Barron's 1100 Words You Need to Know » Week 35 - Day 3

Word List
  • vivacious [vī vā´ shəs]
    lively, gay
    → “The performance of this vivacious leading lady made the play a delight.” New York Post, 10/15/98
  • gaunt [gônt]
    thin, haggard
    → “Her gaunt expression was mistaken for weakness of spirit, whereas it told the sad story of her life.” George Eliot, Middle March
  • mien [mēn]
    appearance, bearing
    → “He had the mien of a man who has been everywhere and through everything.” Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives Tale
  • hirsute [hėr´ süt]
    hairy
    → “The difference between this rock concert and one 10 years earlier is the marked decrease in hirsute young men.” TIME, 8/8/99
  • refute [ri fyüt´]
    prove wrong or false
    → “The tobacco industry has stopped trying to refute the charge that smoking is both dangerous and addictive.” U.S. News and World Report, 2/3/98

Thurber modernizes an old story that everyone has read or heard. It has to do with a nefarious* wolf who kept a vigil* in an ominous* forest until a little girl came along carrying a basket of food for her grandmother. With alacrity,* this vivacious youngster told the wolf the address to which she was going. Hungry and gaunt the wolf rushed to the house. When the girl arrived and entered, she saw someone in bed wearing a nightcap and a nightgown. While the figure was dressed like her grandmother, the little girl surmised* with only a perfunctory* glance that it didn’t have the old lady’s mien. She approached and became cognizant* of the hirsute face of the wolf. She drew a revolver from her purse and shot the interloper* dead. Thurber arrives at a moral for this story that anyone would find difficult to refute: It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be.

Sample Sentences Use the new words in these sentences.

  1. She had a __________ of humility,* but it was only a façade.*
  2. He did not waste time trying to __________ an irrelevant* and tortuous* argument.
  3. You may have discerned* that it is no longer the latest vogue* among boys to permit their faces to become __________.
  4. They were struck by the anomaly* of one twin who was phlegmatic* while the other was __________.
  5. Women strive for the slender and au courant* __________ look.

Definitions Match the new words with their definitions.

  1. a. thin, haggard
  2. b. lively, gay
  3. c. hairy
  4. d. appearance, bearing
  5. e. prove wrong or false
  1. vivacious __________
  2. gaunt __________
  3. mien __________
  4. hirsute __________
  5. refute __________

Answer Key
to leave no stone unturned—to try one’s best, to make every effort
Since you’re from Missouri,* I’ll leave no stone unturned to convince you.

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