The Reader: Chapter 33-40

by Traci Chee
In an illiterate society, Sefia begins to discover the power of the written word as she attempts to rescue her kidnapped aunt—and learn the truth about her parents’ assassination. Practice these words from the first book in the Sea of Ink and Gold trilogy.

Here are links to our other lists for the novel: The Book-Chapter 8, Chapters 9-16, Chapters 17-24, Chapters 25-32, Chapters 33-40.
40 words 10 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. catwalk
    a narrow pathway high in the air
    According to Meeks, all kinds of people set up shop in the Central Port, using a network of catwalks and rickety wooden planks to connect their barges and narrow boats.
  2. skitter
    move about or proceed hurriedly
    Oversize wharf rats skittered through the shadows.
  3. skulk
    lie in wait or behave in a sneaky and secretive manner
    They passed run-down shacks and docks that ended in abrupt pools of dirty water, and beneath the tattered canopies skulked tired old women with no teeth and tawdry dresses, fat men who smoked and followed you with their eyes, hounds so thin you could count their ribs as they snarled at the ends of their chains.
  4. tawdry
    tastelessly showy
    They passed run-down shacks and docks that ended in abrupt pools of dirty water, and beneath the tattered canopies skulked tired old women with no teeth and tawdry dresses, fat men who smoked and followed you with their eyes, hounds so thin you could count their ribs as they snarled at the ends of their chains.
  5. dilapidated
    in a state of decay, ruin, or deterioration
    Finally, they stopped on a catwalk lined with dilapidated taverns.
  6. baleful
    threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments
    Under a few baleful yellow lamps, a handful of patrons staggered down the street, laughing and listing sideways as they walked.
  7. plaintive
    expressing sorrow
    Over its door, a hanging birdcage made a plaintive squealing sound in the breeze.
  8. goad
    urge with or as if with a prod
    From above, they goaded and prodded the short boy, who responded by hacking away at the door with his sword.
  9. spar
    stout rounded pole of wood or metal used to support rigging
    The barge in front of them had two crossed spars above the door, just as Dimarion had described when they’d struck up the alliance between the Crux and the Current.
  10. clapper
    metal striker that hangs inside a bell and makes a sound
    Somewhere inside was an old bronze clapper belonging to the bell of the Desert Gold, the ship that had gone down with King Fieldspar on his return from the Trove.
  11. filch
    make off with belongings of others
    “Just gimme an opportunity, Cap. I’ll filch it for ya.”
  12. bauble
    cheap showy jewelry or ornament
    The walls were covered with knickknacks and baubles, keepsakes and trinkets that mounted up the beams to the corners of the ceiling, all crammed together in a chaotic jumble of odds and ends.
  13. awl
    a pointed tool for marking surfaces or for punching holes
    Black velvet ribbons, jeweled brooches shaped like dragons, dented tin cups, rusted swords, candelabras, portraits, boots, buttons, awls, alabaster carvings of bears and orcas, broken scissors, bone-handled knives, a faded sketch of a woman in a bear-skin cloak.
  14. alabaster
    a fine-textured white gypsum used for carving
    Black velvet ribbons, jeweled brooches shaped like dragons, dented tin cups, rusted swords, candelabras, portraits, boots, buttons, awls, alabaster carvings of bears and or- cas, broken scissors, bone-handled knives, a faded sketch of a woman in a bear-skin cloak.
  15. plumb
    completely
    “I barely caught her before she ran plumb off the balcony...not that the fall woulda killed her. She’d survived worse’n that in her long years...”
  16. sidle
    move unobtrusively or furtively
    Before he could say anything, Adeline sidled up to them with their mugs in hand.
  17. verdigris
    a green patina that forms on copper or brass or bronze
    And there, on a hook, was an old brass clapper, dull and green, with an engraving of a sunrise over a desert half-hidden beneath the crust of verdigris.
  18. skedaddle
    run away, as if in a panic
    “Let’s skedaddle!”
  19. brandish
    move or swing back and forth
    As they approached, she popped to her feet and brandished the clapper like a wand.
  20. impish
    naughtily or annoyingly playful
    The ship’s girl grinned impishly.
  21. berserk
    frenzied as if possessed by a demon
    The crowd went berserk, hollering, bloodlust throbbing in their throats and eyes as they called eagerly for the kill.
  22. culminate
    end, especially to reach a final or climactic stage
    She blinked, and the room burst into a fine gold powder, spinning and sparkling, with Archer and the spear and the boy at the center—all the lines of their lives culminating in this moment: kill or die.
  23. predisposition
    an inclination in advance to react in a particular way
    Blood ran over his left eye and down his jaw, but in that moment his predisposition toward violence was only a part of what made him so formidable.
  24. scrimshaw
    a carving on whalebone, whale ivory, walrus tusk, etc.
    Lavinia slipped out her pistol, a wicked-looking thing with a scrimshaw grip.
  25. periphery
    the outside boundary or surface of something
    It drifted around the periphery of his vision.
  26. cleave
    make by cutting into
    It rolled over them like mist over mountaintops, filling the spaces between them, howling—or was it moaning. Whispering and chittering and mad laughter. Voices or the tolling of bells or glaciers cleaving in two or cliffs crumbling to dust.
  27. taper
    stick of wax with a wick in the middle
    Flames tipped the tops of slim white tapers, illuminating rough walls muffled by tapestries and old portraits in which the painted eyes of their subjects glinted like chips of glass.
  28. fabrication
    a deliberately false or improbable account
    “The man you know as Serakeen—the bloodthirsty warlord, the Scourge of the East—is a fabrication, a useful myth we’ve concocted. But I’m afraid he doesn’t exist.”
  29. extol
    praise, glorify, or honor
    Sefia laughed. It was absurd. Exterminators extolling the virtues of mercy. Butchers preaching restraint.
  30. lattice
    an arrangement of points in a regular periodic pattern
    Beneath her feet, the designs in the carpet overlapped and intersected in an impossible lattice of connections and unfathomably complicated knots, but she couldn’t follow them any more than she could follow what Tanin was telling her.
  31. unfathomable
    impossible to come to understand
    Beneath her feet, the designs in the carpet overlapped and intersected in an impossible lattice of connections and unfathomably complicated knots, but she couldn’t follow them any more than she could follow what Tanin was telling her.
  32. riotous
    characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination
    Her skin burned. She was volcanic, blistering, riotous. An avalanche of blackrock ready to ignite.
  33. morose
    showing a brooding ill humor
    She’d been thrown off by Tanin’s nice manners, by Rajar’s morose contrition, by the truth about her parents. But she remembered what she was doing here now. She remembered why she had come.
  34. contrition
    sorrow for sin arising from fear of damnation
    She’d been thrown off by Tanin’s nice manners, by Rajar’s morose contrition, by the truth about her parents. But she remembered what she was doing here now. She remembered why she had come.
  35. detritus
    the remains of something that has been destroyed or finished
    Lifting it from the detritus, she ripped aside its wrappings, revealing leather covers, edges stained with age, clasps that locked all its secrets inside.
  36. restive
    impatient especially under restriction or delay
    They ran across kingdoms, mountains, shorelines. Even forced into hiding, they were quick. Restive. They breathed fast.
  37. floe
    a flat mass of ice drifting at sea
    Archer felt faint.
    The memories rose out of him like floes of ice.
    A lighthouse poised on a rocky promontory.
  38. promontory
    a natural elevation
    Archer felt faint.
    The memories rose out of him like floes of ice.
    A lighthouse poised on a rocky promontory.
  39. inexorably
    in a manner impervious to change or persuasion
    Every time she had touched the symbol or read from the book or recited her vow, she’d been leading him, slowly, inexorably—all the while promising that she was his friend, that she would protect him—to the very people he should have been running from all along.
  40. slough
    cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers
    The golden ropes of Tanin’s restraints sloughed off her and dissipated into nothingness.
Created on Fri Dec 29 17:14:49 EST 2017 (updated Tue Jan 09 13:02:58 EST 2018)

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