jane eyre a-c ch 1-10

Question 1

1. abate

Answer 1

become less in amount or intensity

Helen regarded me, probably with surprise: I could not now abate my agitation, though I tried hard; I continued to weep aloud.

Question 2

2. abhor

Answer 2

find repugnant

I abhor artifice, particularly in children; it is my duty to show you that tricks will not answer: you will now stay here an hour longer, and it is only on condition of perfect submission and stillness that I shall liberate you then.”

Question 3

3. abode

Answer 3

any address at which you dwell more than temporarily

I doubted not–never doubted–that if Mr. Reed had been alive he would have treated me kindly; and now, as I sat looking at the white bed and overshadowed walls–occasionally also turning a fascinated eye towards the dimly gleaning mirror–I began to reca

Question 4

4. absolve

Answer 4

grant remission of a sin to

“Well, Helen?” said I, putting my hand into hers: she chafed my fingers gently to warm them, and went on–
“If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be

Question 5

5. accelerate

Answer 5

move faster

First, I smiled to myself and felt elate; but this fierce pleasure subsided in me as fast as did the accelerated throb of my pulses.

Question 6

6. accommodation

Answer 6

making or becoming suitable; adjusting to circumstances

The red-room was a square chamber, very seldom slept in, I might say never, indeed, unless when a chance influx of visitors at Gateshead Hall rendered it necessary to turn to account all the accommodation it contained: yet it was one of the largest

Question 7

7. achieve

Answer 7

to gain with effort

“Unjust!–unjust!” said my reason, forced by the agonising stimulus into precocious though transitory power: and Resolve, equally wrought up, instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape from insupportable oppression–as running away,

Question 8

8. acquire

Answer 8

come into the possession of something concrete or abstract

Question 9

9. acrid

Answer 9

strong and sharp, as a taste

Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage, was universally indulged.

Question 10

11. advert

Answer 10

a public promotion of some product or service

All this I enjoyed often and fully, free, unwatched, and almost alone: for this unwonted liberty and pleasure there was a cause, to which it now becomes my task to advert.

Question 11

12. affirm

Answer 11

declare solemnly and formally as true

Mr. Miles, the master, affirmed that he would do very well if he had fewer cakes and sweetmeats sent him from home; but the mother’s heart turned from an opinion so harsh, and inclined rather to the more refined idea that John’s sallowness …

Question 12

14. allege

Answer 12

report or maintain

Miss Temple, having assembled the whole school, announced that inquiry had been made into the charges alleged against Jane Eyre, and that she was most happy to be able to pronounce her completely cleared from every imputation.

Question 13

15. alleviate

Answer 13

provide physical relief, as from pain

She was not, I was told, in the hospital portion of the house with the fever patients; for her complaint was consumption, not typhus: and by consumption I, in my ignorance, understood something mild, which time and care would be sure to alleviate.

Question 14

16. alloy

Answer 14

a mixture containing two or more metallic elements

I was silent; Helen had calmed me; but in the tranquillity she imparted there was an alloy of inexpressible sadness.

Question 15

17. ambrosia

Answer 15

the food and drink of the gods

We feasted that evening as on nectar and ambrosia; and not the least delight of the entertainment was the smile of gratification with which our hostess regarded us, as we satisfied our famished appetites on the delicate fare she liberally supplied.

Question 16

18. ameliorate

Answer 16

to make better

Spring drew on: she was indeed already come; the frosts of winter had ceased; its snows were melted, its cutting winds ameliorated.

Question 17

19. animadversion

Answer 17

harsh criticism or disapproval

At that hour most of the others were sewing likewise; but one class still stood round Miss Scatcherd’s chair reading, and as all was quiet, the subject of their lessons could be heard, together with the manner in which each girl acquitted herself, and the

Question 18

20. animate

Answer 18

make lively

Question 19

22. antipathy

Answer 19

a feeling of intense dislike

John had not much affection for his mother and sisters, and an antipathy to me.

Question 20

23. aperture

Answer 20

a natural opening in something

Was it, I asked myself, a ray from the moon penetrating some aperture in the blind?

Question 21

24. apothecary

Answer 21

a health professional trained in the art of preparing drugs

Turning from Bessie (though her presence was far less obnoxious to me than that of Abbot, for instance, would have been), I scrutinised the face of the gentleman: I knew him; it was Mr. Lloyd, an apothecary, sometimes called in by Mrs. Reed when th

Question 22

26. apprise

Answer 22

inform somebody of something

I had my own reasons for being dismayed at this apparition; too well I remembered the perfidious hints given by Mrs. Reed about my disposition, &c.; the promise pledged by Mr. Brocklehurst to apprise Miss Temple and the teachers of my vicious nature

Question 23

28. ardent

Answer 23

characterized by intense emotion

Besides this earth, and besides the race of men, there is an invisible world and a kingdom of spirits: that world is round us, for it is everywhere; and those spirits watch us, for they are commissioned to guard us; and if we were dying in pain and shame,

Question 24

29. aromatic

Answer 24

having a strong pleasant odor

Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavour, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned.

Question 25

31. ascertain

Answer 25

learn or discover with confidence

“Mind you don’t,” said Bessie; and when she had ascertained that I was really subsiding, she loosened her hold of me; then she and Miss Abbot stood with folded arms, looking darkly and doubtfully on my face, as incredulous of my sanity.

Question 26

33. assuming

Answer 26

excessively forward or presumptuous

Miss Temple had looked down when he first began to speak to her; but she now gazed straight before her, and her face, naturally pale as marble, appeared to be assuming also the coldness and fixity of that material

Question 27

34. attest

Answer 27

provide evidence for

I cannot tell what sentiment haunted the quite solitary churchyard, with its inscribed headstone; its gate, its two trees, its low horizon, girdled by a broken wall, and its newly-risen crescent, attesting the hour of eventide.

Question 28

36. aversion

Answer 28

a feeling of intense dislike

All John Reed’s violent tyrannies, all his sisters’ proud indifference, all his mother’s aversion, all the servants’ partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like a dark deposit in a turbid well.

Question 29

38. baffle

Answer 29

be a mystery or bewildering to

And then my mind made its first earnest effort to comprehend what had been infused into it concerning heaven and hell; and for the first time it recoiled, baffled; and for the first time glancing behind, on each side, and before it,

Question 30

39. barrister

Answer 30

a British lawyer who speaks in the higher courts of law

Question 31

40. bask

Answer 31

expose oneself to warmth and light, as for relaxation

The fact is, after my conflict with and victory over Mrs. Reed, I was not disposed to care much for the nursemaid’s transitory anger; and I was disposed to bask in her youthful lightness of heart.

Question 32

42. beguile

Answer 32

attract; cause to be enamored

Ev’n should I fall o’er the broken bridge passing, Or stray in the marshes, by false lights beguiled, Still will my Father, with promise and blessing, Take to His bosom the poor orphan child.

Question 33

44. benevolent

Answer 33

showing or motivated by sympathy and understanding

“Different benevolent-minded ladies and gentlemen in this neighbourhood and in London.”

Question 34

45. benign

Answer 34

kindness of disposition or manner

Next morning, Miss Scatcherd wrote in conspicuous characters on a piece of pasteboard the word “Slattern,” and bound it like a phylactery round Helen’s large, mild, intelligent, and benign-looking forehead.

Question 35

46. bilious

Answer 35

relating to a digestive juice secreted by the liver

He gorged himself habitually at table, which made him bilious, and gave him a dim and bleared eye and flabby cheeks.

Question 36

47. blanch

Answer 36

turn pale, as if in fear

I leaned against a gate, and looked into an empty field where no sheep were feeding, where the short grass was nipped and blanched.

Question 37

48. brackish

Answer 37

slightly salty

The unhealthy nature of the site; the quantity and quality of the children’s food; the brackish, fetid water used in its preparation; the pupils’ wretched clothing and accommodations–all these things were discovered,

Question 38

49. browbeat

Answer 38

discourage or frighten with threats or a domineering manner

Why was I always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, for ever condemned?

Question 39

50. buxom

Answer 39

healthily plump and vigorous

“Silence!” ejaculated a voice; not that of Miss Miller, but one of the upper teachers, a little and dark personage, smartly dressed, but of somewhat morose aspect, who installed herself at the top of one table, while a more buxom lady presided

Question 40

51. cadence

Answer 40

the accent in a metrical foot of verse

Sometimes, preoccupied with her work, she sang the refrain very low, very lingeringly; “A long time ago” came out like the saddest cadence of a funeral hymn.

Question 41

52. capricious

Answer 41

determined by chance or impulse rather than by necessity

I remember her as a slim young woman, with black hair, dark eyes, very nice features, and good, clear complexion; but she had a capricious and hasty temper, and indifferent ideas of principle or justice:

Question 42

54. captivate

Answer 42

attract; cause to be enamored

Not that my fancy was much captivated by the idea of long chimneys and clouds of smoke–“but,” I argued, “Thornfield will, probably, be a good way from the town.”

Question 43

55. catechism

Answer 43

an elementary book summarizing the principles of a religion

The Sunday evening was spent in repeating, by heart, the Church Catechism, and the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of St. Matthew; and in listening to a long sermon, read by Miss Miller, whose irrepressible yawns attested her weariness.

Question 44

56. ceaseless

Answer 44

uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing

Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast.

Question 45

58. chasten

Answer 45

censure severely

Miss Temple had always something of serenity in her air, of state in her mien, of refined propriety in her language, which precluded deviation into the ardent, the excited, the eager: something which chastened the pleasure of those who looked on

Question 46

59. cherish

Answer 46

be very fond of

They were not bound to regard with affection a thing that could not sympathise with one amongst them; a heterogeneous thing, opposed to them in temperament, in capacity, in propensities; a useless thing, incapable of serving their interest,

Question 47

60. chide

Answer 47

censure severely or angrily
Helen Burns asked some slight question about her work of Miss Smith, was chidden for the triviality of the inquiry, returned to her place, and smiled at me as she again went by.

Question 48

64. circlet

Answer 48

a small ring-shaped object

This precious vessel was now placed on my knee, and I was cordially invited to eat the circlet of delicate pastry upon it.

Question 49

65. climax

Answer 49

the highest point of anything

The cut bled, the pain was sharp: my terror had passed its climax; other feelings succeeded.

Question 50

69. commence

Answer 50

set in motion, cause to start

I heard him in a blubbering tone commence the tale of how “that nasty Jane Eyre” had flown at him like a mad cat: he was stopped rather harshly–

Question 51

71. compose

Answer 51

form the substance of

“What?” said Mrs. Reed under her breath: her usually cold composed grey eye became troubled with a look like fear; she took her hand from my arm, and gazed at me as if she really did not know whether I were child or fiend.

Question 52

74. conform

Answer 52

be similar, be in line with

Why, in defiance of every precept and principle of this house, does she conform to the world so openly–here in an evangelical, charitable establishment–as to wear her hair one mass of curls?”

Question 53

76. congeal

Answer 53

become gelatinous

I covered my head and arms with the skirt of my frock, and went out to walk in a part of the plantation which was quite sequestrated; but I found no pleasure in the silent trees, the falling fir-cones, the congealed relics of autumn, russet leaves,

Question 54

77. conjecture

Answer 54

to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds

I can now conjecture readily that this streak of light was, in all likelihood, a gleam from a lantern carried by some one across the lawn: but then, prepared as my mind was for horror, shaken as my nerves were by agitation, I thought the swift dart

Question 55

78. consenting

Answer 55

having given agreement

I say scarcely voluntary, for it seemed as if my tongue pronounced words without my will consenting to their utterance: something spoke out of me over which I had no control.

Question 56

80. consistency

Answer 56

a harmonious uniformity or agreement among things or parts

Consistency, my dear Mr. Brocklehurst; I advocate consistency in all things.”

Question 57

81. construe

Answer 57

make sense of; assign a meaning to

Then they seemed so familiar with French names and French authors: but my amazement reached its climax when Miss Temple asked Helen if she sometimes snatched a moment to recall the Latin her father had taught her,

Question 58

83. contagion

Answer 58

an incident in which an infectious disease is transmitted

The teachers were fully occupied with packing up and making other necessary preparations for the departure of those girls who were fortunate enough to have friends and relations able and willing to remove them from the seat of contagion.

Question 59

84. contaminate

Answer 59

make impure

Question 60

85. contrive

Answer 60

make or work out a plan for; devise

Fearful, however, of losing this first and only opportunity of relieving my grief by imparting it, I, after a disturbed pause, contrived to frame a meagre, though, as far as it went, true response.

Question 61

88. corroborate

Answer 61

give evidence for
About a week subsequently to the incidents above narrated,

Miss Temple, who had written to Mr. Lloyd, received his answer: it appeared that what he said went to corroborate my account.

Question 62

86. contrived

Answer 62

showing effects of planning or manipulation

Fearful, however, of losing this first and only opportunity of relieving my grief by imparting it, I, after a disturbed pause, contrived to frame a meagre, though, as far as it went, true response.

Question 63

89. corrode

Answer 63

cause to deteriorate due to water, air, or an acid

Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavour, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned.

Question 64

91. creed

Answer 64

any system of principles or beliefs

Question 65

92. crevice

Answer 65

a long narrow opening