認識幾個字？

這其實是一年多前的新聞了，一直壓在e-mail信箱裡，直到剛剛才被我翻出來，信箱無容量限制的下場就是這樣，永遠都有看不完郵件、永遠都有不知埋屍何處的文章。

American Heritage^® dictionaries的編輯們列出了一百個高中畢業生應該認識的字彙。Steven Kleinedler如是說：

"The words we suggest are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language."

所以，大學畢業生們，甚至是有著國外碩士學位的你們，下面的字認識了幾個啊？會正確使用的又有幾個呢？我認識的...不知有沒有十個，唉唷威呀～

100 Words That All High School Graduates — And Their Parents — Should Know

abjure
abrogate
abstemious
acumen
antebellum
auspicious
belie
bellicose
bowdlerize
chicanery
chromosome
churlish
circumlocution
circumnavigate
deciduous
deleterious
diffident
enervate
enfranchise
epiphany
equinox
euro
evanescent
expurgate
facetious
fatuous
feckless
fiduciary
filibuster
gamete
gauche
gerrymander
hegemony
hemoglobin
homogeneous
hubris
hypotenuse
impeach
incognito
incontrovertible
inculcate
infrastructure
interpolate
irony
jejune
kinetic
kowtow
laissez faire
lexicon
loquacious



lugubrious
metamorphosis
mitosis
moiety
nanotechnology
nihilism
nomenclature
nonsectarian
notarize
obsequious
oligarchy
omnipotent
orthography
oxidize
parabola
paradigm
parameter
pecuniary
photosynthesis
plagiarize
plasma
polymer
precipitous
quasar
quotidian
recapitulate
reciprocal
reparation
respiration
sanguine
soliloquy
subjugate
suffragist
supercilious
tautology
taxonomy
tectonic
tempestuous
thermodynamics
totalitarian
unctuous
usurp
vacuous
vehement
vortex
winnow
wrought
xenophobe
yeoman
ziggurat