Speak with Authority

New Herald-Guide vocabulary builder

BOUTTE - Experts agree that when you learn a new word, your world becomes a bigger and more interesting place.

Just read the vocabulary words below and choose the correct definition from the four choices that we give you.

Watch out - three are completely bogus. Only one is accurate and the definition is taken directly from Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary.

Check your answers at the end of column. If you get five or more right, congratulations - that's a superior score. Anything less, well, sorry: You need to dust off the old dictionary and get to work.

Ready? Let’s go!

1. Hibernate: a) sleep throughout the winter; b) deprived of, lacking; c) worsen, diminish in value; d) ordinary, unimaginative.

2. Gambit: a) remove, forcible; b) deserving blame; c) abstain from, resist n. chorus; d) opening in chess in which a piece is sacrificed.

3. Metallurgical: a) lustful; b) praising;

c) at the point of death; d) pertaining to the art of removing metals from ores.

4. Maxim: a) meeting; b) proverb, a truth pithily stated; c) shining, issuing light; d) forewarning.

5. Ephemeral: a) confused, discomposed; b) hort-lived, fleeting; c) motionless, stale; d) provide a refuge for, hide.

6. Reparable: a) pertaining to marriage; b) proper, appropriate; c) recede, lessen; d) capable of being repaired.

7. Genre: a) particular variety of art or literature; b) study of language; c) haphazard; careless; d) ungrateful person.

Challenge yourself weekly and before long, you'll be speaking more fluently, making more sense - and understanding more.

This week's answers below.

Answers: 1-A. 2-D. 3-D. 4-B. 5-B. 6-D. 7-A.