Unit 3 - Improving Vocabulary skills EAP-0090

Chapter 13

Noun	Adjective					Verb				Adverb
Curtailment						Curtail: to cut short or reduce
Synonym: limit, restrain, restrict, shorten, reduce, decrease Antonyms: extend Tim's mother insists that he curtail his social activities so he'll have more time to study and improve his grades. Reducing his social activities would give Tim more time to study. The prediction of a hurricane caused our boss to curtail our meeting and let us go home early. In order to save money, the post office needs to curtail services. One plan is to deliver mail only five days each week instead of six.
Devastation		Devastating					Devastate: to upset deeply; overwhelm
Synonym: confound, upset, distress, damage, destroy Antonyms: comfort Laurie could not find the courage to tell her parents that she was pregnant. She knew the news would devastate them. Laurie knew the news of her pregnancy would greatly disappoint her parents. After Andy worked so hard in French class, getting a C really devastated him. Jen thought her announcement that she wanted to break up would devastate Brad, but it didn’t seem to upset him at all. “That’s probably a good idea,” he said.
Digression	Digressive							Digress: to turn aside, or stray, especially from the main topic in speaking or writing
Synonym: stray, wander, deviate Antonyms: focus The comedian Tommy Smothers is famous for his tendency to digress. In the middle of singing a folk song with his brother, for example, he may stop to discuss which brother their mother liked best. The example given is of Smothers turning away from the song in order to discuss something else. Most professors digress a little during their lectures, but not Professor Raye. Even his jokes are related to the main topic.
Incentive: something that moves one to take action or work harder; a motivation								Incentivize
Synonym: motivation. Enticement, inducement, Antonyms: disincentive Some supermarkets offer coupons and prizes as incentives to get shoppers to visit the store regularly. Coupons and special prizes are intended to encourage shoppers to come to the store regularly. Josie doesn’t have much incentive to work harder at her job because her boss never gives anyone a raise.
Incorporation	Incorporative					Incorporate: to unite into a single; combine
Synonym: unite, integrate, combine, join, together Antonyms: exclude The good-looking Henderson children incorporate their parents' best physical features: their mother's lovely eyes and their dad's beautiful smile. The Henderson children bring together their parents' best features. The two local schools have been incorporated into one because of the smaller number of children in the community. Mr. Kattau’s interesting “World Problems” class incorporates history, sociology, economics, and current events. He believes you cannot study world problems without examining all four of these areas.
Indispensability			Indispensable: necessary
Synonym: vital, requisite, key, central, essential, Antonyms: dispensable, unnecessary People living in rural areas find a car indispensable, while city residents have other ways to get around. Since they have no other way to get around, people in rural areas find it necessary to have a car. When you are really broke, you find that things you believed were indispensable were merely nice to have around, but not necessary. I thought I was indispensable at work, but I was wrong.” said Julio sadly. “My boss says he no longer needs my services.
Intermittency	Intermittent: starting and stopping from time to time; off-and-on								Intermit
Synonym: irregular, broken, alternating Antonyms: constant When you are first teaching a dog tricks, you must reward him after every correct response. After he knows what is expected, you can cut back to intermittent rewards, such as a biscuit after every four or five tricks. After the dog understands what is expected, you can reward him on an off-and-on basis. Dora knew that a sensible diet produces intermittent weight loss, so she didn't panic when her weight stayed the same for a week--she knew she'd soon start losing weight again. The forecast calls for intermittent rain, with periods of sunshine in between.
Rigor: great hardship or difficult; harshness; severity
Synonym: hardship, difficulty, restriction, adversity, trouble Antonyms: Kim said that the rigors of working at two jobs and going to school are nothing compared with the hardships he experienced in his native country. The sentence suggests that "rigors" and "hardships" mean the same thing. The rigors of boot camp are a famous part of becoming a Marine. Tanya welcomes the rigors of her advanced physics class. “I like to make my brain work hard!” she says.
	Squandered					Squander: to waste or use foolishly
Synonym: waste, spend, misuse, consume Antonyms: save Many voters were angry because the mayor squandered their tax money on redecorating his office, instead of using it to help people living in poverty. Voters felt that the mayor had wasted their tax money on his personal comfort. Jean is a wonderful artist. It's sad to see her squander her talents designing labels for frozen foods.  I was glad when my sister broke up with her unpleasant boyfriend. Why squander her time on someone who doesn’t appreciate her?
						Succumb: to give in; stop resisting
Synonym: yield, surrender, submit Antonyms: withstand My five-year-old has succumbed to peer pressure already. He refuses to wear overalls because the kids at kindergarten called him "farmer boy." Giving in to peer pressure, the boy refuses to wear overalls. Although he was determined not to buy a lizard for his daughter, Lee finally succumbed to her begging and purchased the creature. Dan’s friends begged him for years to stop smoking. But it took seeing his brother die of lung cancer for him to succumb to their requests.