Ronald Reagan's Address at Moscow State University (1988)

Ronald Reagan's visit to Moscow State University on May 31, 1988 included remarks and a brief question and answer session with students and faculty. The question and answer session covered topics from Soviet dissidents to the president's retirement plans. The overall tone of the remarks praises America's commitment to freedom and democracy, while reassuring the young Russians that these ideals were within their grasp. In addition to outlining the possibilities with the technological revolution, Reagan proposed an increased student exchange program as steps towards tearing down the walls that keep people apart.
E-text available here.
30 words 388 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. distinguished
    standing above others in character or attainment
    As you know, I've come to Moscow to meet with one of your most distinguished graduates. In this, our fourth summit, General Secretary Gorbachev and I have spent many hours together, and I feel that we're getting to know each other well.
  2. emblem
    a visible symbol representing an abstract idea
    It's been called the technological or information revolution, and as its emblem, one might take the tiny silicon chip, no bigger than a fingerprint.
  3. chrysalis
    pupa of a moth or butterfly enclosed in a cocoon
    Like a chrysalis, we're emerging from the economy of the Industrial Revolution--an economy confined to and limited by the Earth's physical resources--into, as one economist titled his book, "The Economy in Mind," in which there are no bounds on human imagination and the freedom to create is the most precious natural resource.
  4. ingenious
    showing inventiveness and skill
    Think of that little computer chip. Its value isn't in the sand from which it is made but in the microscopic architecture designed into it by ingenious human minds.
  5. obsolete
    no longer in use
    In the new economy, human invention increasingly makes physical resources obsolete.
  6. foreordained
    established or prearranged unalterably
    But progress is not foreordained. The key is freedom--freedom of thought, freedom of information, freedom of communication.
  7. considerable
    large in number, amount, extent, or degree
    "It is common knowledge," he said, "that the achievements of science are considerable and rapid, particularly once the yoke of slavery is cast off and replaced by the freedom of philosophy."
  8. entrepreneur
    someone who organizes a business venture
    The explorers of the modern era are the entrepreneurs, men with vision, with the courage to take risks and faith enough to brave the unknown.
  9. conceivable
    capable of being imagined
    Go to any American town, to take just an example, and you'll see dozens of churches, representing many different beliefs--in many places, synagogues and mosques--and you'll see families of every conceivable nationality worshiping together.
  10. endow
    give qualities or abilities to
    Go into any schoolroom, and there you will see children being taught the Declaration of Independence, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights--among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--that no government can justly deny
  11. established
    brought about or set up or accepted
    Freedom is the right to question and change the established way of doing things.
  12. scoff
    laugh at with contempt and derision
    It is the right to put forth an idea, scoffed at by the experts, and watch it catch fire among the people.
  13. conscience
    conformity to one's own sense of right conduct
    It is the right to dream--to follow your dream or stick to your conscience, even if you're the only one in a sea of doubters.
  14. kinship
    relatedness or connection by blood or marriage or adoption
    Our ties to you are more than ones of good feeling; they're ties of kinship. In America, you'll find Russians, Armenians, Ukrainians, peoples from Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
  15. constraint
    a limitation or restriction
    Democracy is less a system of government than it is a system to keep government limited, unintrusive; a system of constraints on power to keep politics and government secondary to the important things in life, the true sources of value found only in family and faith.
  16. extol
    praise, glorify, or honor
    But I hope you know I go on about these things not simply to extol the virtues of my own country but to speak to the true greatness of the heart and soul of your land.
  17. eloquent
    expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively
    Let me cite one of the most eloquent contemporary passages on human freedom. It comes, not from the literature of America, but from this country, from one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, Boris Pasternak, in the novel "Dr. Zhivago."
  18. irresistible
    impossible to withstand; overpowering
    But this is just the point--what has for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel, but an inward music--the irresistible power of unarmed truth.
  19. supplant
    take the place or move into the position of
    Such change will lead to new understandings, new opportunities, to a broader future in which the tradition is not supplanted but finds its full flowering.
  20. beckon
    appear inviting
    That is the future beckoning to your generation.
  21. institutionalize
    cause to be admitted, as a person to a hospital
    And that is why, in my conversation with General Secretary Gorbachev, I have spoken of how important it is to institutionalize change--to put guarantees on reform.
  22. fervent
    characterized by intense emotion
    It's my fervent hope that our constructive cooperation on these issues will be carried on to address the continuing destruction and conflicts in many regions of the globe and that the serious discussions that led to the Geneva accords on Afghanistan will help lead to solutions in southern Africa, Ethiopia, Cambodia, the Persian Gulf, and Central America.
  23. renounce
    turn away from; give up
    If this globe is to live in peace and prosper, if it is to embrace all the possibilities of the technological revolution, then nations must renounce, once and for all, the right to an expansionist foreign policy.
  24. enduring
    unceasing
    Peace between nations must be an enduring goal, not a tactical stage in a continuing conflict.
  25. evocative
    serving to bring to mind
    I've been told that there's a popular song in your country--perhaps you know it--whose evocative refrain asks the question, "Do the Russians want a war?"
  26. antagonist
    someone who offers opposition
    Americans seek always to make friends of old antagonists.
  27. boisterous
    noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline
    Some people point to the trade disputes between us as a sign of strain, but they're the frictions of all families, and the family of free nations is a big and vital and sometimes boisterous one.
  28. exuberant
    produced or growing in extreme abundance
    I can tell you that nothing would please my heart more than in my lifetime to see American and Soviet diplomats grappling with the problem of trade disputes between America and a growing, exuberant, exporting Soviet Union that had opened up to economic freedom and growth.
  29. yearn
    desire strongly or persistently
    Your generation is living in one of the most exciting, hopeful times in Soviet history. It is a time when the first breath of freedom stirs the air and the heart beats to the accelerated rhythm of hope, when the accumulated spiritual energies of a long silence yearn to break free.
  30. reconciliation
    the reestablishment of cordial relations
    We may be allowed to hope that the marvelous sound of a new openness will keep rising through, ringing through, leading to a new world of reconciliation, friendship, and peace.
Created on Mon Mar 17 14:49:13 EDT 2014 (updated Tue Mar 18 07:59:30 EDT 2014)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.