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ASVAB Word Knowledge 1.2 Word Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes 335 Views


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ASVAB Word Knowledge: Word Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes Drill 1, Problem 2. Which of these words is closest in meaning to pliable?


Transcript

00:00

[ musical flourish ]

00:03

And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by Play-Doh,

00:07

Homer Simpson's favorite late-night snack.

00:10

All right, which of these words is closest in meaning to...

00:13

pliable?

00:14

And here are the potential answers.

00:17

Rigid... [ mumbles ] Entertaining, flexible, persuasive.

00:21

All right, here we go.

00:22

So we see the word "able" in there,

00:25

so we know the word has something to do with being

00:27

able to, uh, you know, do something.

00:29

[ applause ]

00:31

So right off the bat, let's eliminate A - rigid,

00:34

which means "stiff" or "unable to bend." [ ow ]

00:39

All right, the remaining three answers all have to do with

00:42

having a skill of some kind.

00:44

So let's figure out what that first part,

00:46

"pli" means.

00:48

Well, there's a verb "ply," P-L-Y,

00:51

which means "to work or do an activity

00:53

repeatedly," like

00:55

plying a needle or plying something

00:58

or someone with a whip. [ whip cracks ]

01:00

Well, so, pliable means being able

01:02

to do something easily.

01:04

That eliminates B - entertaining.

01:06

[ boo ] Uh, and leaves us

01:09

with C - flexible and D - persuasive.

01:13

Well, now, persuasive means being able to

01:15

convince someone to do something, like

01:17

persuading your mom that Jack's parents will definitely

01:20

be at the party. [ chuckles ]

01:21

But flexible means easily bent or shaped,

01:24

which sounds pretty close to pliable.

01:26

So the correct answer is C - flexible.

01:28

[ oh snap ]

01:31

[ applause ]

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