JH WEEKLIES ISSUE #15
2012-2013
Vocabulary in Literature
Just stop and think for a minute what our language would be like if it had no adjectives. Nouns and
pronouns would be pretty colorless without them, don’t you think? It almost goes without saying that
simply to mention a character’s shirt, for example, is far less satisfying than to describe that same shirt
as ragged and stained. And how would the simple noun “shirt” allow a reader to distinguish between
the shirt just described and a crisply-ironed, shirt made of the finest Egyptian cotton? How do the
adjectives affect the context of the noun? What do they tell you about the wearer?
At their most basic, nouns and pronouns convey essential information in a sentence but lack richness
and complexity of meaning. Even a ten-dollar noun like parsimony, impressive as it may look on the
page, doesn’t pack the same emotional punch as it does when it is enriched with phrases like
overbearing parsimony or unrelenting and irredeemable parsimony. If you were applying these phrases
to a discussion of Scrooge’s character in A Christmas Carol, these adjectives would really help get to the
heart of his miserliness. They just pound away at the disagreeableness of his nature and even suggest
how this character flaw might affect those who are around him.
We’ve picked five adjectives from five novels that you have probably read to form a 25-word vocabulary
list for this edition of your Weeklies. First, you’ll be given the list of the novels. Next, you will see a list
of the adjectives and a random order list of their meanings. In groups or singly, see how many
adjectives you can match with their meanings before going to the dictionary. You can make this into a
game between teams if you’d like to. Next, you’ll be given a quote from which each of these adjectives
is taken in one of the five novels. Pick the adjective that you feel completes the meaning of each quote.
As an extra activity, see if you can determine which novel each of the sentences comes from. If you’re a
discerning reader, you may see references to its plot or characters, or if you’re really into subtleties, you
may be able to detect some of the stylistic characteristics and word choices of the authors.
And finally, to engage in an exercise that will help you colorize your own writing, compete singly or in
groups to create word chains made up of adjectives that are synonyms; or just pair one or more
adjectives with a noun or pronoun to give that basic fact word an attitude! Have fun!
Here’s your list of novels:
1. To Kill a Mockingbird
2. Anne Frank, the Diary of a Young Girl
3. I Heard the Owl Call My Name
4. Fahrenheit 451
5. Animal Farm
Here are your vocabulary words:
1. Ambidextrous
10.
2. Arable
11.
3. Auspicious
12.
4. Circumstantial
13.
5. Despondent
14.
6. Efficacious
15.
7. Garbled
16.
8. Ignominious
17.
9. Luminous
Macabre
Magnanimous
Nomadic
Odious
Olfactory
Pedantic
Pensive
Prodigious
18. Resilient
19. Restive
20. Succinct
21. Sundry
22. Superannuated
23. Tactile
24. Tractable
25. Unctuous
Write the correct vocabulary word beside its definition. See how many you can match up before you
go to the dictionary.
_______________1. Of or pertaining to the sense of smell.
_______________2. Easily managed or controlled; docile or yielding; malleable.
_______________3. Dreamily or wistfully thoughtful; often in a melancholy way.
_______________4. Confused, out of order or unintelligible; difficult to understand.
_______________5. Hateful, detestable; highly offensive.
_______________6. Impatient with control, restraint, or delay; stubborn.
_______________7. Able to use both hands equally well.
_______________8. Promising success; favorable.
_______________9. Various or diverse.
_______________10. Excessively smooth, suave, or smug.
_______________11. Humiliating; shameful or contemptible.
_______________12. Capable of producing crops, suitable for farming.
_______________13. Springing back to original form after being bent; rebounding.
_______________14. Wandering without a home; moving aimlessly.
_______________15. Softly bright or radiant.
_______________16. Feeling or showing profound hopelessness, discouragement, or gloom.
_______________17. Of or pertaining to the matters at hand.
_______________18. Gruesome or horrifying; ghastly, horrible.
_______________19. Extremely large in size or degree, as in an appetite.
_______________20. Expressed in very few words; precise or terse.
_______________21. Having to do with the sense of touch.
_______________22. Detailed and somewhat stuffy, especially in the course of teaching.
_______________23. Producing the desired result, especially as a remedy.
_______________24. Generous or noble of character; forgiving.
_______________25. Too old for use, work, or service.
The following are quotes from the five listed novels. Figure out which of your vocabulary words
completes each quote and write it in the blank. Try to figure out which novel would contain each of
the quotes. This may help you figure out which vocabulary word fits best in the quote because some
words may fit in more than one place. You’ll note that each quote has a blank at the end. Write the
title of the novel in the blank at the end of each quote.
1. “The hot water boiler in the house of Chief Eddy burst its seams. The mended roof of the old
vicarage developed [not one but] _______________leaks, the rain hitting the waiting buckets with a
rhythmic plop.”
_________________
2. One after another in dulling sameness, “the remainder of my school days were no more
_______________ than the first. Indeed, they were an endless Project that slowly evolved into a Unit, in
which endless miles of construction paper and wax crayon were expended by the state of Alabama in its
well-meaning but fruitless efforts to teach me Group Dynamics.”
_________________
3. “And again, since no animal now stole, it was unnecessary to fence of pasture from ______________
land, which saved a lot of labour on the upkeep of hedges and gates.”
_________________
4. “I try not to lose courage, but I’m _______________and foolish, I know that too.”
_________________
5. “The men unleashed the________________ systems at the fire station so the Hounds would track
things by their scent for entertainment.”
_________________
6. Previously likeable, “Beatty, Stoneman, and Black ran up the sidewalk, suddenly
_______________and fat in the plump fireproof slickers.”
_________________
7. “The next day, the fine weather holding, Mark went with the elder men of the tribe, and what had
seemed so reasonable a project became suddenly huge,[odious] and _______________.”
_________________
8. “He’s amused us more than once by trying to pass on the news he’s just heard, since the message
invariably gets _______________in transmission.”
_________________
9. “When I try to put it into words, it comes out one of those _______________ over-pious platitudes at
which Bishops are expected to excel.”
_________________
10. Getting right to the point, “’Called ‘em off on a snipe hunt,’ was the _______________ answer.
Didn’t you think a’that, Mr. Finch?”
_________________
11. “Bulls which had always been _______________suddenly turned savage, sheep broke down hedges
and devoured the clover, cows kicked the pail over, hunting horses refused their fences and shot their
riders on to the other side.”
_________________
12. I’ll give you a few pieces of advice about how to appeal to her. “When you want coffee, don’t bang
on the table. Say please and when she hands you the cup, say thank you. You’ll find it most
_______________.”
_________________
13. “Mr. Gilmer asked him one more question. ‘About your writing with your left hand, are you
_______________, Mr. Ewell?’”
_________________
14. “Towns turn into motels, people in _______________surges from place to place, following the
moon tides, living tonight in the room where you slept this noon and I the night before.”
_________________
15. Rather than achieving immediate victory, “within five minutes of their invasion they were in
_______________retreat by the same way as they had come, with a flock of geese hissing after them
and pecking at their calves all the way.”
_________________
16. “As I passed the bed I stepped on something warm, _______________, and rather smooth. It was
not quite like hard rubber, and I had the sensation that it was alive.”
_________________
17. “All of them nodded their heads and agreed that the easiest way to get the makings of the vicarage
to the village was to hire a forestry barge at a _______________ thirty dollars a day.”
_________________
18. “The news of their defeat had spread across the countryside and [rather than compliant] it made
the animals on the neighboring farms more _______________than ever.”
_________________
19. “I’ll think I’m responding to the play, when it’s only a _______________reaction to vibration.”
_________________
20. “I’d arrive home in high spirits, until the events of the morning would repeat themselves and I’d
leave the room with by schoolbag in my hand and a _______________ look on my face.”
_________________
21. “It was rumoured that a corner of the large pasture was to be fenced off and turned into a grazingground for _______________ animals.”
_________________
22. “He said he didn’t have any quarrel with the statute, but he did have deep misgivings when the
state asked for and the jury gave a death penalty on purely _______________ evidence.”
_________________
23. “Montag saw the _______________dial of his waterproof watch.”
_________________
24. I was well-liked, for “I was _______________ with my candy, and I wasn’t stuck-up.”
_________________
25. “Anyone who’s so petty and _______________at the age of fifty-four was born that way and is
never going to change.”
_________________
JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL WEEKLIES VOCABULARY ANSWER SHEET:
Vocabulary Key
Quotations and Name Key
1. Olfactory
2. Tractable
3. Pensive
4. Garbled
5. Odious
6. Restive
7. Ambidextrous
8. Auspicious
9. Sundry
10. Unctuous
11. Ignominious
12. Arable
13. Resilient
14. Nomadic
15. Luminous
16. Despondent
17. Circumstantial
18. Macabre
19. Prodigious
20. Succinct
21. Tactile
22. Pedantic
23. Efficacious
24. Magnanimous
25. Superannuated
1. Sundry, I Heard the Owl Call My Name
2. Auspicious, To Kill a Mockingbird
3. Arable, Animal Farm
4. Despondent, Anne Frank
5. Olfactory, Fahrenheit 451
6. Odious, Fahrenheit 451
7. Macabre, I Heard the Owl Call My Name
8. Garbled, Anne Frank
9. Unctuous, I Heard the Owl Call My Name
10. Succinct, To Kill a Mockingbird
11. Tractable, Animal Farm
12. Efficacious, I Heard the Owl Call My Name
13. Ambidextrous, To Kill a Mockingbird
14. Nomadic, Fahrenheit 451
15. Ignominious, Animal Farm
16. Resilient, To Kill a Mockingbird
17. Prodigious, I Heard the Owl Call My Name
18. Restive, Animal Farm
19. Tactile, Fahrenheit 451
20. Pensive, Anne Frank
21. Superannuated, Animal Farm
22. Circumstantial, To Kill a Mockingbird
23. Luminous, Fahrenheit 451
24. Magnanimous, Anne Frank
25. Pedantic, Anne Frank