400 Must Have Words for the TOEFL LESSON 11 – Illness Vocabulary Test
Question 1
Choose the word that is closest in meaning to the underlined part of each sentence.
He sustained a serious injury in the war, so he was sent home immediately.
A wound is an injury to the body, especially a cut or hole in the skin caused by a weapon, so it fits an injury received in a war: He suffered a deep wound to his arm. Not disease, because a disease is an illness, not damage caused by an attack or accident.
Question 2
Her sickness was so rare, doctors weren’t certain how to treat it.
A disease is an illness or sickness, so it can replace sickness here: a rare disease. Prognosis is related to illness, but it means a prediction about how an illness will develop, not the illness itself.
Question 3
His motto was to keep trying, no matter what happened.
To persist means to keep trying or to continue doing something even when it is difficult: She persisted until she found a solution. None of the other options is a verb that means 'continue'.
Question 4
The medical staff could not know for sure whether the treatment would work, but they made a confident prediction that the patient would recover.
A prognosis is a doctor's prediction about how an illness will develop and whether the patient will recover: The prognosis is good. The clue is the medical context: the staff predicted that the patient would recover.
Question 5
The airplane crash was tragic, killing many people immediately and inflicting injuries on others that would eventually prove deadly.
Fatal means causing death, so it is a synonym of deadly: a fatal injury. The phrase prove fatal means 'turn out to cause death'. Not wound, which is a noun for the injury itself, not an adjective.
Question 6
Choose the word that most closely fits the definition below.
the science involved in solving crimes
Forensics is the use of scientific methods to investigate crimes, for example by studying fingerprints, blood or DNA: Forensics experts examined the crime scene.
Question 7
a vessel for carrying blood
A vein is a tube in the body that carries blood, specifically back to the heart: The nurse put the needle into a vein in his arm.
Question 8
to make worse
To aggravate means to make a problem, illness or situation worse: Smoking aggravated his breathing problems. In informal English it can also mean 'annoy', but its basic meaning is 'make worse'.
Question 9
unable to be cured
A terminal illness cannot be cured and will cause death: terminal cancer. Not fatal, which means 'causing death'. It is not one of the options here, but learners often confuse the two words.
Question 10
in very bad condition
Decrepit means old and in very bad condition. It is used for people, buildings or objects: a decrepit old house, a decrepit old man.
Question 11
Read the passage to review the vocabulary you have learned. Answer the questions that follow.
The man was decrepit. With high blood pressure, cancer, and liver disease, he aggravated his situation by smoking. His prognosis was death. His advanced lung cancer was terminal, and his family members knew that he would pass away soon. So no one was surprised to find him dead on that sharp winter Thursday, no one, that is, except one sharp-eyed detective, who noticed the bedroom window ajar on the morning of the old man’s death. Would a fatally ill person be likely to sleep with the window open on a freezing cold night?
This question occupied forensic specialists from the medical examiner’s office. There, an autopsy revealed an unlikely wound on the victim’s thigh. Such a wound could easily have been inflicted by someone administering medicine . . . or poison. From there, the poison could travel through the veins, shutting down vital organs and causing death within seconds.
Indeed, the death turned out to be murder in the first degree. Criminal investigators persisted in their questioning of friends and family, only later finding the motive: money. Two distant relatives who stood to inherit large sums from the old man’s estate plotted the death, believing that the old man’s death would not be questioned.
Bonus Structure — Indeed indicates that an idea in an earlier paragraph was actually true.
Why does the author mention a wound?
Paragraph 2 calls it an unlikely wound. It says the wound could easily have been made by someone giving medicine . . . or poison. So the wound made the specialists suspect that the death was not natural. Not \'The wound caused the death\': the passage says the poison, travelling through the veins, caused the death, and the wound only showed how the poison may have entered the body.
Question 12
In the passage, the word inherit is closest in meaning to _____.
To inherit means to receive money or property from someone after they die. Paragraph 3 says the relatives stood to inherit large sums from the old man’s estate, which means they would gain money when he died. Not earn, because earning means getting money in return for work.
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Word List
aggravate [ˈæɡrəˌveɪt] v.
To make worse; to anger or intensify
→ Running will aggravate your sore knees.
Parts of speech aggravation n.
decrepit [dɪˈkrepɪt] adj.
Weakened or worn out because of age, illness, or excessive use
→ The once-beautiful building was now dirty, decrepit, and roofless.
disease [dɪˈziːz] n.
An unhealthful condition caused by an infection or a longterm physical problem
→ Thanks to developments in medicine,many once-fatal diseases can now be cured.
fatally [ˈfeɪdəli] adv.
Causing death or disaster
→ The soldier was fatally wounded in the battle.
Parts of speech fatality n., fatal adj.
forensics [fəˈrɛnsɪks] n.
The use of science and technology to investigate facts in criminal cases
→ Advances in the study of forensics have made it much easier to identify criminals from very small traces of evidence.
Parts of speech forensic adj.
persist [pərˈsɪst] v.
To continue to exist; to hold to a purpose, despite any obstacle
→ If your symptoms persist, you should go see a doctor.
Parts of speech persistence n., persistent adj.
prognosis [prɒgˈnəʊsɪs] n.
An educated guess of how something will develop, especially a disease
→ The room fell silent when the doctor gave Senator Grebe a grim prognosis of months of treatment.
terminal [ˈtɜːmɪnl] adj.
Located at an end; approaching death
→ The cancer ward at the hospital held both terminal and recovering patients.
Parts of speech terminate v., terminally adv.
vein [veɪn] n.
Any of the tubes that form a branching system, especially those that carry blood to the heart
→ She became fascinated with human anatomy, especially when she learned how veins transport oxygen.
wound [wuːnd] v.
To inflict an injury on
→ Sometimes he didn’t realize his sharp humor could wound as well as entertain.
Parts of speech wound n.