<p>how would you guess if the question like this pops up??</p>
<p>There is no doubt that Larry is a genuine ------- : he excels at telling stories that fascinate his listeners.
(A) braggart
(B) dilettante
(C) pilferer
(D) prevaricator
(E) raconteur</p>
<p>Do you speak other languages than english? In french, “raconter” means to tell a story (contar in spanish), so raconteur means a person who tells stories. Pretty basic…
If I didn’t speak french, I would eliminate “braggart” (from to “brag” meaning to boast, showing off), dilettante (meaning someone who is inexperienced in something), and prevaricator (from to Prevaricate meaning to lie).
You are looking for sth positive obviously and “pilferer” just seems not aesthetic enough for a positive word (just instinctive, because it doesn’t sound good). So you are left with raconteur…
If you didn’t know what braggart, dilettante, prevaricator mean, it’s time to work on your vocabulary assiduously. I didn’t know their meaning 6 months ago, but I improved a lot by tedious memorization. Just don’t be discouraged and work a lot on your vocab. :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips here. I’ve already started working on my vocab and decided to do it tediously. i wrote down assiduous, cuz it’s new word for me.</p>
<p>swindle, collude, conspire, and finagle.
can those 4 verbs be included in one list?</p>
<p>can sb tell me a simple definition for “meticulous”? the dic def is too long, making me confused</p>
<p>meticulous- means doing something cautiously and precisely.
He spent hours and hours each week trying to improve his already meticulous project.</p>
<p>meticulous- excessively careful about details,scrupulous</p>
<p>any answer for the #4?</p>
<p>Of course you should include it in your vocab list. But you should really try to buy an SAT prep book (perhaps on Amazon.com) to :
<p>Kaplan, Barron, collegeboard (especially, because they make the test) have good testprep books. Remember, take the ones that prepare for the NEW SAT. Barron has a critical reading workbook.
After having learnt all the vocab in those books, start adding your own vocab by reading extensively fiction and NONFICTION (science, political science, history, arts, and humanities…). Look up the words you don’t know and if you encounter that word several times (3-4 times) write it down. This will train both your reading skills (essential for the SAT but also college), vocab, and ability to determin the meaning of a certain word in context (guess the meaning before using the dictionary)
Learn WORD ROOTS and Guessing strategies to determin the meaning of words you don’t know. Read good nonfiction like Time, New Yorker (a lot of hard words in it), national geographic (less useful though if you don’t like geography) and literature essays or analysis (very useful both to train your writing skills and reading skills because the critics write very good English). Read autobiographies, political science books, philosophy books (the hardest one), and historical articles. You can find very useful copies of books online (I didn’t buy any books so far, and I don’t think you will have to).
A bit of luck, a bit of genius and 99% is hard work for a foreign student! :)</p>
<p>Wow!!! that was dazzling (new word). i’ll try to “bolster” my vocab as much as i can. kk.
thx for the advice. i’m gonna make the best use out of it.</p>
<p>(a) doesnt work because it doesnt fit in context. neither does (b) or (c) (definitions are pretty easy to assume). i dont know what recont…r means but i know that in (d), the root -pre probably puts this word out of context, so i would choose (e)</p>
<p>where can i get some lessons on prefixes, suffixes, and some main roots?</p>
<p>Well I know for a fact that subect-specified workbooks are invaluble resources in scoring high, but does anyone know what is a good workbook for CR. Barrons or Kaplan?</p>
<p>raconteur also sounds just like recount</p>
<p>I would’ve said it’s E just from knowing the definition. I guess it’s a bad example, but I either know the definitions off the top of my head. If I dont know the definition, I cut the word apart and examine the suffixes and prefixes. Sentence completions become very easy, but comprehension questions are a *****!</p>