2/20 Flashcards
lagoon
Book Sentence: “The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon.”
My Definition: a fairly large, shallow body of water.
Definition: an area of shallow water.
My Sentence: They washed their clothes in the lagoon.
clamber
Book Sentence: “He was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by another.”
My Definition: to walk clumsily/destructively.
Definition: to climb or shuffle using both hands and feet.
My Sentence: He clambered up the stairs.
vainly
Book Sentence: “He took off his glasses and looked vainly for something with which to clean them.”
Definition: without success.
My Sentence:
quiver
Book Sentence: “The palms that still stood made a green roof, covered on the underside with a quivering tangle of reflections from the lagoon.”
Definition: tremble or shake with a slightly rapid motion.
My Sentence: She quivered with fear as she entered the Haunted House.
decorous
Book Sentence: “Suddenly Piggy was a-bubble with decorous excitement.”
Definition: proper; marked by good taste.
My Sentence: The house was decorously decorated.
interpose
Book Sentence: “The shell was interesting and pretty and a worthy plaything; but the vivid phantoms of his day-dream still interposed between him and Piggy, who in this context was an irrelevance.”
Definition: place or insert between two things.
My Sentence:
strident
Book Sentence: “The note boomed again: and then at his firmer pressure, the note, fluking up an octave, became a strident blare more penetrating than before.”
Definition: loud and harsh.
My Sentence:
speculate
Book Sentence: “Their heads clustered above the trunks in the green shade; heads brown, fair, black, chestnut, sandy, mouse-colored; heads muttering, whispering, heads full of eyes that watched Ralph and speculated.”
Definition: to casually talk and make predictions without firm evidence.
My Sentence: We started to speculate.
Clamor
Book Sentence: “The conch was silent, a gleaming tusk; Ralph’s face was dark with breathlessness and the air over the island was full of bird-clamor and echoes ringing.”
Definition: A loud and confused noise.
My Sentence: As she tried to study, she wondered what the clamor was next door.
Pallor
Book Sentence: “Now that the pallor of his faint was over, he was a skinny, vivid little boy, with a glance coming up from under a hut of straight hair that hung down, black and coarse.”
Definition: An extreme or unnatural paleness.
My Sentence:
Indignation
Book Sentence: “Piggy stood and the rose of indignation faded slowly from his cheeks.”
Definition: A feeling of righteous anger.
My Sentence:
Jumble
Book Sentence: “There was a jumble of the usual squareness, with one great block sitting out in the lagoon.”
Definition: Untidy collection or pile.
My Sentence: Pick up the jumble of clothes on your floor.
Grating
Book Sentence: “This one, against which Jack leaned, moved with a grating sound when they
pushed.”
Definition: Sounding unpleasant and annoying.
My Sentence: What is that grating sound?!
Warped
Book Sentence: “He
stood now, warped out of the perpendicular by the fierce light of publicity, and he bored
into the coarse grass with one toe.”
Definition: Bent, distorted, pulled out.
My Sentence: The fork was now warped because of the foolish child.
