Answers

1. amoral – [B] outside the scope of moral judgement. A wild animal is an amoral creature that simply follows its natural instincts, with no capacity to discern good from evil.

2. monolingual – [A] speaking one language. As a monolingual English-speaker, James was unable to follow the conversation in Italian.

3. neonate – [A] newborn. Dr Jane Atkinson asked her marine biology students to count the neonates in the sea-lion colony.

4. bigamy – [A] marriage to more than one person. We were shocked to learn that our grandfather had been jailed for bigamy.

5. geostationary – [C] matching the Earth’s rotation. In order to prevent signal loss, the satellites remained in geostationary orbit above the base.

6. dysfunction – [A] abnormal working. Sidney blamed family dysfunction in his childhood for the problems he experienced later in his life.

7. hexadecimal – [A] of a number system with a base of 16. Hexadecimal numerals are used in computer programming because it’s easy to convert them into binary.

8. sociopathy – [B] antisocial personality disorder. Donald’s bullying behaviour indicated a certain level of sociopathy.

9. periglacial – [B] of an area next to a glacier. Iris gazed over the boulderstrewn periglacial landscape, marvelling at its beauty.

10. meritocracy – [C] group run by the most accomplished and talented. The company wasn’t a meritocracy; instead, the older employees were in charge, and had no regard for the ability of younger workers.

11. bioluminescence – [A] production of light by living organisms. Glow worms are an enchanting example of bioluminescence.

12. quadraphonic – [C] using four sound channels. Jay stood admiring the resonance of his new quadraphonic speaker system.

13. liposuction – [A] removal of fat. Liposuction is a form of cosmetic surgery that is very popular with celebrities.

14. biodiversity – [B] variety of life forms in a specific area. Rainforests provide the conditions for the greatest biodiversity of any ecosystem on the planet.

VOCABULARY RATINGS

7–9: Fair 10–11: Good 12–14: Word Power Wizard