Before starting to read my review, try to guess the meaning of only the italiced part of the following words, Demagogue, psychiatric, physician, linguistics, psychology, neuralgia, psychosomatic, epitome, philosophy, condone, animal, scientist, virago, synchronize, suicide, astronomer, equilibrium, obviate, factory.
Go to the comments section to know the meanings. If you got most of them right skip the review otherwise you can read it.
A language is a mere sound isn?t it? It is this language, which made the wide range of communication possible. Though each one of us has our own mother tongue we use to post our reviews here in English. So, we need a common media through which our thoughts can be expressed beyond linguistic barriers. English is a language derived from Latin and Greek. English language is a ocean with so many words, the complex thing is that it has so many words implying the same meaning.. The language follows a flexible grammar for all modes of communication. For communicating through voice it is as simple as that, it is enough if you know 3000 basic words in English. But the vocabulary in English is required to understand what walking dictionaries are trying to convey. This books exactly does that; it enhances our vocabulary in a new methodology. You don?t need to mug up the words and its meanings. In due course the word will spontaneously grow in you.
I hope many of the engineering students and other UG students have read or at least know about this book. Because, it will be helpful for preparing for entrance exams like CAT, GRE, TOFEL etc., where vocabulary plays a vital role to increase your score. This review is just to explore for those who are not yet aware of.
The first and foremost thing one should understand is that it is not a usual English dictionary that we have for reference. It is more than a dictionary and entirely different guide to look out for word meaning. It doesn?t have meaning of all English words arranged alphabetically. You cannot turn the pages to spot the word and find out the meaning. Is it puzzling? Definitely a question arises that ?Then what does this book contain to improve our vocabulary?. Keep reading???
In our childhood, everyone should have come across a tough part in the English question paper i.e., Synonyms and Antonyms. It was torturing to mesmerize the meanings of some 50 words in each lesson. Once the exam gets over no one remembers the meaning of all those words. This is because we just read it blindly without any understanding. There was no any methodology or formula to write the synonyms of English words. It is like ?You say it, we accept it?.
For instance, let us take the word ?Matrimony?. They said its meaning is marriage. But we never thought of questioning why marriage is implied by ?Matrimony?. Here is the book, which can tell you the answer for ?Why? The word ?Money? has a history. It is derived from the name of roman goddess called Juno Monesto, who was believed to guard the temple of finance. The word ?Matrimony? splits as ?Matyr + Mony?. The root ?matyr? comes from latin which means ?mother?. ?Mony? means ?Result of state?. When the meaning of these two words combines gives the meaning Mother is the result of state Marriage? and thus Matrimony implies Marriage.
Let me take up another word ?Martinet? means strict disciplinarian. It is derived from the name of a French drillmaster called Jean Martinet who was the inspector general of infantry during the reign of King Louis XIV and a stricter and a more fanatic drillmaster France had ever seen.
I think now you all would have understood what this book is all about. By knowing the meaning of root words, one can find the meaning of most of the English words by splitting it into root words.
Reading the book:
At first one may feel that this book is too complex to read because of the usage of some complex words for which it self we don?t know the meaning to explain other words. But once you are through some initial sessions, you will become an addict to this book if you are really in thirst of vocabulary in English. One more thing that irritates in this book is the font size of words which is too small to read and that makes the book look more complex than what it is. But it has a simpler, neat and vivid explanation of the words.
How to read this book?
Before going to read the sessions in the book directly, read out the instructions given by
the author. He has given a very well formatted and highly benevolent methodology to read this book. I do want to stress some points on this regard,
This is not a book to read for relaxation in your leisure time. It is a book to learn and should be read seriously. Read at least 2 sessions everyday, so that you can finish the book in just 1.5 months. Make reading this book as a daily routine. More than just learning, it offers other soft skills like time management, planning, discipline etc., The most fascinating and important feature of this book is
Trivia at the end of each session
Each session has simple trivia?s at the end in different formats like match, fill up, true/false etc., the learning process is complete only if the reader makes use of this section effectively. The answer key is also given then and there. The book is totally divided into two parts with each having around 18 sessions. At the end of each part there is a consolidated test on 18 sessions to assess the readers vocabulary gained so far. It is very important to take the tests seriously before proceedings to the following sessions. The way of scoring is also different and good.
Don?t miss it: One more interesting thing is that before you start reading this book, there is one test which will tell you where you stand before reading this book. After reading this book, just go back and take the test again and check your stand know.
There is a final test that covers all the session and that tells you how effectively you have read this book and your vocabulary in English. If the results are not at par, then start reading this book again from the scratch. And above all, try to use the word you learned wherever possible while communicating. That makes the purpose of reading this book complete. The book also covers the phonetics part of all the words then and there. In between the sessions, the book has something interesting called ?Amatuer Etymologists? which makes the reader to think and create new words on our own using the root words that we have learned so far.
Caution: Don?t write the answers directly in the spaces provided in the book because it will become a use and throw entity. You cannot use it effectively at a later point. The writer has clearly designed the book to increase the sales. So, don?t fill in and fall in and lose your money.
Continue to Comments to read the Cons of the book and also the meanings of the words listed above?