The Articulate Professional

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Quiz on Last Month's Words

July / August 2014                               Volume 15  No. 4

Here are the words that were featured last month:

For each of the eight examples below, select a word from the above list that best fits the blank. Then check your answers at the end. Note that the correct answer could be any of the word forms that were featured -- example: perspicacity, perspicacious, and so on.

1. The critically acclaimed film “Syriana,” which this author has long championed, will deepen your insight into how the world works, especially into the kind of sinister goings-on to protect our “national” and business interests. The 2005 thriller is loosely based on the . . . . . of a real-life CIA operative, Robert Baer, played in the movie by George Clooney.
2. No, that shiny new building in Austin with our company’s name emblazoned across it is not the headquarters, but rather our semiconductor divisional office. Our corporation is based out of New Jersey and, as is the case with many large corporations, we are '. . . . .,' with autonomous divisional headquarters scattered across the U.S.
3. Warren Buffet has attained rock star status for his . . . . . in the running of the multinational and hugely diversified conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway.
4. It’s depressing to see many of our employees spend so much time toiling on the aesthetics of their presentations rather than on the content itself. They forget that things like fonts and colors and graphics are but the . . . . . of what should be their No. 1 objective: to induce thinking and smart decision making.
5. There’s hardly a day when I don’t compliment myself for hiring Shari. You must have noticed that, during our weekly staff meetings, the most . . . . . comments always seem to come from her.
6. Some former members of the Kennedy administration have described JFK as “an . . . . . personality.”
7. The problem of child soldiers, of whom there are estimated to be over 300,000 in the world, is akin to that of a . . . . .. Several different factors contribute to its insolubility, such as unstable or powerless national governments, civil wars, free availability of easy-to-fire automatic weapons, and the indoctrination of those conscripted.
8. I didn’t realize that the statistics Valerie sought from me, and which I enthusiastically supplied, was going to be used to justify the dissolution of my position. In essence, I became the . . . . . of my own layoff.

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Give yourself one point for each correct answer.

A score of 8 = excellent; 7 = very good; 6 = not bad; 5 or less = you may want to revisit these words.

Please let me know by e-mail or phone (281-463-2500) what you think about this quiz and how it can be improved.

© 2017 V.J. Singal
No part of this may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author.

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Phone: 281-463-2500, P.O. Box 841155, Houston, TX 77284-1155