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Generation Date: 10/16/2007
Generated By: Albert Deep
Synonyms and Antonyms
1. "Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man returns in the sequel to the record-breaking blockbuster
movie debut for Marvel Comics' flagship character. Tobey Maguire returns as Peter Parker, the
nerd-turned-hero, to face new threats to New York City and the people he loves."
What antonym could you use to change the underlined word?
A. welcoming
B. pleasant
C. sociable
D. surly
2. "Move over, Alanis. Make room, Avril. Her name doesn't start with an "A", but alterna-rock
newcomer Fefe Dobson joins these two rock divas among a host of Canadian music artists who
salute the Maple Leaf. The talented Miss Dobson plays piano, writes her own songs, and taught
herself guitar."
What antonym could you use to change the underlined word?
A. productive
B. unskilled
C. boring
D. accomplished
Don't Bet on It: Gambling Undercuts Purity of College Sports
It's no secret that Americans are gamblers.
Just take a look at the office pools during the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament or during the
college football season. We'll wager—oops, make that speculate—that more than a few dollars
exchange hands.
All kidding aside, a recent National Collegiate Athletic Association survey found that sports wagering
isn't confined to fans, as evidenced by this disquieting statistic: an estimated 1.1 percent of college
football players said that they had taken money to play poorly in a game.
That's right, 1.1 percent said they accepted money to do less than their best—to throw a game or
otherwise affect the betting line. So much for the purity of college sports.
Over the years, the NCAA has taken steps to punish boosters, players and coaches who have
engaged in illegal under-the-table payoffs to athletes. The NCAA also has been clear in its strident
opposition to legal and illegal sports wagering.
But numerous studies show that gambling is on the rise among high school and college students.
The playing field apparently is simply an extension of activities taking place on campuses across this
country.
To its credit, the NCAA has promised a task force and studies exploring criminal activities and drug
and alcohol use with sports gambling. But this study alone should be enough to stun parents,
athletes and college administrators in even the high school ranks to acknowledge that player
gambling is as evil a threat to the integrity of amateur athletics as the illegal use of performanceenhancing drugs.
The NCAA can't sit idle and hope this problem corrects itself, nor can parents and high school
principals who also have roles to play in educating athletes about gambling risks. The enforcement
effort also might require federal or state legislation as well.
The clock is ticking toward another major collegiate betting scandal. As much as it might like do so,
the NCAA can't hold the ball and hope that this clock runs out.
http://www.dallasnews.com
3. What is an antonym for the word in bold in the following sentence?
"But this study alone should be enough to stun parents, athletes and college
administrators in even the high school ranks to acknowledge that player gambling is
as insidious a threat to the integrity of amateur athletics as the illegal use of
performance-enhancing drugs."
A. Fearful
B. Outside
C. Dangerous
D. Harmless
4. What is a synonym for the word in bold in the following sentence?
"All kidding aside, a recent National Collegiate Athletic Association survey found that
sports wagering isn't confined to fans, as evidenced by this disquieting statistic: an
estimated 1.1 percent of college football players said that they had taken money to
play poorly in a game."
A. Troubling
B. Silent
C. Harsh
D. Loud
5.
Gary walked slowly down the street. He felt like everyone was staring at him, knowing he was
guilty. He wanted to pretend that he did not cheat on his test to play in the big game, that he
really wore a mantle of honesty and kindness. Gary knew that was too much to ask. Everyone
would see him as a cheater, as a dumb jock. Gary really was smart, and now he felt he had to
prove that to everyone.
Which of the following is a synonym for the word mantle as it is used in the
paragraph above?
A. guilt
B. coat
C. fireplace
D. label
6.
I know what you think. I am just an ordinary teenage girl. I go to school (most of the time), I
hang out with my friends, and I go shopping a lot. You think there is nothing unusual or special
about me. But you are wrong. I wouldn't bother with this narrative if you were right. Who wants to
read about a normal teenage girl when you could read about chaos and complications? If you
only knew what I really deal with every day. If you only knew that your happiness, even your life,
depended on what I do.
Which is a synonym for the word narrative as it is used in the passage?
A. thoughts
B. news
C. story
D. excitement
WACO, Texas (AP) — Complaints from an animal rights group have caused Baylor University to
change its tradition of bringing its mascot—a black bear—to home football games.
Veterinarians said crowd noise could disturb the bear. The decision follows a protest that began
last year by members of Showing Animals Respect and Kindness, or SHARK.
The school's "bear pit" is home to two female North American black bears. The group said the
bears were driven into stress because they were kept in a mostly concrete location.
"I think it took someone from the outside looking in and saying, 'Wait a minute,"' said Colleen
Gardner. Her son visited the campus in July 2002. He filmed hours of footage of the bears.
Baylor officials said the animals were not being harmed. They showed passing grades from the
Agriculture Department, which inspects animal cruelty. Baylor spokesman Larry Brumley said the
school planned to start an $800,000 fund-raising drive to change the bear pit. It was built in 1976.
It is not the first time the school changed its bear program. It is more than 70 years old. In recent
years, trainers stopped feeding the animals Dr Pepper. The soda was created in Waco in 1885 and
is the official Baylor soft drink.
adapted from http://channelonenews.com/news/2003/10/14/ap_mascots/
7. What is an antonym for the word in bold in the following sentence?
“The group said the bears were driven into stress because they were kept in a
mostly concrete location.”
A. Panic
B. Comfort
C. Anxiety
D. Problems
8. What is a synonym for the word in bold in the following sentence?
“Veterinarians said crowd noise could disturb the bear, and the decision follows a
protest that began last year by members of Showing Animals Respect and Kindness,
or SHARK.”
A. Move
B. Upset
C. Enjoy
D. Help
A Tale of Two Birds: Magnificent species need protection
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer sentenced Dallas resident Donald W. Jones to six
months in federal prison and fined him $2,000.
His crime? He accidentally shot a whooping crane while hunting at Lake Bardwell in Ellis County.
So what's the big deal?
One need only follow the plight of the American bald eagle for the answer. The once dangerously
endangered symbol of our nation could soon be removed from the threatened species list. Let's all
stand up and cheer.
Once the target of farmers trying to keep the birds from attacking small farm animals, the bald eagle
population had dropped to about 400 in the United States in the 1960s.
Now thanks in large part to strong environmental laws banning the pesticide DDT and aggressive
prosecution of hunters, there are 70,000 bald eagles worldwide.
A significant resurgence is possible for the whooping crane as well. Just five years ago, there were
only 183 whooping cranes in the entire United States. Today, as many as 400 whooping cranes
migrate through Texas. Credit the rebound to strong enforcement of the protection laws.
Like the bald eagle, the whooping crane is a national treasure. And like the bald eagle, let's make
sure it is around for generations to behold.
http://www.dallasnews.com
9. What is a synonym for the word in bold in the following sentence:
“Now thanks in large part to strong environmental laws banning the pesticide DDT
and aggressive prosecution of hunters, there are 70,000 bald eagles worldwide.”
A. Harmful
B. Hopeful
C. Inadequate
D. Severe
10. What is an antonym for the word in bold in the following sentence?
“ Now thanks in large part to strong environmental laws banning the pesticide DDT
and aggressive prosecution of hunters, there are 70,000 bald eagles worldwide.”
A. Harmful
B. Stern
C. Inadequate
D. Hopeful
11. "Tropical Storm Frances gained strength in the central Atlantic Ocean and could become a
hurricane later Thursday, but posed no immediate threat to land."
What antonym could you use to change the underlined word?
A. lost
B. added
C. expanded
D. increased
VAN HELSING / *** (PG-13)
May 7, 2004
There have been countless movies uniting two monsters (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, King
Kong vs. Godzilla, etc.), but Van Helsing convenes Frankenstein, his Monster, Count Dracula, the
Wolf Man, Igor, Van Helsing the vampire hunter, assorted other werewolves, werebats and
vampires, and even Mr. Hyde, who as a bonus seems to think he is the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
The movie is like a Greatest Hits compilation; it's assembled like Frankenstein's Monster, from
spare parts stitched together and brought to life with electricity, plus lots of computer-generated
images. The plot depends on Dracula's desperate need to discover the secret of Frankenstein's
Monster, because he can use it to bring his countless offspring to life. Because Dracula (Richard
Roxburgh) and his vampire brides are all dead, they cannot have children.
Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman, Wolverine in the X-Men movies) is sometimes portrayed as young,
sometimes old in the Dracula movies. Here he's a professional monster-killer with a Phantom of the
Opera hat, who picks up a dedicated friar named Carl (David Wenham) as his sidekick.
The director, Stephen Sommers, began his career sedately, directing a very nice Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn (1993) and the entertaining Jungle Book (1994). Then Victor Frankenstein must
have strapped him to the gurney and turned on the juice, because he made a U-turn into thrillers,
with Deep Rising (1998), where a giant squid attacks a cruise ship, and The Mummy (1999) and The
Mummy Returns. Now comes Van Helsing, which employs the ultimate resources of CGI (computer
generated effects) to create a world that is violent and hectic, bizarre and entertaining, and
sometimes very beautiful.
CGI can get a little boring when it allows characters to fall hundreds of feet and somehow survive,
or when they swoop at the ends of ropes as well as Spider-Man, but without Spidey's superpowers.
But they can also be used to create a visual feast, and here the cinematography by Allen Daviau
(E.T.) and the production design by Allen Cameron join with Sommers' imagination for spectacular
sights. The best is a masked ball in Budapest, which is part real (the musicians balancing on balls,
the waiters circling on unicycles) and part fabricated in the computer. It's a remarkable scene, and
will reward study on the DVD.
I also liked the movie's recreation of Victor Frankenstein's laboratory, which has been a favorite
of production designers, art directors and set decorators since time immemorial (Mel Books' Young
Frankenstein recycled the actual sets built for James Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein). Here
Frankenstein lives in a towering gothic castle, just down the road from Dracula, and the mechanism
lifts the Monsters to unimaginable heights to expose him to lightning bolts.
At the outset, we may fear Sommers is simply going for effects overkill, but by the end, he has
somehow succeeded in assembling all his monsters and plot threads into a high-voltage climax. Van
Helsing is silly and spectacular, and fun.
adapted from "Movie Review: Van Helsing" by Roger Ebert
12. What is an antonym for the word in bold in the following sentence?
"There have been countless movies uniting two monsters (Frankenstein Meets the
Wolf Man, King Kong vs. Godzilla, etc.), but Van Helsing convenes Frankenstein,
his Monster, Count Dracula, the Wolf Man, Igor, Van Helsing the vampire hunter,
assorted other werewolves, werebats and vampires, and even Mr. Hyde, who as a
bonus seems to think he is the Hunchback of Notre Dame."
A. Weaker
B. Limitless
C. Few
D. Many
13. What is a synonym for the word in bold in the following sentence?
"At the outset, we may fear Sommers is simply going for effects overkill, but by the
end, he has somehow succeeded in assembling all his monsters and plot threads
into a high-voltage climax."
A. Accomplished
B. Missed
C. Failed
D. Learned
Free NY Daily Part of Trend to Lure Young Readers
Metro International SA, a London-based company that already offers free dailies throughout Europe
and in Boston and Philadelphia, hit the New York market with a 28-page tabloid that competes with
another free daily, amNewYork, backed by the Tribune Co. Both are part of a growing trend among
publishers looking to attract younger readers who get much of their news from the Internet and have
not adopted the daily newspaper habit of their parents' generation.
"The newspaper industry has got to continue to reinvent itself, particularly to reach out to younger,
disenfranchised readers who don't typically spend half an hour with a broadsheet like The New York
Times every day," said Douglas Arthur, a publishing analyst at Morgan Stanley.
It is too soon to tell if free dailies, aimed at people ages 18 to 34, are siphoning off readers from
traditional U.S. newspapers. Nor is there much evidence of how these papers are faring financially in
the United States, analysts say.
U.S. newspapers have suffered overall readership declines over the past decade. A majority of the
12 biggest U.S. newspapers recorded circulation growth in the six-month period ended in March, but
readership of daily papers overall slipped slightly, according to a newspaper trade association's
analysis of industry data released this week.
Metro, which launched its first edition in Stockholm in the mid-1990s, typically turns a profit on a free
tabloid within three years of launch, said Henry Scott, publisher and managing director of Metro New
York.
He declined to comment on the newspaper's finances, but said "We're on plan. We are doing great."
Industry analysts say the business model of free dailies, based on selling advertising instead of
charging for the newspaper itself, generally is low-cost for publishers. The papers are stuffed with
short items culled from wire services and are run by shoestring staffs.
Metro has "launched these papers all over Europe and presumably (they) are doing well with them,"
said John Morton, a newspaper industry analyst who heads Morton Research Inc.
Still, Morton said, the publisher might have a harder time in the competitive New York market. The
city's newspapers include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and
New York Daily News tabloids, as well as free offerings like alternative weekly The Village Voice.
"You've already got some free papers there, so it will be tougher there than some other places,"
Morton said.
adapted from "Free NY Daily Part of Trend to Lure Young Readers" by Martha Graybow
14. What is an antonym for the word in bold in the following sentence?
“’You've already got some free papers there, so it will be tougher there than
some other places,’ Morton said.”
A. Weaker
B. Faster
C. More effortless
D. More challenging
15. What is a synonym for the word in bold in the following sentence?
“‘The newspaper industry has got to continue to reinvent itself, particularly to reach
out to younger, disenfranchised readers who don't typically spend half an hour
with a broadsheet like The New York Times every day,’ said Douglas Arthur, a
publishing analyst at Morgan Stanley.”
A. Unsatisfied
B. Happy
C. Hopeful
D. Picky
Answers
1. D
2. B
3. D
4. A
5. D
6. C
7. B
8. B
9. D
10. C
11. A
12. C
13. A
14. C
15. A
Explanations
1. The word surly means menacing or threatening in appearance. Friendly means
showing kindly interest and goodwill. Each word is an antonym of the other.
2. The word unskilled means lacking in skill or talent. Talented means a special
often creative or artistic aptitude. Each word is an antonym of the other.
3. Antonyms are words that mean the opposite of each other. For example, sad
and happy are antonyms because they mean opposite things.
Insidious is another way of saying harmful or dangerous. The opposite of
harmful or dangerous is harmless.
4. Synonyms are words that mean the same thing. For example, stones and rocks
are synonyms because they both mean the same thing.
Even if you're not sure about what the word disquieting means, consider the
context of the sentence. The writer is alarmed by the amount of gambling that
takes place in college athletics. Since the author is troubled by this, it makes
sense that a word meaning troubling would be used when referring to the
statistic.
5. A synonym is a word that means the same thing as another word. Look at the
paragraph again. The narrator says that Gary does not want people to see him as
guilty. He wants people to see him wearing a "mantle" of honesty. Since a coat
cannot be made of honesty, and you cannot wear a fireplace, the word "mantle"
in this paragraph means the same thing as "label."
6. A synonym is a word that means the same thing as another word. Look at this
paragraph. A girl, the narrator, is telling about herself. Another word that means
the same thing as "narrative" is story.
7. Antonyms are words that mean the opposite thing. For example, sad and happy
are antonyms because they mean opposite things
Anxiety is another way of saying stress. The opposite of stress is comfort.
8. Synonyms are words that mean the same thing. For example, stones and rocks
are synonyms because they both mean the same thing.
Even if you don’t know the meaning of the word disturb, look at the context of
the passage. It’s clear that some people don’t like the way the bears are treated.
In this context, it only makes sense to use the synonym for the word disturb-upset.
9. Synonyms are words that mean the same thing. For example, stones and rocks
are synonyms because they both mean the same thing.
Even if you don’t know the meaning of the word aggressive, look at the context
of the passage. It’s clear that the author is in favor of strong environmental laws.
Severe is closer to meaning aggressive than any other word on the list to convey
a feeling of strong prosecutorial laws.
10. Antonyms are words that mean opposite things. For example, sad and happy
are antonyms because they mean opposite things
Inadequate means the opposite of strong in this sentence. If the laws aren't
strong, they must be inadequate.
11. The word gain means an increase in amount, magnitude, or degree. Lost means
to suffer deprivation of. Each word is an antonym of the other.
12. Antonyms are words that mean the opposite of each other. For example, sad
and happy are antonyms because they mean opposite things. For example, sad
and happy are antonyms because they mean opposite things
Countless is another way of saying limitless or many. The opposite of limitless
or many is few.
13. Synonyms are words that mean the same thing. For example, stones and rocks
are synonyms because they both mean the same thing.
Accomplish and succeed mean close to the same thing. If you're unsure, look at
the context of the review. It's mostly positive and the reviewer gives the director
much praise, so it's reasonable to guess that the reviewer thinks the director
accomplished what he set out to do.
14. Antonyms are words that mean the opposite thing. For example, sad and happy
are antonyms because they mean opposite things
Effortless is another way of saying easy. The opposite of easy is tough.
15. Synonyms are words that mean the same thing. For example, stones and rocks
are synonyms because they both mean the same thing.
Even if you don’t know the meaning of the word disenfranchised, look at the
context of the passage. It’s clear that the younger readers aren’t very happy or
like reading a regular newspaper. It’s to the point that publishers are making
tabloids smaller to satisfy younger readers.
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