English 231 Senior English                                             Name:                                                         

website:   http://www.geocities.com/reinsteinalan     email:  [email protected]

Newton South High School Mission Statement

Newton South High School, a community of students, parents, faculty, and staff

(1) Is dedicated to equality and opportunity for all; (2) Expects integrity; responsibility; and respect for self, others, and the environment; (3) Creates a climate of safety and kindness; (4) Encourages communication and personal connections; (5) Nurtures curiosity, creativity, and a passion for learning; (6) Fosters self-confidence and success for all learners.

Term 1 Vocabulary 

 

 


Term 1

LIST 1

From Fahrenheit 451

  1. STOLID                       With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid headÉ(3)          

 

 

           

  1. CACOPHONY              You drowned in music and pure cacophony (45).

 

 

 

  1. BEATIFIC                   And you got in and we drove back to the firehouse in beatific silence, all dwindled away to peace (107).

 

 

 

  1. JUGGERNAUNT                       He saw a great juggernaut of stars form in the sky and threaten to roll over and crush him (140).

 

 

 

From Great Expectations (Signet, 1998, light green cover)

  1. DISCONSOLATE         My thoughts strayed from that question as I looked disconsolately at the fire (Ch. 2, p. 8).

 

 

 

  1. TRENCHANT               My sister had a trenchant way of cutting our bread-and-butter (not too much) on a knife and spread it on the loafÉas if she were making a plaster (Ch. 2, p. 8).

 

 

 

  1. REMONSTRANCE

a.     ÒI say, you know!Ó muttered Joe, shaking his head at me in a very serious remonstranceÓ (Ch. 2, p. 9).

b.     É[Joe] was steadily proceeding upstairs instead of coming down, and was deaf to all remonstrances until I went after him and laid hold of him (Ch. 13, p. 101).

 

 

 

  1. AUGMENT       At this point, Joe greatly augmented my curiosity by taking the utmost pains to open his mouth very wide, and to put into the form of a word that looked to me like ÒsulksÓ (Ch. 2, p. 12).

 

 

LIST 2

  1. CONCILIATE (CONCILIATORY)        JoeÉdrew the back of his hand across his nose with a conciliatory air, when Mrs. Joe darted a look at himÉ(Ch. 4, p. 20).

 

 

 

  1. VICARIOUS    My sister having so much to do, was going to church vicariously; that is to say, Joe and I were going (Ch. 4,  p. 21).

 

 

 

  1. EXPECTORATE           É[Mr. Pumblechook] then became visible through the window, violently plunging and expectorating, making the most hideous faces, and apparently out of his mind (Ch. 4, p. 26).

 

 

 

 

  1. IMPERIOUS   

a.     But Uncle Pumblechook, who was omnipotent in that kitchen, wouldnÕt hear the word, wouldnÕt hear of the subject, imperiously waved it all away with his hand, and asked for a hot gin-and-water (Ch. 4, p.27).

 

b.     ÒI am serious,Ó said Estella,Éimperiously stopping me as I opened my lips (Ch. 29, p. 238).

 

 

 

 

  1. PERSPICUITY Joe recited this couplet with such manifest pride and careful perspicuity that I asked him if he had made it himself (Ch. 7, p. 46).

 

 

 

  1. SAGACIOUS  

a.     I sagaciously observed, if it didnÕt signify to him, to whom did it signify? (Ch. 7, p. 47).

b.     Yet Joe would smoke his pipeÉwith a far more sagacious air than any where elseÑeven with a learned airÑas if he considered himself to be advancing immensely (Ch. 15, p. 110).

 

 

 

  1. DISCOMFITED 

a.      

Mr. Pumblechook was coming in also, when she stopped him with the gate.

ÒOh! she said.  ÒDid you wish to see Miss Havisham?

ÒIf Miss Havisham wished to see me,Ó returned Mr. Pumblechook, discomfited (Ch. 8, p. 54).

 

b.     Mr. Wopsle, with a majestic remembrance of old discomfiture, assented, but not warmly (Ch. 10, p. 74).

 

c.      I could make nothing of this, except that it was meant that I should make nothing of it, and I went home again in complete discomfiture (Ch. 43, p. 354). 

 

 

 

 

  1. INSOLENT

a.     É[she] gave me the bread and meat without looking at me, as insolently as if I were a dog in disgrace (Ch. 8, p.60). 

b.     Then Drummle glanced at me, with an insolent triumph on his great-jowled face that cut me to the heartÉ(Ch. 43, p. 356).

 

 

LIST 3

  1. IGNOMINIOUS                       I soon found myself Éhaving my face ignominiously shoved against the kitchen wall, because I did not answer those questions at sufficient length (Ch. 9, p. 64).

 

 

 

 

 

  1. SUPERCILIOUS

a.     She took no notice of me until she had the candle in her hand, when she looked over her shoulder, superciliously saying, ÒYou are to come this way to-day,Ó and took me to quite another part of the house (Ch.11, p. 78).

 

b.     ÒI am sure itÕs not,Ó said he superciliously over his shoulder, ÒI donÕt think anything about itÓ (Ch. 43, p. 357).

 

 

 

  1. PERVADE 

a.     The passage was a long one, and seemed to pervade the whole square basement of the Manor House (Ch. 11, p. 78). 

 

b.     Miss SkiffinsÕs brother conducted the negotiation.  Wemmick pervaded it throughout, but never appeared in it (Ch. 37, p. 300).

 

 

 

  1. UNSCRUPULOUS         My sister had been standing silent in the yard, with hearingÑshe was a most unscrupulous spy and listenerÑand she instantly looked in at one of the windows (Ch. 15, p. 114).

 

 

 

  1. CAPRICIOUS  

a.     I had known, from the time when I could speak, that my sister, in her capricious and violent coercion, was unjust to me (Ch. 8, p. 61).

 

b.     Éall that Biddy said seemed right.  Biddy was never insulting, or capricious, or Biddy to-day and somebody else tomorrowÉ(Ch. 17, p. 131).

 

c.      ÒÉThat girlÕs hard and haughty and capricious to the last degreeÉÓ (Ch. 22, p. 175).

 

 

 

  1. SUBTERFUGE              We all began to think Mr. Wopsle full of subterfuge (Ch. 18, p. 136).

 

 

 

  1. PUGILIST       Here, to his great amazement, he was stopped by JoeÕs suddenly working round him with every demonstration of a fell pugilistic purpose (142).

 

 

 

  1. AUDACIOUS   Mr. TrabbÕs boy was the most audacious boy in all that country-side (151).

 

 

LIST 4

  1. MISCREANT 

a.     Éforeseeing the danger of that miscreantÕs brushing me with itÉ (151-52)

b.     Éfate threw me in the way of that unlimited miscreant (246)

 

 

 
 
  1. INVEIGLE        ÉthereÕs not a man, a woman, or a child, among them who wouldnÕt identify the smallest link in that chain, and drip it as if it was red-hot, if inveigled into touching it (205).

 

 

 

  1. REPUDIATE

a.     ÉI shouldÉin my heart of hearts have repudiated the idea (155).

 

 

 

  1. PLEBEIAN       Be that as it may, he had directed Mrs. Pocket to be brought up from her cradle as one who in the nature of things must marry a title, and who was to be guarded from the acquisition of plebian domestic knowledge (Ch. 23, pl 188).
 
  1. MOROSE         In a sulky triumph, [he] showed his morose depreciation of the rest of us in a more and more offensive degree, until he became downright intolerable (Ch. 26, p. 214).

 

 

 

  1. PENITENTIAL            As soon as I arrived, I sent a penitential codfish and barrel of oysters to [him] (as reparation for not having gone myself), and then went on [my way] (Ch. 40, p. 247).

 

 

 

  1. FEALTY           As I saw that he was restrained by fealty to Little Britain from saying as much as he couldÉ, I could not press him (Ch. 45, p. 371).

 

 

 

  1. QUERULOUS 

a.     [He] was querulous and angry with me for having Òlet it slip through my fingersÓ (Ch. 55, p. 452).

 

b.     (from ÒThe Death of Ivan Ilych)  His wife became more and more querulous and ill-tempered, but the attitude Ivan Ilych had adopted towards his home life rendered him almost impervious to her grumbling (ii, p. 111).

 

 

 LIST 5

  1. TOADY           

a.     (adj.)     Mr. And Mrs. Pocket had a toady neighborÑa widow lady of that highly sympathetic nature that she agreed with everybody, blessed everybody, and shed smiles and tears on everybody, according to circumstances (Ch. 23, p. 189). 

 

b.     (noun)   (from ÒThe Death of Ivan IlychÓ)  Neither as a boy nor as a man was he a toady, but from early youth was by nature attracted to people of high station as a fly is drawn to the light, assimilating their ways and views of life and establishing friendly relations with them (ii, p. 105).

 

 

 

 

  1. PERNICIOUS

a.     Hereupon a choleric gentlemanÉsaid that it was a breach of contract to mix him up with such villainous company, and that it was poisonous and pernicious and infamous and shameful, and I donÕt know what else (Ch. 28 p. 227)

 

b.     (from Hamlet)     O most pernicious woman! / O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!

 

 

 

H

  1. VAINGLORIOUS         My thoughts were further distracted by the excessive pride of Mr. And Mrs. Hubble, who were surpassingly conceited and vainglorious in being members of so distinguished a procession (Ch. 35, p. 282).

 

 

 

  1. PROLIX           ÉI dozed again; now waking up uneasily, with prolix conversations about nothing, in my earsÉ (Ch. 40, p. 328).

 

 

 

  1. TRUCULENT    She really was a most charming girl, and might have passed for a captive fairy whom that truculent ogre, Old Barley, had pressed into his service (Ch. 46, p. 377).

 

 

 

  1. SANGUINE      Without being sanguine as to my own part in those bright plans, I felt that [his] way was clearing fast (Ch. 52, p. 419).

 

 

 

  1. GAINSAY        There was no gainsaying this difficulty, and we relinquished all thoughts of pursuing [him] at that time (Ch. 53, p. 435).

 

 

 

  1. CONTRITE      As to all the rest, he was humble and contrite, and I never knew him complain (Ch. 56, p. 461).

 

 

 

LIST 6 (10 WORDS)

  1. ASSIDUITY     Whereas the Boar had cultivated [his] good opinion with warm assiduity when [he] was coming into property, the Boar was exceedingly cool on the subject now that [he] was going out of property (Ch. 56, p. 478).

 

 

 

From Hamlet (The New Folger Library Shakespeare, 1992)

  1. APPARITION Éif again this apparition come, / He may approve our eyes and speak to it (1.1.32-33).

 

 

 

  1. HARROW        It harrows me with fear and wonder (1.1.51).

 

 

 

  1. USURP             What art thou that usurpÕst this time of night

Together with that fair and warlike form

In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Did sometimes march?     (1.1.54-57)

 

 

 

 

  1. avouch         Before my God, I might not this believe / Without the sensible and true avouch / Of mine own eyes (1.1.66-68).

 

 

 

  1. smite                         So frowned he once when, in an angry parle, / He smote the sledded [Polacks] on the ice (1.1.73-74).

 

 

 

  1. emulate        Éour last king, É

Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,

Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride,

Dared to the combat.       (1.1.92-96)

 

 

 

  1. portentous                         Well may it sort that this portentous figure / Comes armed through our watch so like the king / That was and is the question of these wars (1.1.121).

 

 

 

  1. harbinger               ÉAs harbingers preceding still the fates / and prologue to the omen coming onÉ(1.1.134).

 

 

 

  1. auspicious              With an auspicious and a dropping eye, / With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage (1.2.11-12). 

English 231 Senior English                                             Name:                                                         

website:   http://www.geocities.com/reinsteinalan     email:  [email protected]

Newton South High School Mission Statement

Newton South High School, a community of students, parents, faculty, and staff

(1) Is dedicated to equality and opportunity for all; (2) Expects integrity; responsibility; and respect for self, others, and the environment; (3) Creates a climate of safety and kindness; (4) Encourages communication and personal connections; (5) Nurtures curiosity, creativity, and a passion for learning; (6) Fosters self-confidence and success for all learners.

Term 2 Vocabulary 

 

 


Term 2

LIST 1

  1. impotent                                         Éwe have here writ

To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,

Who, impotent and bedrid, scarcely hears

Of this his nephewÕs purposeÉ      (1.2.27-30)

 

 

 

  1. filial                        But you must know your father lost a father,

That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound

In filial obligation for some term

To do obsequious sorrow. (1.2. 93-96).

 

 

 

  1. obsequious 

a.     To do obsequious sorrow (1.2.96)

 

b.     (from ÒThe Death of Ivan IlychÓ) Éand there was too some obsequiousness to his chief and even to his chiefÕs wife, but all this was done with such a tone of good breeding that no hard names could be applied to it (ii, p. 106).

 

 

 

  1. persever       But to persever  / In obstinate condolement is a course / Of impious stubbornness (1.2.96-98).

 

 

 

  1. impious        But to persever  / In obstinate condolement is a course / Of impious stubbornness (1.2.96-98).

 

 

 

  1. peevish         Why should we in our peevish opposition / Take it to heart?  (1.2.104-105)

 

 

 

 

  1. retrograde             For your intent / In going back to school in Wittenberg, / It is most retrograde to our desireÉ(1.2.117-118).

 

 

 

  1. jocund          This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet

Sits smiling to my heart, in grace whereof

No jocund health that Denmark drinks today

But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell             (1.2.127-129)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LIST 2

  1. truncheon  

a.    Thrice he walked

By their oppressed and fear-surprised eyes

Within his truncheonÕs length, whilst theyÉ

Stand dumb and speak not to him. (1.2.212-216)

 

B.      (from Great Expectations, in a description of a performance of Hamlet)  The royal phantom also carried a ghostly manuscript round it truncheon, to which it had the appearance of occasionally referringÉ(Ch. 31, p. 254).

 

 

 

 

  1. wax (and wane)       

a.    For nature, crescent, does not grow alone

In thews and [bulk], but, as this temple waxes,

The inward service of the mind and soul

Grows wide withal.         (1.3. 14-17)

 

B. (from ÒThe Death of Ivan IlychÓ)Éthe consciousness of life inexorably waning but not yet       extinguishedÉ(viii, p. 139).

 

 

 

 

  1. besmirch      Perhaps he loves you now, / And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch / The virtue of his will (1.3.18-19).

 

 

 

  1. importune   Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain

If with too credent ear you list his songs

Or lose your heart or your chaste treasure open

To his unmastered importunity.     (1.3.33-36)

 

 

 

  1. prodigal      The chariest maid is prodigal enough / If she unmask her beauty to the moon (1.3.40-41).

 

 

 

  1. libertine 43             Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,

Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,

Whiles, [like] a puffed and reckless libertine,

Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads

And recks not his own rede.         (1.3.51-55)

 

 

 

 

  1. behoove       I must tell you / You do not understand yourself so clearly / As it behooves my daughter and your honor (1.3.104-105).

 

 

 

  1. beguile         Breathing like sanctified and pious [bawds] / The better to beguile (1.3.139-40)

 

 

LIST 3

  1. piteous         He raised a sigh so piteous and profound / As it did seem to shatter all his bulk / and end his being (2.1.106-107).

 

 

 

 

  1. mirth           

a.    I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirthÉ(2.2.318-19).

 

b.      With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage (1.2.11)

 

 

 

 

  1. distempered

Guildenstern      The King, sirÑ

Hamlet               Ay, sir, what of him?

Guildenstern      Is in his retirement marvelous distempered.

Hamlet               With drink, sir?

Guildenstern      No, my lord, with choler.             (3.2.325-330)

 

 

 

 

  1. choler         

a.    No, my lord, with choler (3.2.330)

 

b.     (from Great Expectations) Hereupon, a choleric gentlemanÉflew into a most violent passionÉ(Ch. 28, p. 227).

 

 

 

 

  1. apoplexed   Ébut sure that sense / Is apoplexed; for madness would not err, / Nor sense to ecstasy was neÕer so thrilled (3.4. 82-84)

 

 

 

  1. equivocation        How absolute the knave is!  We must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us (5.1.140-41).

 

 

 

  1. extol             But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be the soul of great article (5.2.128-30).

 

 

 

  1. dearth          his infusion of such dearth and rareness (5.2.130)

 

 

LIST 4

  1. augury          We defy augury.  There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.  If it be [now,] Ôtis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it [will] come (5.2.233-36).

 

 

 

 

  1. felicity        If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart

Absent thee from  felicity awhile

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain

To tell my story.             (5.2.381-84)

 

 

 

 

 

From Frankenstein (Dover Thrift Edition, 1994)

  1. Ardent         

a.    I shall satiate my ardent curiosity with the sight of a part of the world never before visited (1). 

b.     I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sing you (13).

c.    Éfor though he ardently desired to relieve the sufferings of every human creatureÉ(131)

 

 

 

  1. Capacious               I have no one near meÉpossesses of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mindÉ(4)

 

 

 

  1. Fastidious You have been tutored and refined by books and retirement from the world, and you are therefore somewhat fastidious (12).

 

 

 

  1. Ameliorate                         I could not endure that he should renew his grief by a recital of his misfortunes.  I felt the greatest eagerness to hear the promised narrative, partly from curiosity, and partly from a strong desire to ameliorate his fate (13).

 

 

 

  1. Filial            I distinctly discerned how peculiarly fortunate my lot was, and gratitude assisted the development of filial love (19).

 

 

 

  1. Imbue

a.    I have described myself as always having been imbued with a fervent longing to penetrate the secrets of nature (21).

b.     He was an uncouth man, but deeply imbued with the secrets of nature (26)

c.    I was imbued with high hopes and a lofty ambition (157).

 

 

LIST 5

  1. Immutable  

a.    Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction (23).

b.     I think our placid home and our contented hearts are regulated by the same immutable laws (40).

 

 

 

  1. Chimera       I was required to exchange chimeras of boundless grandeur for realities of little worth (27).

 

 

 

  1. Abstruse      In a thousand ways he smoothed for me the path of knowledge, and made the most abstruse enquiries clear and facile to my apprehension (29).

 

 

 

  1. Incipient     I believed that exercise and mausement would then drive away incipient disease (34).

 

 

  1. diffident 

a.    Young men should be diffident of themselves (44).

b.     My father was in the mean time overjoyed, and in the bustle of preparation only recognized in the melancholy of his niece the diffidence of a bride (142). 

 

 

  1. dilatory     

a.    The winter, however, was spent cheerfully, and although the spring was uncommonly late, when it came its beauty compensated for its dilatoriness (45). 

b.     The latter method of obtaining the desired intelligence was dilatory and unsatisfactory (110).

 

  1. salubrious  Émy health and spirits had long been restored, and they gained additional strength from the salubrious air I breathedÉ(45)

 

 

 

  1. unbridled    My own spirits were hight, and I bounded along with feeling of unbridled joy and hilarity (45).

 

 

LIST 6 (10 WORDS)

  1. ignominious

a.     Énow all was to be obliterated in an ignominious grave, and I the cause! (54)

b.     Could the demon who had murdered my brother also in his hellish sport have betrayed the innocent to death and ignominy (57). 

c.      Éall looked on me as a wretch doomed to ignominy (58)

 

 

 

  1. exculpate    Ébut I was absent when it was committed, and such a declaration would have been considered as the ravings of a madman, and would not have exculpated her who suffered through me (54).

 

 

 

  1. Inexorable              Éhe bids you weepÑto shed countless tears; happy beyond his hopes, if this inexorable fate be satisfied, and if the destruction pause before the peace of the grave have succeeded to you sad torments! (60)

 

 

 

  1. ephemeral   ÉI suddenly left my home, and bending mys teps towards the near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, to forget myself and my ephemeralÉsorrows (64).

 

 

 

  1. assuage        Food , however, became scarce; and I often spent the whole day searching in vain for a few acorns to assuage the pangs of hunger (73).

 

 

 

  1. abject 

a.    Éto be base and vicious, as many on record have been, appeared the lowest degradation, a condition more abject than that of the blind mole or harmless worm (84).

b.     Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery (104).

 

 

 

  1. squalid        I heard of the division of property, of immense wealth and squalid poverty (85).

 

 

 

  1. imbibe           Suddenly, as I gazed on him, an idea seized me that this little creature was unprejudiced, and had lived too short a time to have imbibed a horror of deformity (102).

 

 

 

  1. sedulous      Éand yet a man is blind to a thousand minute circumstances, which call forth a womanÕs sedulous attentionÉ(111)

 

 

 

  1. languid        I visited Edinburgh with languid eyes and mind (118).
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