VOCABULARY RATINGS
7–10: fair
11–12: good
13–15: excellentWORD POWER
Answers
134 • DECEMBER 2021
- compunction—[B] guilt. Feeling
compunction about his snarky
comment at dinner, Chan apologised
to his sister after the meal. - boggled—[C] bewildered. Alfonso
promised his grandson Pokémon
cards but was so boggled by the
variety of packs that he asked the
salesperson for help. - roisterous—[A] noisy in a high-
spirited way. Our office parties
always end on a roisterous note, as
Fyodor leads us in a singalong. - jaundiced—[B] cynical. Kiri’s
jaundiced view of the holidays was
cured when she had her own kids. - solicitous—[C] concerned. Sadie’s
solicitous mum would always pack a
banana cake in her luggage when she
returned to university after Christmas. - harried—[B] stressed from too
little time. Despite being harried by
the long queue, the cashier handed
the little girl a free book of stickers. - enervated—[B] drained of energy.
When the last guest left, Dani
flopped, contented but enervated,
into her chair. - glutted—[A] filled to excess.
Uncle Martin pushed back from the
table and loosened his belt, revealing
his glutted stomach.
9. uxorious—[C] doting on wife. The
Caribbean cruise that John gave
Astrid was seen as yet another of his
uxorious acts.
10. bellicose—[A] combative. The
stressed parents became bellicose
when neither wanted to let go of the
toy—the last one on the shelf.
11. treacly—[A] overly sentimental.
Manuela could never avoid getting all
treacly when sending out Christmas
cards to friends and family.
12. mercurial—[B] volatile. Since it
was his first Christmas with her
family, Ebba warned her fiancé about
her dad’s mercurial moods.
13. daunted—[C] intimidated. Millie
adored seeing her family but felt
daunted by the amount of dinner
planning still left to be done.
14. agape —[B] state of wonder.
Talya was agape when she saw, on
TV, 80,000 people gathered in
St Peter’s Square for Christmas mass.
15. implacable—[C] impossible to
appease. One year after dropping
gravy on my brother-in-law’s suede
shoes, his implacable hostility
toward me has started to thaw.