1.averse vs. adverse
averse: not liking sth;opposed to sth 不喜欢某事物;反对某事物。
e.g.He seems to be averse to hard work.
adverse:not favorable; contrary; hostile 敌对的，反对的，不利的。
e.g.His health was adversely affected by the climate.
2.adversity vs. adversary
adversity:trouble; unfortunate event 不幸，灾祸。
e.g.Mary faces adversity with courage.
adversary:opponent; enemy 对手，敌人。
e.g.He defeated his old adversary in the election.
第1、2组词是经常被同学们混淆的四个单词，在这里两两组合进行对比，希望对同学们会有帮助。
3.antipathy vs. apathy
antipathy:strong or deep dislike 反感;厌恶;憎恶。
e.g.He showed a marked antipathy to foreigners.
apathy:lack of interest; indifference 缺乏兴趣;漠不关心。
e.g.My parents do not feel apathy about the election.
这一组词大家可以用词根词缀发来区别，path-作为词根是“情感”的意思，anti-作为前缀是“相反，对抗”，而a-是“不、无、非”的意思，相关单词有sympathy, empathy等。
4.derive—derivativevs. deride—derisive
derive:originate from sth; get sth from sth 源自，源于;得到获取。
e.g.Thousands of English words derive from Latin.
deride:mock sb/sth 嘲笑，嘲弄。
e.g.They derided his effort as childish.
derisive这个单词出现在阅读中经常被同学当做是derive的形容词性理解，其实是deride的形容词，意思为“嘲笑的，嘲弄的”，例如derisive laughter。
5.exhaustedvs. exhaustive
exhausted:very tired 精疲力尽的。
e.g.After a ten-mile hike, everybody is exhausted.
exhaustive:very thorough; complete 详尽的;彻底的。
e.g.Police make an exhaustive research.
6. imprudent vs. impudent
imprudent: not wise or discreet不智的;不谨慎的;轻率的。
e.g. It would be imprudent (of you) toresign from your present job before you are offered another.
impudent: very rude and disrespectful 粗鲁的;放肆的;无礼的;不尊重的。
e.g. Tom is an impudent child who neverlistens to his parents.
在记这组词之前，同学们最好先记住prudent这个单词，它本身就是“谨慎的，审慎的”意思，在其加上im-这个表否定含义的前缀，意思就很容易得出了。
7. callow vs. callous
callow: immature and inexperienced 既不成熟又无经验的;乳臭未乾的。
callous: cruelly insensitive orunsympathetic 冷酷无情的;无同情心的。
8. congenial vs. congenital
congenial: (of people) pleasing becauseof similarities in temperament, interests, etc ;agreeable(指人)(因性情﹑ 志趣等相近)彼此合得来的，意气相投的;适合自己性格的。
e.g. I find this aspect of my jobparticularly congenial.
congenital: (of diseases, etc) presentfrom or before birth (指疾病等)天生的，先天的。
e.g. We should not deride people whohave congenital defects.
9. intelligent vs. intelligible
intelligent: smart, educated 聪明的，智能的，智力的。
intelligible：that can be (easily) understood 可(易)理解的。
e.g. That’s totally a muddled explanation which was scarcely intelligible.
10. impassive vs. impassioned
impassive: showing no sign of feeling 无表情的，无动于衷的。
e.g. The accused sat impassively as thejudge sentenced him to ten years in prison.
impassioned: showing strong deep feeling充满激情的;热烈的。
e.g. He made an impassioned plea formercy.
同第3组词相似的地方是这一组词里面含有pass-表“情感”含义的词根，im-表“不无、非”，所以impassive就是“无表情的，无动于衷的”意思。而后者中含有的“passion”其本身就是“激情，热情”的意思。
11.adapt vs. adept
adapt:make sth suitable for a new use, situation, etc; modify sth 使某事物适合於新的用途﹑情况等;修改某事物。
e.g.These styles can be adapted to suit individual tastes.
adept:expert or skilful in (doing) sth 对(做)某事物内行的，熟练的。
e.g.She's adept at growing roses.
这一组词中adapt也经常容易与adopt混淆，adopt意思为“采纳，收养”。
12.indigent vs. indigenous
indigent: poor 贫穷。
indigenous:native 土生土长的，当地的。
e.g.Kangaroos are indigenoustoAustralia.
13.presumptive vs. presumptuous
presumptive:based on reasonable belief; probable基於合理之推测的;可能的。
e.g.It is absurd that he was sentenced to death based on presumptive evidence.
presumptuous:too bold or self-confident 胆大妄为的，专横的。
e.g.Would it be presumptuous of me to ask you to contribute?
14.ingenious vs. ingenuous
ingenious:(of a person) clever at finding new or simple solutions for complex problems;original in design(指人)善於用新的或简单的方法解决复杂问题的;设计独特精巧的。
e.g.So you fitted that wire through that little hole there: that's very ingenious!
ingenuous:open, innocent 坦率的，不隐瞒的，天真的。
e.g.That kid gives me an ingenuous smile.
这一组词，同学们可以利用另外两个单词帮助记忆，genius 和genuine,前者意思为“天才”后者意思为“真的，真诚的，非人造的”。ingenious从发音和词形上与genius相近，而ingenuous 和genuine 相近。
15.discreet vs. discrete
discrete:separate; distinct 分离的;截然分开的。
e.g.Those are a series of discrete events.
discreet:careful or showing good judgment in what one says or does; not too obvious 言谈举止谨慎的;言行审慎的;不显眼的。
e.g.I should make a few discreet enquires about the firm before you sign anything.