SAT words

When I was unemployed and looking for a computer job for about 3 years, I took a variety of volunteer and paid tutoring jobs. For awhile, I was an SAT coach. The SAT test doesn't change too much from year to year. So there is a surplus of material to prepare the high school students. Vocabulary lists are part of this material, the words are little used in spoken English, but pretty common in literature and academia.

I know listening to "tunes" and particular modern music doesn't help students as that vocabulary doesn't show up on the SAT. I tutored a few football and basketball players, if they spent half the time of sports practice on the SAT, their scores would be much better. But usually they were too tired from practice to study much, after awhile, I just let them sleep.

I think, everyone learns vocabulary one word at a time. Reading the newspaper, listening to NPR and reading literature all work. Chatting on the web doesn't. Here are some words from the SAT vocab lists that appeared on some signs around Taipei.

Ambience: the mood, character, quality, tone, atmosphere, etc., particularly of an environment or milieu: This hotel's English name "Ambience." An more common spelling is "ambiance".

Persistence:continued existence or occurrence. This restaurant probably has good service.

apothecary: a pharmacy or drugstore. This is a pretty old word, but it appears in the Dickens novels, a favorite of the SAT test writers.

Aesthetics: the study of the mind and emotions in relation to the sense of beauty. I think in the US, we would say "cosmetic surgery" but it's all the same.

facade:a superficial appearance or illusion of something. This would be an example of a facade.

And this word probably wouldn't be on the SAT, but I was struck by how few English speakers probably know it:


decoupage: the art or technique of decorating something with cut-outs of paper, linoleum, plastic, or other flat material over which varnish or lacquer is applied.

The DIY industry is big in Taiwan.