序 言 　　本书是美国名校入学考试指导系列之一，侧重SAT考试词汇部分的讲解和训练。所选的3500个单词均出自SAT考试权威词库，每个单词的释义均侧重SAT考试中常用的意思和用法，具有很强的针对性。 　　为了增强本书的实用性，本书在每个章节的释义部分后面附有选词填空和多项选择两类练习题，目的是训练学生在具体的情形和语境中练习完成句子从而掌握词义和用法。常春藤100的教学实践证明，通过上下文和形象思维来理解、记忆、积累词汇是极为行之有效的方法。 　　本书练习题中所选用的句子多数选自英美作家和主流媒体的文章，有相当一部分是作者撰写的，范围涵盖文史、音乐、艺术、科学、政治、经济、哲学、宗教、社会学、心理学、生物学、考古学、人类学等，内容基本与SAT考试对接。考生通过使用本书，能够熟悉SAT考试经常涉及的知识领域、考题形式和特点，为将来从容应试打下基础。 　　本书共分74个章节。除了每章后面的练习题，正文最后还增加了5组句子练习，作为正文练习部分的补充。 　　为了便于考生查找每个单词，本书在最后部分增加了索引。所有单词按字母表顺序罗列，并注明每个单词在本书中出现的页码，方便学生查阅词义及例句。 　　This book is written with the needs of those aspirant SAT test takers in mind. It is NOT compiled as an exhaustive listing of all the meanings of the words included in the SAT vocabulary, a task better left to an authoritative dictionary such as the Merriam-Webster s Collegiate Dictionary （11th edition） or the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. This book is more of a workbook that aims to familiarize students with the meanings and usages usually tested in real SAT verbal sections. As such the book is test-focused and results-oriented. If you are one of those self-motivated students who are looking to build a strong vocabulary in order to boost their SAT verbal test scores, this is the book for you. 　　The 3500-odd words included in this book are selected from the various well-known SAT prep publications, representing the most up-to-date approximation of the body of words most likely to be tested on SAT. As they are drawn from multiple sources, the chances of judgmental bias or important words being left uncovered are minimized. 　　The entries in the book are organized into 74 word lists, each consisting of 35 to 45 words. Words are allotted to these lists randomly, instead of following an alphabetical order. This seemingly haphazard sequence is taken to give students an alternative approach to building up their SAT vocabulary. Feedback from students at IVY 100 Education has been positive. Many students who used to memorize SAT words alphabetically find the new approach a refreshing change. 　　In line with the book s emphasis on test preparation and results, only those meanings and usages that frequently appear in SAT are provided and explained in the word lists. This selectivity is favored to ensure focus. In addition, practice exercises in the form of word-box questions and multiple-choice questions are provided at the end of each word list to give students sample contexts within which to understand and memorize the words. Our experience with students over the years has borne out the theory that a good way of learning new words is to put them in a meaningful and easily visualized context: once a word is connected to a visual image in the mind, chances are it is going to stay. 　　In writing the practice questions, we have drawn sentences primarily from Western sources. Among writers quoted are Thucydides, Francis Bacon, Adam Smith, Shakespeare, William M. Thackeray, Bernard Shaw, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Virginia Woolf, Jack London, and Henry D. Thoreau, to name a few. Contemporary journalism is another important source; newspapers and popular magazines cited include The New- York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, The New Yorker, The Huffington Post, The New York Review of Books, Forbes, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian/Observer, The Economist, The Global and Mail, and so on. We have authored a good percentage of the sentences where appropriate. The remaining ones are selected from other miscellaneous sources. Subject matters covered in these sentences range from history, literature, art, music, biology and sciences to economics, politics, philosophy, religion, sociology, psychology, archeology, anthropology, ecology and so forth. The intention is to mimic the content and types of questions students will encounter in the real SAT so that they are sufficiently exposed and prepared for the test by using this book. 　　To help students get the most value out of the book, we have provided an index at the back of the book. The index, which lists all the words covered in alphabetical order and references them to the pages in which they appear, is intended as a useful tool by which students can easily navigate themselves through the pages of the book. With the help of this index, students can quickly locate the word they would like to look up and practice using it in the context of a sentence in the referenced page（s）。 The index essentially turns the book into a mini-dictionary of SAT vocabulary. 　　We hope you will enjoy using the book.