The TOEFL Exam: Essential English Vocabulary: List 2

Is it time to abolish the week and find a better way to structure time? Slate (May 26, 2014)

Already her suitcases bulged with items she’d accumulated; she was surprised how many of these there were. Typical American

The push that boredom provides is neither good nor bad, neither necessarily beneficial nor necessarily harmful. Scientific American (Dec 16, 2020)

We were in the prime minister’s office in Sydney, looking down over the harbour with all of its benign tranquillity. The Guardian (Apr 19, 2020)

The longer or more complex the program, the more cards the programmer fed the computer. Hidden Figures

Employees will be told not to "express a personal opinion on matters of public policy, politics, or controversial subjects". BBC (Oct 29, 2020)

As a student, frustrated by the limitations of conventional mathematics, he invented an entirely new form, the calculus, but then told no one about it for twenty-seven years. A Short History of Nearly Everything

The FTC will consider “taking action” to prohibit deceptive practices which affect commerce. Fox News (May 28, 2020)

She also wanted her eldest daughter, Gabriela, a diligent high school sophomore, to attend college. Washington Post (Dec 11, 2020)

Punjab is often called the nation’s breadbasket for its extensive cultivation of wheat and rice. Washington Post (Dec 4, 2020)

Everywhere men busied themselves in frivolous and worthless occupations. The Underground Railroad: A Novel

It is a fundamental law of Nature, as basic as gravity. Cosmos

So, it is hard to infer cause and effect or draw conclusions as to the potential harms or benefits of this treatment. BBC (Dec 11, 2020)

That is how the content of a passage of text becomes integrated into the reader’s web of knowledge. The Sense of Style

“I’m tired of people who want to just be mediocre — just want to get by, to be good enough. Good enough isn’t good enough.” Washington Post (Aug 29, 2017)

The benefits are negligible and not worth the risk of spills. New York Times (Nov 1, 2018)

Before long, they petitioned the state to change the prison’s name back to Sing Sing, and in 1983, the state did. Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing

The phenomenon was called variation—animals occasionally produced offspring with features different from the parental type. The Gene

People found it difficult to say what was memorable or remarkable about his face—but all remembered it. Beowulf: A New Telling

At other moments you are beholding three simultaneous performances of the same drama. New York Times (Jun 6, 2013)