pious ADJ. /尽职的;虔诚的/devout; religious. The challenge for church people today is how to be pious in the best sense, that is, to be devout without becoming hypocritical or sanctimonious. piety, N.
piquant ADJ. /开胃的;辛辣的;刺激的;淘气顽皮的/pleasantly tart-tasting; stimulating. The piquant sauce added to our enjoyment of the meal. piquancy, N.
pique N. /愤怒;不满/irritation; resentment. She showed her pique at her loss by refusing to appear with the other contestants at the end of the competition. alsoV.
pique V. /激起，煽动;激怒/provoke or arouse; annoy. "I know something you don't know," said Lucy, trying to pique Ethel's interest.
pitfall N. /缺陷/hidden danger; concealed trap. Her parents warned young Sophie against the many pitfalls that lay in wait for her in the dangerous big city.
pithy ADJ. /精炼的;抓住灵魂的/concise; meaningful; substantial; meaty. While other girls might have gone on and on about how uncool Elton was, Liz summed it up in one pithy remark: "He's bogus!"
pittance N. /微薄的薪水/a small allowance or wage. He could not live on the pittance he received as a pension and had to look for an additional source of revenue.
pivotal ADJ. /关键的/crucial; key; vital. The new "smart weapons" technology played a pivotal role in the quick resolution of the war with Iraq.
placate V. /安抚/pacify; conciliate. The store manager tried to placate the angry customer, offering to replace the damaged merchandise or to give back her money right away.
placebo N. /安慰剂/harmless substance prescribed as a dummy pill. In a controlled experiment, fifty volunteers were given aspirin tablets; the control group received only placebos.
placid ADJ. /平静的/peaceful; calm. After his vacation in this placid section, he felt soothed and rested.
plagiarism N. /剽窃/theft of another's ideas or writings passed off as original. The editor recognized the plagiarism and rebuked the culprit who had presented the manuscript as original.
plagiarize V. /剽窃/steal another's ideas and pass them off as one's own. The teacher could tell that the student had
plagiarized parts of his essay; she could recognize whole paragraphs straight from Barron's Book Notes.
plaintive ADJ. /哀伤的/mournful. The dove has a plaintive and melancholy call.
plasticity N. /塑性/ability to be molded. When clay dries out, it loses its plasticity and becomes less malleable.
platitude N. /陈词滥调/trite remark; commonplace statement. In giving advice to his son, old Polonius expressed himself only in platitudes; every word out of his mouth was a commonplace.
plaudit N. /喝彩/enthusiastically worded approval; round of applause. The theatrical company reprinted the plaudits of the critics in its advertisements. plauditory, ADJ.
plausible ADJ. /似是而非的/having a show of truth but open to doubt; specious. Your mother made you stay home from school because she needed you to program the VCR? I'm sorry, you'll have to come up with a more plausible excuse than that.
plenitude N. /充分，富足/abundance; completeness. Looking in the pantry, we admired the plenitude of fruits and
pickles we had preserved during the summer.
plethora N. /过剩;过多/excess; overabundance. She offered a plethora of excuses for her shortcomings.
pliable ADJ. /圆滑的;柔韧的;易弯曲的/flexible; yielding; adaptable. In remodeling the bathroom, we have replaced all the old, rigid lead pipes with new, pliable copper tubing.
pliant ADJ. /顺从的/flexible; easily influenced. Pinocchio's disposition was pliant, he was like putty in his tempters ' hands.
plight N. /情况，状况;困境/condition, state (especially a bad state or condition); predicament. Many people feel that the federal government should do more to alleviate the plight of the homeless. Loggers, unmoved by the plight of the spotted owl, plan to continue logging whether or not they ruin the owl's habitat.
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