Condescending是常考单词，像这种单词只背词汇书是不可能准确做题的，所以像这种“很有个性”的单词需要考生或老师在平时学习和教学中多去总结单词应用的情景，通过比较亲切的例句和题目来掌握这种单词，我们先看一下这个考题的考察情况：
第一类：正确选项
(1) OG-S3-23: Q: The author’s attitude toward the majority of people can best be described as
A. genuinely puzzled
B. aggressively hostile
C. solemnly respectful
D. generally indifferent
E. condescendingly tolerant
(2) OG-P677-S8-11: A condolatory smile, capping this enumeration, materialized on his lips; the letter was so inconsonant with the simplest precepts of strategy that it elicited a kind of pity, mingled with contempt and dry amusement.
Q: In context, Mulcahy’s “Condolatory smile” (lines 32-33) is most probably an expression of both
A. cynical skepticism and comical self-pity
B. sincere compassion and whimsical delight
C. profound surprise and delighted appreciation
D. bitter disappointment and sly criticism
E. condescending sympathy and amused scorn
(3) OG-P873: (Lines12-14) They treat it condescendingly as a harmless but amusing example of American vulgarity—a kind of patriotic Disneyland.
他们屈尊的认为W城堡只是一种有害但同时又有娱乐性的美国粗鄙现实的一个例子——一种爱国主义情调的迪斯尼而已。
第二类：错误选项
（巴郎－T1）The Rosetta Stone! What a providential find that was. And what a remarkable set of circumstances it took for people to be able to read Egyptian hieroglyphics after a hiatus of some 1400 years. It even took a military campaign. In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte’s army attacked British-held Egypt, seeking to cut off England from the riches of the Middle East. Rebuilding a fortress, a French soldier uncovered a block of basalt inscribed with writing in three distinct scripts; Greek, demotic script (an everyday cursive form of Egyptian), and Egyptian hieroglyphs. At that moment, modern Egyptology began.
Question: The author’s tone in writing of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone can best be characterized as
A. ironic
B. enthusiastic
C. condescending
D. nostalgic
E. objective
condescending如果只是机械的背单词书，你会发现是“屈尊的”意思，所以像这种单词我们一定要通过一个例子来支撑：比如说世界冠军马琳过来和我打乒乓球，我肯定是不愿意的，但他说他用左手而且不用球拍和我比赛，那么那时候马琳的对我的态度就是condescending，即表面上在帮你，但是其实是在蔑视你。
(1)The actor was noted for his___ behavior: he quickly became irritated if his every whim was not immediately satisfied.
(A) fastidious
(B) sedulous
(C) vindictive
(D) petulant
(E) mercenary
(2)Mac Dougall’s former editors remember him as a__ man whose__ and exhaustive reporting was worth the trouble.
A. domineering, wearisome
B. congenial, pretentious
C. popular, supercilious
D. fastidious, garbled
E. cantankerous, meticulous
从意思上来说，fastidious是意群“仔细”里面的单词之一：careful, painstaking, scrupulous, meticulous, fastidious, punctilious, 其中比较特殊的一个是fastidious：fastidious implies concern, often excessive, for the requirements of taste,表示处于品位要求，通常是过分的关心，而且因为要求高而难以取悦。
那么如何记忆这个单词？我们先看一下breakfast（break＋fast，fast表示绝食，打破绝食的状态，吃的第一顿饭所以是早饭），fastidious是fast（绝食）+ous(多…的)，一直绝食，所以单词本义是“挑食的”，而“要求苛刻的；难以取悦的”则都是其比喻义。