ENGLISHPHILE WEDNESDAY WORDSMITH

WE LOVE ENGLISH WEEK 3

DATE: 25/10/2023

1. WEEKLY VOCABULARY

WORD DEFINITION EXAMPLES

I don't know how to coalesce my

Coalesce (v) To merge to form one whole
observations into a coherent picture.

A condition of moral After having won the lottery, they lived a

Decadence (n)
deterioration; decay life of decadence

His behaviour was exemplary, with

Exemplary (a) Worthy of imitation; praiseworthy
mature responses to situations.

One thing that stands out is her

Exuberance (n) High-spirited enthusiasm
exuberance and zest for life.

Occurring as a minor
Whether one is 25 or 75, age is
Incidental (a) consequence of something more
incidental to how well the job is done.
important

The company was unable to pay its

Insolvent (a) Unable to pay debts; penniless
debts and was declared insolvent.

I was astonished to see the

Parsimonious (a) Too thrifty; stingy; miserly
parsimonious Jack paying for the meal.

Many new students are prodigal with

Wasteful and reckless with
Prodigal (a) their budgets, leading to their being
money
penniless at the end of the month.

He made a surreptitious entrance to

Done in a secret or sly way;
Surreptitious (a) the club through the little door in the
stealthy
brick wall.

To twist and turn, as in pain or The injured snake began to writhe in

Writhe (v)
discomfort pain after being bitten.
2. LET’S PRACTISE!!!

WHAT ARE YOU STINGY ABOUT?

Few people like to think of themselves as cheap, but almost everyone seems to
be (1)__________ about something. Even rich, extravagant people who are (2)__________
in most ways are likely to be thrifty about, say, toothpaste. My father, who has taken
business trips with many fat-cat executives, reports that even they will squeeze the
last little bit out of a tube of toothpaste by shutting a window or a door on it, rather
than throw it away. Many of us are stingy with soap, using a bar until it is reduced to
a tiny sliver and then squeezing a few of the soap fragments together in the hope
they will (3)__________. Nearly anyone will (4)__________ and crawl to get a dropped
nickel out from under the bed.
I fold and save used aluminium foil to reuse again and again. And when a
bottle of shampoo is nearly empty, I add water to get a few more washes out of it.
Countless people reuse tea bags. My sagacious mother-in-law taught us a thrifty
trick: When a bottle of beer or soda looks empty, lay it on its side for a while - a few
drinkable drops will soon collect.
Why do we do these things? We aren't petrified that taking a new tea bag or a
new piece of foil is a sign of moral (5)__________, or that it will make us (6)__________. Nor
do we think our thrift is (7)__________ because it's often (8)__________; we do it on the sly
rather than holding ourselves up as a model. Since the actual saving is so small, it
must be (9)__________ to the main benefit: the feeling of satisfaction we get. This is like
the (10)__________ we feel when we find a dime or a quarter on the street - or even a
penny if it's headed up.

3. ANSWER KEY

1. Parsimonious 6. Insolvent

2. Prodigal 7. Exemplary

3. Coalesce 8. Surreptitious

4. Writhe 9. Incidental

5. Decadence 10. Exuberance