VOCABULARY for Beyond the Bright Sea
Part I: Below are passages in which the vocabulary words appear in the book. Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge to determine the meaning of each vocabulary word. Use definitions are on the back.
Or the first time Osh let me take the tiller of our skiff while he sat in the bow and let the sun coddle his face for a while, his back against the mast, the fine spray veiling him in rainbows. Or the ebb tide when a white-sided dolphin stranded on our shore, Osh gone somewhere, and I came back from Cuttyhunk to find her rocking and heaving, her cries babylike and afraid.
2. & 3 The rest of the house was flotsam that had come to him, floating in on the tide, as I had, sometimes into our own little cove, sometimes on Cuttyhunk, where no one else wanted it. He’d built the frame from long beams, the roof and walls from decking, the chimney from a vent pipe off a lost steamer, one window from a porthole. Our door was a piece of keel. Our hearth, a hatch lid. Our table a crow’s nest turned upside down. Osh had salvaged, too, many things that had no purpose but to be dear to us. The finest of these, two figurehead–solemn women with long, flowing hair–stared at us from either side of our fireplace, never blinking.
4. “And I’m one of those people?” I said doubtfully. Osh bent down to look me straight in the eye. “I’m sure of it,” he said. I turned to Miss Maggie. She hesitated. And then she nodded, too. “That is true,” she said. “Some people start off more susceptible. More…vulnerable. Weaker.”
5. Osh and I stood and stared. “I wonder how many lepers lived here.” “Not so many,” Miss Maggie said. “How do you know?” She looked a little abashed. “I went to the library. She knew how I felt about the library and she shared my displeasure…they told her she could no longer check out books if they were meant for my hands.
6 & 7. By the time I was done, I was sweaty and stuck all over with straw and feathers. I spent a moment at Miss Maggie’s cistern, dusting myself off and sluicing rainwater over my head, before I met her at her door. She handed me a rag.
8. In the morning, we sailed out to pull our lobster pots. Osh turned into the wind at each float so the skiff went into irons, its sails limp and luffing, and then tethered us to the buoy and hauled the pot up, hand over hand, and into the boat so I could reach in and grab the lobster.
9. The islanders were used to calamity. When a hurricane blew through, as one had just a year before–tearing off roofs and casting boats up on shore–everyone suffered at least a little…This was different. When word got out about Mr. Sloan, excitement would spread like heat lightning across the islands. There would be talk of nothing else.
Part II.
_____ 1. Ebb A. an event causing great and often sudden damage; a disaster
_____ 2. Flotsam B. an artificial reservoir for storing water
_____ 3. Salvaged C. the wreckage of a ship found washed up on shore
_____ 4. Susceptible D. embarrassed; ashamed
_____ 5. Abashed E. to rescue or save from wreckage or ruin
_____ 6. Cistern F. the movement of the tide out to sea; to lessen or reduce
_____ 7. Sluicing G. wash or rinse freely with a stream or shower of water
_____ 8. Tethered H. having little resistance
_____ 9. Calamity I. a line by which something (as an animal or a balloon) is fastened
so as to limit its range.
VOCABULARY for Coraline
Part I: Below are sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the test. Read the sentence. Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge to determine the meaning of each vocabulary word. Use definitions are on the back.
There was a haughty black cat, who sat on walls and tree stumps and watched her but slipped away if ever she went over to try to play with it.
2. Eventually, she found something to watch: it was the last half of a natural history program about something called protective coloration. She watched animals, birds, and insects which disguised themselves as leaves or twigs or other animals to escape from things that could hurt them.
3. The picture they had in their own hallway showed a boy in old-fashioned clothes staring at some bubbles. But now the expression on his face was different--he was looking at the bubbles as if he was planning to do something very nasty indeed to them. And there was something peculiar about his eyes.
4. “I think my other mother has them both in her clutches. She may want to keep them and sew their eyes with black buttons, or she may simply have them in order to lure me back into reach of her fingers. I’m not sure.” “Ah. The nefarious clutches of her fiendish fingers, is it?” he said. “Mm. You know what I suggest, Miss Jones?” “No,” said Coraline. “What ?”
5. She hoped that what she had just seen was not real, but she was not as certain as she sounded. There was a tiny doubt inside her, like a maggot in an apple core. Then she looked up and saw the expression on her other mother’s face: a flash of real anger, which crossed her face like summer lightning, and Coraline was sure in her heart that what she had seen in the mirror was no more than an illusion.
6. Somewhere inside her Coraline could feel a huge sob welling up. And then she stopped it, before it came out. She took a deep breath and let it go. She put out her hands to touch the space in which she was imprisoned. It was the size of a broom closet: tall enough to stand in or to sit in, not wide or deep enough to lie down in.
7. She stepped forward in the hallway, into another gust of wind, which stung her cheeks and face with invisible sand, sharp as needles, sharp as glass. “Play fair,” shouted Coraline into the wind. There was no reply, but the wind whipped about her one more time, petulantly, and then it dropped away, and was gone.
8. Something rustled above her. She looked up into a deeper darkness, and as she did so her feet knocked against something. She reached down, picked up a flashlight, and clicked it on, sweeping the beam around the room. The theater was derelict and abandoned. Chairs were broken on the floor, and old, dusty spiderwebs draped the walls and hung from the rotten wood and the decomposing velvet hangings.
9. Her new school clothes were laid out carefully on her chair for her to put on when she woke. Normally, on the night before the first day of term, Coraline was apprehensive and nervous. But, she realized, there was nothing left about school that could scare her anymore. ______________________
Part II: Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
______ 1. Haughty A. to change the appearance of someone to conceal one’s
identity
______ 2. Disguised B. a deceptive appearance;a thing that is or is likely to be
wrongly perceived or interpreted by the senses.
______ 3. Peculiar C. childishly sulky or bad-tempered
______ 4. Nefarious D. anxious or fearful that something bad will happen
______ 5. illusion E. strange or odd; unusual
______ 6. Imprisoned F. wicked or criminal
______ 7. Petulant G. in a very poor condition as a result of disuse and
neglect
______ 8. Derelict H. snobby and arrogant; thinking you are better and more
important than someone
______ 9. Apprehensive I. kept in prison; captive
VOCABULARY for Uglies Part III - Into the Fire
Part I: Below are sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence. Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, to determine the meaning of the vocabulary word. Use definitions on the back.
1. They waited patiently in a ring around the building while their numbers increased, more hovercars landing every minute. If anyone tried to get past the cordon, they reacted swiftly, disarming and incapacitating whoever dared to run. But most of the Smokies were too shocked to resist, paralyzed by the terrible faces of their opponents.
2. Neither of them was tired yet, but they couldn’t travel during the day; the desert offered no protection from the sun, nor any concealment from the air. They camped in the second floor of a low factory building that still had most of its roof. Ancient machines, each as big as a hovercar, stood silent around them.
3. For the first hours, the drama of the storm kept them fascinated, amazed at its power, wondering when the next peal of thunder would shake the cliffs. Then the driving rain became simply monotonous, and they spent a whole day talking to each other about anything and everything, but especially their childhoods, until Tally was sure that she understood David better than anyone she’d ever known.
4. Tally knelt and turned Dr. Cable’s head to inspect the wound. No blood, but she was out cold. No matter how formidable cruel pretties were, surprise still had its advantages. “She’ll be okay.” “Dr. Cable? What’s going--”
5. The current would take it back toward the city, in the opposite direction of their escape route. Tally and David had agreed to rendezvous upriver, a long way past the ruins, where he had found a cave years before. Because its entrance was covered by a waterfall, it would shelter them from heat sensors.
Part II: Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
______ 1. Incapacitating A. boring from always being the same
______ 2. Concealment B. causing fear or dread
______ 3. Monotonous C. to make incapable; disable
______ 4. Formidable D. a place agreed on for meeting
______ 5. Rendezvous E to keep secret; to hide from sight
VOCABULARY for Uglies Part II - The Smoke
Part I: Below are sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence. Use the context clues in the passage to help you identify the meaning of the vocabulary word. The definitions are on the back. Then, see if you can identify the best context clue for each vocabulary word.
1. The ruins continued under her feet. Out here they were almost completely submerged, only a few shapeless masses rising through the grasp of vegetation. But the Rusties had built solidly, in love with their wasteful skeletons of metal.
2. SpagBol never again tasted as good as it had that first time on the cliffs. Tally’s meals ranged from decent to odious. The worst were SpagBol breakfasts, around sunset, when the mere thought of more noodles made her never want to eat again. She almost wished she would run out of the stuff and be forced to either catch a fish and cook it, or simply starve, losing her ugly-fat the hard way.
3. She thrashed in the water, climbing up toward the flickering lights of the surface. Her wet clothes and gear dragged at her, but just as her lungs were about to burst, she broke the surface into the maelstrom. Tally gulped a few breaths of smoky air, then was slapped in the face by a wave. She coughed and sputtered, struggling to stay afloat.
4. Even on the narrow path, she was constantly shoving past branches and twigs, tripping over roots and rocks. She’d never seen any woodlands this raw and inhospitable. Vines dotted with cruel thorns ran through the semidarkness like barbed wire. “You guys live in here?”
5. A thin bank of clouds below the ridge mirrored the heavier layer overhead, but forests, grasslands, and the shimmering arcs of rivers were visible through the misty veil. The sea of white orchids could still be glimpsed from this side of the mountain, glowing like an encroaching desert in the sun.
Part II: Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
_____ 1. Submerged A. a situation or state of confused movement or violent
turmoil
______ 2. Odious B. harsh and difficult to live in
______ 3. Maelstrom C. to advance beyond the usual or proper limits
_____ 4. Inhospitable D. extremely unpleasant; repulsive
_____ 5. Encroaching E. completely cover or obscure; cause to be underwater
VOCABULARY for Uglies Part I - Turning Pretty
Part I: Below are sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence. Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, then look on the back at the definitions to determine what each vocabulary word means. Then, decide what the best context clues are for each vocabulary word.
The two disappeared around the next bend, and Tally shook her head to clear the mushy thoughts away. She wasn’t here to gawk. She was an infiltrator, a sneak, an ugly. And she had a mission. The garden stretched up into town, winding like a black river through the bright party towers and houses. After a few more minutes of creeping, she startled a couple hidden among the trees.
2. An explosion of sound came from her right, and she leaped back into the darkness, stumbling among the vines, coming down hard on her knees in the soft earth, certain for a few seconds that she’d been caught. But the cacophony organized itself into a throbbing rhythm. It was a drum machine making its lumbering way down the street. Wide as a house, it shimmered with the movement of its dozens of mechanical arms, bashing away at every size of drum.
3. Behind it trailed a growing bunch of revelers, dancing along with the beat, drinking and throwing empty bottles to shatter against the huge, impervious machine. Tally smiled. The revelers were wearing masks. The machine was lobbing the masks out the back, trying to coax more followers into the impromptu parade: devil faces and horrible clowns, green monsters and gray aliens with big oval eyes, cats and dogs and cows, faces with crooked smiles or huge noses.
4. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” she whispered. “There’s wardens and hovercars everywhere!” Tally cleared her throat. “I think it’s my fault.” Shay looked dubious. “How’d you manage that?”
5. The air was still, the river so flat that she could make out every detail of the city skyline mirrored in it. It looked like the pretties were having some sort of event. She could hear the roar of a huge crowd across the water, a thousand cheers rising and falling together. The party towers were dark under the almost full moon, and the fireworks all shimmering hues of blue, climbing so high that they exploded in silence.
Part II: Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
______ 1. Infiltrator A. a color or shade
_____ 2. Cacophony B. a harsh mixture of sounds
_____ 3. Revelers C. hesitating or doubting
______ 4. Dubious D. an intruder with hostile intent
_____ 5. Hue E. a person who is celebrating with other people in a noisy
and wild way
VOCABULARY for Uglies Part II - The Smoke
Part I: Below are sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence. Use the context clues in the passage to help you identify the meaning of the vocabulary word. The definitions are on the back. Then, see if you can identify the best context clue for each vocabulary word.
1. The ruins continued under her feet. Out here they were almost completely submerged, only a few shapeless masses rising through the grasp of vegetation. But the Rusties had built solidly, in love with their wasteful skeletons of metal.
2. SpagBol never again tasted as good as it had that first time on the cliffs. Tally’s meals ranged from decent to odious. The worst were SpagBol breakfasts, around sunset, when the mere thought of more noodles made her never want to eat again. She almost wished she would run out of the stuff and be forced to either catch a fish and cook it, or simply starve, losing her ugly-fat the hard way.
3. She thrashed in the water, climbing up toward the flickering lights of the surface. Her wet clothes and gear dragged at her, but just as her lungs were about to burst, she broke the surface into the maelstrom. Tally gulped a few breaths of smoky air, then was slapped in the face by a wave. She coughed and sputtered, struggling to stay afloat.
4. Even on the narrow path, she was constantly shoving past branches and twigs, tripping over roots and rocks. She’d never seen any woodlands this raw and inhospitable. Vines dotted with cruel thorns ran through the semidarkness like barbed wire. “You guys live in here?”
5. A thin bank of clouds below the ridge mirrored the heavier layer overhead, but forests, grasslands, and the shimmering arcs of rivers were visible through the misty veil. The sea of white orchids could still be glimpsed from this side of the mountain, glowing like an encroaching desert in the sun.
Part II: Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
_____ 1. Submerged A. a situation or state of confused movement or violent
turmoil
______ 2. Odious B. harsh and difficult to live in
______ 3. Maelstrom C. to advance beyond the usual or proper limits
_____ 4. Inhospitable D. extremely unpleasant; repulsive
_____ 5. Encroaching E. completely cover or obscure; cause to be underwater