ENGLISH MODULE-6

WORD POWER
1. frail
i) ( especially of an old person ) physically weak and thin
Mother was becoming too frail to live alone.
ii) weak; easily damaged or broken
the frail stems of the flowers
Human nature is frail.
Frailty

2. To wield -

weakness

to hold and use

(It is good thing to for judge to be reminded of their frailties, the better to be wield
their enormous power over those in trouble.)

3. transpire =

to become public/known
1 ~ that if it transpires that sth has happened or is true, it is known or has been
shown to be true .
It transpired that the gang had had a contact inside the bank.
This story, it later transpired, was untrue.
2 to happen
You're meeting him tomorrow? Let me know what transpires.
3 when plants or leaves transpire , water passes out from their surface

4. genuflect

- to move your body into a lower position by bending one or both knees, as a sign of
respect during worship in a church
~ (to sth) ( disapproving ) to show too much respect to sb/sth
Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 8th edition

5. reverie
- a state of thinking about pleasant things, almost as though you are dreaming
- daydream
( She was jolted out of her reverie as the door opened. )

6. gavel
- a small hammer used by a person in charge of a meeting or an auction , or by a judge
in court, in order to get people's attention
Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 8th edition

7. bristle

noun, verb

NOUN:WORD ORIGIN

1 a short stiff hair

the bristles on his chin

2 one of the short stiff hairs or wires in a brush
VERB FORMS

1 [ intransitive ] ~ (with sth) (at sth) to suddenly become very annoyed or

offended at what sb says or does

His lies made her bristle with rage.

2 [ intransitive ] ( of an animal's fur ) to stand up on the back and neck because the
animal is frightened or angry
3 bristle with sth to contain a large number of sth

The whole subject bristles with problems.

The newspapers bristled with tributes to the general.
Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 8th edition

8. shriek
VERB FORMS

1 - to give a loud high shout, for example when you are excited, frightened or in pain
scream
~ (in sth)

She shrieked in fright.

~ with sth The audience was shrieking with laughter.

~ at sb The answer shrieked at her (= was very obvious) .

to say sth in a loud, high voice

scream
~ sth (at sb) He shrieked her name as he fell.
She was shrieking abuse at them as they carried her off.
Noun: a loud high shout, for example one that you make when you are excited, frightened or in
pain
She let out a piercing shriek.

9. awesome
Adjective: 1 very impressive or very difficult and perhaps rather frightening
an awesome sight
awesome beauty/power
They had an awesome task ahead.
2 very good, enjoyable, etc
I just bought this awesome new CD!
Wow! That's totally awesome!
Adverb: awesomely beautiful
The issue is awesomely complex.

10. thrash
VERB FORMS

1 ~ sb/sth to hit a person or an animal many times with a stick, etc. as a

punishment
- beat
2 - to move or make sth move in a violent or uncontrolled way
~ (about/around) Someone was thrashing around in the water, obviously in
trouble.
The animal thrashed about in pain.
~ sth (about/around) A whale was thrashing the water with its tail.
She thrashed her head from side to side.
3 to defeat sb very easily in a game
Scotland thrashed England 51.
-

thrash sth out ( informal ) to discuss a situation or problem thoroughly in

order to decide sth

Noun: 1 [ uncountable ] a type of loud rock music

2 [ countable ] ( old-fashioned , informal ) a party with music and dancing
******************

PHRASAL VERBS
1. put sb up = to let sb stay at your home
2. put sth off = to change sth to a later time or date
3. put up with sb/sth= to accept sb/sth that is annoying
4. put sb down = to make sb look or feel stupid
5. put sth aside = to ignore or forget sth

20 Difficult Words from passage :

1. dispropor tionate

too large or too small when compared with sth else

The area contains a disproportionate number of young middle-class families.
The lower-paid spend a disproportionately large amount of their earnings on food.

2. Predominantly: mostly, mainly

3. Assumption: a belief that sth is true although there is no proof.
4. Substantial: important
5. Dabble: to take part in activity but not very seriously.
6. Outrageous: very shocking and unacceptable

7. utopian

: having a strong belief that everything can be perfect, often in a way

that does not seem to be realistic or practical
utopian ideals
a utopian society

8. disdain =

the feeling that sb/sth is not good enough to deserve your respect

or attention
contempt
to treat sb with disdain
He turned his head away in disdain.
~ for sb/sth a disdain for the law
She disdained his offer of help.
Immigrants accept the jobs disdained by the local workforce.

9. Lunacy: stupid, crazy, mental illness

10. Emanate=~ sth ( formal ) - to produce or show sth

He emanates power and confidence.
emanate from sth to come from sth or somewhere
The sound of loud music emanated from the building.
The proposal originally emanated from the UN.

11. crackpot

= a person with strange or crazy ideas

crackpot adjective [ only before noun ]
crackpot ideas/theories

12. subtle =

not very noticeable or obvious

subtle colours/flavours/smells, etc.
There are subtle differences between the two versions.
The fragrance is a subtle blend of jasmine and sandalwood.
She's been dropping subtle hints about what she'd like as a present.
2 ( of a person or their behaviour ) behaving in a clever way, and using indirect
methods, in order to achieve sth
I decided to try a more subtle approach.
3 organized in a clever way
a subtle plan
a subtle use of lighting in the play
4 good at noticing and understanding things
The job required a subtle mind.

13. complicity

= the act of taking part with another person in a crime

collusion
to be guilty of complicity in the murder
evident complicity between the two brothers
Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, 8th edition

14. contemplate

to think about whether you should do sth, or how you should do sth
consider , think about/of
~ sth You're too young to be contemplating retirement.
~ doing sth I have never contemplated living abroad.
~ how/what, etc He continued while she contemplated how to answer.
2 to think carefully about and accept the possibility of sth happening
~ sth The thought of war is too awful to contemplate.
~ how/what, etc I can't contemplate what it would be like to be alone.

~ that She contemplated that things might get even worse.

3 to think deeply about sth for a long time
to contemplate your future
She lay in bed, contemplating.
4 ~ sb/sth ( formal ) to look at sb/sth in a careful way for a long time
stare at
She contemplated him in silence.
He sat there, contemplating his fingernails.

15. offense

= to commit an offense
The new law makes it a criminal offense to drink alcohol in public places.
a minor/serious offense
She pleaded guilty to five traffic offenses.
2 attack [ singular ] )
( sport ) the members of a team whose main aim is to score points against the other
team; a method of attack
The Redskins' offense is stronger than their defense.
He played offense for the Chicago Bulls.

16. sanguine
Adj. = cheerful and confident about the future
optimistic
They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects.
He tends to take a sanguine view of the problems involved.

17. insouciance

= the state of not being worried about anything

nonchalance
She hid her worries behind an air of insouciance.

18. implicit
1 ~ (in sth) suggested without being directly expressed

Implicit in his speech was the assumption that they were guilty.
implicit criticism
2 ~ (in sth) forming part of sth (although perhaps not directly expressed)
The ability to listen is implicit in the teacher's role.
3 complete and not doubted
absolute
She had the implicit trust of her staff.

19. bewilder

= to confuse sb
She was totally bewildered by his sudden change of mood.
His complete lack of interest in money bewilders his family.

20. frivolous
1 ( of people or their behaviour ) silly or amusing, especially when such behaviour is
not suitable
frivolous comments/suggestions
Sorry, I was being frivolous.
2 having no useful or serious purpose
frivolous pastimes/pleasures

SPEED TEST- A6: Read this passage and note

timings (in minutes) of reading the whole
passage.
Passage
One of the reasons intelligent young people are drawn
disproportionately to the left in politics is that they admire
intellectuals and assume that intellectuals are smart not just
about their own fields but about everything. And since
intellectuals are predominantly leftwing in their politics, their
smart young followers conclude that the smart place to locate
themselves politically is on the left. The conclusion follows
naturally from the assumption, but the assumption follows from
nothing more substantial than the selfadmiration of people who
dabble in ideas.
The history of the last century suggests, in fact, that
intellectuals as a class are not smart about politics at all. George
Orwell caught much of the truth of the matter in his observation
that certain ideas are so outrageous that only an intellectual
could believe them. Who but an intellectual, after all, could build a
system of political economy on the ideas in Das Kapital?
Intellectuals are drawn to comprehensive utopian schemes
because of their disdain for the ordinary and their sense that a
satisfactory politics must be, like them, immensely clever. William
F. Buckley, Jr. famously said that he would rather be governed by
the first two thousand people in the Boston phone directory than

by the faculty of Harvard University. Most sensible people would

concur.
The point here is not essentially ideological. What makes
intellectuals as a class politically stupid is not, or not simply, that
they are leftists. (I have encountered more than a few politically
stupid conservatives.) But at Harvard and elsewhere in the
modern intellectual world, the left has generally predominated,
and so most of the political lunacy emanating from intellectual
circles has had a leftist cast. A great many intellectuals of the
twentieth century, and many of the most distinguished, were
drawn to Marxism; the few fascist intellectuals were virtually all
secondrate crackpots.
What brings the subject to mind is an interview with the
British playwright Harold Pinter in the March issue of the
Progressive. (Pinter is, strictly speaking, more artist than
intellectual. But his plays are noted, among other things, for their
absurdist complexity, and he is the kind of artist often identified
as an intellectual. He also speaks and writes frequently on
political issues.) In the interview, Pinter discusses his plays with
subtlety and care, concluding with the observation that its very
complex, the world of our imagination, and human life is very,
very complex. But then, immediately, this: Political issues dont
seem to me to be at all complex.
Pinter proceeds to demonstrate his noncomplex political
worldview. In the socalled democracies in which we live . . . we
are mostly told lies. Or, where we are not told lies, we are told a
lot of crap. [There is a] complicity between government, business,
and [the] media which few people care to contemplate. I think
that the structures of power essentially treat people with
contempt because thats the way they survive. But they say the
opposite. They say, We love you. . . . Even while theyre torturing
[people], theyre saying, We love you. Please trust us and rely
upon us. . . . Were looking after your best interests by torturing
you.

What kind of torture, the interviewer wonders. All kinds of

torture, including the torture . . . in American prisons. Im not
really saying that the United States would assert that they are
looking after the best interests of the two million people in prison.
But they would say that they are looking after the best interests
of society. And theyre not . . . by a very long stretch. Theyre
doing something quite different. They are suppressing a great
body of people . . . thousands upon thousands for obviously very
minor offenses.
Pinter goes on in this fashion at some length about a great many
issues. (He is, by the way, no more sanguine about conditions in
his own country than in the U.S. Tony Blair has sold [the U.K.]
down the river and his government is interested only in big
business.) Pinter may seem an extreme case, and in some ways
he is. Not many commentators approach the level of insouciant
simplemindedness displayed in this interview. But in one way, at
least, he is quite representative. I have spent my entire adult life
among intellectuals, and over and over have encountered the
implicit attitude Pinter makes explicit: Political issues dont seem
to me to be at all complex. It never ceases to bewilder me.
People who in their fields of expertise insist on rigor, precision,
and high seriousness approach politics as a cartoon world of
heroes and villains, sinister special interests and noble suffering
humanity. They think in clichs and speak in agitprop. How can a
Pinter or anyone else possibly suppose that human life is very,
very complexexcept when it comes to politics? Intellectuals as
such have no particular responsibility to take time away from
what they know best to immerse themselves in the intricacies of
political life and thought, but absent such immersion they would
do well not to give public utterance to their ignorance. To sum up
by random example: Albert Einstein should have stuck to his
physics. Intellectuals who take their calling seriously know that
they have a moral duty to be intellectually unfrivolous. They do a
disservice both to their own integrity and to the public interest
when they think that duty ends at the gateway of politics. (total
= 910 words).

Positive energy spreads slowly but remains permanent, so there is a need of

spreading it most of the time.