Vocab For Banking Examinations From The Hindu Newspaper |

Dear Readers,

Vocabulary is an important part of English that helps you deal with all kinds of questions in objective as well as descriptive papers of various exams. You can learn new words daily from our Daily Word List. Learn the words and make your own sentences on the basis of the given word list. Here are a few words from The Hindu.

Some of the best stories can be traced back(1) to a single message or conversation.

During the early years of my stint(2) as The Hindu’s U.S. correspondent, I once received an email from a young woman of Indian origin who poignantly(3) outlined(4) the devastating consequences of the stringent(5) restrictions of the H-4 visa, given to the spouse of the much-discussed H-1B.

She explained that the ban on work authorisation for the H-4 visa meant that highly trained professionals, often with advanced degrees in technical subjects and many years in a rewarding career track back(6) home, were suddenly facing the prospect of being abruptly jobless as well as experiencing numerous other ills that came with social isolation in an alien setting.

Would I be interested, she asked, in doing a story on their plight(7), which could bring more attention to a neglected area of U.S. visa policy?

I knew from the first-hand experience of family members that work restrictions associated with certain U.S. visa categories could have a severe impact on otherwise highly productive, career-minded individuals.

What was news to me was how often, in such a situation, there is not only familial breakdown owing to the traumatic pressure of job loss but also spousal abuse, deepening mental health problems and wider social fallout.

I was hooked(8). I could sense the potential for a hard-hitting story focussing on the human cost of a bureaucratic approach to policy, which also raised questions about American values on immigration. I couldn’t believe that there was such a dearth(9) of reporting on a subject that might affect many hundreds of thousands of Indian citizens in the U.S.

We quickly got to work, that young woman and I, on conducting a survey in a Facebook group of H-4 visa holders that she administered. The responses we got were stunning. Many individuals, mostly women, were willing to speak openly about intimate mental health issues, cases of spousal abuse.

Blending these powerful narratives with a more technical discussion of the legal aspects of visa policy in this area, I filed a double-part story. The reader feedback was overwhelming.

To this day I would like to think that the spotlight that they shone(10) upon this neglected human dimension played a role in the subsequent change of policy announced less than six months after the stories ran: the U.S. government began, at long last, to grant conditional work authorisations to H-4 visa holders.

1. Trace back

Verb: to ascertain the successive stages in the development or progress of something by reasoning backward from an effect to a cause, to derive from something or someone.

2. Stint [stint]

Verb: to be frugal; get along on a scanty allowance; to cease action; desist; to limit to a certain amount, number, share, or allowance, often unduly; set limits to; restrict; to bring to an end; check.

Noun: a period of time spent doing something; an allotted amount or piece of work.

Synonyms: assignment, duty, job, spell, stretch, tour, bit, chore, consignment, participation, quota, share, shift, task, term, time.

Antonyms: entertainment, failure, fun, pastime.

3. Poignant [poin-yuh nt, poi-nuh nt]

Adjective: keenly distressing to the feelings; keen or strong in mental appeal; affecting or moving the emotions; pungent to the smell.

Synonyms: bitter, disturbing, emotional, heartbreaking, heartrending, moving, passionate, pathetic, sad, sentimental, touching, agitating, agonizing, distressing, impressive, intense, perturbing, piteous, pitiful.

Antonyms: cheerful, happy, indifferent, unaffecting.

4. Outline [out-lahyn]

Noun: the line by which a figure or object is defined or bounded; contour; a drawing or sketch restricted to line without shading or modeling of form.

Verb: to draw the outline of, or draw in outline, as a figure or object; to give an outline of; sketch the main features of.

Synonyms: defined, banded, bordered, bounded, circumscribed, delimited, delineated, edged, girdled, marked, zoned, configurated.

5. Stringent [strin-juh nt]

Adjective: rigorously binding or exacting; strict; severe; compelling, constraining, or urgent; convincing or forcible.

Synonyms: binding, demanding, draconian, exacting, forceful, harsh, inflexible, ironclad, rigorous, severe, stiff, strict, tough, acrimonious, brick-wall, by the book, by the numbers, compelling, confining, convincing, dead set on, drawing, dyed-in-the-wool.

Antonyms: amenable, calm, easy, easy-going.

6. Track back (some place)

Verb: to start moving back to some place.

7. Plight [plahyt]

Noun: a condition, state, or situation, especially an unfavorable or unfortunate one.

Synonyms: condition, predicament, quandary, trouble, circumstances, corner, extremity, fix, hole, impasse, jam, perplexity, pickle, pinch, scrape.

Antonyms: advantage, solution, benefit, boon.

8. Hook [hoo k]

Noun: anything that catches; snare; trap; something that attracts attention or serves as an enticement.

Synonyms: absorbed, enamored, captivated, devoted, obsessed, dependent, prone, strung out, under the influence.

9. Dearth [durth]

Noun: an inadequate supply; scarcity; lack; scarcity and dearness of food; famine.

Synonyms: absence, deficiency, inadequacy, lack, paucity, shortage, default, defect, famine, infrequency, meagerness, miss, need, poverty, privation, rareness, scantiness, scantness, sparsity.

Antonyms: abundance, adequacy, enough, plenty.

10. Shine [shahyn]

Verb: to give forth or glow with light; shed or cast light; to be bright with reflected light; glisten; sparkle.

Synonyms: gleam, glitz, gloss, luster, sheen, shimmer, sparkle, flash.

Antonyms: darkness, dullness, dark.

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