Synonym VS Antonym

The GRE includes 9 antonym questions in the Verbal section of the test.  Each question will include a word or phrase in capital letters, followed by five lettered words or phrases.  You must choose the lettered word or phrase that is most nearly OPPOSITE in meaning to the word in capital letters. 

Antonyms are probably the hardest type of question to improve on, as they depend on the inherent strength of your vocabulary.  Other than trying to memorize a dictionary (which we do NOT recommend),  there aren't many short-term ways to quickly learn hundreds or thousands of new words.  A large vocabulary is built over time, usually by voracious reading.

This does not mean that it is hopeless, however.  This site includes a list of the 180 most common words featured on the GRE.  We define each word and use it in context.  We also include a list of helpful prefixes, roots and suffixes.  We consider these lists valuable preparation for both the antonym and analogy test questions. Study them each day during the weeks just before taking the GRE and learn as many new words as possible. 

We suggest the following plan of attack for antonym questions:

• Define the stem word. If you don't know the precise definition of the word in capital letters, an approximate definition will probably be sufficient.  Most words are built or derived from other words with which you may be more familiar:

Examples: 

a)  tempestuous                   Related Words  temper

b)  perturbation                    Related Word:  perturbed

c)  severance                        Related Word:  sever

• Put the word in context.  When we speak, we use words in phrases in sentences, rather than in isolation.  Yet words that we understand fully in sentences may appear unfamiliar when we view them in isolation.  When you see a word on the GRE, put it in context to better understand its meaning.

Examples:

a)  savant              "idiot savant"                                         means genius

b)  gratuitous        "gratuitous violence"                           means unnecessary

c)  requiem           "requiem for a heavyweight"             means a rest

• Test the word for positive or negative connotations. 

a)  Any word that starts with "de-", "dis-" or "anti-" is usually negative.  This includes degradation, discrepancy, debase, antipathy

b)  Words that include the concept of going up are usually positive, while those that include the concept of going down are usually negative.

Positive examples:  elevate, ascend, adulation, illustrious

Negative examples:  decline, suborn, derision, consecrate

• Watch out for words that look similar, but have different meanings.

Examples:  ambulance/ambulatory,  suffer/suffrage,  friend/fiend,  platitude/gratitude,

                  inspired/insipid, vicious/viscous, noble/ignoble

• Don't overlook rare meanings of words, as they are commonly used on the GRE.  The parts of speech in an antonym problem will be consistent throughout the problem.  If the given word is a verb, all of the answer choices will also be verbs.  This helps you to quickly determine if the word is being used in a secondary sense, as common words have different meanings if they are used as verbs, nouns or adjectives.

Words that are commonly used as both nouns and verbs: 

curb                  document         table                 harbor

rent                   steep                flower               bolt

champion          air                     bustle

• Define its opposite and predict an answer. Whenever possible, you should have an idea of what you're looking for before you check the answer choices. Consciously predicting an answer will reduce the chances that you'll select a choice that's a synonym of the stem word, rather than an antonym.

• Find the answer choice that best matches your prediction. Check all the choices for the best fit. If necessary, consider alternative definitions for the stem word.

• Use guessing strategies, if necessary.

a)  Eliminate answer choices that have no clear opposite.

b)  If two (or more) choices have the same meaning, eliminate both.

c)  Use the "sense" of a word to eliminate probable wrong answers: if the stem is positive, the correct answer will be negative, and vice versa.

still confused... maybe you really need this material and exercises. please check and download it to ensure that you  will be more understand and clearly mastering it. thanks for coming and have a nice day

•   download here antonym and synonym material format (ms word)
•   exercises and practice -  answer key antonym and synonym material
•   exercises and practice antonym and synonym material part 2

Error recognition

Writing section is a part of English lesson. A person who composes a message or story in the form of text is generally known as a writer or an author. However, more specific designations exist which are dictated by the particular nature of the text such as that of poet, essayist, novelist, playwright, journalist, and more. A translator is a specialized multilingual writer who must fully understand a message written by somebody else in one language; the translator's job is to produce a document of faithfully equivalent message in a completely different language. A person who transcribes or produces text to deliver a message authored by another person is known as a scribe, typist or typesetter. A person who produces text with emphasis on the aesthetics of glyphs is known as a calligrapher or graphic designer. Writing is also a distinctly human activity. Such writing has been speculatively designated as coincidental. At this point in time, the only confirmed writing in existence is of human origin.

• In this section we would give the writing material. This blog purpose is to increase English skill especially writing such as grammar, tenses, vocabulary. we hope this blog could help to achieve your writing skill. Writing material is about compilation from some exercise that save in (ms word) and you can download it in the link below. The detail of this compilation in word is about a how well we known, how well we understand about grammar, tenses that mentioned in the sentences because it's contain the incorrect grammar, tenses or vocabulary. We must choose the best answer between A, B, C, D, or E to determine our knowledge about it. have fun and enjoy it.

part one error recognition.

• The error recognition Part 1
• The error recognition Part 2
• The error recognition Part 3

• writing section is also taken from the genre or text type. i believe all of you has been study about that, but in this occasional time i will give a material that contain a lot of genre or text type in order to make you more understand about this section...so keep studying and have a nice day. THE LINK FROM GENRE OR TEXT TYPE IS IN HERE (just click it and you will get through into the material)