Barron's 1100 Words You Need to Know » Week 23 - Day 1

Word List
  • heterogeneous [het´ ər ə jē´ nē əs]
    dissimilar
    → “The family is heterogeneous enough to make quite a good party in itself.” Rose Macauley, The World My Wilderness
  • gamut [gam´ ət]
    range
    → “At one end of the gamut of slang’s humor is what Oliver Wendell Holmes called ‘the blank checks of a bankrupt mind.’” Bergen Evans, “Now Everyone is Hip About Slang”
  • perspicacious [pėr´ spə kā´ shəs]
    acutely perceptive, shrewd
    → “Nobody deserves the Lifetime Achievement Award more than Army Archerd, who is not only perspicacious, but a gentleman as well.” Liz Smith, Newsday, 6/2/99
  • analogous [ə nal´ ə gəs]
    comparable, similar
    → “Not with the brightness natural to cheerful youth, but with uncertain, eager, doubtful flashes, analogous to the changes on a blind face groping its way.” Charles Dickens, Hard Times
  • maladjusted [mal´ ə jus´ tid]
    poorly adjusted, disturbed
    → “The natural assumption is that the teenage killers at Columbine H.S. were maladjusted youngsters but some neighbors denied that.” Letters to the Editor, Washington Post, 7/14/99

Ellis Sloane, a teacher of science at a large metropolitan high school, first paid little attention to the fact that his two biology classes were so disparate* in their performance. In most schools the classes are alphabetically heterogeneous, with youngsters’ names running the gamut from Adams to Zilch. But Biology 121 had only A’s and B’s, whereas Biology 128 had T’s, V’s, W’s, Y’s, and Z’s. Mr. Sloane, a perspicacious teacher, began to perceive* differences between the two groups: while their reading scores and I.Q.’s were roughly analogous, it was apparent that Biology 128 was replete* with maladjusted students, while Biology 121 had the normal ones.

Sample Sentences Use the new words in the following sentences.

  1. The Bureau of Child Guidance has been the salvation* for some __________ children.
  2. Our algebra class is a __________ one in which bright students are juxtaposed* with slower ones.
  3. Senator Thorpe was __________ enough to realize that the scurrilous* charge would have little effect upon the voters.
  4. Although the lawyer acknowledged* that the two cases were hardly __________ , he still felt that he had a good precedent on his side.
  5. The actress ran the __________ of emotions in a poignant* performance that thrilled the audience.

Definitions Match the new words with their meanings.

  1. a. range
  2. b. acutely perceptive, shrewd
  3. c. poorly adjusted, disturbed
  4. d. comparable, similar
  5. e. dissimilar
  1. heterogeneous __________
  2. gamut __________
  3. perspicacious __________
  4. analogous __________
  5. maladjusted __________

Answer Key
the distaff side—women (distaff was a staff used in spinning)
The men had brandy on the porch, while the distaff side gathered to gossip in the kitchen.

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