Are GRE words useful in American daily life?

T

tongxiaozhi

I feel that my vocabulary is not enough, want to enlarge it, I'm wondering if GRE words are useful? any answers are highly apprecieated.

Thanks
 

Marc

Fully vaccinated are you?
Leader
It also stands for other things. I'm trying to get the original poster to clarify rather than my just guessing. The GRE test does have a vocabulary part, but I don't know how that fits in with the question of whether "GRE words" are useful or not. For example, what are some example "GRE words"?
 
T

tongxiaozhi

Thanks for your reply. Stijllor is correct. GRE stands for Graduate Record Examinations. Attached please find the words summary. Thanks for your patience in advance because the words are too many.
 

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Wes Bucey

Prophet of Profit
Thanks for your reply. Stijllor is correct. GRE stands for Graduate Record Examinations. Attached please find the words summary. Thanks for your patience in advance because the words are too many.
Let me point out that there are very few native English speakers who could define EVERY word in the GRE list. Of that small percentage, there is an even smaller percentage who has EVER used every word in that list either in writing or speaking. Most native English speakers have four levels of vocabulary:

  1. Cognitive (seeing the written word, especially in context, and being able to understand its meaning)
  2. Written (words used when writing, especially when the writer is trying to convey a nuanced meaning)
  3. Hearing (words heard in context so the listener is able to get a sense of the meaning)
  4. Speaking (words used in normal conversation - versus words prepared beforehand to give in a presentation)
where each level is reduced nearly exponentially.

As I perused through the vocabulary list, I noted it was arranged or grouped with words having an affinity of some sort being grouped together. One section, for instance, had words associated with maritime activity and which had some specialized, nuanced meaning. One example was the word "frigate" (a certain kind of boat or ship.) I can identify the word to that extent, but I can't articulate the exact differences between frigate and other boats such as ancient galleys or modern destroyers without knowing the historical context in which the word is used. Thus, a native English speaker such as I, university educated, and with a very large vocabulary, would still have to resort to a reference work to further define "frigate" beyond "a type of boat or ship." In most cases, such further definition would be unnecessary.

Similarly, for non-native English speakers/users, it is not always necessary to be able to precisely define a word one comes across in casual reading or conversation if one can get a sense of its meaning from the context in which it is used. In speaking, of course, the burden is much less. If I were standing on the shore of a harbor with a companion, looking at a frigate at anchor, I would be comfortable using the word "ship" rather than "frigate" in conversation. Similarly, if I were sending a photo of that frigate to my brother, my note may say, "Here's a picture of a ship I saw in the harbor yesterday." My neighbor, however, who is a former Navy Commander, would immediately identify it as a frigate warship with other details which would escape the average observer.

To answer your direct question:
"Some" of the words in that list are useful in daily life, but pay attention to the groupings and be aware that within those groupings, a number of words are specialized beyond daily life for the majority of people. Therefore, if you live or work in a marine environment, it might be useful to know and be able to use all the specialized words in such a grouping, but they would be useless for a guy working in an automobile factory in the middle of a continent.
 

Wes Bucey

Prophet of Profit
FYI:
I'm not sure where this so-called GRE word list originated, but there is one word that I came across in a grouping associated with cooking (one of my passions) that I can find no reference for: "calander"

(From the grouping, I presume it is a variant of "colander" or "cullender" which is a bowl shaped strainer (compare to a "China hat" which is a cone shaped strainer), but none of my searches turn up the spelling used in the list provided by OP. I haven't examined the list completely, but there may be many other words similarly undocumented as to accuracy.

:topic:
I was once told by one of my chef instructors that "cullender" was the original word, having to do with culling products and cull is probably the root word for "collect"
 
T

tongxiaozhi

Let me point out that there are very few native English speakers who could define EVERY word in the GRE list. Of that small percentage, there is an even smaller percentage who has EVER used every word in that list either in writing or speaking. Most native English speakers have four levels of vocabulary:

  1. Cognitive (seeing the written word, especially in context, and being able to understand its meaning)
  2. Written (words used when writing, especially when the writer is trying to convey a nuanced meaning)
  3. Hearing (words heard in context so the listener is able to get a sense of the meaning)
  4. Speaking (words used in normal conversation - versus words prepared beforehand to give in a presentation)
where each level is reduced nearly exponentially.

As I perused through the vocabulary list, I noted it was arranged or grouped with words having an affinity of some sort being grouped together. One section, for instance, had words associated with maritime activity and which had some specialized, nuanced meaning. One example was the word "frigate" (a certain kind of boat or ship.) I can identify the word to that extent, but I can't articulate the exact differences between frigate and other boats such as ancient galleys or modern destroyers without knowing the historical context in which the word is used. Thus, a native English speaker such as I, university educated, and with a very large vocabulary, would still have to resort to a reference work to further define "frigate" beyond "a type of boat or ship." In most cases, such further definition would be unnecessary.

Similarly, for non-native English speakers/users, it is not always necessary to be able to precisely define a word one comes across in casual reading or conversation if one can get a sense of its meaning from the context in which it is used. In speaking, of course, the burden is much less. If I were standing on the shore of a harbor with a companion, looking at a frigate at anchor, I would be comfortable using the word "ship" rather than "frigate" in conversation. Similarly, if I were sending a photo of that frigate to my brother, my note may say, "Here's a picture of a ship I saw in the harbor yesterday." My neighbor, however, who is a former Navy Commander, would immediately identify it as a frigate warship with other details which would escape the average observer.

To answer your direct question:
"Some" of the words in that list are useful in daily life, but pay attention to the groupings and be aware that within those groupings, a number of words are specialized beyond daily life for the majority of people. Therefore, if you live or work in a marine environment, it might be useful to know and be able to use all the specialized words in such a grouping, but they would be useless for a guy working in an automobile factory in the middle of a continent.
Dear Wes, Thanks very much for your detailed explaination. As I am a non-native speaker, I am unable to identify which is useful and which is not. I guess I have to recite all the words in the list, but It will be a lot of work.
 
T

tongxiaozhi

Dear Wes. Thanks. I downloaded this list from the internet, I am not sure if the meaning or spelling of the word is correct. In addition, one of my cousin is studying in US, she onced sent me GRE vocabulary she once used as attached, but I can't understand the meaning of many words as the meaning of each word is explained in English. Having been English for many years, Still very poor. I wonder if there is any shortcut to improve my poor English.
 

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