韦士GRE核心词汇整理(A-2)

　　advocate vt. to speak or write in favor of something n. a person who pleads the case of another or who supports a specific action

　　 Fred wrote to advocate tax reform for the state.

　　 Marsha advocates freedom for all to enjoy ice cream without increasing in size or weight.

　　 Alice is Joses advocate in his suit against the city for overassessing the value of his property.

　　 Noreen is an advocate for the rights of homeless people.

　　affinity n. 1. close relationship; connection; 2. similarity of struc-ture; 3. affection; liking for

　　 Helen always felt a great affinity for Al.

　　 Tuna and mayonnaise have a close affinity to one another.

　　 Though they are all Romance languages, Italian has a greater affinity to Spanish than to French.

　　affirm vt. 1. to declare to be true; assert the truth of; 2. to confirm; uphold; ratify

　　 Jerry came to Ann to affirm the validity of Lauras tale.

　　 The Senate affirmed the nomination of the secretary of state.

　　aggrandize vt. 1. to make greater, richer, more powerful; 2. to make seem richer

　　 By certifying the landfill as a suitable building site, the county helped to further aggrandize its owner.

　　 Although not earning a dollar from the transaction, its very happening aggrandized Ottos reputation.

　　agronomy n. management of farmland; the science of producing crops

　　 For a farmer to get the most from his land, he needs to have some under-standing of agronomy.

　　 Agronomy teaches that rotating crops allows the land to replenish its essen-tial nutrients after theyve been used.

　　allegory n. a story in which people, things, and ideas have hid-den meanings, often used as a way of teaching values

　　 Aesops fables are probably the best-known allegories in all literature.

　　 An allegory always has a message apart from its obvious one, which in Aesops case is provided in the moral at the end.

　　alleviate vt. 1. to lighten; make less hard to bear; 2. to reduce or lessen pain

　　 Lloyd took one of the boxes of books from Arlene to alleviate the load that she was carrying.

　　 Tears often alleviate the burden of emotional stress.

　　allocate vt. 1. to earmark or set aside for a specific purpose; 2. to distribute; mete out

　　 The city allocated $200 million to improve mass-transit facilities.

　　 Having collected hundreds of donated winter coats, it was now up to the lodge to allocate them among the less fortunate.

　　alloy vt. 1. to fuse two or more metals to form one that possesses new properties; 2. to reduce the pureness of a rare metal by fusing it with a less precious one n. a metallic substance derived from the chemical fusion of two or more metals

　　 Wrapping a strip of copper arround tin does not make an alloy; the tin and copper must be smelted at high heat to form the new metal, bronze.

　　 Iron is alloyed with carbon and several other metals to produce steel.

　　 Fourteen-karat gold is produced by alloying 24-karat pure gold with other metals.

　　amalgamate vt. 1. to join together into one; to unite; to combine; 2. to alloy into an amalgam

　　 Many smaller companies were amalgamated to form some of todays corpo-rate giants, such as General Electric and U.S. Steel.

　　 Mercury and silver are amalgamated to form the amalgam that is losing popularity with dentists as a filling material.

　　ameliorate vt. to make or become better; to improve

　　 A visit by a professional cleaning service should ameliorate the mess in our living room.

　　 The automobile company recalled all 2004 model cars to ameliorate the problem with the steering pump.

　　QUICK REVIEW

　　Match the word from column 2 with the word from column 1 that means most nearly the same thing.

　　1. advocate

　　2. advocate

　　3. affinity

　　4. affirm

　　5. aggrandize

　　6. agronomy

　　7. allegory

　　8. alleviate

　　9. allocate

　　10. alloy

　　11. amalgamate

　　12. ameliorate

　　a. connection

　　b. relieve

　　c. improve

　　d. symbolism

　　e. distribute

　　f. unite

　　g. enrich

　　h. fuse

　　i. support

　　j. assert

　　k. farming

　　l. supporter