Up Your Score (17 page)

The end.

to invent or make up something (often in order to deceive)

When Michael couldn’t remove the stain from the
fabric
, he
ate
it and
fabricated
a story that aliens stole it.

side or aspect;
face
of something (e.g., gemstones)

“Face it! One of the
facets
of being a jeweler is sometimes selling flawed
facets
!”

joking or jesting

She’s so
facetious
that you should not take what she says at
face
value.

fal
se; wrong; incorrect

They used to castigate people who made
fallacious
statements. (Well, that was a long time ago.)

careful about details; impossible to satisfy

Bernie Madoff’s
fastidious
accountant admonished his assistants, “Be careful! Don’t shred too
fast, idiots
.”

inane; foolish;
fat
headed

Eating 30 pounds of chocolate a day is a
fatuous
idea.

groveling; overly admiring

The hunter who killed Bambi’s mother should have come back and made a
fawning
plea for forgiveness.

workable; plausible; possible

Homer’s idea of opening a hair salon for bald people was not
feasible
—who would pay the $30
fee
? D’oh!

fertile

“
Feh! Couldn
’t you do without all this smelly manure?” Slick asked Farmer Brown. “No, we need it to make the soil
fecund
.”

passion

I will fight a ferocious ferret and get its
fur
for
you if it will prove the
fervor
of my love for you.

smelly

I am proud to have
fetid
feet that smell of
fet
a cheese.

false; not genuine

Books of
fict
ion have
fictitious
plots.

to steal

Since they had zilch, they decided to
filch
.

deliberately conspicuous; glaring

After the protesters
flagrantly
burned the Stars and Stripes, the mayor began a
flag rant
, condemning the rebels.

to show off something

I flagrantly
flaunted
my physical
flaw
lessness to my fawning followers.

irregular variation

At the terrifying sight of the nasty sentence completion question, his heartbeat
fluctuated
wildly.

weakness, flaw

The spy’s
foible
was her penchant for attention.

to stir up; agitate;
INCITE
(think: when you stir something up it
foams
)

When your
foe
warned you not to
foment
the army against him, your
foe meant
he was afraid of getting his butt kicked.

patience

He played dead with
forbearance
until the
four bears
got
ants
y and went away.

spontaneous abnormal sensation of ants or other insects running over the skin
Some people experience this while taking the SAT.

strong point (think:
forts
are strong. Pronounced “fort” or “for-tay”)

His
forte
was sneaking into the
fort
that was just before
Fort
B.

frenzied; frantic; freaked out

When the pilot and the flight attendants became
fren
zied, the passengers became
frenetic
.

stubborn (see
OBDURATE
)

The
froward
guardsmen refused to retreat, so the protesters could not move
forward
.

sparing in expense; stingy; miserly

They told me that I was
frugal

Because I bought a plastic bugle.

to explode; roar; denounce loudly

After he bombed the SAT, he
fulminated
for a
full minute
against the ETS.

completely ineffective

The one-armed floor layer felt his work was
futile
because he could lay only a
few tiles
a day.

Freddy had a
flagrant
foible
. He
filched
fish, sometimes with
fervor
and sometimes with
forbearance
, but he never
fluctuated
from his
forte
. One day his mother, returning from the garden (which was
fecund
with fish remains), said
facetiously
, “Freddy, is it
feasible
that you’ll
foment
a
fetid
fulmination
of fish odor if you continue to
frenetically
flaunt
your
filching
habits?”

Froward
Freddy frowned. “That is a
fatuous
as well as
fallacious
suggestion.” Then he uttered the following
fastidiously
crafted rationalization. “This
facet
of my abilities is not
futile
, as it provides fish for our otherwise
frugal
dinner. You should
fawn
over me, not
fulminate
against me.”

The preceding story is
fictitious
,
fabricated
by the authors.

to deny, dispute;
say
something
against
what someone else says

The model
gainsaid
that she’d
gained
weight,
say
ing, “The camera always adds 30 pounds.”

screwed up

The
garbled
message read, “Please spurgle iceberg before rocking breakfast.”

very talkative; loquacious

Even the Serpent would scare you less

Than talking to someone
garrulous
.

category

It’s hard to place
Up Your Score
in a specific
genre
. It’s an SAT prep book, but also an epic narrative, an investigative report, and a monumental literary work.

relevant; appropriate

“Germany is not
germane
to our discussion today,” said the history professor. “Today we shall discuss last night’s rerun of
Jersey Shore.
”

to transform and grow, like a baby inside the womb

Mama Butterfly asked the
gestating
caterpillar if it wanted something to eat, but it said, “No, I
just ate
.”

gesture; signal

Note:
Somehow
gesticulation
seems as though it ought to have obscene connotations, and we would certainly tell you if it did, but it doesn’t. You can make up an obscene mnemonic device, if that helps.

Igor
gesticulated
for Dick to hurry and enter the lab, saying, “
Yes, Dick, you’re late
for your brain transplant.”

rapid, incomprehensible, or nonsensical speaking; drivel

The Lewis Carroll poem
Jabberwocky,
which begins “’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves . . . ,” is written in
gibberish
.

to heckle or mock; to taunt; to pick on

“Nice
jibe
,” the sailor
gibed
, after we capsized.

twilight

If it weren’t for the fireflies
gleaming
in the
gloaming
, I’d find it
gloomy
.

light, delicate, or insubstantial

“Let’s
go somewhere
where I can slip into something a little more
gossamer
,” said the Victoria’s Secret model.

one who appreciates fine food and drink; epicure; connoisseur

“After I do a
chore, may
I have some of that fancy food? I’m practicing to be a
gourmet,
” said Julia’s child.

excessively impressive;
grand

Jay Leno has a
grandiose
chin.

vivid; explicit

In another sequel to his dinosaur movie, Steven Spielberg left out the prehistoric beasts and kept all the violence, titling the film
Graphic
Park
.

unnecessary or unwarranted

Adding
gratuitous
sex and violence to this book has been the best thing about writing it.

friendly; outgoing; sociable

Note:
The ETS loves this word.

My horoscope tells me to be a
gregarious
Aquarius.

(n.) a twisted facial expression

(v.) to make a twisted facial expression

“Things look
grim as
long as there’s a knife at my throat,” the victim thought,
grimacing
with fear.

gory

The bear made a
grisly
mess of the Cub Scouts.

grisly; gory

In the
gruesome
film
The Blob,
the Blob
grew some
more every second.

rough or stern in speech or action

Arnold Schwarzenegger has made two careers out of acting
tough
and being
gruff
.

believing anything

You don’t have to know
gullible
because they took it out of the dictionary.