Barron's 1100 Words You Need to Know » Week 32 - Day 1

Word List
  • profound [prə found´]
    deep, intense
    → “So why no profound works on the need for $660 million in tax credits for companies that burn chicken droppings?” Editorial, “Tax-Cut Favors,” New York Times, 8/7/99
  • alleviate [ə lē´ vē āt]
    make easier, lighten
    → “The report of the transportation division pointed out that the overcrowded highways required immediate attention in order to alleviate the long delays.” The Queens Courier, 1/11/00
  • prodigious [prə dij´ əs]
    extraordinary, enormous
    → “He knew from the moment he left the ground that it was a prodigious jump.” Joseph N. Bell, “The Olympics Biggest Winner”
  • expedite [ek´ spə dīt]
    carry out promptly
    → “There was a pressing need to expedite assistance to those suffering after the earthquake.” Newsday, 8/15/99
  • celerity [sə ler´ ə tē]
    speed, rapidity
    → “The human mind acts at times with amazing celerity.” Benjamin Cardozo, The Growth of the Law

As automation permeates* many new areas of life, its effect upon us becomes concomitantly* more profound. Information processing, blogs, search engines of all types have found their ways into businesses, as well as our homes, schools, and libraries. Here they alleviate the burden of storing and providing us with an accumulation of information that is becoming more prodigious in this era of specialization and threatening to inundate* our society.

Youngsters in the primary grades now know how to manipulate their computers to extract information that would have taken their grandparents an eternity to produce. Machines whose celerity can scan thousands of words in nanoseconds help expedite the selection of pertinent* information for those schoolchildren.

Sample Sentences Use your new words below.

  1. We hoped that the arbiter* would __________ the solution to the fracas* that had been so elusive* for a long time.
  2. He accepted the lucrative* position with __________ .
  3. It is easy to construe* a superficial* remark to be a __________ one.
  4. If we cannot __________ the harmful effects entirely, at least we can attenuate* them.
  5. The enemy made a __________ effort to repress* the uprising.

Definitions Match the new words with their definitions.

  1. a. carry out promptly
  2. b. speed, rapidity
  3. c. make easier, lighten
  4. d. deep, intense
  5. e. extraordinary, enormous
  1. profound __________
  2. alleviate __________
  3. prodigious __________
  4. expedite __________
  5. celerity __________

Answer Key
ivory tower—isolated from life; not in touch with life’s problems
Many artists have been said to be living in an ivory tower.

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