This free English lesson teaches you advanced vocabulary words and tests your knowledge with a quiz. Learning English is fun when you get to watch native speakers and take a quiz to make sure you’ve got it.
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Video Transcript:
Today we’re taking three of my popular GRE level vocabulary shorts and we’re expanding them more example sentences so you have a fuller idea of how to use these words to advance your English writing or conversation skills. There will be a quiz at the end.
First, you’ll see the whole short that introduces three new words. These are high level English words. Words you might see on the GRE which is the test we take in the US to get into graduate school. Then, you’ll see the short again but this time, after you learn a word. I’ll give you more examples from real life so we’ll learn nine new words this way reviewing as we go and at the end, I’ll give you a quiz. Okay, here’s the first set of three words:
What is it called when you make an unpleasant feeling less intense?
Assuage. I need a neck massage to assuage the tension in my shoulders and back.
What word describes something you cannot see through or something or someone not easily understood?
Opaque. The textbook from my new history class is really opaque. There are a lot of words in there I don’t know.
What do you call a person or situation that is mysterious, puzzling or difficult to understand?
An enigma. They’ve discovered a new tomb in Egypt but they don’t know the story of who was buried there. It’s a total enigma.
Let’s review.
To make an unpleasant feeling less intense. That’s assuage. You know the word assuage kind of reminds me of the word ‘sausage’ and I know sausage in the past or maybe still is sometimes made with the intestines of other animals as the casing and intestines reminds me of the word ‘intense’. I’m going to remember that. Assuage – to make an unpleasant feeling less intense.
This meeting, I mean considering all of that, it was a brief meeting. Did it do anything to assuage any of those deep concerns?
In the last few months of his life, the only thing that could assuage his pain was pot.
It can also make it even easier if we already know we have something in common like they enjoy coffee too, or like practicing yoga, or we do the same thing for work. You name it. Finding just a little thread of similarity can give us something to talk about and hopefully assuage any of those anxious feelings we may be having.
What is it called when you make an unpleasant feeling less intense?
Assuage. I need a neck massage to assuage the tension in my shoulders and back.
Opaque. This is something that you cannot see through. I’m thinking of a glass of water and a glass of milk. Water, you can see through. Milk, no. It is opaque. Opaque, something you cannot see through or something or someone not easily understood.
That’s a little bit similar to enigma where we said, a person or situation that’s mysterious, puzzling or difficult to understand. So enigma, describing a person difficulty to understand is similar from opaque, someone not easily understood.
Other than execution, incarceration is the most intrusive power of the state. The deprivation of citizen’s liberty. But no government institution is more opaque and less accountable than prison.
There’s a giant opaque thick dust cloud around this star and it’s very uneven and people wonder if maybe two planets have recently collided. Maybe two planets collided and threw up this giant cloud of dust that’s still kind of settling down.
So I talked about introducing reading on social media and the reason I do this is because the reason for the reading is usually opaque to students. Like you’ve assigned me chapter four of this textbook or you want me to read this dead white guy, you know why, I don’t get it. So make that reason obvious.
What word describes something you cannot see through or something or someone not easily understood?
Opaque. The textbook from my new history class is really opaque. There are a lot of words in there I don’t know.
Enigma. This word when you think of if, think of puzzle. A person or situation that’s mysterious, puzzling or difficult to understand.
I mean, at the center of most of Edward’s plays is an enigma, and but it is the driving center of the play whether it’s the baby or goat or in delicate balance, the terror, you know.
While 2015 has been a huge year for advances in LGBT rights, bisexuality still remains an enigma to much of America.
I came back to the US and realized I needed more education so that I could explain this thing that is somehow an enigma for a lot of people.
What do you call a person or situation that is mysterious, puzzling or difficult to understand?
An enigma. They’ve discovered a new tomb in Egypt but they don’t know the story of who was buried there. It’s a total enigma.
Here’s the next set of three.
What word is used when you confirm or make something more certain?
Corroborate. I believed his story because several other witnesses could corroborate it.
How can you describe something that lasts for a very short time?
Ephemeral. Some plants in the desert live only a few hours or bloom only a few hours, those flowers are very ephemeral.
What word describes someone who dislikes humankind and avoids society?
Misanthrope. Honestly, my aunt is a little bit of a misanthrope. She lives alone, hardly ever leaves her house and really barely communicates with the rest of us.
To confirm or make something more certain. This is corroborate. Corroborate, to confirm.
That was his buddy, his sidekick so I wanted to see how you could corroborate this idea of friendship so I went to the archives to see like what he was basing that on.
I’ve seen those reports and obviously our intelligence community has seen them as well. At this point those are reports that we are not able to corroborate at this time.
Little things that tell you about Jefferson that tell you about the lives that you can check that can be corroborated from outside information so you know that this person isn’t just making stuff up.
What word is used when you confirm or make something more certain?
Corroborate. I believed his story because several other witnesses could corroborate it.
Ephemeral. Something that lasts for a very short time. We often think of this with something that is beautiful. It’s beautiful but then it’s gone. There’s just so much unexpected life in this extreme environment and the sheer diversity continues to challenge our perceptions of where and how living things can exist, but researchers will have to study all of it as quickly as they can because this underwater world is ephemeral.
And there’s a street artist name De La Vega who’s really well known. He sells pieces at Christie’s and Sellerbies, but he’ll also do ephemeral art so he’ll tag a chalk in the street or you know, pieces of graffiti that are going to get taken away the next morning.
All of a sudden all the shops are closed like where is everybody? Why? And they’re off gathering het-top because het-top gets 200 baht a kilo or more so, and you go get them for free out of the forest.
Right.
So they’re really highly prized, but they only come up for about a month, month and a half out of the year. And when they come up, they make some dishes using that particular mushroom.
Amazing.
And so that was the way that I first connected with the idea that there was something regional, local, seasonal,
Ephemeral.
Yeah, like just like regional American food or Spanish food or Italian food or French food or anywhere where there’s a regional, seasonal type cuisine.
How can you describe something that lasts for a very short time?
Ephemeral. Some plants in the desert live only a few hours or bloom only a few hours, those flowers are very ephemeral.
Misanthrope. If you know the suffix ‘mis’, then you know that is means badly or wrongly or misbehave to behave badly. Misanthrope. Maybe you know that anthropology is something you can study in college, the study of humans, misanthrope. Then it might be easy to remember that a misanthrope is someone who dislikes humankind and avoids society.
But in the movie, you get to know him, he is the ultimate misanthrope. He does not like people. He doesn’t like the weather. He doesn’t like the way the concrete feels on his shoe leather. I mean there’s just nothing he likes. J Paul Getty was in his day the world’s richest man. Uhm, Getty was something of a miser, he was a misanthrope, uhm, and he was a thoroughly unpleasant person to most people who knew him. Uhm, but he was a passionate collector.
Do you know that your friends have more friends than you do? Your friends have more friends than you do and this is known as the friendship paradox. Imagine a popular person in the social network like a party host who has hundreds of friends and a misanthrope who has just one friend. And you pick someone at random from the population, they were much more likely to know the party host.
What word describes someone who dislikes humankind and avoids society?
Misanthrope. Honestly, my aunt is a little bit of a misanthrope. She lives alone, hardly ever leaves her house and really barely communicates with the rest of us.
Here’s the final set of three vocabulary words.
State a noun that describes using every situation to try to gain power or get an advantage.
Opportunism. Politics is full of greed and opportunism rather than people who actually want to improve society.
What’s a word that means a person subject to sudden unpredictable changes of mood, fickle?
Mercurial. I had a roommate once that was so mercurial she was really difficult to live with.
Give a term for irritable, testy, touchy.
Irascible. Unfortunately, my grandfather is becoming more and more irascible as he ages.
Opportunism. Using a situation to try to gain power or get an advantage. This is similar to the word opportunity. You see an opportunity and you take it. I do want to say that opportunism is used for someone as a negative trait. It’s like they are unfairly taking advantage of a situation just for themselves.
Opportunism—using a situation to try to gain power or get an advantage.
We’ll we’ve heard about political confusion and opportunism in Kansas, we’ve heard about a bungled property tax in Jackson County, a troubled school district in Kansas City and the test, uh for all of them is going to be whether they can overcome the mistrust, the deep sectarian divisions, in some cases just political opportunism and say this is bigger than any one of us.
The middle line is just compromised with no principle which is opportunism.
State a noun that describes using every situation to try to gain power or get an advantage.
Opportunism. Politics is full of greed and opportunism rather than people who actually want to improve society.
Mercurial – a person subject to sudden unpredictable changes of mood or mind, fickle.
When I see the word mercurial, I think of the word mercury and I know that that’s the smallest planet that moves the fastest so I can think of somebody quickly, changing between moods.
Unpredictable changes of mood or mind, fickle. That’s mercurial.
Horace Greeley was not the biggest newspaper man in New York but uh, in ways the most influential highly mercurial figure who would go from despair to elation at the drop of a hat about the progress of the war.
I mean this is sort of the challenge for Facebook where it’s, you’re dealing with all these mercurial teenagers and sort of you know, the greatest minds of our generation are sort of staring intently at all this data trying to figure out you know, what the millennials want but that’s very difficult.
Born to an absent father and a mercurial mother, Byron had a brilliant mind but had a very deep complex about being born with a misshapen foot.
What’s a word that means a person subject to sudden unpredictable changes of mood or mind, fickle?
Mercurial. I had a roommate once that was so mercurial, she was really difficult to live with.
Irascible. This means irritable, testy, touchy. That sounds like me if I haven’t had enough sleep several nights in a row. I’m very irritable, I’m very touchy. I might lash out at you if you annoy me. I am irascible.
It does not vibrate as much, speak slowly, the instrument is temperamental, some might say irascible. And it’s difficult to play.
The reasons why I wanted to do a Happiness Project was that I felt like I would behave myself better if I were happier. And I find that definitely to be true. I’m more patient, I’m more forgiving, I’m less irascible. Uh, I’m more generous when I’m happier.
When your body stops getting the nicotine, you lose the pleasurable effects, you become irascible, you have anxiety, you become irritable, you become cranky and is difficult to function.
Give a term for irritable, testy, touchy.
Irascible. Unfortunately, my grandfather is becoming more and more irascible as he ages.
Now it’s time for the quiz. Keep track of your score and put it in the comments. Alright, let’s quiz you. Four definitions, four words, you match them.
Make an unpleasant feeling less intense.
Number 1: Make and unpleasant feeling less intense,
That’s assuage, C
Number 2: Confirm or make something more certain
Confirm or make something more certain
That’s corroborate, D.
Number 3: Irritable, testy, touchy
Irritable, testy, touchy. Remember, this is like me if I haven’t gotten enough sleep. That’s irascible.
Number 4: Using a situation to try to gain power or get at advantage
Using a situation to try to gain power or get at advantage
That’s A, opportunism.
We’ll do one more section of matching then we’ll move into complete this sentence. So here we have five definitions, five words.
Number 5: A person or situation that is mysterious, puzzling or difficult or difficult to understand.
A person or situation that is mysterious, puzzling or difficult or difficult to understand.
E, enigma.
Number 6: Someone who dislikes humankind and avoids society
Someone who dislikes humankind and avoids society
H, misanthrope.
Number 7: A person subject to sudden unpredictable changes of mood or mind, fickle.
A person subject to sudden unpredictable changes of mood or mind, fickle.
F, mercurial.
Number 8: Something you cannot see through or something or someone not easily understood
Something you cannot see through or something or someone not easily understood
I, that’s opaque.
Number 9: Something that lasts for a very short time
Something that lasts for a very short time
G, ephemeral
Here’s a sentence: Which of the three words works the best?
I knew him my whole life but I never felt I could guess what he was really thinking or what he might say next. He was a bit of a ___.
Now, what works here, mercurial, that’s someone who has unpredictable mood swings that sort of works but we’re talking here about what is the person thinking, we’re talking about understanding the person.
So for that, enigma is the best choice. An enigma – a person or situation that’s mysterious, puzzling or difficult to understand.
Sentence #2: There was a bogus story circulating the news in social media a couple years ago about kids identifying as animals and parents demanding that schools put litter boxes in the restrooms. It upsets so many people. I searched for legitimate sources for hours but never found anything to the fake story.
Opaque – means hard to understand or can’t see through.
Assuage – means to make an unpleasant feeling less intense. We’re talking about looking for information to try to see if this story is true. We want to corroborate a fake story. We we’re unable to corroborate it, unable to confirm make something more certain. This was misinformation. This was not true. We could not corroborate it.
The cathedral’s windows are made of beautifully colored ____ glass.
Mercurial. We’ll this doesn’t really describe an object because it has to do with changing mood quickly.
Irascible. Also we know this to define a person, irritable, testy.
Opaque, can describe a person but it can also describe an object, something you can’t see through. Opaque glass, different from translucent glass which you can see through.
Opaque. Something that you cannot see through or something or someone not easily understood. In this case, it’s the part of the definition something that you cannot see through. That fits with this sentence.
A guy at work was recently fired for making personal business deals with some of the clients that he had met through the company. His ___ shocked the rest of us; we had all signed non-competes.
A non-compete is something you sign when you work with a company that says you will not compete with the company or you will not leave that company and immediately go work for someone or a company that does the same thing. So this person was making personal business deals with the clients he met through the company. Not allowed.
So the answer is opportunism. Taking advantage of a situation. And remember I said this is a negative thing. It’s something that someone does selfishly.
Opportunism. His opportunism shocked the rest of us.
Okay, last sentence.
My ___ neighbor is always looking to pick a fight – I had to stop following her on social media; her posts were just too negative and angry.
Okay, so all three words here, opaque, that can describe a person difficult to understand but we’re not talking about her being difficult to understand. We’re talking about her being negative and angry, mercurial, this person could be negative and angry but someone who is mercurial changes their moods a lot and this sentence has really only talked about one thing: Negative and angry, therefore, it’s irascible. That means remember, irritable, testy, touchy, all of these things can feel like negative and angry. Someone who’s cranky or grouchy can be described as erasable.
By the way, the place where I get a lot of my examples is Youglish.com. When you learn a new word, go there and type it in to see many, sometimes hundreds of examples so you can hear how people use the words in context and get a better idea of the meaning.
Keep your learning going now with this video and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications on so you never miss a new video. I love being your English teacher. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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