Name__________________________
Date_______
English 12
Vocabulary Lesson 6
CONTEXT Literary Figures The Space Stories of Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing (b. 1919), one of the most important British novelists of this century, began her series
of space fiction, known as Canopus in Argos: Archives, in 1979. The five books in the series are
Shikasza; The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five; The Sirian Experiments; The Making
of the Representative for Planet 8; and Documents Relating to the Sentimental Agents in the Volyen
Empire. A major premise of the series is that good beings and malevolent beings in space influence
events on earth.
In the following exercises, you will have the opportunity to expand your vocabulary by reading
about the space stories of Doris Lessing. Below are ten vocabulary words that will be used in these
exercises.
dogma
inveigle
nonentity
nondescript
scurrilous
tacit
exhort
vociferous
parsimonious
sundry
Exercise 1--Use a dictionary to look up each word in bold print. Highlight the context clues that
help the reader understand the word. Then, go to Exercise 2 and complete the meaning and forms.
1. Dear Janet,
I know that you have a strong set of personal beliefs, but I wish that you had a more open mind and
could be tolerant of other people's beliefs. For instance, I am sure that some of the ideas expressed
by British writer Doris Lessing in her space series would conflict with your dogma, but I think you
should be exposed to them anyway.
2. I exhort you to read at least one of Lessing's books. I’d like to know what you think of the
philosophical views presented in her science fiction. If you read just one book, you may not need my
further urgings to read the others.
3. I became so interested in the series that I inveigled my mother to buy copies of the books for me
for my birthday. "You're a great mom," I flattered her, "and you've always been so good about
encouraging my love of reading." My trick worked--sort of. She ended up buying me three of the
five books.
4. Frankly, I think some of the characters in the series are rather nondescript. They don't have
distinctive characteristics and are, therefore, hard to describe. But they serve important functions
in the books.
5. I think that Lessing deliberately makes some of her characters nonentities because they are of
little importance as individuals. What Lessing wants her readers to see is that human destiny is in
the control of these alien beings, who act as outside forces. She is less interested in developing their
characters.
6. I'd like to buy you a copy of Shikasta, but I can't right now. It's not that I am parsimonious. As
you know, I’m usually generous with my money, but I loaned all my money to my brother so he
could buy a new bicycle.
7. My brother can be rather scurrilous. I told him that if he didn't use any indecent language for
two weeks, I would lend him the money. So far, he has kept his promise. It's been peaceful around
here without his vulgar talk.
8. Anyway, the story of my brother and his bicycle is only one of sundry things that I wanted to tell
you about. While many items are on my list, I am most interested in discussing Doris Lessing's
space stories.
9. My brother and I have never talked openly about borrowing and reading each other's books.
We've just always had a tacit agreement to share our books. He's now reading the second book in
Lessing's science fiction series.
10. I hope that you will like the series as much as he does. He wanted the second book before I even
finished reading it. In fact, he became vociferous, shouting at me and trying to grab the book from
my hands. He can be really loud and demanding at times.
Exercise 2--Directions. Use the dictionary to write the correct word above the part of speech and
meaning. Then, find forms of the word, along with part of speech for each form.
1.___________________________
adj. implied or understood without being expressed openly; unspoken
Forms:
Synonym:
2. ___________________________
adj. not having individual characteristics; lacking in distinctive qualities; drab; hard to describe
Forms:
Synonym:
3. ___________________________
adj. various; miscellaneous
Forms:
Synonym:
4. ___________________________
v. to win over with trickery or flattery; to entice; to coax with deceitful talk; to dupe
Forms:
Synonym:
5. ___________________________
n. a belief or set of beliefs held to be true, especially by a church or other authority; a doctrine
Forms:
Synonym:
6. ___________________________
adj. given to the use of abusive, indecent, or vulgar language; foulmouthed
Forms:
Synonym:
7. ___________________________
adj. too economical; stingy; miserly
Forms:
Synonym:
8.___________________________
v. to urge strongly; to advise or warn earnestly; to admonish
Forms:
Synonym:
9.___________________________
n. a person or thing of little or no importance; something that does not exist or that exists only in
the imagination
Forms:
Synonym:
10.___________________________
adj. loud and noisy; clamorous; demanding
Forms:
Synonym:
Exercise 3--Complete each sentence with a list word (or a form of the word).
1. Try to coax or ___________________________ the librarian to reserve for you a copy of The
Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five. You may have to pretend that you need it for a
class.
2. You may not want my advice, but I ___________________________to reserve a copy since the book
is so popular.
3. Find a nice, quiet place, away from ___________________________people, to read about the
romance of Queen AI-Ith from Zone Three and Mng Ben Ata from Zone Four.
4. The ___________________________Providers, the rulers of the cosmos who don't have distinctive
qualities, order AI-Ith and Ben Ata to marry and unite the two zones.
5. Zone Three is a lovely, peaceful place. Zone Four is a militaristic, crude place where soldiers
use ___________________________ language. The contrast between sweetness and vulgarity is pretty
jarring.
6. Despite the ___________________________differences in their societies-- and believe me, there are
too many to count -- AI- I th and Ben A ta discover that they are compatible.
7. A ___________________________bond, the sort of closeness that doesn't need to be expressed in
words, develops between AI-Ith and Ben Ata.
8. This is my favorite book in the series because it focuses on characters that seem real rather than
on ___________________________who could exist only in the imagination.
9. Problems develop, but they are not the usual domestic ones, such as conflicts between a
generous husband and a stingy , ___________________________wife.
10. The Providers order Ben Ata to abandon AI-Ith and to marry the queen of Zone Five. All of these
characters clearly live by a ___________________________, or doctrine, that is foreign to our society. I
can't imagine following their beliefs.
Exercise 4--Directions: For each of the following items, highlight the correct answer.
1. I don't find it difficult to consider ___________________________that are different from my own
beliefs.
(A) exhortations
(D) dirges
(B) nonentities
(E) dogmas
(C) inveiglement
2. The fifth book, Documents Relating to the Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire, is about an
older agent teaching a young agent how to avoid becoming the victim of words, whether decent or
________.
(A) nondescript
(E) parsimonious
(B) tacit
(C)) scurrilous
(D) sundry
3. In this book there is a trial in which the Volyen state is accused of ________the people, of
completely deceiving them.
(A) dogmatizing
(B) inveigling
(C) broaching
(D) exhorting
(E) subjugating
4. The complicated plot deals with forms of tyranny, those that are expressed and obvious as well
as those that are ________.
(A) sundry
(B) nondescript
(C) vociferous
(D) tacit
(E) parsimonious
5. Lessing tries to show us that societies decay when the people become too self-centered. I
suppose that being ________ with money is a mark of self-centeredness. My miserly sister wouldn't
lend my brother even five dollars for his bicycle.
(A) scurrilous
(D) vociferous
(B) nondescript
(E) sundry
(C) parsimonious
6. Among Lessing's various, or -,________, ideas is the belief that earth has lost the "substance-ofwe-feeling." Sometimes she expresses the idea openly and sometimes - ________, or implicitly.
(A) sundry... tacitly
(E) parsimonious... scurrilously
(B) scurrilous scurrilously
(C) nondescript parsimoniously
(D) vociferous dogmatically
7. The creatures in the fourth novel clearly are -________that exist only in Lessing's imagination.
These imaginary beings are strongly warned that their planet is dying and then are ________to make
plans to leave.
(A) dogmas ... exhorted
(D) dogmas ... inveigled
(B) exhortations ... inveigled
(E) nonentities ... exhorted
(C) inveiglements. .. dogmatized
8. Is the dying planet ________? No, Lessing makes the planet real and distinctive by providing
various and ________ descriptions.
(A) tacit. . . parsimonious
(B) parsimonious ... vociferous
(C) scurrilous...nondescript
(D) nondescript...sundry
(E) vociferous...scurrilous
9. Lessing's fans can be quite vocal, even ________in support of her. And they're not at all
________when it comes to buying her books.
(A) parsimonious ... scurrilous
(B) vociferous...parsimonious
(C) nondescript.. . sundry
(D) sundry... tacit
(E) vociferous... nondescript
10. I ________you to read Lessing's science fiction, but others may urge you to read her realistic
novels, such w: The Golden Notebook. I hope you won't think I am ________you to read her books
when I say that they appeal to very intelligent people like you.
(A) exhort...broaching
(B) inveigle...exhorting
(C) exhort...inveigling
(D) broach...exhorting
(E) inveigle...broaching
Exercise 5. Create ten sentences, each sentence containing a vocabulary word. Each sentence is
worth three points: one for spelling, one for the appropriate part of speech, and one for sufficient
context clues. Be careful not to create run-on sentences!