Barron's 1100 Words You Need to Know » Week 28 - Day 4

Word List
  • irrational [i rash´ ən əl]
    unreasonable, absurd
    → “He became irrational and threatened to commit suicide.” Darcy Frey, “The Last Shot”
  • avarice [av´ ər is]
    greed, passion for riches
    → “He could not disguise his avarice under a cloak of religion.” Ambrose Bierce
  • insatiable [in sā´ shə bəl]
    cannot be satisfied
    → “One needs an insatiable curiosity to succeed in the new technical world-wide spread of information.” Jared Diamond, “Guns, Germs, and Steel”
  • nadir [nā´ dər]
    lowest point
    → “He knew he had reached the nadir of his baseball career when they sent him to a minor league team.” Roger Kahn, The Boys of Summer
  • moribund [môr´ ə bund]
    dying, at the point of death
    → “After being moribund for years, interest in electric automobiles has revived.” Car and Driver, 6/97

The tulip reached Holland in 1593 and was, at first, looked upon as a curiosity. There soon developed an irrational demand for new species. Specimens were sold at awesomely* high prices. In their avarice, speculators bought and sold the same tulip ten times in one day. The entire Dutch population suffered from the craze. There was an insatiable desire for each new color or shape. At one point a man purchased a house for three bulbs! Before long the inevitable* crash came and the demand for bulbs quickly reached its nadir. A $1,500 bulb could be bought for $1.50. With the moribund tulip market came financial disaster to thousands of people.

Sample Sentences Use the new words for the following sentences.

  1. Who is not vulnerable* to some measure of __________?
  2. The American consumer appears to have an __________ need for new products.
  3. He looked upon the last-place finish of his team with equanimity;* from this __________ the only place to go was up.
  4. We ought to expect some __________ behavior from a senile* person.
  5. With the expansion of the supermarket, the small, local grocery store is in a __________ state.

Definitions Match the new words with their definitions.

  1. a. lowest point
  2. b. dying, at the point of death
  3. c. unreasonable, absurd
  4. d. greed, passion for riches
  5. e. cannot be satisfied
  1. irrational __________
  2. avarice __________
  3. insatiable __________
  4. nadir __________
  5. moribund __________

Answer Key
out on a limb—in a dangerous or exposed position
He went out on a limb and predicted he would win the election by a wide margin.

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