Tip #7 to Get a Top SAT Critical Reading Score (page 2)

Example Problems

Let's take a look at some of the most important cinematic moments of all time and the SAT vocab we can learn from them. I'll give a quote from a movie, and you see if you can identify the movie and an approximate definition of the bold SAT vocabulary word.

1. Galadriel: . . . in the fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged in secret a master ring to control all others. And into this ring he poured all his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life.

Movie _____

"Malice" means ______

2. El Guapo: Many pinatas?

Jefe: Oh yes, many!

El Guapo: Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?

Jefe: A what?

El Guapo: A "plethora."

Jefe: Oh yes, you have a plethora.

Movie ______

"Plethora" means _____

3. The Emperor: [laughing] Perhaps you refer to the imminent attack of your rebel fleet? Yes, I assure you, we are quite safe from your friends here.

Movie ______

"Imminent" means _____

4. Bruce Wayne: Have you told anyone I'm coming back?

Alfred Pennyworth: I just couldn't figure the legal ramifications of bringing you back from the dead.

Bruce Wayne: Dead?

Alfred Pennyworth: You've been gone seven years.

Movie _____

"Ramifications" means _______

5. Evan: It's not just making them smaller. They completely reshaped them. They make them more supple, symmetrical.

Seth: I gotta catch a glimpse of these warlocks. Let's make a move.

Movie ______

"Supple" means _____

6. Elizabeth: Captain Barbossa, I am here to negotiate the cessation of hostilities against Port Royal.

Barbossa: There are a lot of long words in there, Miss; we're naught but humble pirates. What is it that you want?

Elizabeth: I want you to leave and never come back.

Barbossa: I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request. Means "no."

Movie ______

"Negotiate" means _______

"Cessation" means _______

"Hostilities" means _______

"Naught" means _______

"Humble" means _______

"Disinclined" means _______

"Acquiesce" means_______

7. Red: Oh, Andy loved geology, I guess it appealed to his meticulous nature. An ice age here, million years of mountain building there. Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes really, pressure, and time.

Movie _____

"Meticulous" means _______

8. John Beckwith: [about Chaz] He lived with his mom til he was forty! She tried to poison his oatmeal!

Jeremy Grey: Erroneous! Erroneous! Erroneous on both accounts!

Movie ______

"Erroneous" means _______

9. The Architect: You have many questions, and although the process has altered your consciousness, you remain irrevocably human. Ergo, some of my answers you will understand, and some of them you will not. Concordantly, while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realize it is also the most irrelevant.

Movie ______

"Altered" means _______

"Irrevocably" means _______

"Ergo" means _______

"Concordantly" means _____

"Pertinent" means _______

"Irrelevant" means _______

10. Ballard: You're asking for one of us to disobey a direct order.

Morpheus: That's right, I am. But we all well know that the reason that most of us are here is because of our . . . affinity for disobedience.

Movie ______

"Affinity" means _______

11. Homer Simpson: Okay, epiphany, epiphany . . . oh I know! Bananas are an excellent source of potassium! [gets slapped]

Movie ______

"Epiphany" means _______

12. Soldier: Where'd you get the coconuts?

King Arthur: We found them.

Soldier: Found them? In Mercia? The coconut's tropical!

King Arthur: What do you mean?

Soldier: Well, this is a temperate zone

King Arthur: The swallow may fly south with the sun or the house martin or the plover may seek warmer climes in winter, yet these are not strangers to our land.

Movie ______

"Temperate" means _______ 12

13. Murtogg: Someone's got to make sure that this dock stays off-limits to civilians.

Jack Sparrow: It's a fine goal, to be sure. But it seems to me . . . that a ship like that one, makes this one here seem a bit superfluous, really.

Murtogg: Oh, the Dauntless is the power in these waters, true enough. But there's no ship as can match the Interceptor for speed.

Jack Sparrow: I've heard of one, supposed to be very fast, nigh uncatchable: The Black Pearl.

Movie ______

"Superfluous" means _______

"Nigh" means _______

14. Brooks: [to Andy] Son, six wardens have been through here in my tenure, and I've learned one immutable, universal truth.

Movie ______

"Tenure" means _______

"Immutable" means _______

15. C-3PO: I am fluent in over six million forms of communication, and can readily . . .

EV-9D9: Splendid! We have been without an interpreter since our master got angry with our last protocol droid and disintegrated him.

Movie _____

"Protocol" means ______

16. The Architect: Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you, inexorably, here.

Movie ______

"Inherent" means _______

"Eventuality" means _______

"Anomaly" means _______

"Assiduously" means _______

"Inexorably" means _______

17. Dennis: Oh, king eh? Very nice. And how'd you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers. By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society. . . . Come to see the violence inherent in the system! I'm being repressed!

Movie ______

"Exploiting" means _______

"Imperialist" means _______

"Dogma" means _______

"Perpetuates" means _____

"Inherent" means _______

"Repressed" means _______

18. V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation, I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.

Movie ______

"Paradox" means _______

19. Ferris: I do have a test today. That wasn't bullshit. It's on European socialism. I mean, really, what's the point? I'm not European. I don't plan on being European. So who cares if they're socialists? They could be fascist anarchists. It still doesn't change the fact that I don't own a car. Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter.

Movie ______

"Socialism" means _______

"Fascist" means _______

"Anarchist" means _______

"Condone" means _______

"-ism" means ______

20. The Architect: You are here because Zion is about to be destroyed. Its every living inhabitant terminated, its entire existence eradicated.

Movie _____

"Terminated" means _______

"Eradicated" means_______

21. V: But on this most auspicious of nights, permit me then, in lieu of the more commonplace sobriquet, to suggest the character of this dramatis persona.

Movie _____

"Auspicious" means _______

"Sobriquet" means _______

22. Albus Dumbledore: Cornelius, I implore you to see reason. The evidence that the Dark Lord has returned is incontrovertible.

Cornelius Fudge: He is not back!

Movie _____

"Implore" means ______

"Incontrovertible" means _______

23. Virginia "Pepper" Potts: What do you want me to do with this?

Tony Stark: That? Destroy it. Incinerate it.

Virginia "Pepper" Potts: You don't want to keep it?

Tony Stark: Pepper, I've been called many things. Nostalgic is not one of them.

Movie _____

"Incinerate" means _______

"Nostalgic" means _______

24. Kumar Patel: I fear that I will always be / A lonely number like root three / . . . I wish instead I were a nine / For nine could thwart this evil trick, / with just some quick arithmetic.

Movie _____

"Thwart" means ______

This is a great way to learn and review vocabulary. Watch for vocab in your favorite movies and add new ones to my list at www.BrianLeaf.com/superbadvocab. I'll include new quotes in future editions of this book.