Vocabulary Quiz, The Active Reader

Instructions: Choose the option that best represents the meaning of the italicized word(s). In some cases, you should be able to infer the word’s meaning from the context; in others, you may have to use a dictionary. If two words seem similar in meaning, choose the one that best fits the context in which the word occurs. If you choose an incorrect answer, consult The Active Reader for the context of the sentence (the relevant page numbers will appear along with the solutions when you submit your answers).

Question 1:

When faced with irrefutable evidence of human impact, such as through over-harvesting, intelligent managers have often “eradicated” the human predator by closing seasons, establishing reserves, and protecting endangered species.
a) excessive
b) undeniable
c) primary
d) circumstantial

Question 2:

The litany of subversive, deviant behaviour extant in the burrows, nests, cages, and tree-knots of the Looney Toons universe is astonishing.
a) din
b) meaninglessness
c) perversion
d) repetition

Question 3:

Castronova suspects his eclectic background is why he never made the powerful connections necessary to secure a good academic job.
a) criminal
b) impoverished
c) varied
d) sparse

Question 4:

Aboriginal adults harvest natural resources through hunting and fishing, and of those, less than 96 per cent do so for subsistence purposes.
a) entertainment
b) supplementary
c) survival
d) essential

Question 5:

A public education process was recommended by workshop participants to inform people about what action could be taken to minimize the risk of being bitten and to alleviate public fear.
a) relax
b) reduce
c) substantiate
d) elevate

Question 6:

The presenters provided educational information on etiology and treatment as well as personal accounts of their struggles.
a) system
b) origins
c) science
d) consequences

Question 7:

The event was a debacle, yet it is considered by many to be the greatest Canadian story ever told.
a) joke
b) spectacle
c) disaster
d) success

Question 8:

From a Buddhist perspective, some emotions are conducive to genuine and enduring happiness and others are not.
a) favourable to
b) similar to
c) suggestive of
d) threatening to

Question 9:

Students attending university in Québec seem less likely to drink heavily, despite a higher drinking prevalence and greater availability of alcohol in Québec.
a) popularity
b) acceptance
c) equality
d) dominance

Question 10:

Warwick University campus, in the English city of Coventry, was the relaxed and convivial setting for the Fourth International Conference on Cognitive Technology.
a) sociable
b) picturesque
c) uninteresting
d) busy

Question 11:

Rather than clamming up in the face of such persuasive evidence, the opposition, like a dog with a bone, has grown bolder—and has its own growing body of contrarian evidence.
a) different
b) supporting
c) opposite
d) stubbornly contrary

Question 12:

Social influence starts with small, apparently trivial actions (in this case, insulting epithets), followed by more serious actions.
a) death threats
b) gestures
c) name-calling
d) blackmail

Question 13:

Gender inequities in technology are systemic in Canadian schools and workplaces.
a) injustices, inherent
b) inequalities, common
c) distinctions, inherent
d) discrimination, infrequent

Question 14:

Iran, that strange fusion of military dictatorship, racism, and theocracy, is the key beneficiary of the terrible succubus born five years ago [in 2001].
a) unity, disaster
b) melding, demon
c) melding, fate
d) government, demon

Question 15:

The very term “global citizenship” reminds us that we’re living in a global city, fractious and unwieldy, rather than in the fondly imagined global village we like to invoke.
a) unruly, clumsy
b) hopeful, unified
c) unfriendly, armed
d) divided, broken

Higher Education