R2W WEEKLY QUIZ: August 17

Trumpet your mastery of this week's words!

Blessed be, word lovers! How much of the English language did you unlock this week? Answer the following questions and review the answers on your own or with a friend, teacher, or tutor.

WORD MATCH
Match each number of each word to the matching phrase. One word has no matching phrase.

1. assiduous | 2. exasperate | 3. putrefy | 4. epiphenomenal | 5. vagary | 6. fawning

_______ Whim or wild chance

_______ To decompose or decay

_______ To agitate, infuriate, or irk

_______ Industrious and unremitting

_______ Bowing or bootlicking

QUOTE MATCH
Complete each quote using the words from the word bank.

1. epiphenomenon | 2. exasperating | 3. assiduity | 4. placebo | 5. vague

“The human language, as precise as it is with its thousands of words, can still be so wonderfully _______.” —Garth Stein

“I see the notion of talent as quite irrelevant. I see instead perseverance, application, industry, _______, will, will, will, desire, desire, desire.” —Gordon Lish

“When people consistently move in the direction of growth, feelings of happiness and life satisfaction tend to come along for the ride as an _______ of growth.” —Scott Barry Kaufman

“One reason golf is such an _______ game is that a thing we learned is so easily forgotten, and we find ourselves struggling year after year with faults we had discovered and corrected time and again.” —Bobby Jones

“The _______ effect is one of the most fascinating things in the whole of medicine. It's not just about taking a pill, and your performance and your pain getting better. It's about our beliefs and expectations. It's about the cultural meaning of a treatment.” —Ben Goldacre

ROOT QUIZ
For each of the following words, fill in the meaning of each prefix, suffix, and base. For bonus points, define the word and list other words with the same roots.

PUTR- (_______) + -FY (to make or become)

VAG- (_______) + -ARY (pertaining to)

A- (near to) + SID- (_______) + -UOUS (full of)

EX- (out) + ASPER- (_______) + -ATE (make)

EPI- (upon) + PHAN- (_______) + -OMENON (that which)

Scroll down for answers. But first, learn words using the affix -POD: