Nothing But the Truth: Chapters 12–14

by Avi
Using journal entries, memos, letters, and dialogue, award-winning author Avi pokes fun at high school, politics, and the media. This satirical novel demonstrates that truth is always subjective.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–6, Chapters 7–11, Chapters 12–14, Chapters 15–19
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. attempt
    make an effort
    In 1981, on this date, was the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
  2. suspension
    a temporary debarment from a privilege or position
    Talk about rules, you’re talking suspension.
  3. confirm
    establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts
    Otherwise—just so you understand—I check with Miss Narwin, and if she confirms what you said—that you were breaking rules—hey, I call your folks, they come get you—boom!—two-day suspension.
  4. provocative
    serving or tending to excite or stimulate
    Quite provocative. Trying to create an incident.
  5. counterproductive
    tending to hinder the achievement of a goal
    Suspension might be counterproductive.
  6. incident
    a public disturbance
    Mrs. Malloy, I'm afraid we've had a little incident here—rule-breaking.
  7. stress
    single out as important
    In fact, Philip was offered—I just offered it—a chance to apologize to the teacher in question, but he won't take it. So, I’m afraid—let me stress this is Phil's decision, not mine—what we have here is a two-day suspension situation.
  8. grief
    something that causes great unhappiness
    Philip, you’re bringing a bunch of grief to yourself. And a bother to her.
  9. tense
    in or of a state of physical or nervous strain
    It’s very tense around here today.
  10. flexible
    making or willing to make concessions
    We try to be flexible, but we still have rules.
  11. disturbance
    a disorderly outburst or tumult
    If a student creates a disturbance in a classroom, that's breaking a rule.
  12. minor
    of lesser seriousness or danger
    While what is involved here is only a minor infraction, more acting out than anything else, there may be some personal problems with the boy (at home?), so I would appreciate hearing from you as to Philip's behavior in your class.
  13. obscure
    not clearly understood or expressed
    Because I feel that the problem may have arisen out of some obscure tension between teacher and student, I decided it was advisable to transfer the boy to Mr. Lunser's homeroom.
  14. advisable
    worthy of being recommended or suggested; prudent or wise
    Because I feel that the problem may have arisen out of some obscure tension between teacher and student, I decided it was advisable to transfer the boy to Mr. Lunser's homeroom.
  15. assume
    take to be the case or to be true
    Since I assume nothing more will come of this, I'm not aware of anything here that requires your further attention.
  16. fit
    a display of bad temper
    She’d like to throw a fit.
  17. intrigue
    cause to be interested or curious
    So you see, Anita, what intrigues me about this new concept of teaching English—Whole Language—is that it has its focus on literature, and in a way that I think young people will find very interesting.
  18. fancy
    a predisposition to like something
    It's just caught my fancy. I can hardly think about anything else.
  19. disruptive
    characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination
    Twice this week I had to send him out for being disruptive in a singularly disrespectful way.
  20. singular
    beyond or deviating from the usual or expected
    Twice this week I had to send him out for being disruptive in a singularly disrespectful way.
  21. compel
    necessitate or exact
    Then Joe Palleni (assistant principal) felt compelled to suspend him for a bit, something I never believe is productive.
  22. relevant
    having a bearing on or connection with the subject at issue
    MRS. MALLOY: I always thought Philip had a good voice.
    MR. MALLOY: That's not exactly relevant!
  23. arbitrary
    based on or subject to individual discretion or preference
    It seems arbitrary. Outrageous.
  24. straightforward
    without concealment or deception; honest
    Nothing to worry about. Very straightforward. I'd like her to hear about this. Really, I would. Just tell her the truth.
  25. outrageous
    greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation
    Now, for example, this thing, these guys, Phil here, tells me something that’s outrageous.
  26. condone
    excuse, overlook, or make allowances for
    If I were on the board, I wouldn’t accept this. I would not condone this.
  27. hogwash
    nonsensical or ridiculous speech or writing
    Hogwash. You should check your sources.
  28. discipline
    the act of punishing
    Discipline problems are usually in the hands of my assistant principal, Dr. Palleni.
  29. confidential
    given in secret
    Ms. Stewart, actually I'm not sure I should be discussing this matter with you. Records regarding our children are of a confidential nature.
  30. prior
    earlier in time
    Ms. Stewart, you call me up and inform me about something of which I have had no prior information.
  31. superior
    one of greater rank or station or quality
    You didn't inform your superior, or you didn’t suspend the boy for singing "The Star-Spangled Banner”?
  32. dismiss
    end an encounter with someone by causing the person to leave
    Now, as I understand it, the boy was dismissed from your class, then suspended from school because—he says it's a question of patriotism with him—he sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” during opening exercises in school in your class.
  33. insist
    assert to be true
    Every time Philip lifted his voice to sing she threw him out of class, insisting a disturbance was being created.
  34. previous
    just preceding something else in time or order
    School principal Dr. Gertrude Doane, who admits that Philip has no previous bad marks on his record, saw the issue only as one of discipline, and referred all questions regarding school policy to Dr. Joseph Palleni, assistant principal.
  35. slant
    present with a bias
    MARGARET NARWIN: I just don’t understand why they would ever print such a thing.
    ANITA WIGHAM: That’s the papers....
    MARGARET NARWIN: It’s so slanted.
Created on Thu Jun 01 19:38:09 EDT 2017 (updated Tue Jun 28 14:38:30 EDT 2022)

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