commando unit carries out orders for special military actions.


mandate
(1) A formal command. (2) Permission to act, given
by the people to their representatives.
• The new president claimed his landslide victory was a mandate from the
voters to end the war.
A mandate from a leader is a command you can't refuse. But that kind of
personal command is rarely the meaning of mandate today; much more
common are connected with institutions. Thus, the Clean Air Act was a
mandate from Congress to clean up air pollution—and since mandate is also
a verb, we could say instead that the Clear Air Act mandated new restrictions
on air pollution. Elections are often interpreted as mandates from the public
for certain kinds of action. But since a politician is not just a symbol of
certain policies but also an individual who might happen to have an awfully
nice smile, it can be risky to interpret most elections as mandating anything at
all.


mandatory

Required.

• If attendance at the meeting hadn't been mandatory, she would have just

gone home.
Something mandatory is the result of a mandate or order, which usually
comes in the form of a law, rule, or regulation. Today there seem to be a lot
of these mandates, so mandatory seat belts, mandatory inspections for
industries, and mandatory prison sentences for violent crimes are regularly in
the news. But mandatory retirement at age 65, which used to be common, is
now illegal in most cases.


commandeer
To take possession of something by force,
especially for military purposes.
• No sooner had they started their meeting than the boss showed up and
commandeered the conference room.
Military forces have always had the power to commandeer houses. The
Declaration of Independence complains about the way the British soldiers
have done it, and the third Amendment to the Constitution states that the
commandeering of people's houses shall be done only in a way prescribed by
law. Almost anything—food, supplies, livestock, etc.—can be militarily
commandeered when the need arises. But you don't have to be in the military
for someone to “pull rank” on you: Your father may commandeer the car just
when you were about to take it out for the evening, your teacher may
commandeer your cell phone as you're texting in the middle of class, or your
older sister may commandeer the TV remote to watch some lousy dancing
competition.


remand
(1) To order a case sent back to another court or agency
for further action. (2) To send a prisoner back into custody to await further

trial or sentencing.
• The state supreme court had remanded the case to the superior court,
instructing it to consider the new evidence.
Remand means “order back” or “send back.” After losing a case in a lower
court, lawyers will frequently appeal it to a higher court. If the higher court
looks at the case and sees that the lower court made certain kinds of errors, it
will simply remand it, while telling the lower court how it fell short the first
time: by not instructing the jury thoroughly, for example, or by not taking
into account a recent related court decision.


UND comes into English from the Latin words unda, “wave,” and undare,
“to rise in waves,” “to surge or flood.” Undulations are waves or wavelike
things or motions, and to undulate is to rise and fall in a wavelike way.


undulant
outline, or surface.

(1) Rising and falling in waves. (2) Wavy in form,

• The man's undulant, sinister movements reminded her of a poisonous snake
about to strike.
The surface of a freshly plowed field is undulant. A range of rolling hills
could be called undulant, as could the shifting sands of the Sahara. A
waterbed mattress is often literally undulant. And a field of wheat will
undulate or sway in the wind, like the waves of the sea.


inundate

overwhelm.

(1) To cover with a flood or overflow. (2) To

• As news of the singer's death spread, retailers were inundated with orders
for all his old recordings.
In the summer of 1993, record rains in the Midwest caused the Mississippi
River to overflow its banks, break through levees, and inundate the entire
countryside; such an inundation hadn't been seen for at least a hundred years.
By contrast, the Nile River inundated its entire valley every year, bringing the
rich black silt that made the valley one of the most fertile places on earth.
(The inundations ceased with the completion of the Aswan High Dam in
1970.) Whenever a critical issue is being debated, the White House and
Congressional offices are inundated with phone calls and e-mails, just as a
town may be inundated with complaints when it starts charging a fee for
garbage pickup.


redound
or reflect.

(1) To have an effect for good or bad. (2) To rebound

• Each new military victory redounded to the glory of the king, whose
brilliance as a leader was now praised and feared throughout Europe.
Redound has had a confusing history. Its original meaning was simply
“overflow.” But since the prefix re- often means “back,” the later meaning
“result” may have arisen because flowing back—on a beach, for example—is
a result of the original flowing. Redound has long been confused with other
words such as resound and rebound, so today “rebound” is another of its

standard meanings. As examples of its usual meaning, we could say that the
prohibition of alcohol in 1919 redounded unintentionally to the benefit of
gangsters such as Al Capone—and that Capone's jailing on tax-evasion
charges redounded to the credit of the famous “Untouchables.”


redundancy
(2) Needless repetition.

(1) The state of being extra or unnecessary.

• A certain amount of redundancy can help make a speaker's points clear, but
too much can be annoying.
Redundancy, closely related to redound, has stayed close to the original
meaning of “overflow” or “more than necessary.” Avoiding redundancy is
one of the prime rules of good writing. ““In the modern world of today”
contains a redundancy; so does “He died of fatal wounds” and “For the
mutual benefit of both parties.” But redundancy doesn't just occur in
language. “Data redundancy” means keeping the same computer data in more
than one place as a safety measure, and a backup system in an airplane may
provide redundancy, again for the sake of safety.


Quiz 24-1
A. Fill in each blank with the correct letter:
a. redound
b. commandeer
c. undulant
d. mandatory
e. remand

f. inundate
g. mandate
h. redundancy
1. “Each and every” is an example of a ___ that almost everyone uses.
2. A group of four gunmen tried to ___ the jet soon after takeoff.
3. In the second movement, the composer depicts the waves of the ocean by
means of lines that rise and fall in ___ patterns.
4. The court's decision represents a ___ to continue working toward absolute
equality in the workplace.
5. Sportsmanship and generosity always ___ to the credit of both the team
and the school.
6. The judge will probably ___ this case to the lower court for further study.
7. Piles of job applications ___ the office every day.
8. The session on business ethics is ___ for all employees.
Answers


B. Match the definition on the left to the correct word on the right:
1. needless repetition a. mandate
2. required
b. undulant
3. flood
c. commandeer
4. take over
d. redundancy
5. reflect
e. inundate
6. command
f. remand
7. wavy

g. mandatory
8. send back
h. redound
Answers


SANCT, meaning “holy,” comes from the Latin word sanctus. Thus, sanctity
means “holiness.” In ancient Greece, a spot could be sanctified, or “made
holy,” by a group of priests who carried out a solemn ritual; these might be
spots where fumes arose from a crack in the earth or where a spring of clear
water flowed out of the ground, and a temple might be built there for worship
of a god.


sanction

To give approval to.

• The bill's opponents claimed that removing criminal penalties for drug
possession would amount to sanctioning drug use.
Sanction originally meant “make holy” or “give official church approval to.”
The word still has a solemn sound to it, so sanctioning is something generally
done by an institution or government, though not necessarily by a church. So
a college may sanction—or “give its blessing to”—the use of office space by
a gay organization, or a hot-rod association may sanction two new tracks for
official races. But sanction is also a noun, which may have two near-opposite
meanings, “approval” and “penalty.” Thus, a company may be accused of
giving its sanction to illegal activities. But when two or more countries
impose sanctions on another country, it often involves cutting off trade. No
wonder sanction is such a tricky word for so many of us.

sanctimonious
Pretending to be more religiously
observant or morally better than other people.
• The candidates' speeches were sanctimonious from beginning to end, filled
with stories about how their deep faith was the basis for everything they did.
Making a show of your religious morality has always struck some people the
wrong way, including Jesus. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preaches
that, when we give away money for charity, we shouldn't let our left hand
know what our right hand is doing—that is, the giving should be done for its
own sake and other people shouldn't be told about it. Those who make a
display of how good and pious they are called hypocrites. But sanctimony, or
sanctimoniousness, has often been a good strategy for American politicians,
many of whom have found it a great way to win votes.


sacrosanct
(1) Most sacred or holy. (2) Treated as if holy
and therefore immune from criticism or disturbance of any kind.
• Lots of experts have criticized the governor's education program, but it's
regarded as sacrosanct by members of her own party.
Sacrosanct means literally “made holy by a sacred rite,” and in its original
use the word was reserved for things of the utmost holiness. But sacrosanct is
now used to describe a questionable sacredness which nevertheless makes
something immune from attack or violation; that is, the person using the word
usually doesn't regard the thing as sacred at all. So to call a government
program sacrosanct is to imply that others regard it as untouchable. And a
piece of writing is more likely to be thought of as sacrosanct by its author
than by the editor who has to fix it up.

sanctuary
(1) A holy place, such as a church or temple,
or the most holy part of one. (2) A place of safety, refuge, and protection.
• The midtown park is a tranquil sanctuary amidst the city's heat, noise, and
bustle.
Historically, churches have been places where fugitives could seek at least
temporary protection from the law. In Anglo-Saxon England, churches and
churchyards generally provided 40 days of immunity, and neither the sheriffs
nor the army would enter to seize the outlaw. But gradually the right of
sanctuary was eroded. In 1486 sanctuary for the crime of treason was
disallowed, and sanctuary for most other crimes was severely restricted by
Henry VIII and later abolished. In the 1980s many U.S. churches provided
sanctuary to political refugees from Central America, and the U.S.
government mostly chose not to interfere. Today, wildlife sanctuaries provide
protection for the species within its boundaries, and farm-animal sanctuaries
now rescue livestock from abuse and starvation.


LOQU comes from the Latin verb loqui, “to talk.” An eloquent preacher
speaks fluently, forcefully, and expressively. And a dummy's words come out
of a ventriloquist's mouth—or perhaps out of his belly (in Latin, venter).


colloquium
A conference in which various speakers take
turns lecturing on a subject and then answering questions about it.
• There's a colloquium at Yale on Noah Webster in September, where she's
scheduled to deliver a paper.

A colloquy is a conversation, and especially an important, high-level
discussion. Colloquy and colloquium once meant the same thing, though
today colloquium always refers to a conference. Because of its old
“conversation” meaning, however, a colloquium is a type of conference with
important question-and-answer periods.


soliloquy
unspoken thoughts.

A dramatic speech that represents a series of

• Film characters never have onscreen soliloquies, though they may tell us
their thoughts in a voiceover.
Since solus means “alone” in Latin, soliloquies take place when a character is
alone onstage, or maybe spotlighted off to one side of a dark stage. Novels
have no trouble in expressing to the reader a character's personal thoughts,
but such expression is less natural to stage drama. The soliloquies of
Shakespeare—in Hamlet (“To be or not to be”), Macbeth (“Tomorrow and
tomorrow and tomorrow”), Romeo and Juliet (“But soft! what light from
yonder window breaks”), etc.—are the most famous, but modern playwrights
such as Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and Sam Shepard have also
employed them.


colloquial

Conversational in style.

• The author, though obviously a professional writer, uses a colloquial style

in this new book.
Since colloquy means basically “conversation,” colloquial language is the
language almost all of us speak. It uses contractions (“can't,” “it's,”
“they've”), possibly some slang, lots of short words and not many long ones.
But our language usually changes when we write, becoming more formal and
sometimes even “literary.” Except in e-mails and text messages, many people
never write a contraction or use the word “I”, and avoid informal words
completely. But colloquial language isn't necessarily bad in writing, and it's
sometimes more appropriate than the alternative.


loquacious

Apt to talk too much; talkative.

• She had hoped to read quietly on the plane, but the loquacious salesman in
the next seat made it nearly impossible.
A loquacious speaker can leave a big audience stifling its yawns after the first
45 minutes, and the loquaciousness of a dinner guest can keep everyone else
from getting a word in edgewise. Loquacious letters used to go on for pages,
and a loquacious author might produce a 1,200-page novel. Lincoln's brief
269-word Gettysburg Address was delivered after a two-hour, 13,000-word
speech by America's most famous orator, a windbag of loquacity.


Quiz 24-2
A. Choose the closest definition:
1. sanction
a. pray b. warn c. trade d. approve
2. soliloquy

a. love poem b. monologue c. lullaby d. conversation
3. sanctimonious
a. hypocritical b. holy c. solemn d. divine
4. sacrosanct
a. sacred b. churchlike c. Christian d. priestly
5. loquacious
a. abundant b. silent c. talkative d. informative
6. sanctuary
a. belief b. holiness c. cemetery d. refuge
7. colloquial
a. slangy b. disrespectful c. conversational d. uneducated
8. colloquium
a. field of study b. university c. college d. scholarly discussion
Answers


B. Indicate whether the following pairs of words have the same or
different meanings:
1. soliloquy / praise
same ___ / different ___
2. sanction / dedicate
same ___ / different ___
3. loquacious / long-winded
same ___ / different ___
4. sacrosanct / heavenly
same ___ / different ___
5. colloquium / temple
same ___ / different ___
6. sanctuary / shelter
same ___ / different ___

7. colloquial / informal
same ___ / different ___
8. sanctimonious / passionate
same ___ / different ___
Answers


VIR is Latin for “man.” A virtue is a good quality—originally, the kind of
quality an ideal man possessed. And virtuous behavior is morally excellent.
All in all, the Romans seem to have believed that being a man was a good
thing.