Vocabulary Activity Sheet Grade 8

The Monkey's Paw

Look at each citation from fiction books and try to answer the related questions.

Peril

I fear that your proposal might place her in great peril. She is resolved to face it with me.

The Lord of Shadows likes to advertise. Rathreen is in deadly peril unless you save him. "

Surely a man as wise as Hogg would not put his soul in peril.

Peril means: ______________, part of speech : __________

It usually collocates with adjectives: _________ _________ _____________

Surveying

She stormed into the living room and stood with her hands on her hips, surveying the scene.

It pulls up by the SWAT Command Truck. ROB NUNALLY gets out, surveying the scene.

They stood for a moment surveying the wreckage on the bridge, the extent of the damage.

Surveying means : ________________________________, part of speech: ________

It collocates with: noun ____________ and verb _________

Doughty

We stayed with the chairman of the stag hunt, Tom Yandle. He was doughty and resolute, the owner of a
FamiProkofiev's 1936 yarn-with-music was about a doughty Russian boy and his animal friendly sheep
farm of centuries' standing.

If you could not figure out the meaning of doughty in the above sentences, look at the following sentences
and circle the word that you think might be a synonym(s) of doughty.

Kate Morgan was in her late forties, a strong, determined woman whose tall frame and husky voice made
her appear almost mannish. Synonym (s): ________

I am brave, strong, and unclear. Synonym (s): _________

Grimace:

Label each sentence as n. if grimace functions as a noun or v. if it functions as a verb.

A grimace tightened my face as it approached, slowing.

Our mouths wanted to smile, to grimace and giggle, but could not.

He swallows pork and rice in one big gulp and tries hard not to grimace

His face was frozen in a grimace of pain.

He gave the kind of grimace you give when you're trying not to cry

Grimace means: ____________

Look at grimace as a verb in the sentences above. What precedes grimace(v.)? ____

Now it is your turn to construct a sentence using grimace in a sentence.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Enthralled

The queen and one of her officers of the guard, enthralled by her beauty, swiftly appear at the doors of the king's
chamber.

Jack had instantly fallen in love with the ocean, enthralled by its wide expanses, its endless blue, its changing moods.

It's obvious that Brian's enthralled with the idea of shooting the gun.

Enthralled means: _____________: part of speech: __________

What two words follow enthralled? _______ or ________ and both are ________ (part of speech).

Maligned:

Because he's being so maligned in the press, we figured we'll just show you who he is.

The most maligned journalist has been Barkha Dutt, the young news talk-show host of New Delhi television.

I think that black men are the most maligned group of folk on the planet.

Maligned means : __________________; part of speech: ________________

Maligned collocates with which intensifier (s)? ______________ and _______________

Noun (s)? ______________ and _______________

Credulity

Each sentence containing the word credulity is followed by another sentence containing its synonym. Circle that
synonym. Then replace credulity with its synonym in the sentence.

1- The possibility of life on Mars does not stretch scientific credulity. The fun part comes with the speculation that
life arose on Mars first.
I'm a worldly man, but I have never dishonored anyone or betrayed the trust of any person.

2- I needed listeners with at least silent credulity; it was too difficult for me to believe myself alone.
Anything on this tape that might help investigators determine guilt or innocence in this case?

Can you locate an antonym of the word credulity in (2)? What is it? ______________

What is its part of speech? ____________

What is the function of credulity in part1 ? Indirect object, object of preposition, or subject?

Prosaic:

1- My outlook on life tended toward the prosaic. I wasn't much of a dreamer or go-getter.
2- My division was called Special Investigations. The work was interesting, but usually quite prosaic.

Based on the sentences above. What do you think the meaning of prosaic is? ______________
What is the part of speech of prosaic in each sentence above? Sentence 1 ___________
Sentence 2 ___________

Frivolous

1- It is a nice man, but he's too fat and frivolous, only telling silly jokes.
2- He knew that folks thought him frivolous, his amusements trivial; even his best friends thought so.
3- May I give you some advice? Don't squander yourself in frivolous pursuits. Keep to the eternal verities, traditional
values.

Look at the italicized word in each sentence. Do these have positive or negative connotation? _________
What is the meaning of frivolous then? _____________; part of speech? ______

Avaricious
1- "So Pamela and Willis are greedy? " " Greedy. Avaricious. Grasping. But maybe I'm wrong."
2- Avaricious children trying to gain control of the old man's money should be prevented.

Sentence 1 states two synonyms of avaricious. What are they? ___________

 Now read sentence 2 carefully, you can notice that avaricious relates to being __________ (synonym from
sentence1 ) about _____________.

Furtively

1- They looked around furtively and one of them said, " We haven't a minute to spare".
2- He glanced around furtively, then ducked inside and pulled it solidly closed behind him again.
3- That gangly guy who always sat by the window and often looked furtively over his shoulder could have been Qin
Shi Huangdi.
Find the meaning of furtively from context : _________________; part of speech: _________
Furtively mainly collocates with which preposition? ________
Furtively collocates with which verb or verbs? ______________________

Wistfully
1- Her mother smiled wistfully. " Your father intended to be a high school biology teacher. "
2- " Work. On my birthday. Susan looked at the balloons wistfully, then sighed.
3- He seemed to gaze at the mountains wistfully, as if longing to be reunited with the companions who'd marched
off
Meaning: _____________; part of speech: ______________
Collocates with which verbs? __________________________

Ascent
1- Clank!, the door closes and after a stuttering liftoff the car begins its ascent. The overhead light flickers on and off.
Atwood looks up at it.
2- We were on the slope beyond the loose rock and began our ascent.
3- Some runners rounded the curve and began the ascent, and then there was Todd, pumping up the hill.
Meaning: _____________; part of speech: ____________
Collocates with what kind of pronouns? _________
Collocates with which verb? __________________________________

Avert
1- A bright flash cut off Proctor's sentence and made him avert his eyes. When he blinked them clear, four men in
the red coats appeared.
2- Most people seeing me for the first time avert their eyes at once.
3- Tressalian and his crew are headed to Afghanistan too, to try to avert disaster.

To averts is to ___________. Based on your analysis of the sentences above, we usually avert ______ or
__________ .

Apathy

1- They just don't seem to understand the apathy students feel toward aggressive games that invariably trivialize
academics.
2- ' What factors, in your judgment, led to this student's failure?'' What factors?' I said.' Indifference. Arrogance.
Apathy. Personal distress. Who knows?''
3- First comes fear of expending any energy, then nervous rage, and finally apathy, quiet, blissful indifference, and
the first signs of starvation.

Sentence 2 states the synonym of apathy as _____________.

Sentence 1 shows that apathy collocates with the preposition ____________.
Sentence 3 shows that apathy is more powerful than _________________ and __________________.