Essential Words for the TOEFL Lesson 24 Vocabulary Test

Choose the synonym.

discernible

average

originate

potent

affordable

similar

insufficient

negligible

thriving

monotonous

The Ceratosaurus, a genus of large carnivorous dinosaurs found as fossils in Late Jurassic rocks of North America, was similar to, and possibly closely related to, the Allosaurus. Ceratosaurus weighed up to 2 tons. This dinosaur was somewhat smaller than Allosaurus. It had a distinctive horn on its snout, a row of bony plates down the middle of its back, and four clawed fingers rather than three.

The word somewhat in the passage is closest in meaning to_____.

The countries of Scandinavia were influenced by the spirit of improvement prevalent throughout Europe during the eighteenth century, but showed less advanced agriculture than others. Danish farmers were somewhat slowed in using new methods because of political restrictions. At the end of the nineteenth century, however, these political restrictions lessened, and the agriculture industry reciprocated by developing solid advances in farming techniques.

The word reciprocated in the passage is closest in meaning to_____.

Tourists throng to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor year-round. The Inner Harbor was built in an area that was once a contaminated industrial port. This area underwent rapid development in the 1980s. It is now a waterside array of high-fashion stores, new hotels, outdoor performances, moving boats, docked ships, and locales for eating and drinking.

The word contaminated in the passage is closest in meaning to_____.

The Northwest Territories are Canada’s most sparsely settled area. Most settlements consist of only a few hundred people. About two-thirds of Canada’s Inuit Eskimos live there, scattered throughout the Arctic sector. Most Europeans who live in this territory live in the Mackenzie Valley.

The word scattered in the passage is closest in meaning to_____.

Plastics are a vast group of synthetic materials whose structures are based on the chemistry of carbon. They are also called polymers because they are made of extremely long chains of carbon atoms. An important characteristic of plastics is that they can be readily molded into finished products by the application of heat. As a finished product, one of its well-known properties includes remarkable resistance to heat.

The word remarkable in the passage is closest in meaning to_____.

Extensive water storage is common to a class of animals called ruminants. The class includes sheep and cattle, but the class member best known for storing water is the camel. There are two types of camel, the single-humped dromedary and the double-humped Bactrian camel found in the dry steppes of central Asia, where there is insufficient water for other animals to survive long-term. The ability of these animals to store water makes them the ideal beasts of burden on long treks across the desert.

The word insufficient in the passage is closest in meaning to_____.

As computer systems improve, databases will play an increasingly important role as sources of information for the general public. As databases become more refined, the need for awareness of a particular database will become more important. Users will need to be able to discern how reliable information coming from a database is.

The word discern in the passage is closest in meaning to_____.

The late 1970s and 1980s were years of delirious skyscraper construction. This was found in the cities that experienced economic progress, such as Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta in the southern United States, and also Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Singapore. Although New Yorkers, in particular, had reason to complain that the building of mediocre skyscrapers was choking Manhattan, few distinguished profiles were added to the skylines of modern cities.

The word mediocre in the passage is closest in meaning to_____.

The deserts of the world are distributed in a pair of parallel belts lying approximately 25 degrees north and south of the equator. Of these, the world’s largest desert is found in the Northern Hemisphere. The Sahara and smaller deserts, forming much of the arid portion of the Middle East, are located in high-pressure regions directly influenced by global circulation of the atmosphere.

The word parallel in the passage is closest in meaning to_____.

The life of the Atlantic salmon is typical of all salmon. The young fish leave the streams of their origin and spread into the feeding water of the cold seas. When they are sexually mature, they return to their home streams. In early summer, vast numbers of fish can be observed in their run upstream. Potent river currents and swift rapids are insufficient to stop the salmon’s journey. It is not known how the fish identify the right river system and the specific nesting sites, but research indicates that the fish sense a chemical code specific to their home stream.

The word potent in the passage is closest in meaning to_____.