Ana Karenina 3

Question 1

composite

Answer 1

adj. made up of various parts or elements “…while thinking of Ana’s romance she invented an almost similar romance for herself with an imaginary, composite man who was in love with her.” (552) MD compost is a composite - it’s got banana peels, pasta, garlic skin, etc.

Question 2

plinth

Answer 2

A heavy base for a statue or column MD pLinTH -> pin -> the columns are pinned to the plinth

Question 3

construe

Answer 3

verb. interpret a word or action in a particular way Construe can usually be translated as “interpret”. It’s often used in law; thus, an Attorney General might construe the term “serious injury” in a child-abuse law to include bruises, or a judge might construe language about gifts to “heirs” to include spouses. “Whatever she did, she knew, would be noticed by her husband and would all be construed into something wrong.” (543) MD - the interpretation is a construection

Question 4

distended

Answer 4

adj. to expand from internal pressure “After inhaling the air with distended nostrils she knew at once that not their scent only but they themselves were there, before her, not only one but many of them.” (538) MD distended (extended) stomach

Question 5

quicksilver

Answer 5

mercury; a silver-white poisonous heavy metallic element that is liquid at ordinary temperatures and is used especially in batteries, in dental amalgam, and in scientific instruments

Question 6

vivacious

Answer 6

adj atractively lively and animated; activeness of gesture and wit, often playful or alluring (a vivacious party host)

• “Moreover, he saw his wife had an expression of serious feeling as she gazed attentively at Vasenka’s handsome face while he was vivaciously narrating something.”
• lively, animated, vivacious, sprightly, gay mean keenly alive and spirited. lively suggests briskness, alertness, or energy (a lively debate on the issues). animated applies to what is spirited and active (an animated discussion of current events). vivacious suggests an activeness of gesture and wit, often playful or alluring (a vivacious party host). sprightly suggests lightness and spirited vigor of manner or wit (a tuneful, sprightly musical). gay stresses complete freedom from care and overflowing spirits (the gay spirit of Paris in the 1920s).
• MD - latin - vivere: to live

Question 7

indignant

Answer 7

adj angered at something unjust or wrong “…but the letter and what she read between the lines so irritated her, its malevolence seemed so revolting when compared with her passionate and legitimate love for her son, that she became indignant with others and ceased to blame herself.” (483) MD - Inigo Montoya was indignant when the six-fingered-man killed his father because his father would not sell him a sword.

Question 8

antediluvian

Answer 8

adj of or belonging to the time before the biblical Flood: “The part, however, about which he could not say anything at all but only floundered, cut the table, and rocked his chair, was that about the antediluvian patriarchs.” (477) MD antebellum ante-before deluge-severe flood