v: give an imitation that ridicules. "In Galaxy Quest, Alan Rickman ____s Mr. Spock of Star Trek, outrageously parodying Spock's unemotional manner and stiff bearing."
Calculatedadj: deliberately planned, likely. "Lexy's choice of clothes to wear to the debate tournament was carefully ___. Her conventional suit was ___ to appeal to the conservative judges."Calibern: ability, quality. "Einstein's cleaning the blackboards again? Quit it, Albert! A man of your ___ shouldn't have to do such menial tasks."Caligraphyn: beautiful writing; excellent penmanship. "As we examine ancient manuscripts, we become impressed with the ___ of the scribes."Callousadj: hardened, unfeeling. "he had worked in the hospital for so many years that he was ___ to the suffering in the wards."Callowadj: youthful, immature; inexperienced. "As a freshman, Jack was sure he was a man of the world. As a sophomore, he made fun of freshmen as ___ youths."Calumnyn: malicious misrepresentation; slander. "He could endure his financial failure, but he could not bear the ___ that his foes heaped upon him."Camaraderien: good-fellowship. "What he loved best about his job was the sense of ___ he and his coworkers shared."Camoufalgev: disguise, conceal. "IN order to rescue Han Solo, Princess Leia _____ed herself in the helmet and cloak of a space bandit."Candorn: frankness; open honesty. "Jack can carry ___ too far; when he told Jill his honest opinion of her, she nearly slapped his face."Cannyadj: shrewd, thrifty. "The ___ Scotsman was more than a match for the swindlers."Canonn: collection or authoritative list of books (i.e. by an author, or accepted as scripture). "Scholars hotly debated whether the newly discovered sonnet should be accepted as part of the Shakespearean canon."Canonn: rule or principle, frequently religious. "ONe catastrophe, one locality, one day"- these are Aristotle's rules for tragedy. Shakespeare, however, disregards all these __s."Cantn: insincere expressions of piety; jargon of thieves. "Shocked by news of the minister's extramarital love affairs, the worshippers dismissed his talk about the sacredness of marriage as mere ___."Cantankerousadj: ill-humored, irritable. "Constantly complaining about his treatment and refusing to cooperate with the hospital staff, he was a ___ patient."Canvassv: determine or seek opinions, votes, etc. "After __ing the sentiments of his constituents, the congressman was confident he represented the majority opinion of his district."Capaciousadj: spacious. "In the ___ areas of the railroad terminal, thousands of travelers lingered while waiting for their trains."Capacityn: mental or physical ability; role; ability to accommodate. "Mike had the ___ to handle several jobs at once."Capitulatev: surrender. "Once the allied forces converged on Berlin in April 1945, the end was near; the Berlin garrison commander ___ed on the second of May."*Capriciousadj: unpredictable; fickle. "The storm was ___; it changed course constantly." "Jill was __ ; she changed boyfriends almost as often as she changed clothes."Captionn: title; chapter heading; text under illustration. "the __ that accompany The Far Side cartoons are almost as funny as the pictures.Captiousadj: faultfinding. "His criticisms were always ___ and frivolous, never offering constructive suggestions."Carcinogenicadj: causing cancer. "Many supposedly harmless substances have been revealed to be ____."Cardinaladj: chief. "If you want to increase your word power, the ____ rule of vocabulary-building is to read."Caricaturen: distortion; burlesque. The ___s he drew always emphasized personal weaknesses of the people he burlesqued."Carnagen: destruction of life. "The film 'The Killing Fields' vividly depicts the ___ wreaked by the Pol Pot's followers in Cambodia."Carnaladj: fleshly. "Is the public more interested in ___ pleasures than in spiritual matters? Compare the number of people who read Playboy daily to the number of those who read the Bible daily."Carnivorousadj: meat-eating. "The lion's a ____ beast; a hunk of meat makes up his feast. A cow is not a ___, she likes the taste of grain."Carpingn: pretty criticism; fault-finding. "Welcoming constructive criticism, Lexy appreciated her editor's comments, finding them free of ___."Casten: one of the hereditary classes in Hindu society, social stratification; prestige. "The differences created by __ in India must be wiped out if true democracy is to prevail in that country."*Castigationn: punishment; severe critcism. "Sensitive to even mild criticism, Woolf could not bear the __ that she found in certain reviews."Casualtyn: serious or fatal accident. "The number of automotive ___ies on this holiday weekend was high."Cataclysmn: deluge; upheaval. "A ____ such as the French REvolution affects all countries."*Catalystn: agent that influences the pace of a chemical reaction while it remains unaffected and unchanged; person or thing that causes action. "AFter a banana is harvested, certain enzymes within its cells continue to act as a ___ for the biochemical processes of ripening, therefore causing the banana to eventually rot."Catastrophen: calamity, disaster. "The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was a ___ that destroyed most of the city."Catechismn: book for religious instruction; instruction by question and answer. "He taught by engaging his pupils in a ___ until they gave him the correct answer."Categoricaladj: without exceptions, unqualified, absolute. "Though the captain claimed he was never, never sick at sea, he finally qualified his ___ denial."Catharsisn: purging or cleansing or any passage of the body. "Aristotle maintained that tragedy created a ___ by purging the soul of base concepts."Catharticn: purgative. "Some drugs act as laxatives when taken in small doses but act as ____s when taken in much larger doses."Catholicadj: universal, wide-raging, liberal. "He was extremely ___ in his taste and read everything he could find in the library."Caucusn: private meeting of members of a party to select officers or determine policy. "At the opening of Congress the members of the Democratic Party held a ___ to elect the majority leader of the House."Causaladj: implying a cause-and-effect relationship. "The psychologist maintained there was a ___ relationship between the nature of one's early childhood experiences and one's adult personality."*Causticadj: burning; sarcastically biting. "The critic's ___ remarks angered the hapless actors who were the subjects of his sarcasm"Cauterizev: burn with hot iron or caustic. "In order to prevent infection, the doctor ____ed the wound."Cavalcaden: procession; parade. "As describe by Chaucer, the ___ of Canterbury pilgrims was a motley group."Cavalieradj: causal and offhand; arrogant. "Sensitive about having her ideas taken lightly, Marcia felt insulted by Mark's ____ dismissal of her suggestion."Cavilv: make frivolous objections. "I respect your sensible criticisms, but I dislike the way you ___ about unimportant details."Cedev: yield to, surrender formally. "Eventually the descendants of England's Henry II were forced to __ their French territories to the King of France."Celerityn: speed, rapidity. "Hamlet resented his mother's ___ in remarrying within a month after his father's death."Celestialadj: heavely. "She spoke of the ___ joys that awaited virtuous souls in the hereafter."Celibateadj: abstaining from sexual intercourse; unmarried. "Though the late Havelock Ellis wrote extensively about sexual customs and was considered an expert in such matters, recent studies maintain he was __ throughout his life."
