Barron's 1100 Words You Need to Know » Week 8 - Day 1

Word List
  • emaciated [i mā´ shē ā tid]
    abnormally thin, wasted away
    → “Twiggy, whose fame was related to her emaciated look, is now better known for her singing and dramatic talent.” Play review, New Jersey Star Ledger, 5/12/99
  • surge [sėrj]
    to rush suddenly
    → “In one wild surge they stormed into a police station, where the bewildered officers tried to maintain order.” James Michener, “The Bridge at Andau”
  • tranquil [trang´ kwəl]
    quiet
    → “Over this house, most tranquil and complete, Where no storm ever beat, She was sole mistress.” Phyllis McGinley, “The Doll House”
  • sanctuary [sangk´ chü er´ i]
    shelter
    → “The identity of Rinehart may be a temporary sanctuary for the narrator, but it is another identity he must reject if he is to find himself as a person.” Anthony Abbott, Invisible Man
  • ascend [ə send´]
    to rise
    → “As he set himself to fan the fire again, his crouching shadow ascended the opposite wall.” James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”

In 1956, Look Magazine named Thomas Dooley as one of the year’s ten most outstanding men. Just under thirty years of age at the time, Dr. Dooley had already distinguished himself by caring for a half-million sick and emaciated Vietnamese refugees. When fighting broke out in the divided country of Viet Nam, the northern Communist Viet Minh forces surged southward, scattering thousands of refugees before them. At the time, Dr. Dooley was a lieutenant, assigned to a tranquil naval hospital in Yokosuka, Japan. Forthwith* he volunteered for duty on a navy ship that had been chosen to transport the refugees to sanctuary in Saigon. The curtain was beginning to ascend on Dooley’s real career.

Sample Sentences Use the new words in the following sentences.

  1. The __________ residents of the Warsaw Ghetto managed to win several skirmishes* from the Nazis.
  2. A firecracker terminated* the __________ climate of the neighborhood.
  3. When Richard III violated the __________ of the church to seize the princes, he exceeded his jurisdiction.*
  4. Chicago put its heaviest players up front, but they were helpless as the Giants’ line __________ toward them.
  5. Inexorably* the determined climber began to __________ the Himalayan peak.

Definitions Match the new words with their meanings.

  1. a. to rush suddenly
  2. b. shelter
  3. c. quiet
  4. d. abnormally thin, wasted away
  5. e. to rise
  1. emaciated __________
  2. surge __________
  3. tranquil __________
  4. sanctuary __________
  5. ascend __________

Answer Key
sour grapes—to disparage* something that you cannot have (from Aesop’s fable about the fox who called the grapes sour because he could not reach them)
Marcia said that she didn’t want to be on the Principal’s Honor Roll anyway, but we knew that it was just sour grapes on her part.

Favorite Books
Table of Contents