CHAPTER 3
Vocabulary and General Knowledge
A mature vocabulary helps you to read with comprehension, write professionally, and speak astutely on a variety of issues. The A2 test not only expects you to have a relatively broad general vocabulary but also to recognize certain terms that are related to health care.
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
Most of your vocabulary knowledge derives from reading and conversation. However, there are certain words that you may have heard or read but have never bothered to define. Table 3.1 of difficult vocabulary words offers some useful words with their definitions.
Table 3.1 Difficult Vocabulary Words
Test Yourself
Use a word from the box to complete each sentence below. Use each word only once.
1. You might accuse gossipy teens of ____________.
2. You might accuse someone who never picks up the check of
____________.
3. You might accuse a coworker who tattles to the boss of ____________.
4. Select the meaning of the underlined word in the sentence.
The child’s fractious behavior in preschool made us reconsider sending her.
A. guileful
B. introverted
C. ill-tempered
D. outspoken
5. If you vilify someone in print, you ____________ him or her.
A. compliment
B. validate
C. analyze
D. denounce
Answers
1. persiflage. Persiflage is silly, harmless banter.
2. parsimony. Someone who is parsimonious is cheap.
3. perfidy. Perfidy is treachery or betrayal.
4. C. A child who is fractious is irritable and quarrelsome.
5. D. To vilify someone is to speak or write about him or her in a critical, denunciatory way.
HEALTH CARE CONTEXTS
You may have seen some of the words in Table 3.2 in different contexts, unrelated to health care. Other words on the chart are specific to the medical profession.
Table 3.2 Health-Related Words
Test Yourself
Use a word from the box to complete each sentence below. Use each word only once.
1. A young person with low energy might be described as _____________.
2. Before emerging as butterflies, caterpillars go through a _____________ phase.
3. Loss of skin resilience is typical of someone who is _____________.
4. Which word meaning “to weaken” best fits in the sentence?
The terrible humidity can exhaust and _____________ most people.
A. infest
B. ossify
C. enervate
D. assuage
5. A palliative measure offers _____________.
A. relief
B. healing
C. potency
D. options
Answers
1. lethargic. Senescence applies only to older people.
2. quiescent. In the chrysalis, caterpillars are inert, or quiescent.
3. senescent. Skin’s loss of elasticity is typical of old age.
4. C. If you are enervated, you are drained and devitalized.
5. A. Something that is palliative does not offer a cure (choice B), but it does offer comfort, or relief.
USEFUL ROOTS AND AFFIXES
Understanding word parts helps you to define unfamiliar words. This is especially true in the field of medicine, where knowledge of some key Greek and Latin roots and affixes can help you to decipher the most complicated manual.
Roots
There are hundreds of important root words that help you to decode medical terminology. Table 3.3 gives you just a handful of useful roots.
Table 3.3 Useful Roots
Prefixes
You know many of the prefixes in Table 3.4 from everyday life. Many will appear in medical terms you read.
Table 3.4 Useful Prefixes
Suffixes
When placed at the end of a word, suffixes, such as those in Table 3.5, change the part of speech.
Table 3.5 Useful Suffixes
