pcvocabulary

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A

acquaintance / uh - kweyn - tuhns / (n) a person who is more than an unknown person but not enough to be a friend.

amid (prep) among, in the middle of

aphonia / ey - foh - nee - uh / (n) loss of voice, esp. due to an organic or functional disturbance of the vocal organs.

arraignment (n) call or bring (someone) before a court to answer a criminal charge; Ms. Cheng was ordered held without bail at her arraignment in Criminal Court.

auction /awk shuhn / (n) public sale

autobahn / aw - tuh - bahn / (n) a German expressway

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B

bump / b - uh - mp / (v) knock or run into someone or something

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C

charter / char - tuhr / (v) rent; The bus has been chartered by a tour group to go from Brooklyn to Queens.

crunch /kruhnch/ (n) shortage

comb / kohm / (v) arrange;

concur / kuhn - kuhr / (v) agree [used in speech]; "That's right!" Mr. Saporito concurs.

condon / kuhn - dohn / (v) overlook

contend (v) satisfy

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D

deliberate (adj) done consciously and intentionally

delicate / del - i - kit / (adj) fine in text, quality

despise / di - spIz / (v) to regard with contempt, distaste, disgust, or loathe; She despised the girl because she hated the girl's father.

dizziness (n) having or involving a sensation of spinning around and losing balance;

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E

elite / i - leet / the choice or best of anything considered collectively; The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, a destination for the city's elite;

engulf / en - guhlf / (v) sweep over so as to surround or cover it completely

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F

foam / fohm / (v) form or produce a mass of small bubbles

fret / fret / (v) worry, annoy

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G

grapple with (v) struggle with or hard to deal with; The managers grapple with a bad phenomenon.

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H

Haiku / hI - koh / (n) a short Japanese poem

Hoard / hohrd / (v) hide or store away

Hinder /hin - duhr / (v) create difficulties for ( someone or something ), resulting in delay or obstruction; She realizes her dirty dress hindered her career success.

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L

lane / leyn / (n) a narrow road; The bus had pulled off into an emergency lane.

lax / laks / (adj) not strict or severe; careless or negligent; They'll ruin Japan with their lax-work ethnic.

lisp / lisp / (n) A speech defect or mannerism characterized by mispronunciation of the sounds (s) and (z) as (th) and (th).

listless (adj) having or showing little or no interest in anything.

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M

manslaughter (n)

mutism / myoo - tiz - uhm / (n) an inability to speak, due to a physical defect, conscious refusal, or psychogenic inhibition.

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N

Negligent (adj) failing to take proper care in doing (something); a criminally negligent homicide

Nudge / nuhj / (v) to push slightly or gently

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O

opt /opt / (v) make a choice from a range; option

Outplacement (n) a provision of assistance to laid-off employees; a Boston outplacement counselor

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P

plod /plod/ along in (v) to proceed in a tediously slow manner; He just plod along in life and has very small ambitions.

protagonist / proh - tag - uh - nist / (n) the leading character

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R

reconcile / rek - uh - sil / (v) settle

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S

sap /sap/ (v) gradually weaken or destroy; The lazy workers sap this country's International competitiveness.

shrink (v) reduce [shrank, shrunk]

sophisticated / suh - fis - ti - keytid / (v) advanced, modern

stammer / stam - er / (v) (n) to speak with involuntary breaks and pauses, or with spasmodic repetitions of syllables or sounds.

strike (v) hit forcibly and deliberately [struck]

stuttering / stuht - er / (n) Stuttering is a speech disorder in which sounds, syllables, or words are repeated or prolonged, disrupting the normal flow of speech. http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/stutter.htm

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T

Tome / tohm / (n) a heavy scholar book

tout / tout / (v) attempt to sell; A manager asked nearly two dozen present and past colleagues to tout his abilities.

torso (n) human body

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V

virtue /vur choo / (n) moral excellent and righteousness; goodness

vomit / vo - mit / (v) eject (contents of the stomach) through month

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