Thursday, July 8, 2010

Improving your Vocabulary

Hi

Here is the list of links to article which would improve your English speaking skill Drastically

Wikipedia - featured articles

Featured articles of Wikipedia

(This is a site that has a huge collection of links. Read up the more serious links pertaining to Sociology, Economics, Psychology, Growth of Civilizations. There's lots of topics that you can explore here)

Articles on Economics and Management (read the Columns and Opinions, not the news items)

Economic Times The Economist Knowledge @ Wharton

Articles on Humanities, Art and Gender

Hindu Sunday Magazine (read articles on: Lead, Issues, Essay, Focus, Environment, Literature - check the topic wise index)

On Politics and World affairs

Frontline (read articles listed under Column)

Editorials of key newspapers

The Hindu The Hindustan Times The Times of India (click the opinions tab and read articles listed there)

International

The New York Times The Washington Post The Times, UK Time

Science and Environment

National Geograhic Scientific American Science Now

Science Blogs (he is a scientist, posts regularly and his posts are usually good)

Free Books

Project Gutenburg (read the books in the html format using the Word Tracker)

Google books


Short Stories


Classic Reader (A collection of classic short stories)

Beasts and Super-Beasts, by Saki ( H H Munro)

Tagore

The Hungry Stones and Other Stories The Post Office

Tales from India by Rudyard Kipling (author of the Jungle Book)

Indian Tales The Jungle Book Just so Stories Plain tales from the hills

The Phantom Rickshaw and other Ghost Stories

Tales from Shakespeare and Dickens

Shakespeare by Charles and Mary LAMB Tales from Dickens

From Russia, with love, Aton Chekov

book 1, book 2, book 3, book4 Best Russian Short Stories

Mystery and Adventure

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Tales Lewis Carroll was also a Mathematicianbooks will interest Engineers and Mathematicians, He would have scored 1600 in GRE !!!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

Friday, April 16, 2010

High frequency gre words for month of march

2. Swill - To swallow (food or drink) greedily or rapidly in large amounts; act of drinking or the amount swallowed; flood with water, as for washing; mixture of liquid and solid food, such as table scraps, fed to animals, especially pigs; slop; kitchen waste; garbage; deep draft of liquor; nonsense, rubbish
3. Onomatopoeia - The formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to; formation of words in imitation of sounds; word that sounds like what it means
4. Palpable - Capable of being handled, touched, or felt; tangible; obvious; concrete, real
5. Fiesta - A festival or religious holiday, especially a saint's day celebrated in Spanish-speaking countries
6. Incendiary - Causing or capable of causing fire; of or containing chemicals that produce intensely hot fire when exploded; inflammatory; an arsonist; who creates or stirs up factionalism or sedition; an agitator; causing trouble, damage; one who maliciously and willfully sets property on fire; also, an object or thing capable of starting and sustaining a fire
7. Adulation - Excessive flattery or admiration; excessive, ingratiating praise; overenthusiastic praise; servile flattery; exaggerated and hypocritical praise
8. Deluge - An abundant, usually overwhelming flow or fall, as of a river or rain; barrage; great flood; heavy downpour; overrun with water; inundate
9. Decrepitude - The quality or condition of being weakened, worn out, impaired, or broken down by old age, illness, or hard use
10. Seraph - A celestial being having three pairs of wings; the first of the nine orders of angels in medieval angelology
11. Rambunctious - Boisterous and disorderly; loud, energetic; noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline
12. Dank - Disagreeably damp or humid; clammy; slightly wet; unpleasantly damp or cold
13. Garner - To gather and store in or as if in a granary; to amass, gather; collect, accumulate; to gather and save or to store up; a granary; collect ripe crops
14. Denude - To divest of covering; make bare; expose (rock strata) by erosion; strip the covering from
15. Tantamount - Agreeing exactly in value, quantity, or effect; same; equivalent in effect or value
16. Cruet - A small glass bottle for holding a condiment, such as vinegar or oil; a small vessel for holy water or for water or wine used in the consecration of the Eucharist
17. Hospice - A shelter or lodging for travelers, pilgrims, foundlings, or the destitute; a program that provides palliative care and attends to the emotional and spiritual needs of terminally ill patients at an inpatient facility or at the patient's home; an institution that provides care and shelter; resort for travelers which includes lodging and entertainment
18. Orc - A mythical monster of varying descriptions; any of several cetaceans especialy the grampus of the dolphin family
19. Ballon - To curve outward past the normal or usual limit; stand out, stick out; increase rapidly; swell; a rounded or irregularly shaped outline containing the words that a character in a cartoon is represented to be saying; a flexible bag designed to be inflated with hot air or with a gas, such as helium, that is lighter than the surrounding air, causing it to rise and float in the atmosphere
20. Puckish - Mischievous; impish; naughtily or annoyingly playful
21. Whelp - A young offspring of a mammal, such as a dog or wolf; child; a youth; young of any of various canines; birth; of dogs; any of the ridges on the barrel of a windlass or capstan; a tooth of a sprocket wheel
22. Cassette - A small flat case containing two reels and a length of magnetic tape that winds between them, often used in audio and video recorders and players and as a medium for storing data in digital form; lightproof cartridge containing photographic film or plates, used in specially designed cameras; cartridge for holding and winding typewriter or printer ribbon while in the machine; case with recording tape in it for use in a tape or video recorder
23. August - The eighth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar; inspiring awe or admiration; majestic; venerable for reasons of age or high rank; dignified, noble; majestic, impressive; impressive in size, scope, or extent; raised to or occupying a high position or rank
24. Clairvoyant - Having the supposed power to see objects or events that cannot be perceived by the senses; person, such as a medium, possessing the supposed power of clairvoyance; person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron, namely, that he is a blockhead; person who has the power to see or know things that are not present to the senses; perceiving things beyond the natural range of the senses; foreseeing the future
25. Misdemeanor - A misdeed; breaking of the law that is less serious than a felony; minor crime, punishable by a fine or a light jail term
26. Repudiate - To refuse to recognize or acknowledge; reject; turn one's back on; disown
27. Serendipitous - The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident; fact or occurrence of such discoveries; instance of making such a discovery
28. Adulation - Excessive flattery or admiration; excessive, ingratiating praise; overenthusiastic praise; servile flattery; exaggerated and hypocritical praise
29. Beguile - To deceive by guile; delude; take away from by or as if by guile; cheat; distract the attention of; divert; pass (time) pleasantly; amuse or charm; delight; charm; deceive; draw notice or interest by charm
30. Delude - Be false to; deceive, fool; deceive the mind or judgment of; frustrate the hopes or plans of; cause to accept what is false, especially by trickery or misrepresentation
31. Simile - A figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared
32. Metaphor - A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison; one thing conceived as representing another; a symbol; figure of speech in which one object is used in place of another to suggest a likeness
33. Allegory - The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form; a story, picture, or play employing such representation; a symbolic representation
34. Euphoria - A feeling of great happiness or well-being; extreme happiness; high spirits
35. Obloquy - Harsh, often insulting language; loss of or damage to one's reputation; vilification
36. Benevolent - Characterized by or suggestive of doing good; of, concerned with, or organized for the benefit of charity, charitable, kind
37. Bewilderment - The condition of being confused or disoriented; situation of perplexity or confusion; a tangle; state of being confused; confusion resulting from failure to understand
38. Resilient - Marked by the ability to recover readily, as from misfortune; capable of returning to an original shape or position, as after having been compressed; bouncy, flexible; having the quality of springing back to a former position. Also: Able to recover quickly from sickness or difficulty; sturdy
39. Pugnacious - Combative in nature; belligerent; fond of fighting or arguing
40. Truculent - Disposed to fight; pugnacious; expressing bitter opposition; scathing; disposed to or exhibiting violence or destructiveness; fierce; belligerent, hateful; defiantly aggressive
41. Belligerent - Inclined or eager to fight; hostile or aggressive, pertaining to, or engaged in warfare; nasty, argumentative; having angry aggressive feelings
42. Subvert - To destroy completely; ruin; undermine the character, morals, or allegiance of; corrupt; overthrow completely; rebel, destroy completely; cause the downfall of; of rulers; corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality; destroy property or hinder normal operations
43. Allegiance - Loyalty or the obligation of loyalty, as to a nation, sovereign, or cause; obligations of a vassal to a lord; being loyal to country, king, or ruler
44. Esoteric - Beyond the understanding of an average mind; mysterious, obscure; not publicly disclosed; confidential; confined to a small group; intended for or understood by only a particular group; of or relating to that which is known by a restricted number of people
45. Torpid - Deprived of the power of motion or feeling; benumbed; lazy, slow; slow and apathetic; lacking mental and physical alertness and activity
46. Laud - To give praise to; glorify; pay tribute or homage to; express warm approval of; honor (a deity) in religious worship; acclaim
47. Scathed - To harm or injure, especially by fire; to criticize or denounce severely;excoriate; the act of damaging something or someone; criticize harshly and devastatingly
48. Prodigy - A person with exceptional talents or powers; act or event so extraordinary or rare as to inspire wonder; portentous sign or event; an omen; one that evokes great surprise and admiration
49. Flay - To strip off the skin or outer covering of; strip of money or goods; fleece; whip or lash; assail with stinging criticism; excoriate; criticize harshly and devastatingly; to scold severely
50. Excoriate - To tear or wear off the skin of; abrade; censure strongly; denounce, criticize very severely
51. Fustian - A coarse sturdy cloth made of cotton and flax; pretentious speech or writing; pompous language; pompous, bombastic, and ranting
52. Bombastic - Characterized by bombast; high-sounding; inflated; tumid;pompous, grandiloquent; boastful in speech or writing; pompous
53. Pretentious - Claiming or demanding a position of distinction or merit, especially when unjustified, snobbish, conceited; trying to seem more important or valuable than is true
54. Futile - Having no useful result; trifling and frivolous; idle; hopeless, pointless
55. Baleful - Portending evil; ominous; harmful or malignant in intent or effect; menacing; threatening evil
56. Proselyte - A new convert to a doctrine or religion
57. Presumptuous - Going beyond what is right or proper; excessively forward; very self-confident; excessively forward; rude and disrespectful
58. Circumspect - heedful of circumstances and potential consequences; prudent; trying attentively to avoid danger, risk, or error; cautious, discreet; showing watchfulness, caution, or careful consideration
59. Rectitude - Moral uprightness; righteousness; quality or condition of being correct in judgment; quality of being straight; orally correct behaviour; quality of being upright in principles and conduct
60. Gong - A rimmed metal disk that produces a loud, sonorous tone when struck with a padded mallet; usually saucer-shaped bell that is struck with a mechanically operated hammer
60. Phlegmatic - Without emotion or interest; having or suggesting a calm, sluggish temperament; unemotional
61. Seditious - In opposition to a civil authority or government; arousing to action or rebellion; constituting treason; relating to, or having the nature of sedition; guilty of engaging in or promoting sedition
62. Stalwart - Capable of exerting considerable effort or of withstanding considerable stress or hardship; strong, valiant; brave and resolute; who is physically and morally strong; who steadfastly supports an organization or cause; stout
63. Resolute - Firm or determined; unwavering; determined, strong-willed; indicating or possessing determination, resolution, or persistence
64. Calumny - A false statement maliciously made to injure another's reputation; utterance of maliciously false statements; slander; expression of injurious, malicious statements about someone
65. Wholesome - Conducive to sound health or well-being; salutary; promoting mental, moral, or social health; healthy, decent; conducive to or characteristic of physical or moral well-being
66. Prescient - Perceiving the significance of events before they occur; characterized by foresight
67. Lampoon - A written attack ridiculing a person, group, or institution; light, good-humored satire; a work, as a novel or play, that exposes folly by the use of humor or irony; ridicule, make fun of
68. Adamant - Impervious to pleas, appeals, or reason; stubbornly unyielding; stone once believed to be impenetrable in its hardness; extremely hard substance; hard like rock; unyielding; mineral frequently found beneath a corset. soluble in solicitate of gold; unbreakable
69. Revere - To regard with reverence, or profound respect and affection, mingled with awe or fear; to venerate; to reverence; to honor in estimation; to venerate; adore; reverence; regard with great awe and devotion; a lapel on a woman's garment; turned back to show the reverse side; love unquestioningly and uncritically or to excess; venerate as an idol; regard with feelings of respect and reverence; consider hallowed or exalted or be in awe of
70. Stygian - Gloomy and dark; infernal; hellish