Vocabulary Review: 12 Useful Words from "Americans Are Being Thrown in Jail for Debt"

Here are 12 very useful vocabulary words.  As well as doing this fill-in-the-blank exercise, try to use these words meaningfully.  If you can use these words, you will "keep" these words.

to thrive, a relic, to abolish
to incur, to incarcerate, to stem from
a stint, to contravene, to derive from
a resurgence, the indigent, to relent


1)  The world financial crisis seems to have _______________ the financial crisis that began in the USA in 2008.  At that time too many loans had been awarded to people with bad credit histories, and the loans went unpaid.  Banks lost billions of dollars.

2)  Although Japan had been suffering from economic problems, recently there has been a ______________ in the Japanese economy.  The economy is becoming stronger and stronger.

3)  Although the desert seems to be a desolate and lifeless place, many types of animal life _____________ there.

4)  I used to do a lot of volunteer work for a homeless shelter in Manhattan.  Each monthly volunteer _____________ would last from 7pm until 6am.  Yes, the volunteers would literally sleep overnight at the shelter once per month.

5)  The child kept bothering his mother to buy him a toy dinosaur.  After several hours the mother _____________ and bought the child the toy.

6) Slavery was ____________ in the USA in 1863.  However, African Americans have yet to attain equality of opportunity in America.

7) The ____________, in most American cities, live in the most dangerous neighborhoods with the fewest city services.

8)  The last name Schmidt is ___________ from the German word for "smith."

9)  The cell phone that I bought 3 years ago is already considered a ____________ compared to the latest smart phones and other electronic appliances.

10) I truly wanted to pursue a university education; therefore, I was willing to __________ whatever debt I had to in order to go to school.

11)  Is it better to _____________ a murderer or execute him?  Most European nations have abolished the death penalty in favor of the first option.

12)  Any attempt by one country to take land obviously belonging to another country ______________ international law, by anyone's definition.



Answers are below:


Farther below...





Farther yet...


Here they are:


Answers:


1) stemmed from
2) resurgence
3) thrive
4) stint
5) relented
6) abolished
7) indigent
8) derived
9) relic
10) incur
11) incarcerate
12) contravenes

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Yes, I'm the guy who wrote the very funny ESL book: New York City Sucks, But You'll Wanna Live Here Anyway.  
http://www.amazon.com/Sucks-Youll-Wanna-Anyway-ebook/dp/B004TSPAQS

If this page is useful to you, please buy the book (it's quite inexpensive and useful!!!!). If you don't have an e-reader, drop me a line at djg51qu@gmail.com and I'll send you a free copy via Word file. Let me know whether you have Word 2010 or an earlier version.
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Yes, I'm also the guy who created the scandal in Asia awhile ago. :P

http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100511000742

http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100512000682

http://www.shoutcastblog.com/2010/05/11/wondergirls-were-mistreated-by-jyp-entertainment/
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