All or Nothing
Welcom to volume 1 of the Princeton review’s word smart vocabulary building program. You’re going to increase your vocabulary by at least fifty words. Although you may not be familiar with them now, these words do not particularly difficult or esoteric. I’m going to give you useful, powerful words that show up everyday, in the variety of contexts, from newspapers to movies, from corporate memos to your favorite novels on the television shows.
Not only will you get more familiar with reading, you’ll also be able to communicate more effectively. The words you use, say a lot about you. We are going to help you learn vocabulary that says you are smart, persuasive and informed.
Here’s how our system works. We break down the word list in 2 topic groups. You will find it’s easier to remember new words in the contexts of large group of similar words, then it is memorized in arbitrary list.
You will also find that many words with similar meanings also have similar roots, prefixes and suffixes, that is to say the basic building blocks of the words show up repeatedly. That way, if nothing else, you become familiar with those building blocks and you will be able to crack open the meanings of the countless numbers of words.
Each group of words is broken into complementary halves. For example, one group might be called “hot and cold”. That group has two parts to it. So it will examine each half individually, first hot, then cold. Then when both have been covered, we’ll review the group as a whole, and mix things up a bit.
You’ll be hearing word lists and definitions as well as stories and speeches highlighting the words. All the rather quick succession, but this is your course to listen to and absorb at your speed. So whenever you feel like listening to a section again, by all means do so as often, or as little as you like. We are certainly not going anywhere.
Without further ado then let’s get started with the first group of words.
Al right. Here we go. The first group of words, all fall on the heading of “all or nothing”. We be covering words that describe quantities both large and small. Let’s start by looking at the all words, words that mean a lot.
OK. Here we go, prodigious, prodigious means enormous, or extraordinary. To fill the grand canyon with ping pong balls would be a prodigious undertaking. It would be both extraordinary, and enormous. If I may point out here, there are prodigious number of words that begin with the prefix “pro”.
That’s certainly true. As we’ll see, many of those words have very similar meaning, and even when their meanings differ that prefix has the same effect. It almost always signifies the notion of large amount of something, also it can mean for something, as in favor of.
Then the connection between these next two words makes a lot of sense, prodigious sounds a lot like prodigy, which means an extremely talented child. For example, the young prodigy played all of Beethoven on her mnemonic. This prodigy has prodigious talents.
Exactly. Pro has the same effect on both of those words. The same is true of the next word. Prolific. Prolific means producing a lot of something. It can also mean fruitful, or fertile. A prolific writer writes a lot of books. Picasso was a both prolific painter and a prolific lover. He created thousand of paintings and ahead almost many romantic affairs.
Aha. Well prolific sounds very much like proliferate which means to spread or grow rapidly.
That’s because they are connected.
They are ?
Yap! They share the same roots, and you can see how their meanings are like.
Yes, I see.
Good. So shall we continue ?
Why not ? we are on proliferate. Right ? Honeybees, for example proliferated when we filled our yard with flowering plants.
Or the recent arms treaty promises to end 2 decades of nuclear weapons proliferation.
After something has been allowed to proliferate for long enough, when you have whole lot of something, good or bad, you have plethora. A plethora is an excess. Try this. Letting the air force use our backyard as a bombing range create a plethora of problems. Or of course by becoming familiar with the prefix pro, one can better understand the meaning of plethora of words.
A person who has a lot of something, one could say a plethora should be, if they are nice, munificent. That is to say they like to give their stuff to others, they’re generous or lavish. Take this sentence for example. The munificent millionaire gave money to practically every charity he came along. He was well loved for his munificence.
That same millionaire however might also squander huge amounts of money on worthless items, just to satisfy his fragile ego. Squander means to waste. This guy has been known to squander millions of ping pong balls. He wants to fill the grand canyon with them. Squander.
Aggregate means the sum total. A collection of things mixed together. The section of word smart, for example, is an aggregate of different words all described large amount of things, and what can happen to or be done with large amount of things. And following this final words will be a list which is an aggregate of the words we just learned. Here it is.
Prodigious – enormous or extraordinary
Prodigy – a gifted child
Prolific – very productive or fruitful
Proliferate – to spread or to grow
Plethora – a great deal or an excess
Munificent – generous or lavishly giving
Squander – to squander is to waste
And finally, Aggregate – a combination or collection of things
Now we are going to put those words to practical use. You are about to hear a man describe his line of work.
The job of organizing international tour for symphony orchestra isn’t easy. There are countless tasks to attempt to, and a prodigious number of details. We are not a rich organization so we depend largely upon the munificence of wealthy sponsors. Unfortunately many potential sponsors look upon donations to the orchestra is a waste. Just money squandered. But I tried to convince them otherwise. Our orchestra is a collection of wide variety of people. It’s an aggregate of artists and managers.
Unfortunately we are such a large number of people, such a plethora of personalities, fights are frequent. And it just gets worse, as season wears on. Arguments multiplied, disputes proliferate.
Our program on this tour will be devoted mostly on Mozart who wrote hundreds of great pieces of music. He is one of the most prolific of all great classical composers. Like Mozart our nine-year old piano soloist is a world renowned prodigy. She’s very gifted, if not a little preoccupied by Saturday morning cartoons.
Now let’s take a look at the other side of the coin, and learn those words which describe nothing or at least not a lot. Here they are.
If you have practically no money, you have a paucity of wealth. Paucity means scarcity, and insufficiency. A pauper, for example, has a paucity of cash, or the paucity of fresh vegetables at the market forces just to buy frozen ones.
A word that means very close to the same thing as paucity is dearth. Dearth means lack or like paucity, scarcity. For example, when there is dearth of food, people will go hungry. Or you can turn around like this.
There is no dearth of comedy at the clown convention. The comedy is everywhere.
A person who is living on a tight budget will look for items they can buy at a nominal cost. Nominal means insignificant or small, being named as a mere formality.
The cost was nominal in comparison what we received.
Here’s another.
The rain while a pain had a nominal effect on a fun of the football game. We had a blast.
Getting back to tight budgets, being frugal can be as much a quality of some wealthy people as it is those without large fortunes. Frugal means economical, or penny pinching.
Hanna’s frugality annoyed her husband who love nothing better than to spend money.
Furthermore, we were as frugal as we could be, but we still ended up several thousand dollars in debt.
Someone who takes frugality too far could be called parsimonious. Parsimony means stinginess. Take for example.
The old widow who is so parsimonious she hung a tea bag out to dry on her clothesline so that she will be able to use them again.
Well perhaps just she was alarmed by the attrition among the teashops in her area. Attrition means gradual loss or natural and an expected decrease in numbers and size.
Single sex colleges, the few that are left, have a highest rate of attrition among most colleges in America. Many speculate the students leave to finish their education at schools with students of both sexes.
And while we on the topic of small amounts, that’s look at minuscule. Sounding a lot like what it means, minuscule means very tiny.
Shila’s skirt was so miniscule it could be past for belt. Or,
Anaold knew his father was exaggerating when he told him it was only take a minuscule effort to clean up his room.
And finally, when you got a minuscule amount of money, penury is the word for you. Penury means poverty. Having blown his lottery winning on plastic ***, Mark was reduced to penury. He’s better get a job.
OK. That’s it for the nothing words. Here’s quick list of words for review. After this we’ll put them into the large context of another life story.
Paucity – a scarcity, and in sufficiency
Dearth – a lack, a scarcity
Nominal – insignificant or small
Frugal – economical or penny-pinching
Parsimony – parsimony means stinginess.
Attrition – a gradual expected decrease in numbers
Minuscule – very very small
Penury – poverty
Here now is a life story that will contain the nothing words, we just looked at.
Our income here at the convent is so minimal. We are forced to live a life of penury. But even though we must watch every penny and be frugal almost to a fault, very still room for charity. Just because we are poor, doesn’t have to be parsimonious. Where do we get our money last ? Well, donations, of course. And we do ask those who wish to be a c*** part of our convent for a small initiation fee. Just a nominal payment really. So small you might even call it minuscule. Actually I shouldn’t have even mentioned it. Since we almost never get a chance to collect any more. You see not only have our ranks grown smaller due to attrition, but there has also been noticeable dearth of newcomers in recent years. Ah, well, I suppose young people today just aren’t tough enough for a life lacking ordinary comports, and paucity of even the simplest materials items, not mention luxuries.
There, now we have covered halves of all or nothing. To review we mix things up a bit. During the pause that follows each word, try to fill in the definition. Then you hear ex from the speech which was appeared, followed by the definition and finally another example.
Here the words from all or nothing.
Nominal – a small initiation fee, just a nominal payment.
Nominal means insignificant or small, in name only. A nominal payment is almost not at all.
Prolific – He was one of the most prolific of all great classical composers.
Prolific is very productive or fruitful. Mozart wrote hundreds pieces of music, he is prolific.
Squander – Sponsors look upon donations to the orchestra as a waste, just money squandered.
To squander is to waste. The sponsors didn’t want squander money. They can’t afford to waste it.
Plethora – Such a large number of people, such a plethora of personalities.
A plethora is a whole lot, or excess. There’s no plethora of rich people who want to give away their money.
Attrition – Our ranks have frown smaller due to attrition.
Attrition means a gradual decrease in numbers. There are fewer nuns now because of attrition.
Minuscule – So small you might even call it minuscule.
Something minuscule is very very small. And atom is a minuscule particle.
Prodigious – There are countless tasks to attempt to, and prodigious number of details.
Prodigious means very large, extraordinary. Building a pyramid was a prodigious task.
Parsimony – Just because we are poor, doesn’t mean we have to be parsimonious.
Parsimony, stinginess. Don’t be so parsimonious, lend me a nickel.
Munificence – We are not a rich organization, so we depends largely upon the munificence of wealthy sponsors.
Munificence is generosity. I benefit munificence of my rich grand mother.
Paucity – Young people today just aren’t tough enough for a life lacking ordinary comports and a paucity of even the simplest material items, not to mention luxuries.
Paucity means a really small amount. I suffer from a paucity of vacation time, I’m always at work.
Penury – Our income here at the convent is so minimal we are forced to live a life of penury.
Penury is another good word for poverty. Actors like nuns often live a life of penury.
Aggregate – Our orchestra is an aggregate of artists and managers.
An aggregate is a combination or collection of items, like this word list.
Proliferate – arguments multiply, disputes proliferate.
To proliferate is to grow or spread. My knowledge of words proliferate as I listen to word smart.
Frugal – We must watch every penny, and be frugal almost to a fault.
To be frugal is to be economical. If you are low on cash, then you better be frugal.
Dearth – There also has been noticeable dearth of newcomers in recent years.
A dearth is a scarcity or a lack. I suffer from a dearth of free time too. I’m also always at work.
Prodigy – Like Mozart, our 9 years old piano soloist is a world renowned prodigy.
A prodigy is a extremely gifted child. Anyone who mastered anything in young age could be called prodigy.
That’s it for all or nothing. Review the words by taking a look at their spelling on the enclosed insert card. And before we move on to the next group, let’s talk briefly about mnemonic devices. Mnemonic device is any little trick you make up to remember something. The classic example of course is tying a string around your finger to remind you to do something. For example, the mnemonic I use to remember parsimonious is parsley. Pars make me think of parsley, which is very stingy meal if that’s all you’ve got on your plate. Anyone who would serve you only parsley is parsimonious, or stingy.
It’s generally best for you to make your own mnemonic. You can use other peoples. But you remember your own more easily. When you have chance, review the words we’ve learned on the enclosed insert card. Look at their spellings and roots and see what mnemonics you can come up with to remember those tough ones. Meanwhile let’s turn to our word groups.
Scripted by offbeat…. 2002-03-30