VOCABULARY LISTS > USER LISTS
Hiroshima by John Hersey, Parts I and II
24 words
Decem ber 2, 2013 By Mr. Losow (NY)
volition
the act of making a choice
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Each of them counts many small
items of chance or volition -a step tak en in time, a
decision to go indoors, catching one street-car instead
of the next that spared him.
2.
reconnaissance
the act of reconnoitring (especially to gain information about an enemy or potential enemy)
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
(The Japanese
radar operators, detecting only three planes, supposed
that they comprised a reconnaissance.)
3.
finicky
exacting especially about details
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Opposite
18 HIROSHIMA
the house, to the right of the front door, there was a
large, finicky rock garden.
4.
hullabaloo
disturbance usually in protest
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
She had hoped that they would go back to
sleep, but the man in the house directly to the south
began to mak e a terrible hullabaloo of hammering,
wedging, ripping, and splitting.
5.
incendiary
capable of catching fire spontaneously or causing fires or burning readily
1.
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
A NOISELESS FLASH 21
by an incendiary raid ; and the neighbour was reluctantly sacrificing his home to the city's safety.
6.
hedonistic
devoted to pleasure
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Fujii, being prosperous, hedonistic, and, at the time
not too busy, had been allowing himself the luxury of
sleeping until nine or nine-thirty, but fortunately he
had to get up early the morning the bomb was dropped
to see a house guest off on a train.
7.
proprietor
(law) someone who owns (is legal possessor of) a business
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Dr. Fujii was the proprietor
of a peculiarly Japanese institution, a private, singledoctor hospital.
8.
convivial
occupied with or fond of the pleasures of good company
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
At fifty he was healthy, convivial, and calm, and he was
pleased to pass the evenings drink ing whisk y with
friends, always sensibly and for the sak e of conversation.
9.
xenophobic
suffering from xenophobia; having abnormal fear or hatred of the strange or foreign
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
The Japanese war-time diet had not sustained him, and he felt the strain of being a foreigner
in an increasingly xenophobic Japan ; even a German,
since the defeat of the Fatherland, was unpopular.
10.
repugnant
offensive to the mind
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Satisfied that nothing would happen, he went in
and break fasted with the other Fathers on substitute
coffee and ration bread, which, under the circumstances,
was especially repugnant to him.
11.
solicitous
full of anxiety and concern
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
By this
solicitous behaviour, Mr. Tanimoto at once got rid
of his terror.
12.
panorama
the visual percept of a region
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
From the mound, Mr. Tanimoto saw an astonishing
panorama.
13.
miasma
an unwholesome atmosphere
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Not just a patch of Koi, as he had expected,
but as much of Hiroshima as he could see through the
clouded air was giving off a thick , dreadful miasma.
14.
turbulent
characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
(They were actually
drops of condensed moisture falling from the turbulent
tower of dust, heat, and fission fragments, that had
already risen miles into the sk y above Hiroshima.)
15.
conflagration
a very intense and uncontrolled fire
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Seeing fire break ing out in a nearby ruin (except
36 HIROSHIMA
at the very centre, where the bomb itself ignited some
fires, most of Hiroshima's citywide conflagration was
caused by inflammable wreck age falling on cook stoves and live wires), Mrs. Nak amura suggested going
over to fight it.
16.
estuary
the wide part of a river where it nears the sea; fresh and salt water mix
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Then a
thought which came to him that soon the tide would
be running in through the estuaries and his head would
be submerged inspired him to fearful activity; he
wriggled and turned and exerted what strength he
could (though his left arm, because of the pain in his
shoulder, was useless), and before long he had freed
17.
automaton
a mechanism that can move automatically
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Tugged here and there in his stock inged
feet, bewildered by the numbers, staggered by so much
raw flesh, Dr. Sasak i lost all sense of profession and
stopped work ing as a sk ilful surgeon and a sympathetic
man ; he became an automaton, mechanically wiping,
daubing, winding, wiping, daubing, winding.
18.
brackish
slightly salty (especially from containing a mixture of seawater and fresh water)
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Mr. Tanimoto
could not resist them ; he carried them water from the
river a mistak e, since it was tidal and brackish.
19.
askew
turned or twisted to one side
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
THE FIRE 51
badly brok en and cut and it hung askew below the
k nee.
20.
grotesque
distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
The
rain cleared and the cloudy afternoon was hot ; before
nightfall the three grotesques under the slanting piece
of twisted iron began to smell quite bad.
21.
paroxysm
a sudden uncontrollable attack
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
In a paroxysm of terrified
strength, he freed himself and ran down the alleys of
22.
atavistic
characteristic of an atavist
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
This
private estate was far enough away from the explosion
so that its bamboos, pines, laurel, and maples were
still alive, and the green place invited refugees- partly
because they believed that if the Americans came
back , they would bomb only buildings ; partly because
the foliage seemed a centre of coolness and life, and
the estate's exquisitely precise rock gardens, with their
quiet pools and arching bridges, were very Japanese,
normal, secure; and also partly (according to some
wh
23.
prostrate
stretched out and lying at full length along the ground
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
When Father Kleinsorge and the other priests came into the park , nodding
to their friends as they passed, the Nak amuras ,were
all sick and prostrate.
24.
surmise
infer from incomplete evidence
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Judging by the
many maimed soldiers Mr. Tanimoto had seen during
the day, he surmised that the barrack s had been badly
damaged by whatever it was that had hit Hiroshima.
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