you heard the word afoul in a sentence before? If you’ve heard of someone “running afoul of the law,” you can surmise that the word doesn’t mean correctly, easily, or disgusting — and that leaves you with Choice (B), which happens to be the right answer. It might be a fuzzy definition, but sometimes that’s all you need.
Think of phrases you’ve heard that include these words (or variations of them), and then see whether you can guess their meanings.
Abstain: “We had abstinence-only education in school.”
Deduce: “I’ll try to deduce the answer based on what I know.”
Malignant: “The tumor is malignant.”
Credible: “Can you back that up with a credible source?”
(Abstain is a verb that means to restrain oneself from doing something. Deduce is a verb that means to arrive at a conclusion by reasoning. Malignant is an adjective that means life-threatening, spiteful, or mean. Credible is an adjective that means believable.)
How’s it feel? Letting the words speak to you
Words can be positive or negative, and you can often tell which they are through context. In Word Knowledge questions that require you to find a word’s meaning based on the sentence it’s in, you can use the warm-fuzzy or cold-prickly feeling you get to rule out incorrect answers.
(A) joyful
(B) sorrowful
(C) thoughtful
(D) excited
As long as it’s not raining, most people have fun at an amusement park (it’s nearly as much fun as basic training, where “If it ain’t raining, you ain’t training” is often the motto of the day). The sentence also says that David wants to “shake his melancholy mood,” which means melancholy can’t be a very good feeling. It must have a negative connotation (that cold-prickly feeling). You can rule out Choices (A) and (D), then, and think about what’s the opposite of fun — and that’s most likely Choice (B), because sorrowful means “down in the dumps.”
Words and phrases such as “dread,” “looking forward to,” and “shied away from” all give you hints about a sentence’s tone, which can help you pick the right answer when you’re unsure. Even ruling out one or two incorrect answers can make a big difference in your score.
Compare and contrast: Picking up on signals
Many sentence-based Word Knowledge questions have context clues that can help you decipher the underlined word’s meaning. If you can pick up on the signal words that tell you about contrast and similarity, you’ll be able to boost your score and your vocabulary.
Signal words can be especially helpful in helping you predict a word’s meaning. Table 4-5 lists some common signal words and whether they indicate similarity or contrast.
TABLE 4-5 Signal Words
| Signal Word | Indicates | Example |
|---|---|---|
| indeed | Similarity | “The children were happy; indeed, they couldn’t control their excitement.” |
| like | Similarity | “When I shook the soda bottle, it erupted like a volcano.” |
| too | Similarity | “The seniors were upset, and they were angry, too.” |
| although | Contrast | “Although she was hesitant, Cheryl voted to reopen the school.” |
| but | Contrast | “The class is difficult but fun.” |
| despite | Contrast | “The dog ate the ice cream despite having eaten 10 minutes before.” |
| however | Contrast | “Sadie applied at several colleges. However, only one accepted her.” |
| rather than | Contrast | “The movie is boring rather than enjoyable.” |
| while | Contrast | “Many troops are resourceful, while others are unimaginative.” |
(A) cringed
(B) laughed
(C) shouted
(D) endured
The signal phrase in the question is “as if,” which is very similar to “like.” Knowing that, what’s the most likely answer? If you saw a ghost, you probably wouldn’t laugh, shout, or endure. (I’d run.) The most correct answer is Choice (A), cringed, because that’s far more likely to be your response than any of the other choices are.
One of these things is not like the other: Ruling out wrong answers
One of the most successful ASVAB strategies involves ruling out answers that aren’t likely to be correct before settling on the one you think is right. When two answer choices mean almost the same thing, or when some choices don’t match the prefix, suffix, or root word, you can cross them off as possibilities.
(A) vacate.
(B) reside.
(C) depart.
(D) leave.
Choices (A), (C), and (D) are all very similar in meaning, leaving only Choice (B), reside, as the clear front-runner.
On the ASVAB, your choices aren’t likely to be this obvious, but you may be able to rule out two choices and give yourself a 50-50 chance of finding the correct answer.
