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AP Style Vocab

Instructions:

Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.

1. shell
This organization is limited to the five boroughs of New York City and neighboring Suffolk County in providing animal adoption services - although it has offices elsewhere that offer legal advice and other services to other animal welfare organizatio
These and similar combinations of a letter and figure(s) designate rifles used by the military. The forms: an M-1 rifle - an M-16 rifle
The word applies to military or naval ammunition and to shotgun ammunition
Use alone in datelines on stories from the Republic of San Marino

2. tablespoon - tablespoonfuls
DON'T USE IN PRINT
NOT teaspoonsful
Is possessive
Equal to three teaspoons or one-half a fluid ounce. The metric equivalent is approximately 15 milliliters

3. taps

4. flier
Uses periods in most two letter words; CIA - FBI - GOP; Never use organizations full name then an acronym;
AMA is acceptable on second reference. Also: the medical association - the association. Headquarters is in Chicago
An aviator or handbill; pass out those fliers
Saudi Aramco is acceptable on second reference. (Formerly the Arabian American Oil Co.)

5. salable
Saboteur
A cannon or other weapon designed for defense against air attack. The form: a 105 mm anti-aircraft gun.
Is pronoun that is always a subject
Salable

6. American West
Take-home pay
Headquarters of this airline is in Tempe - Ariz.
Preferred to persons as the plural
Most ending in z or es or s add es: Joneses - Gonzalezes - Charleses

7. SALT
Used to describe those who have entered the country illegally - it is the preferred term - rather than illegal alien or undocumented worker. Do not use the shortened term illegals
Abbreviation for the Latin id est or that is and is always followed by a comma
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)
In second reference: the America Exchange - Amex - or the exchange

8. times
Ketchup
A measurement of the diameter of a gun barrel except for most shotguns. Measurement is in either millimeters or decimal fractions of an inch. The word caliber is not used when giving the metric measurement. The forms: a 9 mm pistol - a .22-caliber ri
Use figures except for noon and midnight
The verbs: sandbagged - sandbagging. And: sandbagger

9. take out (v.) take out (n. and adj.)
Take out (v.) take out (n. and adj)
Not compound subject; requires a verb that agrees with the nearer subject
Use illegal only to mean a violation of the law. Be especially careful in labor management disputes - where one side often calls an action by the other side illegal. Usually it is a charge that a contract or rule - not a law - has been violated
To make sure or give confidence

10. impostor
Always use figures. Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives before a noun or substitute as a noun
Impostor
NOT teaspoonsful
Inasmuch as

11. bullet
Impostor
The projectile fired by a rifle - pistol or machine gun. Together with metal casing - primer and propellant - it forms a cartridge
Use Taiwan - not Formosa - in reverences to the government in Taiwan and the island itself
Introduces two items; between him and her - between you and me

12. Manslaughter
To argue to the contrary
Homicide without malice or premeditation
See John F. Kennedy Space Center
Plural alumni man who attended a school

13. Taliban
Do no abbreviate in datelines or stories. Postal code: ID
Once limited to accepting deposits and making home mortgage loans - they are not banks. Since enactment of the Financial Institutions Reform Recovery Act in 1989
DON'T USE IN PRINT
Extremist Islamic movement that ruled Afghanistan until driven out by U.S.-led coalition after the Sept. 11 - 2001 - attacks. It continues to operate as insugent force with adherents in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The name derives from the Arabic word

14. impeachment
The maxim that between introduces two items and among introduces more than two covers most questions about how to use these words: The funds were divided among Ford - Carter and McCarthy. However - between is the correct word when expressing the rela
The city in California stands alone in datelines
See pardon - parole - probation
The constitutional process accusing an elected official of a crime in an attempt to remove the official from office. Do not use as a synonym for convicted or removed from office

15. wastebasket
A trademark for a type of nonstick coating
Twice a year
Wastebasket
?

16. rebut
A firearm designed or made to be fired from the shoulder and having a rifled bored. It uses bullets and cartridges for ammunition. Its size is measured in calibers. The form: a .22-caliber rifle
Tape recording (n.) tape-record (v.)
To argue to the contrary
Add apostrophe s:p's and q's

17. courtesy titles

18. email

19. Satan
Santa Claus
Use figures spell out inches - feet - yards hyphen adjectival forms before nouns
But lowercase devil and satanic
Use illegal only to mean a violation of the law. Be especially careful in labor management disputes - where one side often calls an action by the other side illegal. Usually it is a charge that a contract or rule - not a law - has been violated

20. sandwich
Proper tenses for impel
Plural alumni man who attended a school
No hyphen when it means not: inaccurate - insufferable Other uses without a hyphen: inbound - indoor - infield - infighting - inpatient A few combinations take a hyphen - however: in-depth - in-group - in-house - in-law Follow Webster's New World Col
Sandwich

21. Addresses
Spell out and capitalize first through ninth use figures for others Ave. Blvd. St. only ones allowed to be abbreviated when numbered address is present. Do Not abbreviate compass points if number is omitted
Titles when used before a full name; Junior and senior after individual's name
Take up (v.) takeup (n. and adj.)
Take over (v.) takeover (n. and adj)

22. flyer
A unit of power - mostly associated with electricity. Electrical energy is measured in watt-hours (or kilowatt-hours or mega-watt hours). Do not use 'megawatts Per hours.' Abbrev.: W - kW - MW.
Proper name of some trains and buses
IED is acceptable on second reference. Roadside bomb is preferable
DO NOT PLACE IN QUOTES

23. tanks
Use Arabic figures - separated from letters by a hyphen: M-60 - plural: M-60s
Kindergarten
Implausible
Extension of time or degree

24. amnesty
Ketchup
Singular criteria is the plural
See pardon - parole - probation
Physical distance

25. emigrate
One who leaves a country emigrates from it
Acceptable in all forms
Lowercase when describing the leader of a prayer in a Muslim mosque. Capitalize before a name when used as the formal title for a Muslim leader or ruler
The collection of writings that constitute the Jewish civil and religious law

26. in - into
Take-home pay
Acronym for instant message; sometimes used as a verb IM'ing - IM'ed. acceptable on second reference for instant messaging
Capitalize them
In indicates location: He was in the room. Into indicates motion: She walked into the room

27. either...or - neither...nor
Not compound subject; requires a verb that agrees with the nearer subject
Named for Samuel Colt - it designates a make of weapon or ammunition developed for Colt handguns. The forms: a Colt .45-caliber revolver - .45 Colt ammunition
Formerly a trademark - now a generic term
Impostor

28. yesterday - today - tomorrow

29. Salt Lake City
A compact - relatively inexpensive handgun
The city in Utah stands alone in datelines
Try to avoid abbreviations; use apostrophe in master's degree but not in Master of Science; only use B.A. - M.A. - LL.D. and Ph.D. when needed to identify individual on first reference if after a name set off with commas
Tape recording (n.) tape-record (v.)

30. teaspoon
The city in California stands alone in datelines
It means without preparation of advance thought
Headquarters is in Mississauga - Ontario
Equal to one-sixth of a fluid ounce - or one-third of a tablespoon. The metric equivalent is approximately 5 milliliters

31. amok
Not amuck
Use the ampersand when it is part of a company's formal name or company position title: House & Garden - Procter & Gamble - Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway. The ampersand should not otherwise be used in place of and.
To introduce clauses Jim blocks the linebacker as he should
The word applies to military or naval ammunition and to shotgun ammunition

32. kiloton - kilotonnage
Use illegal only to mean a violation of the law. Be especially careful in labor management disputes - where one side often calls an action by the other side illegal. Usually it is a charge that a contract or rule - not a law - has been violated
A unit used to measure the power of nuclear explosions. One kiloton has the explosive force of 1000 tons of TNT. The atomic bomb dropped Aug. 6 - 1945 - on Hiroshima - Japan - in the first use of the bomb as a weapon had an explosive force of 20 kilo
Headquarters of this airline is in Madrid - Spain
The constitutional process accusing an elected official of a crime in an attempt to remove the official from office. Do not use as a synonym for convicted or removed from office

33. rifle
A firearm designed or made to be fired from the shoulder and having a rifled bored. It uses bullets and cartridges for ammunition. Its size is measured in calibers. The form: a .22-caliber rifle
Headquarters is in Seoul - South Korea
Uses periods in most two letter words; CIA - FBI - GOP; Never use organizations full name then an acronym;
Capitalize only when referring to the total collections of events

34. impromptu
Acceptable on first reference - but the story should contain a phrase identifying it as the former Russian secret police and intelligence agency. The initials stand for the Russian words meaning Committee for State Security
Use it to mean one or the other - not both
This acronym - drawn from the words American travel by track - may be used in all references to the National Railroad Passenger Corp. Do not use AMTRAK. The corporation was established by Congress in 1970 to take over intercity passenger operations f
It means without preparation of advance thought

35. artillery
Add s NO APOSTROPHES:1930s - ifs - buts - ands - low 20s - ABCs - Four VIPs
But lowercase devil and satanic
Extremist Islamic movement that ruled Afghanistan until driven out by U.S.-led coalition after the Sept. 11 - 2001 - attacks. It continues to operate as insugent force with adherents in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The name derives from the Arabic word
A carriage-mounted cannon

36. ice age
A device used to store multiple rounds of ammunition together as a unit - ready for insertion into the magazine of a repeating firearm
Lowercase - because it denotes not a single period but any series of cold periods marked by glaciation alternating with periods of relative warmth. Capitalize the proper nouns in the names of individual ice ages - such as the Wisconsin ice age. The m
Extension of time or degree
A measurement of the diameter of a gun barrel except for most shotguns. Measurement is in either millimeters or decimal fractions of an inch. The word caliber is not used when giving the metric measurement. The forms: a 9 mm pistol - a .22-caliber ri

37. alumnus
A firearm that reloads automatically after each shot. Note there are differences between fully automatic and semi-automatic firearms. Be specific in usage. The form: a .22-caliber automatic
Plural alumni man who attended a school
Takes singluar verb two people look at each other
Device used to launch a mortar shell; it is the shell - not the mortar - that is fired

38. Accept
Weak-kneed
To receive
See pardon - parole - probation
Tablecloth

39. machine gun
The verbs: sandbagged - sandbagging. And: sandbagger
A fully automatic gun that fires as long as the trigger is depressed. The form: a .50 caliber Browning machine gun.
Preposition to compare nouns and pronouns Jim blocks like a pro
See John F. Kennedy Space Center

40. teen - teenager (n.) teenage (adj.)
Implausible
Connotation of wrongdoing use acknowledge or said instead of admitted
Do NOT use teenaged
Action word lay - laid - laying

41. K
Abbreviate Ill. in datelines or stories. Postal code: IL
Use K in references to modern transmission speeds - in keeping with standard usage: a 56K modem (no space after numeral). The abbreviation should not be used to mean 1000 or $1000
This organization is limited to the five boroughs of New York City and neighboring Suffolk County in providing animal adoption services - although it has offices elsewhere that offer legal advice and other services to other animal welfare organizatio
Preposition to compare nouns and pronouns Jim blocks like a pro

42. alumna
Plural alumnae woman
Uses periods in most two letter words; CIA - FBI - GOP; Never use organizations full name then an acronym;
Small lead or steel pellets fired by shotguns. A shotgun shell usually contains 1 to 2 ounces of shot. Do not use shot interchangeable with buckshot - which refers only to the largest shot sizes
Use Taiwan - not Formosa - in reverences to the government in Taiwan and the island itself

43. Allege
Two Words.
Use singular verb and pronoun 'it' when referring to the team as a collective unit. However - the team name takes a plural verb: The Orlando Magic are close to setting a franchise record
USE WITH GREAT CARE specify source of allegation avoid redundant uses ex. accused her of allegedly
Trademark for an electronic control device or stun gun. (Acronym for Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle)

44. No.

45. Kansas
A firearm typically used to fire small spherical pellets called shot. Shotguns usually have a smooth bore barrel - but some contain a rifled barrel - Which is used to fire a single projectile. Size is measured according to gauge - except for the .410
Abbreviate Kan. in datelines or stories. Postal code: KS
See John F. Kennedy Space Center
Most significant word is made plural: daughters-in-law - assistant attorneys general - major generals

46. Target Corp.
This acronym - drawn from the words American travel by track - may be used in all references to the National Railroad Passenger Corp. Do not use AMTRAK. The corporation was established by Congress in 1970 to take over intercity passenger operations f
The collection of writings that constitute the Jewish civil and religious law
Headquarters is in Minneapolis
The city in Utah stands alone in datelines

47. Imax Corp.
Trademark for an electronic control device or stun gun. (Acronym for Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle)
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)
Headquarters is in Mississauga - Ontario
Do NOT use teenaged

48. complement
Noun and verb denoting completeness or supplementing something
Connotes success in argument and almost always implies an editorial judgement DON'T USE instead deny - dispute - rebut - or respond to
Abbreviate Kan. in datelines or stories. Postal code: KS
The abbreviation Ste. instead St. because the full name is Sault Sainte Marie

49. each
Takes singluar verb two people look at each other
A fundamental truth - law - doctrine or motivating force
This acronym - drawn from the words American travel by track - may be used in all references to the National Railroad Passenger Corp. Do not use AMTRAK. The corporation was established by Congress in 1970 to take over intercity passenger operations f
Capitalize in religious references; lowercase to mean a period of rest

50. immigrate
Headquarters of this airline is in Tempe - Ariz.
See John F. Kennedy Space Center
One who comes into a country immigrates
?