TOEFL Vocabulary Practice Test Set 5 - 40 Questions (161 to 200)


161. What they do is look at familiar conditions from a perspective that makes these conditions seem foolish, harmful, or affected. Satire jars us out of complacence into a pleasantly shocked realization that many of the values we unquestioningly accept are false.

The word "realization" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) certainty
  • (B) awareness
  • (C) surprise
  • (D) confusion

Answer - B

162. It was the manner of expression, the satiric method, that made them interesting and entertaining, satires are read because they are aesthetically satisfying works of art, not because they are morally wholesome or ethically instructive.

The word "aesthetically" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) artistically
  • (B) exceptionally
  • (C) realistically
  • (D) dependably

Answer - A

163. They are stimulating and refreshing because with commonsense briskness they brush away illusions and secondhand opinions.

The word "refreshing" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) popular
  • (B) ridiculous
  • (C) meaningful
  • (D) unusual

Answer - C

164. Soldiers rarely hold the ideals that movies attribute to them, nor do ordinary citizens devote their lives to unselfish service of humanity.

The word "devote" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) distinguish
  • (B) feel affection
  • (C) prefer
  • (D) dedicate

Answer - D

165. Hotels were among the earliest facilities that bound the United States together. They were both creations and creators of communities, as well as symptoms of the frenetic quest for community.

The word "bound" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) led
  • (B) protected
  • (C) tied
  • (D) strengthened

Answer - C

166. The growing custom of regularly assembling from afar the representatives of all kinds of groups, not only for political conventions, but also for commercial, professional, learned, and avocational ones... in turn supported the multiplying hotels.

The word "assembling" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) announcing
  • (B) motivating
  • (C) gathering
  • (D) contracting

Answer - C

167. In the past, as today, men, women, and children adorned themselves with beads. In some cultures still, certain beads are often worn from birth until death, and then are buried with their owners for the afterlife.

The word "adorned" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) protected
  • (B) decorated
  • (C) purchased
  • (D) enjoyed

Answer - B

168. Besides their wear ability, either as jewelry or incorporated into articles of attire, beads possess the desirable characteristics of every collectible: they are durable, portable, available in infinite variety, and often valuable in their original cultural context as well as in today's market.

The word "attire" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) ritual
  • (B) importance
  • (C) clothing
  • (D) history

Answer - C

169. Beads are miniature bundles of secrets waiting to be revealed: their history, manufacture, cultural context, economic role, and ornamental use are all points of information one hopes to unravel.

The word "unravel" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) communicate
  • (B) transport
  • (C) improve
  • (D) discover

Answer - D

170. Even the mostmundane beads may have traveled great distances and been exposed to many human experiences.

The word "mundane" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) carved
  • (B) beautiful
  • (C) ordinary
  • (D) heavy

Answer - C

171. The crossed mandibles enable the birds to exert a powerful biting force at the bill tips, which is critical for maneuvering them between the scales and spreading the scales apart. Next, the crossbill snakes its long tongue into the gap and draws out the seed.

The word "gap" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) opening
  • (B) flower
  • (C) mouth
  • (D) tree

Answer - A

172. Next, the crossbill snakes its long tongue into the gap and draws out the seed. Using the combined action of the bill and tongue, the birds cracks open and discards the woody seed covering and swallows the nutritious inner kernel.

The word "discards" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) eats
  • (B) breaks
  • (C) finds out
  • (D) gets rid of

Answer - D

173. As a rule, large billed crossbills are better at seeming seeds from large cones while small billed crossbills are more deft at removing the seeds from small, thin scaled cones.

The word "deft" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) hungry
  • (B) skilled
  • (C) tired
  • (D) pleasant

Answer - B

174. This bird has a large, robust bill, yet most of Newfoundland's conifers have small cones, the same kind of cones that the slender-billed white-wings rely on.

The word "robust" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) strong
  • (B) colorful
  • (C) unusual
  • (D) sharp

Answer - A

175. It was she, a Baltimore printer, who published the first official copies of the Declaration, the first copies that included the names of its signers and therefore heralded the support of all thirteen colonies.

The word "heralded" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) influenced
  • (B) announced
  • (C) rejected
  • (D) ignored

Answer - B

176. She was also the city's postmaster from 1775 to 1789 --- appointed by Benjamin Franklin --- and is considered to be the first woman to hold a federal position.

The word "position" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) job
  • (B) election
  • (C) document
  • (D) location

Answer - A

177. Galaxies are themajor building blocks of the universe. A galaxy is a giant family of many millions of stars, and it is held together by its own gravitational field.

The word "major" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) intense
  • (B) principal
  • (C) lunge
  • (D) unique

Answer - B

178. The elliptical galaxies have a symmetrical elliptical or spheroidal shape with no obvious structure.Most of their member stars are very old and since elliptical are devoid of interstellar gas, no new stars are forming in them.

The word "symmetrical" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) proportionally balanced
  • (B) commonly seen
  • (C) typically large
  • (D) steadily growing

Answer - A

The word "obvious" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) discovered
  • (B) apparent
  • (C) understood
  • (D) simplistic

Answer - B

179. Their light was already halfway here before the Earth even formed. The light from the nearby Virgo galaxy set out when reptiles still dominated the animal world.

The word "dominated" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) threatened
  • (B) replaced
  • (C) were developing in
  • (D) were prevalent in

Answer - D

180. This meant that wagon freighting, stage coaching and steam boating did not come to an end when the first train appeared; rather they became supplements or feeders.

The word "supplements" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) extensions
  • (B) reformers
  • (C) dependents
  • (D) influences

Answer - A

181. Wagon freighters continued operating throughout the 1870's and 1880's and into the 1890's,although over constantly shrinking routes, and coaches and wagons continued to crisscross theWest wherever the rails had not yet been laid.

The word "crisscross" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) lead the way
  • (B) separate
  • (C) move back and forth
  • (D) uncover

Answer - C

182. The primary reason was skepticismthat a railroad built through so challenging and thinly settled a stretch of desert, mountain, and semiarid plain could pay a profit.

The word "skepticism" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) doubt
  • (B) amazement
  • (C) urgency
  • (D) determination

Answer - A

183. In discussing the Pacific Railroad bill, the chair of the congressional committee bluntly stated that without government subsidy no one would undertake so unpromising a venture; yet it was a national necessity to link East and West together.

The word "subsidy" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) persuasion
  • (B) financing
  • (C) explanation
  • (D) penalty

Answer - B

184. However, the concept of number and the counting process developed so long before the time of recorded history (there is chaeological evidence that counting was employed by humans as far back as 50,000 years ago) that the manner of this development is largely conjectural.

The word "conjectural" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) complex
  • (B) based on guessing
  • (C) unbelievable
  • (D) supported by careful research

Answer - B

185. Probably the earliest way of keeping a count was by some simple tally method, employing the principle of one-to-one correspondence. In keeping a count of sheep, for example, one finger per sheep could be turned under.

The word "employing" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) using
  • (B) paying
  • (C) focusing
  • (D) hiring

Answer - A

186. Counts could also be maintained by making scratches in the dirt or on a stone, by cutting notches in a piece of wood, or by tying knots in a string.

The word "maintained" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) justified
  • (B) asserted
  • (C) located
  • (D) kept

Answer - D

187. Then, perhaps later, an assortment of vocal sounds was developed as a word tally against the number of objects in a small group.

The word "assortment" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) instrument
  • (B) variety
  • (C) surplus
  • (D) symbol

Answer - B

188. Their products, primarily silver plates and bowls, reflected their exalted status and testified to their customers' prominence.

The word "exalted" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) unusual
  • (B) uncertain
  • (C) surprising
  • (D) superior

Answer - D

189. Colonial coppersmithing also came of age in the early eighteenth century and prospered in northern cities.

The phrase "came of age" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) established itself
  • (B) declined
  • (C) became less expensive
  • (D) was studied

Answer - A

190. Fossils are the remains and traces (such as footprints or other marks ) of ancient plant and animal life that are more than 10,000 years old.

The word "traces" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) structures
  • (B) importance
  • (C) skeletons
  • (D) imprints

Answer - D

191. The woolly mammoth, a long-haired rhinoceros, and other mammals have been periodically exposed in the tundra of Siberia, the hair and red flesh still frozen in cold storage.

The word "exposed" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) photographed
  • (B) uncovered
  • (C) located
  • (D) preserved

Answer - B

192. A useful definition of an air pollutant is a compound added directly or indirectly by humans to the atmosphere in such quantities as to affect humans, animals, vegetation, or materials adversely.

The word "adversely" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) negatively
  • (B) quickly
  • (C) admittedly
  • (D) considerably

Answer - A

193. As the Earth developed, the concentrations of these pollutants were altered by various chemical reactions; they became components in biogeochemical cycles.

The word "altered" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) eliminated
  • (B) caused
  • (C) slowed
  • (D) changed

Answer - D

194. The result is an increased concentration of noxious chemicals in the air. The concentrations at which the adverse effects appear will be greater than the concentrations that the pollutants would have in the absence of human activities.

The word "noxious" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) harmful
  • (B) noticeable
  • (C) extensive
  • (D) weak

Answer - A

195. The actual concentration need not be large for a substance to be a pollutant; in fact the numerical value tells us little until we know how much of an increase this represents over the concentration that would occur naturally in the area. For example, sulfur dioxide has detectable health effects at 0. 08 parts per million (ppm) , which is about 400 times its natural level.

The word "detectable" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) beneficial
  • (B) special
  • (C) measurable
  • (D) separable

Answer - C

196. The acute, growing public awareness of the social changes that had been taking place for some time was tied to tremendous growth in popular journalism in the late nineteenth century, including growth in quantity and circulation of both magazines and newspapers.

The word "acute" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) useful
  • (B) intense
  • (C) genuine
  • (D) controversial

Answer - B

197. Furthermore, the introduction in 1890 of the first successful linotype machine promised even further growth. In 1872 only two daily newspapers could claim a circulation of over 100,000, but by 1892 seven more newspapers exceeded that figure. A world beyond the immediate community was rapidly becoming visible.

The word "exceeded" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) controlled
  • (B) surpassed
  • (C) affected
  • (D) equaled

Answer - B

198. Magazines as they are known today began publication around 1882, and, in fact, the circulation of weekly magazines exceeded that of newspapers in the period which followed. By 1892, for example, the circulation of the Ladies' Home Journal had reached an astounding 700,000.

The word "astounding" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) surprising
  • (B) estimated
  • (C) encouraging
  • (D) sudden

Answer - A

199. It is lightweight, impermeable to liquids, readily cleaned and reused, durable yet fragile, and often very beautiful.

The word "durable" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) lasting
  • (B) delicate
  • (C) heavy
  • (D) plain

Answer - A

200. In effect, as molten glass cools, it progressively stiffens until rigid, but does so without setting up a network of interlocking crystals customarily associated with that process.

The word "customarily" is closest in meaning to which of following?

  • (A) naturally
  • (B) necessarily
  • (C) usually
  • (D) certainly

Answer - C


Powered by Eduhyme.com