Barron's 1100 Words You Need to Know » Week 35 - Day 4

Word List
  • pensive [pen´ siv]
    thoughtful, reflective
    → “It was only when he found himself alone in his bedroom in a pensive mood that he was able to grapple seriously with his memories of the occurrence.” H. G. Wells, The Man Who Could Work Miracles
  • whet [hwet]
    stimulate, stir up
    → “The accepted purpose of coming attractions in movie theatres is to whet the viewers’ desire to see the film.” John Simon, Reverse Angle
  • stupor [stü´ pər]
    daze, insensible condition
    → “If your child watches late night television and comes home from school in a stupor, she’s not getting enough sleep.” “Getting Enough Sleep,” Working Mother, 5/98
  • wince [wins]
    draw back, flinch
    → “He took the cruel blow without a wince or a cry.” A. Conan Doyle, The Last Book of Sherlock Holmes
  • cliché [klē shā´]
    a commonplace phrase
    → “The cliché ‘Politics makes strange bedfellows’ certainly applies in this situation.” Newsweek, 9/20/99

Thurber’s stories are written in a jocose* manner, but they contain enough serious matter to make one pensive. He tells of some builders who left a pane of glass standing upright in a field near a house they were constructing. A goldfinch flew across the field, struck the glass and was knocked inert.* He rushed back and divulged* to his friends that the air had crystallized. The other birds derided* him, said he had become irrational,* and gave a number of reasons for the accident. The only bird who believed the goldfinch was the swallow. The goldfinch challenged the large birds to follow the same path he had flown. This challenge served to whet their interest, and they agreed with gusto.* Only the swallow abjured.* The large birds flew together and struck the glass; they were knocked into a stupor. This caused the astute* swallow to wince with pain. Thurber drew a moral that is the antithesis* of the cliché we all accept: He who hesitates is sometimes saved.

Sample Sentences Use the new words in these sentences.

  1. He was in such a __________ as a result of the accident that this precluded* his hearing my condolence.*
  2. If you juxtapose* one __________ with another, you often get completely opposite lessons about life.
  3. The hostile* rebuke* made the usually phlegmatic* boy __________.
  4. You cannot __________ his desire for the theater with dubious* histrionics.*
  5. The fervid* marriage proposal made the shy girl __________.

Definitions Match the new words with their definitions.

  1. a. thoughtful, reflective
  2. b. stimulate, stir up
  3. c. a commonplace phrase
  4. d. draw back, flinch
  5. e. daze, insensible condition
  1. pensive __________
  2. whet __________
  3. stupor __________
  4. wince __________
  5. cliché __________

Answer Key
tongue in one’s cheek—not to be sincere
John’s father surely had his tongue in his cheek when he told his son to go sow wild oats* and to kick over the traces at his kindergarten party.

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