1,500 Words in 15 Minutes a Day / Edition 1

by Ceil Cleveland

Overview

Improve your vocabulary in your spare time-and enhance your opportunities for a lifetime

Whether you're studying for school, preparing a business presentation, or mingling at a cocktail party, your mastery of words is essential to your overall success. 1,500 Words in 15 Minutes a Day is the ultimate crash course in vocabulary building-a comprehensive day-by-day, week-by-week program that makes it easy to learn new words in the fastest time possible. The book's simple lesson plans are organized by related topics, highlighting common words used in business, politics, religion, and the arts. Each chapter includes clear definitions, pronunciations, and examples of usage, as well as self-quizzes and fascinating facts for a total learning experience.

This exciting year-long program will help you to:

• SPEAK AND WRITE with total confidence
• MASTER KEY WORDS AND TERMS that every professional should know
• PREPARE YOURSELF for college or enhance your career
• INCREASE YOUR KNOWLEDGE on a wide range of subjects
• MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS with fill-in quizzes and a final review
• BUILD AN IMPRESSIVE VOCABULARY

...in just fifteen minutes a day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780071443258
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	06/22/2005
Edition description:	Net
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	8.36(w) x 10.68(h) x 0.96(d)

About the Author

Ceil Cleveland is a professor of English at New York University. She has also been vice president of university affairs at SUNY Stony Brook and Queens College of CUNY.

Table of Contents

PART I
Introduction
Essential Words for the Literate Person
WEEK 1: Words for Discussing Art
WEEK 2: Words for Discussing Architecture
WEEK 3: Words for Discussing Music
WEEK 4: Words for Discussing Philosophy
WEEK 5: Words for Discussing Psychology
WEEK 6: Words for Discussing Drama
WEEK 7: Words for Discussing Literature
WEEK 8: Words for Discussing Poetry
WEEK 9: Words for Discussing Classical Mythology
WEEK 10: Words for Discussing the Bible A World of Words
WEEK 11: Cool Words
WEEK 12: Hot Words
WEEK 13: Not Words
WEEK 14: Weird Words
WEEK 15: Surprising Words
WEEK 16: Trick Words
WEEK 17: Slick Words
WEEK 18: phobia Words
WEEK 19: Empty Words
WEEK 20: Words for Words
WEEK 21: Foreign Words
WEEK 22: Words That Fall Trippingly on the Tongue
WEEK 23: Moving Words
WEEK 24: Emotionol Words
WEEK 25: Tough Words
WEEK 26: fighting Words
WEEK 27: loving Words
WEEK 28: Cross Words
WEEK 29: Deceptive Words
WEEK 30: Noisy Words
WEEK 31: Quiet Words
WEEK 32: Heolthy Words
WEEK 33: Sick Words
WEEK 34: Edible Words
WEEK 35: Amusing Words
WEEK 36: Growing Words
WEEK 37: Short Words
WEEK 38: long Words
WEEK 39: Euphemistic Words
WEEK 40: Golden Word
WEEK 41: legal Words
WEEK 42: Dirty Words
WEEK 43: Clean Words
WEEK 44: News Words
WEEK 45: Show-Off Words
WEEK 46: family Words
WEEK 47: Sensitive Words
WEEK 48: Impressive Words
WEEK 49: Wise Words
WEEK 50: Intemperate Words
WEEK 51: Abused Words
WEEK 52: Words on Words
Works Consulted

Introduction

KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT

Hey, You Can't Live Without Words

They're like water and food and sex. Basic needs. So why not accumulate as many words as you can?

My mother was a very smart woman who wanted her children to be smart. She was one of the rare college-educated women born before 1920. Married to my father, a rancher whose family had homesteaded property on the Texas plains a century before, my mother had little to stimulate her in her daily environment, so she was left to her own devices.

Her intellectual devices were many and unpredictable. The small-town school that I attended was not the most sophisticated. The football coach taught history; for a time the town's piano teacher taught English. When, in the 6th grade, I came home talking about studying SO-crates and ARIS-to-tole, my mother was flabbergasted. "Your teachers are fine people," she said in her thoughtful way, "but sometimes they are asked to teach subjects that they haven't studied very closely. You are going to become an autodidact."

"An auto-what?"

"An autodidact, a person who teaches him- or herself. Sometimes this is the best way to learn--because you're curious, you're motivated, and you need to know, so you teach yourself."

"But I'm not curious, I'm not motivated, and I don't need to know. I want to go out and play."

The next day, Mother lugged home a huge book, along with a rotating stand for it to sit on. "This is the world's best dictionary," she said. "When you hear, or see, or read a word that you don't know, come to this book and look it up. Write three sentences using that word. While you're at it, look at the word above it and the one below it. Study their meanings and write three sentences using those words. After that, the words will be yours forever."

I did the usual whining about this new assignment, but it got me nowhere. "The way a person uses the language is the first sign to others of that person's intelligence, class, sensibility, and ambition," she said.

Well, that covers a whole lot, I thought. Maybe I'd better listen to her for once. In 1500 Words in 15 Minutes a Day, I offer you a chance to practice what my mother preached. She was right. Now, I rarely come across a word I don't know. And when I do, I hot foot it to the dictionary. There is no self-esteem booster like knowing what you're talking about!

Words are the basic tool of our culture, just as hammer and nails are the basic tools of a house builder. You simply have to have them, and the more expert you are with them, the more successful you will be. In 1500 Words, you'll find some of those basic words-words everyone needs to build a literate life. Students studying for SAT's will find it helpful, as will business and professional people. Or if you just find words fascinating, dip into it-and you'll get hooked.

The book functions more as a thesaurus than a dictionary. Words are categorized: Part I gives you the terms and concepts you need for discussing the liberal arts-art, architecture, music, philosophy, psychology, drama, fiction, poetry, mythology, the Bible. Think of this: You're going to apply for a job, and you've heard that the boss collects art. You don't know flip about art, and you need a starter course. Look here under Art, and you'll find some ideas to impress your boss-to-be.

Words are fun and funny too. Look under Weird Words. You'll get a kick out of them and learn where they come from and why we use them. The book also contains 365 day's worth of word trivia. Trivia! you say. Trifles? Hardly. The word comes from the Latin trivium, the place where three roads meet: the public square. So, this book is a meeting place of people with knowledge, and people who need that knowledge for their everyday purposes and advancement.

You want to know Cool Words, Hot Words, Surprising Words? You'll find them here. You'll also find Stuffed Words, Empty Words and Not Words. (Read them and dump them! They are no good and will not help you.)

This book is playful, because the best users of words enjoy wit-and wit is playful; it means "to know," " to be in the know." If at any age (unlike the author as a 6th grader) you are curious, you are motivated, you want to know, 1500 Words will play with you, surprise you, amuse you, and help you to know a good many things that you don't expect a boring old vocabulary book to do.

Become an autodidact-now that you know what it means. It's the best way to learn a plethora of new words. (Look it up!)