Barron's 1100 Words You Need to Know » Week 7 - Day 2

Word List
  • harass [har´ əs or hə rəs´]
    to trouble, torment
    → “Over the next weeks came more amendments and harassing tactics including a motion to postpone selection of a new capital.” Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years
  • monolithic [mä nə´ li thik]
    massively solid
    → “Gertrude Stein was a stolid, heavy presence, monolithic, unladylike.” Liz Smith, “When Love Was the Adventure,” TIME, 6/14/99
  • arbitrary [är´ bə trer´ ē]
    poor, needy
    → “My arbitrary decision not to run puts Massachusetts at a disadvantage and probably was a mistake.” Representative Martin Meehan in Newsday, 6/1/99
  • indigent [in´ də jənt]
    based on whim, dictatorial
    → “The bill would make modest improvements in the way that counsel is provided for indigent defendants.” Bob Herbert, “Defending the Status Quo,” New York Times, 6/17/99
  • fray [frā]
    a fight
    → “To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast, Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.” William Shakespeare, Henry IV

Once the newspapers got the story, the case of the longhairs became a cause célèbre.* Ron and Len were interviewed, seen on TV, and regarded by their fellow students as heroes. “These are not delinquents or hoods,” one reporter wrote, “but clean-cut American boys who are being harassed by a monolithic school system.” A caustic* editorial referred to the school’s decision as arbitrary and inane.* A false story even circulated about the boys being rock-’nroll performers whose indigent families needed their salaries. Finally, the Civil Liberties Union jumped into the fray with a court order stipulating* that the principal be required to show cause why the boys should not be allowed to return to class.

Sample Sentences Use the new words in the following sentences.

  1. After the __________ , the feuding families agreed to patch up their differences.
  2. The __________ client was surprised when she was accosted* by her social worker in the elegant restaurant.
  3. To my mind the decision was unreasonable and __________ .
  4. George Orwell’s 1984 depicts a frightening, __________ government.
  5. If anonymous telephone callers __________ you, the phone company will give you an unlisted number.

Definitions Match the new words with their meanings.

  1. a. based on whim, dictatorial
  2. b. poor, needy
  3. c. massively solid
  4. d. a fight
  5. e. to trouble, torment
  1. harass __________
  2. monolithic __________
  3. indigent __________
  4. arbitrary __________
  5. fray __________

Answer Key
one swallow does not make a summer—don’t jump to conclusions based on incomplete evidence
“Sure, the Yankees won their opening game, but one swallow does not make a summer.”

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