Gre verbal section 3 pdf

Word Games for Fun and Success

As you learn new words:

1. See what kinds of outrageous contexts you can find in which to use your new words. Amaze your friends

and confound your coworkers.

2. Find a buddy with whom you can play word games. Try to stump each other.

3. Learn vocabulary through associations. Use a thesaurus to look up synonyms for your new word. If your

thesaurus has antonyms, you can then look up the antonyms, then the synonyms for each antonym, and

so on. See how long you can keep expanding the web of synonyms and antonyms by picking words with

slightly different shades of meaning. Draw the synonym/antonym web and post it where you can see it.

100

go off in your head when you see a synonym as one of your answer choices in an antonym question, and then

toss out that choice. It will never be the correct answer to an antonym question.

It is also important to remember that many words do not have a diametrically opposed antonym. You

must then choose the word or phrase that is most nearly opposite the stem word. The words in the antonym

questions will most often represent concepts. You are looking, then, for the concept among the answer choices

that most nearly opposes the concept of the stem word.

Eliminate and Create Context

Don’t forget your trustworthy testing friend, elimination. To begin, you can eliminate any answers that do not

have opposites. If an answer doesn’t have an opposite, it doesn’t have an antonym, and so cannot be the cor￾rect choice. In many cases, you will be able to eliminate two incorrect answer choices, leaving you with two

seemingly correct answers. When that happens, you must try to more precisely define the stem word. Try to

remember the contexts in which you have seen this word. How is it used in a sentence? Try writing a sentence

using the word. Now substitute the answer choices in place of the stem word. Which answer word or phrase

does the best job of changing the meaning of the sentence into its direct opposite? That will be the correct answer.

Separate and Conquer

If you are unsure of a word’s meaning, try breaking it into its component parts. Look at root words, prefixes,

and suffixes. Knowing the meanings of those elements will be of immense use in tackling antonym questions.

LearningExpress’s Vocabulary and Spelling Success in 20 Minutes a Day contains extensive sections on prefixes,

suffixes, and root words, which will be well worth your time to study. Also, if you are familiar with another

language related to English, such as German, or any of the languages derived from Latin (e.g., Spanish, French,

and Italian), you can often get a sense of a word’s meaning by connecting it with a word you know in one of

those languages. Look for similarities in spelling or even in sound. These words are called cognates: They are

related because they descend from a common root word.