Barron's 1100 Words You Need to Know » Week 22 - Day 1

Word List
  • juxtapose [juk stə pōz´]
    to place side by side
    → “Theatrical vignettes are juxtaposed through alternating verses in clever boy-girl counterpoint.” “Hot ’N Cole,” Newsday, 6/4/99
  • plight [plīt]
    predicament, dangerous situation
    → “I had the sense that his loneliness was not merely the result of his personal plight.” Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome
  • covert [kō´ vərt]
    secret, hidden
    → “In a covert manner, Knute traveled abroad that night.” Sinclair Lewis, “Young Man Axelbrod”
  • cope [kōp]
    to be a match for, to be able to handle
    → “Every single muscle in the body was strained to the uttermost throughout the watch to cope with the steering.” Thor Heyerdahl, Kon Tiki
  • incompatibility [in kəm pat´ ə bil´ ə tē]
    quality of being mismated, lack of harmony
    → “Once men tried to reach heaven by building a tower, and I made their formats incompatible.” Garrison Keillor, “Faith at the Speed of Light,” TIME, 6/14/99

When we juxtapose the words “woman” and “alcoholic” many readers are surprised. However, the plight of America’s several million female alcoholics is rapidly increasing in intensity. But the statistics are inexact because it is estimated that there are nine covert alcoholics for every one under treatment. Women drink to help themselves to cope with life’s vicissitudes.* They drink because of financial pressures, incompatibility, frustration,* and related reasons.

Sample Sentences Use the new words in the following sentences.

  1. If we were to __________ our philosophies, your materialism* would conflict with my idealism.
  2. Judge Felder commented with asperity* upon the wife’s charge of __________ .
  3. Just how our club’s president is able to __________ with so many disparate* personalities is something I’ll never understand.
  4. The __________ of the refugees who wandered about in a desultory* fashion moved us to tears.
  5. Woodrow Wilson stated that he found __________ agreements to be reprehensible.*

Definitions Match the new words with their meanings.

  1. a. quality of being mismated, lack of harmony
  2. b. to place side by side
  3. c. predicament, dangerous situation
  4. d. secret, hidden
  5. e. to be a match for, to be able to handle
  1. juxtapose __________
  2. plight __________
  3. covert __________
  4. cope __________
  5. incompatibility __________

Answer Key
plea bargain—to agree to plead guilty to a lesser charge so as to avoid trial for a more serious offense.
The defendant finally took his lawyer’s advice and agreed to a plea bargain of thirddegree assault

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