The trendy clothing store _____ to materialistic clients by selling shoddy clothing at outrageously high prices.

The director decided to remove the _____scenes that increased the length of the film but failed to add to the suspense.

adj. childish; juvenile

Uncle Joe refused to tolerate his teenage nephew's ______ behavior.

adj. dependent on luck or chance

Because of the uncertain weather forecast, the success of out company picnic is purely ______.

n. roughness or harshness, severity

The teacher felt bad after his ______ caused a student to cry

n. rejection; refusal to acknowledge

Members of the club responded to Bill's ______ of their doctrine by asking him to leave.

adj. unquestionable, beyond doubt

The internet is not an _______ source of information for academic research.

v. to disapprove angrily; to protest

Irene ______ against her company's hiring of a former competitor for a prominent position.

v. to assign great social importance to; to treat as a celebrity

The public _____ the boy for saving the child from the burning building.

v. to relieve; to alleviate

Mom tried to ______ my fear of flying by reading favorable airline statistics.

v. to corrupt morally, to contaminate

Mark claims that prisons simply _____the spirits of the inmates.

adj. stubbornly resistant; showing opposition

The ______ child kicked and screamed when the barber tried to give him his first haircut.

n. an explanation of a text; a critical interpretation

The students read an _____ written by a Shakespearean scholar about Othello to better understand the complexity of the play.

v. to make better; to improve

The manager asked for suggestions that might ______ working conditions at the factory.

adj. wasteful and immoral

The young heir lived a _____ life of excess and greed.