Norman Lewis
The Complete Handbook for Building a Superior Vocabulary
Expanded and Completely Revised
FIRST ANCHOR EBOOK EDITION, MARCH 2014
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Book Details
Price
|
3.00 |
|---|---|
Pages
| 775 p |
File Size
|
2,151 KB |
File Type
|
PDF format |
eISBN
| 978-0-307-81749-5 |
Copyright©
| 1949, 1978 by Norman Lewis |
1. Test Your Grammar
A thirty-sentence test of your ability to use words correctly. Is
your English average, above average, or nearly perfect?
2. Random Notes on Modern Usage
Grammatical usage is becoming more liberal every day—is your
speech neither affected nor illiterate?
Simple rules for fifteen important expressions.
3. How Grammar Changes
Grammar follows the speech habits of educated people—how does
your grammar measure up in your use of nine common expressions?
4. How to Avoid Being a Purist
There is no reason for being overprecise in your speech—but do
you also avoid barbarisms and illiterate expressions?
5. How to Speak Naturally
Nine more expressions of which you must be careful.
6. Do You Always Use the Proper Word?
A twenty-five sentence check on your increasing linguistic ability.
7. Some Interesting Derivations
How words come from the names of people and places.
8. How to Spell a Word
You can eliminate all your spelling difficulties—provided you know the tricks.
9. Take This Spelling Test
Proof that you are becoming a better speller.
10. Another Check on Your Spelling
Further tests to nail home the correct spellings of common but difficult words.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK FOR MAXIMUM BENEFIT
1. this is not a reading book…
Don’t read this book!
Instead, work with it. Talk aloud to it, talk back to it—use your voice,
not just your eyes and mind.
Learning, real learning, goes on only through active participation.
When a new word occurs in a chapter, say it aloud! (The phonetic
respelling will help you pronounce it correctly.)1
When you do the matching exercises, keep track of your responses.
(Check the key that immediately follows each exercise.)
When you do the “Yes-No,” “True-False,” or “Same-Opposite”
exercises, keep track of your responses, then check with the key when
you have completed the whole exercise.
When you are asked to fill in words that fit definitions, write your
answers on a piece of paper; then check the key both to see if you have
responded with the right word and also to make sure your spelling is correct.
When you do the Review of Etymology exercises, make sure to fill in the
English word containing the prefix, root, or suffix required—use a
chapter word, or any other word that comes to mind. (Coin words if you like!)
Pay special attention to the Chapter Reviews. Are the words still fresh
in your mind? Do you remember the meaning of each root studied in the
previous sessions? In these Reviews, you are not only testing your
learning but also tightening up any areas in which you discover lacks,
weaknesses, or lapses of memory.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
How to Use This Book for Maximum Benefit
Why this is not a book to be read; how to learn to pronounce the
new words correctly; how the etymological approach works better
than any other method for learning words quickly and
permanently; how to master nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
in five to ten minutes; how to use the psychological principles of
learning to sharpen your verbal skills.
Disclaimer
PART ONE
GETTING OFF TO A GOOD START
1. How to Test Your Present Vocabulary
How vocabulary growth of the average adult compares with that
of children; a simple test to show you whether your vocabulary is
below average, average, above average, excellent, or superior in
range, verbal speed, and responsiveness; important evidence of the
close relationship between vocabulary and success.
2. How to Start Building Your Vocabulary
How building your vocabulary will enrich your thinking, increase
your self-assurance in speaking and writing, and give you a better
understanding of the world and of yourself; why it is necessary to
recapture the “powerful urge to learn”; why your age makes little
difference; how this book is designed to build a college-size
vocabulary in two to three months.
3. How to Talk About Personality Types (Sessions 1–3)
Words that describe all kinds and sorts of people, including terms
for self-interest, reactions to the world, attitudes to others, skill
and awkwardness, marital states, hatred of man, of woman, and of
marriage. How one session of pleasant work can add more words
to your vocabulary than the average adult learns in an entire year;
why it is necessary to develop a comfortable time schedule and
then stick to it.
4. How to Talk About Doctors (Sessions 4–6)
Words that relate to medical specialists and specialties. Terms for
experts in disorders of the female organs; childhood diseases; skin
ailments; skeletal deformities; heart ailments; disorders of the
nerves, mind, and personality. How self-discipline and persistence
will ultimately lead to complete mastery over words.
5. How to Talk About Various Practitioners (Sessions 7–10)
Words that describe a variety of professions, including those
dealing with the human mind; teeth; vision; feet; handwriting;
aging; etc. How you are becoming more and more conscious of the
new words you meet in your reading.
6. How to Talk About Science and Scientists (Sessions 11–13)
Words that describe students of human development, of the
heavens, of the earth, of plant and animal life, of insect forms, of
words and language, of social organization. Books on psychology
that will add immeasurably both to your store of new words and
ideas, and also to your understanding of yourself and of other people.
7. How to Talk About Liars and Lying (Sessions 14–17)
Words that accurately label different types of liars and lying.
Terms that relate to fame, artistry, reform, heredity, time, place,
suffering, etc. Four lasting benefits you have begun to acquire
from your work in vocabulary building.
8. How to Check Your Progress: Comprehensive Test I (Session 18)
A 120-item test of your learning in Part I.
PART TWO
GAINING INCREASED MOMENTUM
9. How to Talk About Actions (Sessions 19–23)
Verbs that accurately describe important human activities.
Excursions into expressive terms for good and evil, doing, saying,
wishing, and pleasing. Further proof that you can learn, in a few
weeks or less, more new words than the average adult learns in an entire year.
10. How to Talk About Various Speech Habits (Sessions 24–27)
Words that explore in depth all degrees and kinds of talk and
silence. More books that will increase your alertness to new ideas
and new words.
11. How to Insult Your Enemies (Sessions 28–31)
Terms for describing a disciplinarian, toady, dabbler, provocative
woman, flag-waver, possessor of a one-track mind, freethinker,
sufferer from imaginary ailments, etc. Excursions into words
relating to father and mother, murder of all sorts, sexual desires,
and various manias and phobias. Magazines that will help you
build your vocabulary.
12. How to Flatter Your Friends (Sessions 32–37)
Terms for describing friendliness, energy, honesty, mental
keenness, bravery, charm, sophistication, etc. Excursions into
expressive words that refer to ways of eating and drinking,
believing and disbelieving, looking and seeing, facing the present,
past, and future, and living in the city and country. How the new
words you are learning have begun to influence your thinking.
13. How to Check Your Progress: Comprehensive Test II (Session 38)
A 120-item test of your achievement in Part II.
PART THREE
FINISHING WITH A FEELING OF COMPLETE SUCCESS
14. How to Talk About Common Phenomena and Occurrences (Sessions 39–41)
Words for poverty and wealth, direct and indirect emotions, not
calling a spade a spade, banter and other light talk, animallike
contentment, homesickness, meat-eating, and different kinds of
secrecy. Excursions into terms expressive of goodness, of
hackneyed phraseology, of human similarity to various animals, of
kinds of sound, etc. How to react to the new words you meet in your reading.
15. How to Talk About What Goes On (Sessions 42–44)
Verbs that show exhaustion, criticism, self-sacrifice, repetition,
mental stagnation, pretense, hinting, soothing, sympathizing,
indecision, etc. How you can increase your vocabulary by picking
your friends’ brains.
16. How to Talk About a Variety of Personal Characteristics (Sessions 45–46)
Adjectives that describe insincere humility, dissatisfaction,
snobbery, courtesy to women, financial embarrassment, sadness,
etc. How increasing your vocabulary has begun to change the
intellectual climate of your life.
17. How to Check Your Progress: Comprehensive Test III (Session 47)
A 120-item test of your achievement in Part III.
18. How to Check Your Standing as an Amateur Etymologist
Answers to Teaser Questions in Chapters 3–, 9–12, and 14–16.
19. How to Keep Building Your Vocabulary
The five simple, but vital, steps to take so that you can keep your
vocabulary ever developing, ever increasing. How your vocabulary
will continue to grow only if you remain on the search for new
ideas. The best means for making this search successful.
Appendix: Some Esoteric Phobias
Other Books by This Author
Bookscreen
2. master the pronunciation system!
Saying words aloud, and saying them right, is half the battle in feeling
comfortable and assured with all the new words you are going to learn.
Every word taught is respelled to show its pronunciation, so pay close
attention to how the phonetic symbols work.
3. a word (or words) on western and eastern pronunciation
In the New York City area, and in parts of New Jersey and other
eastern states, the syllables -ar, -er, -or, -off, and -aw are pronounced
somewhat differently from the way they are said in the Midwest and in the West.
4. why etymology?
Etymology (et′-Ə-MOL′-Ə-jee) deals with the origin or derivation of words.
When you know the meaning of a root (for example, Latin ego, I or
self), you can better understand, and more easily remember, all the
words built on this root.
5. but what are nouns, verbs, and adjectives?
You probably know.
But if you don’t, you can master these parts of speech (and reference
will be made to noun forms, verb forms, and adjective forms throughout
the book) within the next five minutes.
6. how to work for best results
If you intend to work with this book seriously (that is, if your clear
intention is to add a thousand or more new words to your present
vocabulary—add them permanently, unforgettably—add them so
successfully that you will soon find yourself using them in speech and
writing), I suggest that you give yourself every advantage by carefully
following the laws of learning: