97个提升英文水平的单词 – Part I

大概半年前开始，我follow了一个X上的账号Elite Prep，学到了不少我觉得对我英文水平有很大提升的单词——都是非常常用、非常好的单词。

每当我看到一个我觉得很“好”的单词，我会将它记录下来（单词、词性、例句）。今天一看，居然也有了97个了——也就是说，我的英文词汇量又得到了97次加固。

这97个单词中，有42个形容词、31个名词、23个动词和1个副词。

今天我介绍20个形容词。下面列出的是：单词、释义和例句——例句都非常经典，建议背下来。

amiable

friendly and agreeable; sociable

Vince’s amiable attitude impressed the visitors he talked to, who had expected New Yorkers to be surly and uncommunicative.

austere

stern or severe in appearance; without luxury

Despite his newly achieved wealth, Henry still practices the same austere lifestyle he developed when he was a poor, struggling writer.

beleaguered

harassed; besieged

For five months in the fall and winter of 1942, the beleaguered city of Stalingrad held out against a ferocious German onset, a battle that cost the lives of over 1.5 million soldiers.

capricious

erratic; tending to change abruptly

People ordinarily agonize for months over the purchase of a new house; it’s seldom a capricious decision.

captious

tending to notice and point out trivial mistakes or faults; intended to trap or confuse

Veronica had a great knowledge of grammar, but she was so captious that people disliked talking to her since she was forever pointing out even the slightest grammatical error they made.

choleric

easily angered; bad tempered

Two sleepless nights left Jill choleric and inclined to savage anyone she met.

contingent

dependent on conditions or circumstances; conditional; possible

A continuation of Noma’s scholarship next year is contingent upon her maintaining at least a B average in her courses.

cursory

superficially done; performed rapidly

I have not checked your work thoroughly yet, but a cursory glance tells me you have the right idea.

derelict

deserted, abandoned (of a building); neglectful of a duty (of a person)

The many empty, derelict buildings near the water front attest to the decline that part of town has undergone in the last decade.

desultory

lacking a plan or purpose; unmethodical

Jan planned his garden in a desultory manner, planting a shrub here and some flowers there and leaving areas in the middle unplanted until he was inspired.

disingenuous

not straightforward or candid; crafty; insincere or calculating

The candidate was being disingenuous when he expressed outrage and labeled his opponent as a “tool of big business” since the candidate himself had taken millions from the tobacco and banking industries.

ephemeral

lasting for a short time; fleeting

True love is eternal and not based on something ephemeral as good looks.

ersatz

artificial; not genuine; fake

He thought the ersatz engagement ring would fool his fiancée, forgetting that her father was a professional jeweler.

erstwhile

former; of an earlier time

After his retirement, Mr. Kim occasinally visited his erstwhile colleagues to see how they were doing in his absence.

extant

currently or actually existing

Remaining artifacts from the region are beautiful, making it all the more regrettable that so few are extant.

fetid

having a bad odor

Never one to engage in housekeeping, Ted became nonetheless alarmed when his refrigerator began to give off the fetid aroma of forgotten leftovers.

forthright

direct and without evasion; honest

After several hours of evasive responses, the interrogators appreciated when the suspect began speaking in a forthright manner about his involvement in the crime.

glib

easy and fluent in conversation or writing, often suggesting insincerity or deceitfulness

The skilled liar didn’t set off a single alarm on the polygraph as he offered his glib explanation for his whereabouts.

holistic

dealing with something as a whole rather than by its individual parts

The judges decided which contestants would go on to the second round based on their holistic impression rather than on a detailed analysis.

impeccable

flawless

I thought my essay was impeccable, but the teacher did find several areas where I could improve it.

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我喜欢看“英文单词”的“英文释义”，而不是看“中文释义”。中文释义往往会丢失一些单词原来的subtlety。

比如：glib这个单词，剑桥的解释是：“花言巧語的，油嘴滑舌的;（說話）不誠懇的，未經思考的”。而这里的解释是：“easy and fluent in conversation or writing, often suggesting insincerity or deceitfulness”。首先强调的是此人说话时反应很快、回答也很快，然后强调了此人往往带有不真诚、欺骗的嫌疑。中文的释义可以帮助我们理解，但可能还是不能完整地将其中的subtlety传达出来。

再看例句，一些细微的差别才能被体会到。

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有兴趣学习更多英文单词的，可以关注我的订阅号，并发送WOTD获得一个随机的单词。