Barron's 1100 Words You Need to Know » Week 16 - Day 2

Word List
  • prolific [prə lif´ ik]
    producing abundantly
    → “Isaac Asimov was a truly prolific writer, seemingly able to complete a book every two weeks.” Art Nichols, Selling Your Manuscript
  • bulwark [bůl´ wərk]
    protection
    → “That England, hedged in with the main, That water-walled bulwark, still secure And confidant from foreign purposes.” William Shakespeare, King John
  • sedentary [sed´ n ter´ ē]
    largely inactive, accustomed to sitting
    → “Seeger had seen him relapsing gradually into the small-town hardware merchant he had been before the war, sedentary and a little shy.” Irwin Shaw, “Act of Faith”
  • frugal [frü´ gəl]
    thrifty
    → “He was famously frugal—‘so tight he damn near squeaked’ says a colleague.” Eric Pooley, “How George Got His Groove,” TIME, 6/21/99
  • antithesis [an tith´ ə sis]
    exact opposite
    → “Drunkenness is the antithesis of dignity.” Bergen Evans, “Now Everyone is Hip About Slang”

Each colony of honeybees consists of three classes: a) the queen who is a prolific layer of eggs; b) the worker who is the bulwark of the colony; and c) the sedentary drone whose only function is to mate with a young queen. The queen lays the eggs that hatch into thousands of female workers; some queens live as long as five years and lay up to one million eggs. The frugal worker builds and maintains the nest, collects and stores the honey, and is the antithesis of the lazy drone, or male honeybee, who does not work and has no sting. When the drone is no longer needed, the workers, in effect, liquidate* him by letting him starve to death. It’s a cruel, cruel world!

Sample Sentences Use the new words in the following sentences.

  1. The usually __________ novelist was frustrated* by her failure to come up with a good plot.
  2. Len, the gregarious* twin, was the __________ of Lon, the reticent one.
  3. The typist shook off the fetters* of her __________ life and joined a mountain climbing expedition.
  4. __________ shoppers occasionally badger* supermarket managers for bargains.
  5. Some feel that the United States should be a __________ to the inchoate* democracies around the world.

Definitions Match the new words with their meanings.

  1. a. producing abundantly
  2. b. thrifty
  3. c. protection
  4. d. exact opposite
  5. e. largely inactive, accustomed to sitting
  1. prolific __________
  2. bulwark __________
  3. sedentary __________
  4. frugal __________
  5. antithesis __________

Answer Key
the world, the flesh, and the devil—temptations that cause man to sin
By entering the monastery he sought to avoid the world, the flesh, and the devil.

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