GrammarPhile Blog

Vocabulary Test: ConGRADulations?

Posted by Phil Jamieson   Jun 28, 2011 5:30:00 AM

 

Graduates

By this time in June, many people have left their schools for good, after years of study. Did people at Yale, for example, "graduate Yale" or did they "graduate from Yale"? Or did Yale "graduate them"? And if one is attending a "commencement" ceremony, why is it called that? Isn't the ceremony all about the end of their college careers? What are they commencing, anyway? Take our test, and see if you graduate with highest honors.

1. alumna: (a) plural for alumni, that is, more than one graduate; (b) a girl or woman who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university; (c) a boy or man who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university; (d) the association of persons graduated from a particular school, college, or university.

2. baccalaureate: (a) the degree of bachelor conferred by universities and colleges; (b) the backup person who serves in the absence of the poet laureate at a graduation ceremony; (c) literally, the address given to an incoming class; (d) what proud parents have done for generations (get it?).

3. burette: (a) a clip or bar for holding hair in place; (b) a usually glass bottle used to hold a condiment (as oil or vinegar) for use at the table; (c) a graduated glass tube with a small aperture and stopcock for delivering measured quantities of liquid or for measuring the liquid or gas received or discharged; (d) a usually revolving metal stand bearing graduated containers (as cruets, mustard pots, and often shakers) for table use.

4. Cantabrigian: (a) a student or graduate of Cambridge University; (b) a native or resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts; (c) both of the above; (d) none of the above.

5. compass rose: (a) a four-layered flower of varying colors and graduated petals; (b) an ornamental shrub (Chaenomeles speciosa) of the rose family with four distinct colors of flowers; (c) a circle graduated to degrees or quarters and printed on a chart to show direction; (d) an upright, four-sided, usually monolithic pillar that gradually tapers as it rises and terminates in a pyramid.

6. glockenspiel: (a) a picture (as an engraving or photograph) that shades off gradually into the surrounding paper; (b) a gradual combination of forces; (c) a wind instrument consisting of a series of graduated valves tuned to the chromatic scale and played with two hands; (d) a percussion instrument consisting of a series of graduated metal bars tuned to the chromatic scale and played with two hammers.

7. graduand: (a) one about to graduate; a candidate for a degree; (b) the last person in the commencement line, whose surname usually begins with W, X, Y, or Z; (c) British for alumnus; (d) the logical alternative of graduor.

8. Napier's bones: (a) traditional ballad sung at every University of Florida commencement; (b) a set of graduated rods (as of wood or bone) invented by John Napier and used for multiplication and division based on the principles of logarithms; (c) collective name for the tibia and the fibula; (d) affectionate name given to each year's lowest-ranking graduate of Yale Medical School.

9. salutatorian: (a) the student usually having the highest rank in a graduating class; (b) the student usually responsible for calling out the name of each member of a graduating class; (c) the student usually having the lowest rank in a graduating class; (d) the student usually having the second-highest rank in a graduating class.

10. accretion: (a) becoming gradually slower and more stately - used as a direction in music; (b) the process of growth or enlargement by a gradual buildup; (c) to recover health and strength gradually after sickness or weakness; (d) to enter by gradual steps or by stealth into the possessions or rights of another.

Go here for the answers to today's vocabulary test!

 

Topics: word test, vocabulary test

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