GRE WORDS and Short Stories #9
- cacophony-(n)-Harsh, jarring noise
- disparate-(adj)-fundamentally different; entirely unlike
- lavish-(v)-give unsparingly
- perfidious-(adj)-willing to betray one's trust
- propriety-(n)-correct behavior
- taciturn-(adj)-silent, not talkative
- perfunctory-(adj)-done in a routine way; indifferent
- mettle-(n)-courage and fortitude
- sap-(v)-to deplete or weaken gradually
- extol-(adj)-to praise highly
- officiant-(n)-one who performs a religious rite or presides over a religious ceremony
- abeyance-(n)-temporary cessation or suspension
Story
I hate cats. They are selfish,
perfidious creatures that bare with you only until they find someone with a larger bowl of food, or a more comfortable couch. And their meows...ughh...never had I heard a worse
cacophony that a cat's plea for food, milk, and comfortable shelter.
Thats why the fact that the diabolical creature stood there, with its green eyes staring at me, at just a few feet away, was something that worried me. It purred briefly while it started slowly closing the distance between itself and me.
Ten feet.
What had those Egyptian
officiants smoked when they had deemed such horrible beasts worthy to
extol? It kept walking on this
perfunctory way, as if it wasn't even aware of my presence, but I could see the evil intentions of its scheme.
Seven feet.
Why had she bought a cat! Why not a dog? A bulldog, or even a goddamn golden retriever would have been a more noble creature to deal with than the satanical presence of the feline before me. At least a dog wold have some
propriety, unlike these beasts that shit, piss, and pass out whenever they please.
Five feet.
I took a step back, my left foot touching the metal bars of our apartment's balcony. Suddenly, I became aware of my surrounding; the city of Chicago, suddenly stopped being
taciturn and exploded with all its chaos, seventeen floors below me.
Four feet.
The sudden vicinity of it began filling my being with terror. I thought I could contain it, but its purr drawing ever-so close to me
sapped all residing
mettle from me.
Three feet.
Why wouldn't it go away!? Where would
I go? Where could I escape from this, this thing!!? How
disparate the situation could've been if she had only bought a damn dog and not this fucking cat! I would've
lavished the creature without end, but now this cat, kicking me out from my own apartment, and now getting closer to me to do to me God-knows-what!
Two feet.
Jump, I told myself, just jump! It's the only exit, the only way to escape from this creature.
I did.
There was a brief
abeyance of the city's life; the world stood still, and my body drifted towards the sky. Not a single sound could be heard. But gravity won at the end, and when it began pulling me back down--not to my terrace, but to the concrete of Chicago's street's, several hundred feet below me--the city began to roar again with the dissonance of its cars and people.
I did not panic. How could I? I was free from the creature, which every second got farther away from me. I closed my eyes, and embraced the dissapearance of the cat from my life.
GRE Words and Short Stories #8
- austere-(adj)-severe or stern in appearance; undecorated
- credulous-(adj)-too trusting; gullible
- disabuse-(v)-to set right; to free from error
- engender-(v)-to produce, cause, or bring about
- exigent-(adj)-urgent; requiring immediate action
- laud-(v)-to give praise; to glorify
- obdurate-(adj)-hardening in feeling; resistant to persuasion
- pedant-(n)-one who shows off learning
- propitiate-(adj)-to conciliate; to appease
- tacit-(adj)-done without using words
- whimsical-(adj)-acting in a fanciful or capricious manner; unpredictable
- banal-(adj)-predictable, cliched, boring.
Story
He laid there, on the grass, in the middle of the soccer field located on top of a small hill. Thinking. There was not a cloud to be seen on the blue sky, and despite the cold breeze that made everything more comforting, nothing could
propitiate the discomforting feeling that came each time he thought of her. He wanted to go back to her, but knew it was not an option; she was
obdurate to the bone about the notion of returning to him; she wouldn't have it. Realizing that had
engendered the feeling he wanted to overcome and forget.
It was all his fault. He had never been good to her while they were together and that exacerbated everything in his head. She was the opposite to him; she would
laud him with that sweet voice of hers. She would smile each time she saw him, and at the time, he had thought of it as
banal of her.
Banal!? How retarded and selfish that sounded in retrospect. How full of himself he had been back then. If he could do something to
disabuse himself from all the wrongdoings, name-calling, and pain that he had thrown her way, he would have done so immediately.
They were so different, he realized as he remembered the first day they had met. At first glance, she had seemed
austere, standing a world apart with that khaki shirt that almost rendered her invisible when standing next to the beige wall. How different from the
whimsical persona he wanted to portray with that expensive outfit he had chosen for that night. Yet, as the evening had progressed, she had evolved to a loving, adoring creature, somewhat
credulous, true, but nonetheless sharp and sweet. He knew she had had a thing for him the instant she laid eyes on him, and he smiled, remembering the comforting feeling that warmed his chest each time he remembered the love she had had for him. As soon as he came back from reminiscing, and contemplated the current state of affairs, mainly that he no longer had her, made it all the more
exigent for him to get her back.
He needed her back! He hated himself; he hated the selfish,
pedant creature he had been with her when they were together.
How many times had he rubbed the love she had had for him on her face?
He began breathing slowly again, thinking again, and after moments of careful pondering a
tacit scheme had unexpectedly formed in his mind. A clear solution laid there before him in a lucid manner. He opened his eyes, for the first time admiring the beauty of his surrounding, and he whispered to himself, "yes...yes, that will work."
He stood up, oriented himself, and began heading to where soon she would be.
GRE Words and Short Story #7
- attenuate-(v)-to reduce in force or degree; to weaken.
- convoluted-(adj)-intricate and complicated
- dirge-(n)-a funeral hymn or mournful speech
- enervate-(v)-to reduce in strength
- exigent-(adj)-urgent; requiring immediate action
- impervious-(adj)-impossible to penetrate; incapable of being affected
- laconic-(adj)-using few words
- mollify-(adj)-to calm or make less severe
- paragon-(n)-model of excellence or perfection
- prodigal-(adj)-lavish, wasteful
- stolid-(adj)-unemotional; lacking sensitivity
- waver-(v)-to fluctuate between choices.
Story
The bottle stood there, quiescent, luring me to it. I couldn't remember the last day I didn't wake up without the urge of trying its contents. Now, not even a glass full of the elixir could
attenuate my cravings for it. And now, it came to the point when, at the first signs of consciousness in the morning, the feeling would be
exigent beyond belief.
Now, at nine am, I laughed a sad laugh. It wouldn't be long when my sister, my next of kin, would be standing before a small crowd reciting a brief
dirge for her
prodigal brother. She would then give a
laconic speech, and then the onerous funeral would be over for her. There would be no sobs or tears, everyone would remain there
stolid...bastards.
Perhaps it was only that, death, that could
mollify permanently this destructive dependence on the
oh-so-beautiful,
amber rum.
How had it come to this! I pondered about it, but despite the greatest efforts to search for the root-cause, I could not reach out to the
impervious part of my brain that contained the answer. Even if I did, I thought, chances were that, far from being a pedestrian answer, the truth would be too
convoluted for me to grasp the lessons to be learned from it.
Well, no need to ponder about what couldn't be changed; there was nothing to stop the inevitable reality that made me the antithesis to the
paragon that was my successful, educated sister.
It was time to drink, and to stop the nonsense!
I poured myself half the bottle's contents in an oversized 7-11, Big Gulp cup. I proceeded immediately to take a massive gulp, the action automatically
enervating the aforementioned desires.
I went for a second round, but suddenly began to waver.
Was there really no cure for me? Could I not fight the urge? The same urge I had created? Couldn't I reach to the depths of what was still pristine and noble in me to help me fight this venomous tendency?
....
No, a whisper came and absconded instantly.
Cheers to that! I yelled to no one in particular, and furiously consumed the remnants of the bottle's alcoholic treasures.
gre words and short story #6
- amalgamate-(v)-to combine; to mix together
- assuage-(v)-to make something unpleasant less severe
- cogent-(adj)-convincing and well reasoned
- dilatory-(adj)-intended to delay
- guile-(n)-deceit or trickery
- pristine-(adj)-fresh and clean; uncorrupted
- inundate-(adj)-to overwhelm; to cover with water
- specious-(adj)-deceptively attractive; seemingly plausible but fallacious
- vex-(v)-to annoy
- dilettante-(n)-someone with an amateurish and superficial interest in a topic
- exculpate-(v)-to clear from blame; prove innocent
- irascible-(adj)-easily made angry
Story
Nothing could placate the bitter desire to end my life; not even the bullet that would eventually obliterate my skull's contents could
exculpate me from the horror that I had created.
From afar, I could see the lights of the city that saw me grow; the place that had had an inalienable influence in the molding of my
irascible nature, the same one that had held me responsible for the vicious crime that now tormented me.
At least there were some good days, I told myself, and my mind briefly drifted away to the young years, in the process
assuaging the bitterness of my guilt. The random, joyous memories served as
dilatory remnants that stopped me from pressing the trigger right away. Regardless,
amalgamating all those memories into a mental mosaic to look at and find forgiveness in it was useless; they simply couldn't rarefy the guiltiness that THAT ONE atrocious event had brought into my life.
Following that dreaded day, I had merely felt
vexed at the events that had unfolded, but as the days progressed, and the consequences became more lucid, the guilt had simply
inundated me with a rotten feeling that slowly ate away any remaining
specious reasons that I could've conceived to keep on living.
I had ended a life that night. A young one. A
pristine existence that had a whole lot to offer to this world, a whole lot more than this mere
dilettante would able be capable of. That night, like so many other moments in my life, I had taken a sudden appreciation for something that previously held no interest in my life; specifically, that day it had been street racing. A few hours of racing clips was all that had taken for me to become infatuated with the subject. My good friend had warned me that night no to go ahead with it, giving me
cogent advice against it.
I hadn't listen. I rendered myself prepared at the challenge of operating an Italian monstrosity in all its might. I began filling my mind with foolish
guile, telling myself that the few clips and articles that I had read on the subject sufficed to make me an expert. I repeated the lies over and over in my head, as I anxiously waited for the light to turn green, and for me to blast off in the process.
And indeed the light turned green, but along with the change of color, a little kid had materialized right on the path of destruction. A mere second later, what was left of his body collided violently against the windshield, breaking it, and ending the brief flight on the back of the vehicle, dead.
I could remember vividly his eyes before that instant, and when they stared back at me, I pulled the trigger.
GRE Words and short story#5
- antagonize-(v)-to provoke or annoy to anger
- chicanery-(n)-deception by means of craft of guile
- dilate-(v)-to make larger; to expand
- dissemble-(v)-to present a false appearance; to disguise one's real intentions or character
- elegy-(n)-a sorrowful poem or speech
- euphemism-(n)-an inoffensive word or phrase in place of a more distasteful one
- gregarious-(adj)-outgoing, sociable
- impetuous-(adj)-quick to act without thinking
- intransigent-(adj)-uncompromising; refusing to reconcile
- lethargic-(adj)-acting in an indifferent or slow, sluggish manner
- obsequious-(adj)-overly submissive and eager to please
- prevaricate-(v)-to lie or deviate from the truth
- soporific-(adj)-causing sleep or lethargy
- ostentatious-(adj)-excessive showiness
Story
The scene was
ostentatious: over a hundred men and women dressed in silk and golden robes; baroque columns extending over fifteen feet into the air, and in the middle, a gorgeous female on this
lethargic-yet sensual-pose. She was in the middle of it all, crying fervently as she recited an
elegy damning her late husband's death.
The scene could've been a lot more maudlin had it not been for the unfortunate arrival of this imbecile, whose excessive
gregarious behavior created a dissonance in my ears as he greeted the extensive repertoire of acquaintances.
Can the ass kissing please wait? I asked myself, wishing he would shut up so I could continue enjoying the magnificent show.
But it didn't.
Gosh was this idiot annoying. A few years back, before I had put an abrupt end to my
impetuous tendencies, if someone had
antagonized me to this level, I wouldn't have thought it twice before jumping off my seat and landing a deliciously placed kick on this asshole's neck.
Not now, not with my girlfriend here, but hell did I wish the feeling could materialize in the form of him squeaking following the aftermath.
Not now, I repeated. I would have to wait for the intermission in order to give a few tips on decorum to this individual, and even then, I would have to make use of some
euphemisms to describe his less-than-tasteful behavior at the opera house. Nonetheless, that didn't mean I would be
obsequious to this idiot, or that I would
dissemble for his sake.
Hell no! I would be
intransigent about the fact that if he kept on ruining the vibe of tonight's opera, there would be hell to pay afterwards, if not at the very moment the transgression was made.
Granted, some saw this events as nothing else but
soporific endeavors, but I didn't. I loved it, as a matter of fact, and I wasn't going to take any more of this dude's crap.
When all this thoughts had been over, the first half had ended.
Shit. I flinched at the presence of additional light, my
dilated pupils had been used to the more soothing vibe of the show. Regardless, it was time to make this douche's acquaintance.
I saw him there, in some deep torpor.
The dude had passed out! This did nothing else but fuel my current disgust to his being, and I began heading viciously towards him.
"Listen," I whispered in his ear, while my right had gripped with all its might the critter that lived between his legs. "I didn't come here to
prevaricate: you make one more noise during the opera's second half, and I'll rip this surplus of dead weight out of your torso!"
His eyes were wide open; his body shaking, still trying to figure out what the fuck had happened. When it finally sinked in, he began babbling some cheap excuse: Oh, I hadn't noticed it had begun...so sorry...etc....etc.
I closed the grip tighter; he made a high-pitch noise, and I continued my diatribe, "I won't take any of this pathetic
chicanery of yours, if you..." another high pitch noise escaping from his tormented body. I released my grip, and instantaneously delivered a powerful slap that caressed a significant amount of his face's surface area.
He stood there motionless, and as I walked off, those that had been closed enough to witness what had transgressed began clapping.
Good. I grinned,
at least I am not the only one that appreciates a little bit of deference during the opera.
GRE Words and Short Story #4
- aggrandize-(v)-to increase in power, influence, and reputation
- ardor-(n)-intense and passionate feeling
- chauvinistic-(adj)-someone prejudiced in favor of a group to which he or she belongs to
- diffident-(adj)-lacking self-confidence
- eulogy-(n)-speech in praise of someone
- garrulous-(adj)-tending to talk a lot
- innocuous-(adj)-harmless
- opprobrium-(n)-public disgrace
- rhetoric-(n)-effective writing or speaking
- satiate-(v)-to satisfy or overindulge
- veracity-(n)-truthfulness and accuracy
- insipid-(adj)-lacking interest or favor
- glib-(adj)-marked by a lack of an intellectual depth
Story
I stood up, felling
diffident about the entire situation; it was my turn to rebuke the arguments presented by my opponent, and he had been good--too good. It was my school's debate championship final, so what did I expect? My competitor had shown an unprecedented
ardor when presenting his arguments; his speech had tastefully evolved from a mere set of facts to a memorable embodiment of
rhetoric. When he had finished, the room had exploded, the claps of the audience forming a wordless
eulogy for him, reverberating on the walls, and in the process,
aggrandizing the audience's favorable stance towards his views.
Now, everyone stood there,
insipid, with a blank stare on their face. My competitor had already
satiated their needs for rhetoric, and now there I was, the competition. No matter the
veracity of my own view points, and how well I would be able to deliver them, they would see me as just another
garrulous dude; they would boo with all their lung-strength, and I would end my high school career in utter
opprobrium.
So I decided to throw away my original plan. Instead of showing deference to my challenger's viewpoints, I would be cocky and
chauvinistic about the whole thing. At the end, this path would be
innocuous, my competitor had already won, so no matter how hard I tried, the outcome would be the same.
Thus, I began and ended by
glib response with a, "
Fuck you!"
GRE Words and Short Story #3
- Anachronism-(n)-something out of place in time
- caustic-(adj)-biting in wit
- desultory-(adj)-jumping from one thing to another; disconnected.
- dupe-(n)-a person who is easily deceived; or to deceive.
- foment-(v)-to arouse or incite
- inimical-(adj)-hostile, unfriendly
- malinger-(adj)-to evade responsibility by pretending to be ill.
- onerous-(adj)-troublesome and oppressive; burdensome
- archaic-(adj)-ancient, old fashion.
- diatribe-(n)-an abusive condemnatory speech
- eclectic-(adj)-selecting from or made up from a variety of sources.
- frugality-(n)-a tendency to be cheap of thrifty
Story
He walked into the room with this hideous outfit.
Gosh, I knew he was known for his
frugality, but to have saved a few bucks on that outfit, for what? To provide the illusion of an
eclectic taste?
Pfft...please, the 16th century-looking jacket on his shoulders was the greatest
anachronism I had witnessed in ages; not even my grandmother's presence during my 21st birthday's extravaganza had even come close. No, he wasn't eclectic; the outfit was, at best,
desultory. I mean, a purple jacket on a bright orange shirt!? Trust me, I am no
fashionista, by any means, but at least I have some taste.
Oh well,
that was his choice, I told myself. No need to embarrass him more than what the outfit was already capable of doing. I tried to hold off the need to place a few
caustic phrases on the air so that everyone would become more aware of the hideousness of his cloth's shenanigans.
I took a big gulp of my benevolent serving of Pinot Noir, trying to focus my attention on something else, but I couldn't; the temptation was SO STRONG. I wanted to
foment on him an awareness of the vomiticious-ness of his evening garments. I wanted to be
inimical to the extreme. I would begin by throwing a few sarcastic compliments; he was such a
dupe that he wouldn't even realize the truth behind my scheme. I was beginning to construct my future
diatribe, placing together a few initial sentences that I would use to get inspired and continue on my negative rambling once I got started.
I would begin by praising the
archaic nature of his jacket.
How wonderful it is, I would exclaim, and the poor fool wouldn't even know what was going on underneath the surface! From that point on, my conversation would become increasingly more
onerous to the point where my intentions would be lucid. If someone didn't like it, so be it. This was the last night I would be with anyone in this room. If my diatribe really offended someone, then I would simply excuse myself for the evening and become a
malinger.
No need for complications! At that point, my job would have been done, and the dude would know better than to dress like a clown when I am around!
GRE Words and Short Story # 2
- erratic-(adj)-wandering and unpredictable
- fervid-(adj)-intensely emotional
- inchoate-(adj)-not fully formed; disorganized
- lucid-(adj)-clear to understand
- obviate-(v)-to prevent; to make unnecessary
- rarefy-(v)-to make thinner or sparse
- dogmatic-(adj)-dictatorial in one's opinion
- florid-(adj)-excessively decorated or embellish
- ingenuous-(adj)-showing innocence or childlike simplicity
- occlude-(v)-to stop up; to prevent the passage of
- repudiate-(v)-to reject the validity of
- vacillate-(v)-to sway physically; to be indecisive
Story
The forest was dark; it had just turned midnight and the hunter could hear the sounds of a nearby beast. The noises of the its presence jumping from one place to another. Not knowing where the
erratic creature would be next, he took a hold of his gun, ready to
obviate any harm that could come his way through an attack from the creature.
An ugly,
inchoated creature jumped from the darkness into the light of the moon, right in front of him. His heart rate started accelerating, and with a
fervid scream, he started towards it. As he was charging, the light of the moon lit the beast's face, in such a way that--far from looking menacing--gave the creature a very
ingenuous look, one which
rarefied the hunter's wish of obliterating it.
So he stopped, and took his finger out of the trigger. He began to
vacillate back and forth, no knowing whether to caress it, or to stay there, and wait for the natural course of things to develop. He decided on the latter option, and as he stood there, he could appreciate the
florid patterns formed by the creature's different tones of fur. The drastic difference between the initial uglyness that he had observed, and the current beauty that the same creature emanated was far from
lucid to him.
The hunter at this point wanted to reach out and touch the beat, but a narrow-yet deep--cliff laid between them,
occluding the hunter from getting close enough to what-was-now the beautiful beast.
Suddenly, in the stillness of the night, the creature made a pungent sound, and two wings, one on each side of its torso, materialized. It gave a kick glimpse to the eyes of the hunter, and it took off, like a rocket towards the shinning moon. The hunter's gaze tried to follow the fast projectile until it disappeared in the depths of the night.
The next day, as he recollected and shared what had happened with his friends, there were those amongst his audience that
repudiated his anecdote. Despite how
dogmatic he was about the validity of the events, few were ever able to believe the rare story that unfolded that night.
The bastards...
GRE Words and Short Story #1
- abscond-(v)-to leave secretly
- capricious-(adj)-changing one's mind quickly and often
- deference-(n)-respect, courtesy
- dissonance-(n)-a harsh and disagreeable combination, often of sound
- equivocate-(v)-to use expressions of double meaning in order to mislead
- fawn-(n)-to grovel
- implacable-(adj)-unable to be calmed down or made peaceful
- loquacious (adj)-talkative
- placate-(v)-to soothe or pacify
- obstinate-(adj)-stubborn, unyielding
- quiescent-(adj)-motionless
- torpor-(n)-extreme mental and physical sluggishness
Story
The day began unlike no other; instead of the soothing chirping of the birds waking our character up, an unknown
dissonance usurped his dreams and brought him harshly back to reality. He tried placing a pillow on his head, but the scheme was unable to calm down the
implacable noise. He remained there, on his bed,
quiescent, hoping that the noises would
abscond just the way they had mysteriously filled the room with the horrible noises, but the noises kept on tormenting the young boy.
Suddenly, the noises stopped, just as his mother walked into his bedroom. The young mother spoke with
deference to his beloved son,
fawning him; asking him what he wanted for breakfast, inquiring where his dreams had taken him to, etc. However, due to the noises that had previously tormented him, he found himself in a deep state of
torpor, and was unable to hear his mother's inquiries. When he was finally able to hear her mother's questions, he took his mother's interest as a
loquacious inquisition; he refused to answer her.
About the third time the same questions had been asked, her mother noticed that the
obstinate child would not answer; she could sense that something was annoying him. She became
capricious, not knowing if she should ask her son what was wrong, or just let him be. After some time considering it, she decided to leave the room figuring that her presence there wouldn't
placate her son's current annoyance, along the way
equivocating him by suggesting that the sooner he woke up the sooner he could go on an amazing trip, when in fact she was simply planning on sending his ass to boarding school.
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