Sunday, September 28, 2008

Suburban Life

[9] Some people prefer to live in a small town. Others prefer to live in a big city. Which place would you prefer to live in? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer.

I have always enjoyed suburban life better than city life. Some might argue that the city provides more jobs, better social welfare and medical treatment, richer consumptions and entertainments. Why bother living in a little town, giving up all the pleasures in the city? My opinion is that the town endows us more spiritual joys.

The town life is comparatively slower, leaving us more time for all kinds of outdoor activities. It's not necessary to get up early enough to catch the first bus to your company. otherwise trapped in the traffic jam of rush hour, you might pray that your employer would have not noticed you are late. In the lunch time, you might have to eat fast to follow others' pace. And most of the time you are separated with the nature, shaded by the roof, stifled by the windows around. However in a town, you can slower down a little, since there is no hurry for the job and you may even take a noon nap at home. There are rivers, hills and forests around, where you could take a fresh breath and smell the flower once in a while. You may go fishing or just climb the hills to practice your skills or build yourself up without running dully on a running machine.

In town, neighbors usually have a closer relationship while in city, everyone seems to enclose himself with heavy doors. This is because density of people is much smaller in towns than in cities. Suburban people don't worry about the possible conflicts with their neighbor, especially when they are enjoying the slow life. On the contrary, urban people tend to be estranged with each other, fearing possible intrusion into their comparatively smaller space, which further worsens their daily feelings.

With development of technology, town life is becoming better and better. Online transactions eliminates the needs to go to cities for large scale shoppings. More hospitals are being set up in rural areas. More companies recognize the advantage of town life for their workers, since better sleeps and better mood encourage their workers to finish more jobs. Town life is much more diverse than in the past now and we are confident it will become more fascinating.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Television and Daily Communication

[8] Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Television has destroyed communication among friends and family. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opininion.

Many have argued that television has destroyed daily communication among friends and family because we spend most of our spare time watching TV dramas, live shows and etc., leaving no time for serious talks or thought exchange. It makes sense considering the limited time we have each day. However, the necessary communication has nothing to do with television itself. Television just gives us another possibility.

Television may provide us with topics for communications. TV dramas are usually well-designed stories, exhibiting common contradictions in our daily lives, which arouse our similar experiences we might talk about with our family. Live shows, expecially the livecast of influencing games, such as world cups, are common topics among friends. Maybe, it's argued that those topics are shallow and hollow. The fact is that all those topics are able to trigger comminication in a deeper level. The experience we encountered and the one in the drama show the different values each of us hold, which often leads to a discussion about how we might tackle the situation. By talking about games, we know each other's favors and ask for others' opinion of how to appreciate those distinguished stars, excellent games.

What's more, watching television together is a great chance of face-to-face communication. Lovers might arrange a little date simply by watching a moving story on television together; the family might share their laughter, sitting together and enjoying a talk show; friends might gather in a bar where a livecast of a soccer match is presented and they might shout for excitement.

However, the communication occurs only when we ourselves keep it in mind. The topics and chances television provides are only possibilities, and they are complementary for other topics and chances. By taking advantage of them, we will have more communication while ignoring them, on the contrary, leaves less time for communication. What we usually need to do is simply to keep in mind that we must be initiative in talking with others, steering topics to what we find in television when we have no other alternative, and remember to spend time togather watching television and talk about it if there is nothing else to do together.

38min, 362 words.
强烈怀疑我写作的速度。sigh... 怎么能写得更快一点呢?

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Notes on 2007-08-26~2007-09-02

gloss-over

more:
glaze vs. graze
glean, garner
glee vs. flee
gloat
gloss, glossy, glossary
glut
glutinous
gnarl, gnarled
gnat
goad vs toad
gobble, gorge, gormandize
goggle
gong
gospel
gossamer
gouge, gauge
gourmant vs gourmet
grate, grating
gregarious, gregariousness
grimace
gripe
gristle
grit
grotesque
grotto
grouch vs. grouse
grove vs grovel
growl vs brawl
grueling
gruesome
gruff
guffaw
gulch
gully
guru

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Movie and Television: Influence on Behavior

[7] How do movies and television influence people's behavior? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

Movies and televisions, both as visual entertainments, present us a direct scene we might not encounter in daily life or we might find it deja vu, where a story happens. We enjoy watching them and we are inevitably influenced by them.

Behavior of children is likely to change because of imitation. Children are prone to new and peculiar things in movies and televisions. The characters are usually dressed up lavishly, distinguishing them from common people. The heros accomplish impossible tasks, wining the heart of beautiful ladies. The humorous lines, impressing the audience, are mentioned by the audience many times. All these factors are intriguing for a child, getting him excited and inclined to imitate instantaneously.

However, for most of us, the influence on behavior is due to recognition. It's a common thinking, why can't I do it while he could. After watching the movie Forrest Gump, many start running regularly. Their latent recognition of Gump's persistence and commitment beats the laziness they had. One of my friends decided to find his true love after watching Cinema Paradiso, because he realized how important a true lover is for him when he cried over the scene where Toto contemplates on the kissing montage, pondering on the young love he cherished and lost. He met his girlfriend after a few months, finishing the long bachelor years fast.

Though recognition changes our behavior, endowing us power to do something we might do but we are reluctent to do, the more excessive change is due to contradiction. When we find a disparate decision from our own in a movie or television drama, the contradiction occurs, pushing us to think extensively. The famous movie Shawshank Redemption have two attitudes towards institutionalization: one is to get used to it and die with it, the other is to fight against it and find your own way out of it. Andy Defresne made the latter amazingly, exemplifying for us how to deal with a despair difficulty. Many of us choose to get used to the institutionalization while his example make us to think twice. After watching this movie, I feel myself institutionalized in the domestic university and made my decision to find a Ph.D program abroad.

Just like talking to a friend, the amiable appearance of movies and television attracts us, letting us go close enough to understand their stories and reasons, showing us the possible results we never imagine, demonstrating for us how powerful our potentials are. We obtain recognitions, solve contradictions, and get busy changing our behaviors.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Luishui Lake: A New Pearl in My Hometown

[6] If you could change one important thing in your hometown, what would you change? Use reasons and specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

The Lushui Lake in my hometown was formed due to the experimental dam and power plant built in the earlier years of China, which is one of the most important treasure my beloved hometown possesses and the one I desire to change.

There are all sorts of fishes and shrimps living in the unpolluted water of the lake, which offers a nice resource for fishery. However, the current fishing goes without demanding administration and over fishing might endanger further development. Therefore, it's urgent to set up regulation for the fishers and encourage them to preserve their traditional food made from fish and devise new dishes, which will contribute to the tourism I would propel.

The small islands on the lake, which were small hills when the damn wasn't built, are now habitats of all kinds of birds. The plants on the island are wild but given some interference will be attractive to those citizens who have long been under the roof of skyscrapers. The green water, yellow soil, red rocks, green trees, white birds and the blue sky will make the lake a big hit in the tourism market. There are not enough dinghies and boats for the travelers now and the lake is still of no reputation. An investment of advertisements for the lake must be made as soon as possible.

Near the dam, it's convenient to set up equipments for entertainment, which provides the residents near here and the tourists great fun, erasing their tire after work or long trips. Now there are swimmers coming in the summer, but the security is not ensured. As the water guards are employed and more equipments for water exercises are ready for renting, more and more people would like to come. Then the fishermen could sell their delicious food when they are hungry after playing in the water.

The lake will enhance the local economy by providing fishery, tourism and entertainment. Given proper management, it will prosper, yielding more jobs for local youth, without polluting our environment. Without any doubt, it will surely become a new pearl in my hometown.

30 min, 349 words.
被人吵了,觉得写的很差... sigh 继续读范文可能比较有效。

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Please give us a serene community!

[5] A company has announced that it wishes to build a large factory near your community. Discuss the advantage and disadvantages of this new influence on your community. Do you support or oppose the factory? Explain your position.

A proposal of building a large factory has been released recently. It is said it will provide the community with all the best it could offer. But I don't think it will do us any good.

The factory will of course take a certain proportion of its profit for our community, with which the community could provide its residents with better gyms for exercising, better parks for taking a walk and even a better library with more books. And the manager of the factory promises to give priority to the youth here looking for a job. The comparatively cheap production could be sold to the residents too.

All those proposals sound great, except what the factory will impose upon us. It takes so much space that we have to spare them part of our public park. The noise it inevitably produces will drive crazy everyone in the park for a nap or just a short walk. The exhaust and dregs of production, though under strict surveillance, would still be a haphazard to our environment, let alone those trees we would lose when being cut down to build the factory. And the ingredients the factory requires have to be transported by large trucks, which will burden our roads and sending annoying noise in the morning, awaking those of us who would like to be still asleep.

Further more, it's not necesary to find a job in such a factory. Most of the youth living here work in IT companies. So the factory will seldom recruit someone who is meant to work in such an atmosphere. The money we pay to our community is enough to accommodate ourselves. If necessary for special events, we are all willing to donate extra to help set up something like a festival celebration.

So, it is unnecessary to build a factory that would provide us absolutely indispensable joy or facility. The promise they make, though intriguing, would only disguise the profit they make for themselves and the trouble we all have to tolerate. What we all need is just a community immune to noise and pollution.

26min, 350 words
typos: necesary -> necessary
necessary 用得太多了,换词!

Beyond Books

[4] It has been said ``not everything that is learned is contained in the books.'' Compare and contrast knowledge gained from experience with knowledge gained from books. In your opinion, which source is more imprtant? Why?

Books were, are and will still be the media of knowledge. They record the ideas from ancient giants of wisdom, propagate the brand new technologies in our contemporaries, and prospect all kinds of possible futures. However, not all knowledge of human beings are availble in books and 21 century has seen several other ways to obtain knowledge.

Books are written for several purposes. One dominant purpose is to summarize a theory or a procedure others might find interesting or useful. Mathematicians and physists, such as Gauss and Newton, put their strict theory about geometry and gravity into their immortal works. Novelists and poets contrive plottings and capture their delicate feelings with poems, which are later assembled into novels and booklets. Historians and photographers tell stories about their findings in the past or with their lenses. We read them to appreciate their deep cognition of the universe, their understanding of beauty and the bitterness and happiness in our lives.

But there has always been knowledge we can't find in any book. Though there are books on traveling, we can still enjoy it by travel instead of reading them. The fun of travel is not only the sighting of famous scenes, which could be told by photographers or writers in books, but also the sweat you spend in managing yourself to be there, talking with other peers on the same way, and even the frustration you have to overcome. Lots of trivialities are missing from all kinds of books. Only the time you yourself come to the point, you will find a whole new story and quickly learn from your experience.

What's more we have more and more media to obtain knowledge. Internet, for example, must be one of the convenient alternatives. There are on-line encyclopedias, forums and chatting rooms. You might find the meaning of almost any unknown professional terms by typing them in the search box of wikipedia.org. By posting your questions on forums or sending instant message in chatting rooms, you might get the most instantaneous feedback from other users. As long as you get to know how to explore the Internet, you migth get obsessed with it and forget about books, since there are more interactions: you might create an entry in wikipedia.org to tell other people a new term which hasn't been included, and you might also answer others' questions and win their admirations, while facing a dull book will put all those excitement away.

But books will still play an important role in the following few years. We might find it more leasureful by sipping a cup of coffee under the afternoon sunshine while taking a book in hand, flipping page by page slowly and thinking as we wish. All other competitors will help us learn more and help us enjoy learning knowledge.

34 min, 467 words
an interruption, too bad... poor vocabulary @@
typos: availble -> available, physist -> physicist, migth -> might, leasurefu -> leisurely
other mistakes: in our contemporaries -> from...
excitement -> excitements
add ``At the same time,'' to the last sentence.

Still slow!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Easier Food, Harder Lives

[3] Nowadays, food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answers.

The advanced technology has helped us prepare our food much easily nowadays. Massive production and nice encapsulation have cut down the time from the moment we buy them to the time we thurst them into our mouth. But does that improve our lives? The answer is perhaps no.

One important factor is the greed of ourselves. Though there are fast food in the market, we seldom take them, because their flavor is not diverse and they are of poor nutrition. Now that we have time for food preparation, why not make something of our taste and fill up our appetite? Even if the raw gradient now requires less time for preparation, our imagination will always bring us far enough to make more delicate styles or try new flavors, though the cooking procedure might cost us as much time as before. Who cares? As a result, we still spend the same time preparing our dinner and enjoy doing so, leaving the same amount of time for other important things in life.

The other factor comes from massive production. Food, when taken, must be deemed as delicious by its taker. But usually different people have quite different favorites. What's more, if there is no strict supervision in the food production, it might cause diseases or even toxications on a large scale. China recently reported a strikingly tragic news that thousands of children have been found of rare diseases at their age, simply because their milk was polluted by a certain chemical compound in the production. It is a danger to our lives when it is not managed properly.

Maybe the government will pay more attention to the massive food production later, which encourage us to benifit in buying food half-prepared or almost fully-prepared. New technology will make those food more diverse and meet more flavors. But who knows? Human beings always have a high standard on what they eat. Maybe they will never give up their own pleasure in cooking themselves dinner and making dishes out of everyone's imagination.

25 min, 337 words.
typos: thurst -> thrust, benifit -> benefit
toxication -> intoxation

Our Parents are Our Best Teachers

[2] Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
Parents are the best teachers. Use specific reasons and examples
to support your answer.

Someone might deny a simple fact that our parents are our best
teachers. They argue that friends, or professors in the
universities are much better than our own parents in lots of
professional areas. And they question fiercely with "How could
they, old and ignorant guys be our best teachers?" But the truth
is that they are absolutely wrong.

Our parents are usually the first teachers of our languages,
communication skills and what's more important they almost build
us a theory on what's good and bad, and what's to value.

Even since the birth of each child, its parents seldom leave them
alone. They provide its food and help it survive the dangers
hiding in the start of life. By playing with it, their voice and
guestures impress deeply in the young mind. They create the
circumstance for the child to try the first step of standing up,
striding and making a meaningful sound. The suitable environment
help the baby develop all necessary skills for the human
society. As is known, those babies without tender cares of their
parents, brought up in the jungles by wild life, seldom come back
to our society with ease.

Later, as the child begins to understand the language he is
applying in daily life, his habits and values are more or less
influenced by his parents. Researches have shown that boys tend
to be curious about what their fathers do for work and girls find
their mothers' job interesting. And in daily life, parents'
favors are more frequently picked up, since the young are usually
awarded with this choice and they begin to find the merits of the
choice. This influence is fundamental in everyone's life, even
years after when we get into universities and make new friends.

There are other teachers in our life, some of whom might be as
good as our parents. Their ideas might conflict and we will even
feel frustrated when our old arguments are challenged. The
frustration, no matter whose argument we will favor later, shows
the impression of our first teachers. They are best in planting
unnoticed seeds of thinking methods, cognitive procedures in our
minds. And the seeds sprout and strive. Maybe year later we find
that their banal arguments are wrong. But they indeed helps us
overcome the difficulties enountered in the early life and make
us be ourselves, who're standing here, writing this essay.

time 34min, 400 words
typos: guestures -> gestures, enountered -> encountered
strive -> thrive and flourish
it's poorly written I guess...

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Notes on 2007-08-22~2007-08-24

more:
fungi, fingicide
furbish
furlough
fusillade
fustian
fusty
gallop
gambit
garble, garbled
gargantuan
garner
garret
garrulous, garrulity
gauge
gaunt
gazetteer
genealogy
genuflect
germane
gerontology
gerrymander
geyser
gibe
girder

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Notes on 2007-08-22

flaunt, to exhibit ostentatiously or shameless
flagellate, to whip or flog, scourge
fop, foppish
fluffy
filly, a young female horse
flatulence, the presense of excessive gas in the digestive part
flax

more:
filibuster
filigree
fillet
finale
finch
finesse
finicky
flagrant vs fragrant
flail
flair vs flare
flak
flange
flask
fledge, fledgling
fleece
flimsy
flinch
flotsam
flout
fluke
flunk
fluorescent, florascence
fluster, flustered
fodder
foible
folly
foment
footle
foray
foreclose, foreclosure
forfeit, forfeiture
forlorn

Notes on 2007-08-19~2007-08-21

felicitous, exhibiting an agreeably appropriate manner or style, felicitate, felicity
faddish

more:
extradite, extradition
extricate, extricable
exuberance, exuberant
exude
exult
facetious
facile
facsimile
factious vs factitious
fallow
fanfare
farce
farrow
fascia
fastidious, fastidiousness
fauna
fawn, fawning
fealty
faze
febrile
feline
felon, felony
feral
ferret
fester
fetid
fetish
fiasco
fiat
fidget, fidgety
figment
filament
filial

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

GRE Reading Ex 62

8/11, 35min. Don't get distracted in the reading.

This process is nonenzymatic glycosylation, where by glucose becomes attached to proteins without the aid of enzymes.

In contrast, the nonenzymatic process adds glucose haphazardly to any of several sites along any available peptide chain within a protein molecule.

If a given protein persists in the body for months or years, some of its Amadori products slowly dehydrate and rearrange themselves yet again, into new glucose-derived structures.

GRE Reading Ex 63

9/11, 35min. I am too slow.

glucose
adrenaline

Notes on 2007-08-17~2007-08-18

expedite, to speed up the progress
exotic

more:
equitable, equity
equivocate, equivocal
ersatz, being an imitation or substitute, usu an inferior one
erstwhile
erudite, erudition
escalate, escalation
eschew, to avoid, shun
esophagus
estuary
ethereal
ethos
eucalyptus
euphemism
euphoria
evanescent
evict, eviction
eviscerate
ewe
ewer
exact, exacting, exaction, exactitude
exasperate
excavate, excavation
exchequer
excise
excoriate
excrete
exculpate, exculpatory
execrate
execrable
exhort, exhortion
exhume
exiguous
exodus
exogamy
exonerate
exorbitance, exorbitant
expatiate
expiate
expostulate
expound
expropriate vs appropriate
expulsion
expunge
expurgate
extant
extemporaneous vs contemporaneous
extenuate

Saturday, September 6, 2008

GRE Reading Ex 64

11/11, 21min, excellent... why did I get two marks with big difference!

The unwillingness of investors to finance this project does not negate the viability of privately financed roads; rather it illustrates a virtue of private finance.

In his hypothesis that because of their imaturity, children under age seven do not take into account the intentions of a person committing accidental or deliberate harm, but rather simply assign punishment for transgressions on the basis of the magnitude of the negative consequences caused.

Studies indicate that justifications excusing harmful actions might include public duty, self defense and provocation.

perpetrator

GRE Reading Ex 65

6/11, 26min omg... really poor result

With such discrepancies plaguing the models, scientists could not easily predict how quickly the world's climate would change, nor could they tell which regions would face dustier droughts or deadlier monsoons.

Much writing in art history advances the discourses in the field but is unlikely to inform the eye of one unfamiliar with its polemics.

The specialized written language of art history needs to be relinquished or at least tempered for the screen.

Notes on 2007-08-16~2007-08-17

entrancing
ennui, listlessness and dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest, boredem
entree

more:
empyrean, empyreal
emulcify
enamel
encephalitis
enclave
encomium
encroach
endemic
enervate, enfeeble
enfetter
enfranchise, disfranchise
enmesh
enmity
ensconce
ensign
enthrall
entomology
entourage
environs
epaulet
ephemeral
epilogue
epistemology
epistle
epitaph
epithet
epitome
equanimity
equipoise

Friday, September 5, 2008

Love-related Expressions

long distance relationship
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
When you are with me, you are everything. When you are not with me, everything is you.
out of sight, out of mind
soul mate
my better half
You complete me.
You are the apple of my eye.
You are like an oasis in an desert.
You are like a breath of air in my life.
We just broke up.
He dumped me.
I don't deserve you.
It's not you. It's me.
I love you but I am not in love with you.
I have a date tonight.
double date
blind date
I have been seeing/going out with John.
gold digger
trophy wife
dirty old man
sugar daddy

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Notes on 2007-08-14~2007-08-15

eloquent
duplicity, duplicitous
draconian, exceedingly harsh, very severe
edict
elemental

more:
dowry
doyen
drawl
dredge vs drudge
dregs vs dross
drench
drivel
drizzle, drizzly
droll, drollery
drone
droop
drove
duetl
dulcet, dulcify
dumbfound
dummy
dunce
dupe
duress
dynamo
dyslexia
dyspepsia, dyspeptic
earsplitting
eavesdrop, eavesdropper
ebullience, ebullient
ecdysis, ecdysiast
echelon
\'elcat
eclectic, eclectism
eclogue
ecstasy, ecstatic
ecumenical
effervesce
effigy
effluvium, effluvia
effrontery
effulgent, effulgence
egalitarian
egregious
ejaculate, ejaculation
elegy, elegiac
elicit
elixir
elocution
elope
elucidate
elysium
emaciate, emaciation
emancipate
embellish, embellishment
embezzle
embolden
emboss
embroider
embroil
emissary
emollient
emolument

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

To Explore the Unknown

[1] People attend college or university for many different reasons (for example, new experiences, career preparation, increased knowledge). Why do you think people attend college or university? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Our new century has seen an increasing amount of university or college students, who are rushing for incommon experiences, better career preparation or pure knowledge. But I think the most important reason for them is to explore the unknown part of human beings.

Universities and colleges are born for researches in all sorts of sciences and dredging up the hidden truth. In the early days, Newton figure out gravity to explain why apples would fall down onto the ground and developed the famous Newton mechanics. Cauchy, Gauss and other mathematicians founded the basic theory of mathematics, such as mathematical analysis, non-Euclidean geometry and so on. They extended our understanding of the universe, showed us the lasting facts about all kinds of structures.

Human beings themselves are being challenged and discussed in details in universities and colleges. We ask ourselves tough questions, who we are, why we are here, what we are looking for. It's the ultimate care for our species, to understand ourselves better, to get the motivation clear in mind and to tell others what is important in life. Philosophers quarrel about them, biologists analyze the physical structure of humans and psychiatrists try to cure our mental diseases. There's no moment we stop exploring the unknown part of ourselves.

The most important difference of a university to a high school is that it's not knowledge accumulated during the past decades that counts. It's our curiosity about the unknown part of the world and ourselves that differs and compels us to find the answers, which universities and colleges are built for.

25 min. 261 words.
incommon -> uncommon
figure -> figured

I should start practising writing.

The writing ability might be improved by writing essays of 185 topics along with diary related stuffs. I will keep two branches working: here I'd like to put my own essays of 185 topics, for later evaluation; I will start another English blog for diary, maybe in the diary apart.

And I should put those word put down here into practice ASAP.

Notes on 2007-08-11~2007-08-12

diurnal, relating to occuring in a 24-hour period, daily; active during the daytime
ditty, a simple song, vs ballad
dismay
divagate, to wander or drift about

more:
disheveled vs bedraggled
disinter, to dig up from a grave, to bring public notice
disjunct, disjunction, disjunctive
dislodge, lodge
disparage
disparate, disparity
disport, to amuse oneself in a light frolicsome manner
disposed
disposition
disquisition
disseminate
dissent, assent
dissident, one who disagrees, dissenter
dissipate, dissipated, dissipation
distend, distension
distrait
distraught
distress, stress
diva
devest, devestiture
divulge
dock
dodder
doggerel
doldrums
dole, doleful, dolorous
doodle
dorsal
dote, doting, dotage
dour
dawdy

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Notes on 2007-08-10

bout, a contest between antagonists, a match
brusque, abrupt and curt in manner or speech
brook, to put up with, tolerate; small river

more:
beatific, beatitude
dizen, bedizen
bellicose
belligerent
benediction
benefactor, beneficient, beneficial, beneficiary
benevolent
benign
benison
bequeath, bequest
bludgeon
bluster
bode
bogus
boisterous
bombast
bough, dough
boudoir
boulder
bowdlerize
boycott
brackish
braid
brash, brassy, brazen
bravura
brawl
broach
brocade
bromide
bruit
brunt
buck, buckle
bucolic
bulk
bulwark
burgeon

Monday, September 1, 2008

Notes on 2007-08-09

dirge, a funeral hymn or lament

more:
aviary
avuncular
awl
awning
azure
bacchanal
badger
bail vs bale vs bane
ballad
ballot
bandy
bard
baron vs barren
barrister
bathetic
bauble
bawl
beacon
din
dnghy vs dingy
dipsomania
dire
disburse, imburse, reimburse
discourse
discreet (discretion) vs discrete
discretionary