SKIP TO CONTENT

A Likely Story: "Civil Peace" by Chinua Achebe

After the end of the civil war in Nigeria, Jonathan Iwegbu and his family struggle to make ends meet.

Here is a link to our lists for Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.
20 words 1452 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Full list of words from this list:

  1. inestimable
    beyond calculation or measure
    He had come out of the war with five inestimable blessings—his head, his wife Maria's head and the heads of three out of their four children.
  2. commandeer
    take arbitrarily or by force
    One day at the height of the war it was commandeered "for urgent military action."
  3. disreputable
    lacking respectability in character, behavior or appearance
    It wasn't his disreputable rags, nor the toes peeping out of one blue and one brown canvas shoes, nor yet the two stars of his rank done obviously in a hurry in biro, that troubled Jonathan; many good and heroic soldiers looked the same or worse.
  4. amenable
    readily reacting to suggestions and influences
    So Jonathan, suspecting he might be amenable to influence, rummaged in his raffia bag and produced the two pounds with which he had been going to buy firewood which his wife, Maria, retailed to camp officials for extra stock-fish and corn meal, and got his bicycle back.
  5. retail
    sell on the commercial market
    So Jonathan, suspecting he might be amenable to influence, rummaged in his raffia bag and produced the two pounds with which he had been going to buy firewood which his wife, Maria, retailed to camp officials for extra stock-fish and corn meal, and got his bicycle back.
  6. fortnight
    a period of fourteen consecutive days
    At the end of a fortnight he had made a small fortune of one hundred and fifteen pounds.
  7. edifice
    a structure that has a roof and walls
    Only two houses away a huge concrete edifice some wealthy contractor had put up just before the war was a mountain of rubble.
  8. destitute
    poor enough to need help from others
    He got a destitute carpenter with one old hammer, a blunt plane and a few bent and rusty nails in his tool bag to turn this assortment of wood, paper and metal into door and window shutters for five Nigerian shillings of fifty Biafran pounds.
  9. windfall
    a sudden happening that brings good fortune
    Came the day of the windfall when after five days of endless scuffles in queues and counter queues in the sun outside the Treasury he had twenty pounds counted into his palms as ex gratia award for the rebel money he had turned in.
  10. scuffle
    an unceremonious and disorganized struggle
    Came the day of the windfall when after five days of endless scuffles in queues and counter queues in the sun outside the Treasury he had twenty pounds counted into his palms as ex gratia award for the rebel money he had turned in.
  11. queue
    a line of people or vehicles waiting for something
    Came the day of the windfall when after five days of endless scuffles in queues and counter queues in the sun outside the Treasury he had twenty pounds counted into his palms as ex gratia award for the rebel money he had turned in.
  12. ruffian
    a cruel and brutal fellow
    He had to be extra careful because he had seen a man a couple of days earlier collapse into near madness in an instant before that oceanic crowd because no sooner had he got his twenty pounds than some heartless ruffian picked it off him.
  13. extremity
    a condition or state beyond the norm
    Though it was not right that a man in such an extremity of agony should be blamed yet many in the queues that day were able to remark quietly on the victim's carelessness, especially after he pulled out the innards of his pocket and revealed a hole in it big enough to pass a thief's head.
  14. innards
    the organs in a body, collectively
    Though it was not right that a man in such an extremity of agony should be blamed yet many in the queues that day were able to remark quietly on the victim's carelessness, especially after he pulled out the innards of his pocket and revealed a hole in it big enough to pass a thief's head.
  15. imperious
    having or showing arrogant superiority
    The second time the knocking came it was so loud and imperious that the rickety old door could have fallen down.
  16. rickety
    inclined to shake as from weakness or defect
    The second time the knocking came it was so loud and imperious that the rickety old door could have fallen down.
  17. parched
    extremely thirsty
    "Who is knocking?" he asked then, his voice parched and trembling.
  18. volley
    rapid simultaneous discharge of firearms
    A volley of automatic fire rang through the sky.
  19. commiserate
    feel or express sympathy or compassion
    At the first sign of light as neighbors and others assembled to commiserate with him he was already strapping his five-gallon demijohn to his bicycle carrier and his wife, sweating in the open fire, was turning over akara balls in a wide clay bowl of boiling oil.
  20. dregs
    sediment that has settled at the bottom of a liquid
    In the corner his eldest son was rinsing out dregs of yesterday's palm wine from old beer bottles.
Created on Mon Jul 16 15:10:16 EDT 2018 (updated Tue Jul 17 12:24:16 EDT 2018)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.