学习词根

昨天的答案：

1. D   2. D   3. S   4. D   5. D   6. S   7. D   8. D 

今天学习PLE/PLEN和METR/METER两个词根。

PLE/PLEN. 源自拉丁语，意为"to fill." It can be seen in the words plenty, meaning basically "filled," and complete, meaning "thoroughly filled."

plenary. (1) Including all who have a right to attend. (2) Complete in all ways.

例句：For the convention's plenary session, five thousand members gathered to hear a star speaker.

Plenary often shows up in writing referring to the "plenary power" held by government, and is particularly used for powers mentioned in a constitution. For example, under the U.S. Constitution, the Congress has plenary power to wage war, which means that no one else--not the courts, not the states, not the president--has any power whatsoever to second-guess Congress about warmaking. But in recent years, that hasn't stopped some presidents from starting conflicts that looked a lot like wars to most people. At a conference, the plenary sessions (unlike the various smaller "presentations," "workshops," "forums," "and "seminars" that otherwise fill the day) try to being everyone together in the same room.

complement. (1) Something that fills up or makes perfect; the amount needed to make something complete. (2) A counterpart.

例句：On the committee, the two young people provided an energetic complement to the older members.

A complement fills out or balances something. We think of salt as the complement of pepper (maybe mostly because of their colors), and the right necktie is a perfect complement to a good suit. Complement can also mean "the full quantity, number, or amount"; thus, a ship's complement of officers and crew is the whole force necessary for full operation. Complement is actually most common as a verb; we may say, for example, that a bright blue scarf complements a cream-colored outfit beautifully. Don't confuse complement with compliment, which means an expression of respect or affection.

deplete. To reduce in amount by using up.

例句：Years of farming on the same small plot of land had left the soil depleted of minerals.

The de- prefix often means "do the opposite of," so deplete means the opposite of "fill." Thus, for example, a kitchen's food supplies can be rapidly depleted by hungry teenagers. But deplete often suggests something more serious. Desertions can deplete an army; layoffs can deplete an office staff; and too much time in bed can rapidly deplete your muscular strength.

replete. Fully or abundantly filled or supplied.

例句：The professor's autobiography was replete with scandalous anecdotes about campus life in the 1950s.

Replete implies that something is filled almost to capacity. Autumn landscapes in New England are replete with colorful foliage. Supermarket tabloids are always replete with details of stars' lives, whether real or imaginary. And a professor may complain that most of the papers she received were replete with errors in grammar and punctuation.

METR/METER comes to us from Greek by way of Latin; in both languages it refers to "measure." A thermometer measures heat; a perimeter is the measure around something; and things that are isometric are equal in measure.

metric. (1) Relating to or based on the metric system. (2) Relating to or arranged in meter.

例句：Americans have resisted using the metric system for years, but are now slowly getting accustomed to a few of the metric units.

The metric system was invented in France in the years following the French Revolution, and a version of it is now used in most of the world to measure distance, weight, and volume. Basic metric units include the kilogram (the basic unit of weight), the liter (the basic unit of volume), and of course the meter (the basic unit of length--see below). Metric--or more often metrical--can also refer to the basic underlying rhythm of songs and poetry. So while the scientists' measurements are usually metric, the poets' are usually metrical.

meter. (1) The basic metric unit of length, equal to about 39.37 inches. (2) A systematic rhythm in poetry or music.

例句：The basic meter of the piece was 3/4, but its rhythms were so complicated that the 3/4 was sometimes hard to hear.

Meter is metric measurement slightly longer than a yard; thus a 100-meter dash might take you a second longer than a 100-yard dash. But the word has a different sense in music, where people aren't separated by whether they use the metric system. For a musician, the meter is the regular background rhythm, expressed by the "time signature" written at the beginning of a piece or section: 2/2, 2/4, 3/8, 4/4, 6/8, etc. Within a meter, you can create rhythms that range from the simple to the complex. So, for example, "America the Beautiful" is a 4/4 meter (or "4/4 time"), but so are most of the rhythmically complex songs written by Paul Simon, Burt Bacharach, or Stevie Wonder. In ordinary conversation, though, most people use "rhythm" to include meter and everything that's built on top of it. In poetry, meter has much the same meaning; however, poetic meters aren't named with numbers but instead with traditional Greek and Latin terms such as iambic and dactylic.

odometer. An instrument used to measure distance traveled.

例句：Jennifer watched the odometer to see how far she would have to drive to her new job.

Odometer includes the root from the Greek word hodos, meaning "road" or "trip." An odometer shares space on your dashboard with a speedometer, a tachometer, and maybe a "tripmeter." The odometer is what crooked car salesmen tamper with when they want to reduce the mileage a car registers as having traveled. One of "life's little pleasures is watching the odometer as all the numbers change at the same time."

tachometer. A device used to measure speed of rotation.

例句：Even though one purpose of a tachometer is to help drivers keep their engine speeds down, some of us occasionally try to see how high we can make the needle go.

A tachometer is literally a "speed-measurer," since the Greek root tach- means "speed." This is clear in the names of the tachyon, a particle of matter that travels faster than the speed of light (if it actually exists, it's so fast that it's impossible to see with any instrument), and tachycardia, a medical condition in which the heart races uncontrollably. Since the speed that an auto tachometer measures is speed of rotation of the crankshaft, the numbers it reports are revolutions per minute, or rpm's.

Quiz:

Match the word on the left to the correct definition on the right:

1. meter                       a. drain

2. tachometer               b. brimming

3. metric                       c. counterpart

4. replete                      d. beat pattern

5. odometer                  e. distance measurer

6. deplete                      f. rotation meter

7. plenary                      g. general

8. complement              h. relating to a measuring system