Product Description

Empower Yourself. Communicate with Confidence.

In the Information Age, clear and concise communication is more important than ever. With Kaplan Word Power, you'll build the vocabulary you need to succeed in school, at work, and in everyday life.

Kaplan Word Power includes: • 750 must-know words • Engaging lessons to help you use words in context • 55 practice quizzes to test your skills • Helpful tips and strategies for figuring out new words, word roots, and more • Key words used on standardized tests like the SAT® and GRE®

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #206335 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
Kaplan is the world's largest, most successful test preparation company, with 185 centers and 1,200 satellite locations worldwide. Top markets include Metro and Upstate NY, Los Angeles, Illinois/Indiana, San Francisco, Boston, Washington DC, Michigan, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Southern Connecticut, Central Florida, Houston, Minneapolis, North and Central Texas, Southwest Ohio, and Seattle.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Would You Abdicate or Advocate? abdicate v. to step down from a position of power The king decided to abdicate in favor of his smart, though woefully impetuous, son. The abdication (n.) heralded a new era. abridge v. to shorten, condense, or lessen in length At first he planned a lengthy abdication (adj.) speech, but then he decided to give an abridged (adj.) version so he wouldn't bore his kingdom to death. Had he not decided to abridge (v.) the speech himself, the queen was planning to lose it. absolve v. to forgive or free from blame As part of the king's historic decision, he decided to absolve all those villains who languished in the tower. abysmal adj. (a-biz-mal) extremely wretched, bottomless The prisoners had been living in an abysmal situation. acquiesce v. (ak-wee-ess) to comply passively, to give in The king's cabinet did not easily acquiesce to the pardons. Their acquiescence (n.) was critical. advocate v. to support, or be in favor of Not one cabinet member could advocate (v.) the king's position. They all became advocates (n.) of his proposal, however, when the king's son threatened to behead them. aesthetic adj. (es-thet-tic) concerned with or appreciative of beauty The queen, with her fine aesthetic sense, decided to stage the abdication with an eye towards high drama and bright colors. The queen considered her lady-in-waiting a true aesthete (n.) and often consulted with her when it came to matters of beauty and taste. affinity n. sympathy, attraction, kinship She possessed an affinity for the local artists, so she called upon them to display their wares at a pre-abdication crafts fair. agenda n. program, things to be done The queen's agenda grew longer every day and was impossible to address. aggrandize v. to make great The king's wealth had aggrandized (v.) during the time of his reign. The queen had also experienced an aggrandizement (n.) of her wealth. allusion n. (a-loo-zhun) an indirect reference She was sometimes referred to as Queen Jackie, which was an allusion to Jacqueline Onassis and her famous shopping sprees. altruistic adj. (al-troo-is-tic) unselfish concern with the welfare of others The royal family, despite their excesses, had been quite altruistic in its treatment of the poor. amnesty n. an official pardon for a group of people who violate a law In fact, the king himself had granted amnesty five years before to a ring of conspirators who had been planning to rob a bank. animosity n. ill will, active dislike He harbored no animosity towards the conspirators, even though a portion of his own money rested in the bank's vaults. anomalous adj. (a-nom-a-lus) irregular, abnormal, unusual The prince secretly plans to hang all criminals once he is crowned, as he considers his father's decision regarding amnesty an anomalous one. Plug In Plug in your answers to see if you've got the right word power connections. For this quiz, circle the correct definition. 1. abridge (a) to cross (b) to build (c) to shorten 2. abdicate (a) to rush toward (b) to step up (c) to relinquish power 3. abysmal (a) sickly (b) wretched (c) dark and dank 4. anomalous (a) interesting (b) unattractive (c) irregular 5. absolve (a) to forgive (b) to argue (c) to inspire 6. acquiesce (a) to approve (b) to inherit (c) to give in 7. advocate (a) to punish (b) to support (c) to disdain 8. affinity (a) hatred (b) familiarity (c) indecision 9. agenda (a) diary (b) schedule (c) reference book 10. allusion (a) reference (b) trick (c) saying 11. altruistic (a) truthful (b) generous (c) secretive 12. amnesty (a) affection (b) gift (c) pardon 13. aggrandizement (a) flattery (b) growth (c) pleasure 14. aesthetic (a) sense of beauty (b) joy of freedom (c) joy of life 15. animosity (a) love (b) dislike (c) attraction for The answer key appears on the following page. Plug In Solutions Here are the answers to the Plug In quiz. Check to see if you made the right connections! Test yourself again on the words and definitions you missed. 1. c 6. c 11. b 2. c 7. b 12. c 3. b 8. b 13. b 4. c 9. b 14. a 5. a 10. a 15. b

Customer Reviews

Will help a lot if you put a little time into it
This book has been a huge help for me for improving my vocabulary in preparation for the GREs. The stories may not always be Pulitzer prize quality, but they can still be helpful for remembering some of the more obscure words. I'm a big fan overall.

Thoroughly mediocre
I have a two hour commute each day and I'm trying to utilize that time in some positive fashion. I'm studying for the GRE and was looking for something I could listen to that would contribute to this goal/project. This was a waste of money, since I knew 98% of the words. Also, a few words I thought were not very well described, and the sentances were contrived. The way they use two words with the same root in a sentance seems to be a sure fire way in my book to help someone confuse the two words' meaning. On the plus side, buying this CD set has now made me see the futility of this method of studying for the GRE, and saved me from investing in a more expensive CD set. If like me, you're studying for the GRE, my advice to you is to set aside time to read scholarly journals or essay collections, dictionary in hand.

Excellent GRE prep book
I bought this book on the recommendation of the masters program administrator at a major university because my score on the verbal portion of my first GRE test was unacceptable (at least to me and I'm sure the university). I was somewhat leary about how a single book could select an accurate list of words from the thousands of potential choices and actually have the selected words appear on the test, but I had little time before my second test and I needed to prepare somehow.

The book is divided into 3 sections, 1) words you should know, 2) words for a good score on the test and 3) words for word geeks and a great score on the test. I studied with the book for 3 weeks before my second GRE test. The first section was truly words you should know and I spent little time on that section. The second section is where I spent 95% of my study time and the third section I merely glanced at as I'm not a word geek.

I'll let the results of my second test speak for the effectiveness of the book. During the entire verbal section of the test there were only one or two words I didn't recognize (I'm not saying I remembered the definitions of them all!!), but at least I recognized them and had something to work with. It's true that the verbal section has multiple components, only one of which relies heavily on knowing the definition of key words, but I raised my score on the overall verbal section 180 points from my first test. I credit the words in the second section of the book for most of this improvement. I don't know how the authors knew what words frequently appear on the test, but they were absolutely spot on, as I got a good score as advertised and the words in the second section of the book did indeed appear frequently on the test.