Partials Vocabulary
Directions: Work with your group to use context clues to determine the meaning of the bolded words in the sentences below.
1. Eleven years of disuse had left the city derelict, the houses crumbling, the sidewalks cracked and buckled by burgeoning tree roots, rampant weeds, and vast masses of kudzu that coated everything like a carpet (22).
2. Eleven years of disuse had left the city derelict, the houses crumbling, the sidewalks cracked and buckled by burgeoning tree roots, rampant weeds, and vast masses of kudzu that coated everything like a carpet (22).
3. Even the mice, ubiquitous in every home she could remember, seemed louder and more bothersome than usual as they skittered through the floor and walls.
4. I have a hard time believing that what happened to your team yesterday didn’t have something to do with this, and unless there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I’m going to assume it was part of a plan to destabilize the human civilization and thus to hasten our extinction.
5. Maybe because she was the youngest, or maybe because she was so precocious; Kira remembered helping Nandita in the market as a child, calling out fearlessly to passing adults and ordering them sternly to buy a sprig of mint.
6. It drove Kira mad that he could be so obtuse – that he could misunderstand her so completely – and she was still fuming as she sat in the Grid wagon, trying to think of something else.
7. Let’s start with the most obvious: It is considered very suspicious, and in fact highly treasonous, to enter Partial territory, consort with them directly, and bring one back into human territory.
8. “We have laws in place to deal with people who do stupid and irresponsible things,” she continued, “and we have courts in place to adjudicate those laws.”
9. Make sure you report everything directly to me, especially if you find something…ominous. The last thing we want is a panic.
10. Kira looked at Skousen, keeping a tight grip on her precarious load of equipment.
11. After everything it [the Partial] had done, every atrocity it had been a part of, how dare it have the temerity to imply that it was a victim?
12. She walked slowly through the city, eager to go home and collapse into sleep but still aimless, in a way, as if her brain were too tired of focusing, and wanted simply to meander.
13. I’m just sick of hearing about everyone’s civil rights and everyone’s privacy and everyone’s inviolable power of choice.
14. You sound exactly like Xochi, like the Voice, spouting this groundless, incendiary tripe.
15. You want him gone: He’ll be gone. If nothing else, it will help alleviate the possibility of a Partial retaliation.
16. Both of our species are going extinct – every sapient life form on the planet is going to die.
17. Kira shook her head, still trying to parse the information. She looked at Isolde’s belly, still supermodel flat, then up at her face.
18. They heard more hoofbeats on the road behind them, and they collapsed into the underbrush with abject exhaustion.
19. Her eyes had a marked epicanthic fold, like she was Chinese, which Kira couldn’t puzzle out – the Chinese were the enemy in the Isolation War.
20. The same peace offering had included the resignations of Alma Delarosa and Oliver Weist; between them they had managed to soak up most of the blame for the city’s rapid dip into martial law. Skousen had also left, not in ignominy but to focus his time on replicating the cure.
Matching
Directions: Match the vocabulary word on the left with its appropriate synonym on the right. Write the letter for that synonym on the line next to that word’s number.
1. derelict
2. burgeoning
3. ubiquitous
4. hasten
5. precocious
6. obtuse
7. consort
8. adjudicate
9. ominous
10. precarious
11. temerity
12. meander
13. inviolable
14. incendiary
15. alleviate
16. sapient
17. parse
18. abject
19. epicanthic
20. ignominy
A. everywhere
B. foreboding; threatening
C. ramble; roam
D. advanced; bright
E. sacred; durable
F. companion
G. identify
H. flourish
I. clever; insightful
J. daring foolhardiness
K. decide
L. dense; unintelligent
M. lowness; humiliation
N. inflammatory; dangerous
O. abandoned
P. miserable; wretched
Q. uncertain; contingent
R. hustle
S. eyefold
T. ease; lighten
Sentence Completion
Directions: Use your vocabulary words to correctly complete the sentences below.
1. A day later the forecast had turned ___________________ - heavy rains all weekend and flooding in the metro area.
2. The _____________________ fold of her eye led me to believe she was of Asian descent.
3. Whenever I see people flying down the highway at breakneck speeds, I believe they are trying to ____________________ their own death.
4. It was the supervisor’s duty to _____________________ the dispute between the two employees.
5. That was too much information; I simply couldn't __________________ what you just said.
6. Only the hopelessly naïve or willfully ___________________ can believe that these were the real motives for the war.
7. It can only temporarily _______________________ some of the larger problems of the present system.
8. The tower currently stands _______________________covered in a thick layer of ivy in the garden of a private house.
9. According to our Constitution, humans have an _______________________ right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
10. They were ____________________ ledges where normal people would not want to spend their day!
11. Mkele is seen as cruel or conniving, but he believes he is performing ____________________ actions.
12. I was a very _________________________ child and started worrying about things like where all the water had come from for the Flood.
13. The exuberant cry rises to an exultant roar and the creature bolts, startled by its own ____________________.
14. As regards making money, they only _____________________ with other moneyed men of a very high order.
15. An example of _____________________________ poverty would be homelessness.
16. The Food Network’s latest book made a very useful addition to my already _____________________ "cookery book " shelf.
17. He was in deep denial and could not face the______________________ of being fired.
18. Students in the hallway seem to _______________________ along, changing direction at random.
19. They have become a seemingly ________________________ part of our national culture.
20. The Senate was worried that if the citizens found out a Partial was in East Meadow it could have ____________________________________ effects, possibly starting a revolution.