Accept and college party

Hi folks,
1."We are much more accepting of people with disabilities nowdays..."

("Accept" is a transitive verb, then why add "of" here? or it is a fixed pattern?)

2.The professor took a college party to the mountians to search unusual plants.
(what is a "college party")

3.And do you know where I can find the meanings of sets of synonyms? like bureau, administration, and department?

thanks in advance!

Accept is as you rightly say a transitive verb... BUT it's also an intransitive one. This from the American Heritage Dictionary On-Line:

ACCEPT

INTRANSITIVE VERB: To receive something, especially with favor. Often used with of.

As for a college party, that's a party (or group) of students from a college... and they'd be searching FOR unusual plants.

As for synonyms, I can heartily recommend www.bartleby.com as one of my favourite on-line resources. It has searchable dictionaries, quotations, encyclopaedias and thesauri, the latter being ideal for your synonyms questions.