The Dark Is Rising: Part 3: The Testing

by Susan Cooper
Eleven-year-old Will Stanton discovers that he is part of a group of immortals tasked with keeping the world safe from the forces of darkness.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part 1: The Finding, Part 2: The Learning, Part 3: The Testing
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. cower
    crouch or curl up
    He leaned over the bed to pick up the tray with its empty plate and glass, and suddenly the Walker let out a shrill scream and flinched away from him, cowering down at the far side of the bed.
  2. adversity
    a state of misfortune or affliction
    “Splendid in adversity, tedious when safe. Never content, in fact. We’re an odd lot. You’re not English, are you?”
  3. ominous
    threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments
    On each of the three walls facing the hearth, three great sinister flames shot up which did not afterwards die down, but remained dancing and curving in ominous brilliance, filling the hall with cold light.
  4. foreboding
    a feeling of evil to come
    Will looked at the broad shoulders with foreboding, as he would have looked at a gigantic spring that might at any moment snap loose.
  5. reproach
    a mild rebuke or criticism
    He said slowly, with mounting reproach, “You made me risk my life for a book. For a book. Then because I looked at kinder masters, you sent me back to my own time, but not as I had been before. You gave me then the doom of bearing the Sign.”
  6. impassive
    having or revealing little emotion or sensibility
    Will saw that his face was impassive again, the deep eyes dark and empty and the lines drawn firm, and he knew that no one would see any strong self-revealing emotion on that face for a very long time.
  7. raucous
    unpleasantly loud and harsh
    He saw Paul duck defensively behind one raised arm; heard the harsh, raucous croaking abruptly loud and then gone; saw, even through the flying rain, the flurry of black feathers as the gaggle of rooks swooped low past their heads.
  8. macabre
    shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
    At either end it seemed broad and solid, but the centre wavered, grew slender and then thicker again; it wove to and fro as it came, in a kind of macabre dance.
  9. translucent
    allowing light to pass through diffusely
    He opened his palm in mockery of Mary, and lying in it Will saw a small white box, made of an icy translucent glass, with lines of runic symbols engraved on the lid.
  10. incredulity
    doubt about the truth of something
    For a long moment the Rider looked at him, out of the vast black pillar of swirling mist in which he stood; in his face incredulity and rage were mingled with a kind of evil respect.
  11. undulate
    move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion
    The black pillar of the Dark came hurtling towards them, then paused, spinning and undulating, hovering between land and sky.
  12. intermittent
    stopping and starting at irregular intervals
    In the intermittent light he could make out the shape of a solitary oak tree, spreading great arms from its short tremendous trunk.
  13. unfathomable
    impossible to come to understand
    The moonlight now glimmered clear on his head, and Will found himself gazing up into strange tawny eyes, yellow-gold, unfathomable, like the eyes of some huge bird.
  14. malevolence
    wishing evil to others
    Will caught sight of the Black Rider once more, high in the dark mist; his face was twisted in fury and dread and frozen malevolence, and behind these the awareness of defeat.
  15. intolerable
    incapable of being put up with
    you made me live on through the centuries when often I longed for death. And all for a betrayal that I fell into because I had not the wit of an Old One...’’ The grief and longing in his voice were intolerable; Will turned his head away.
Created on Wed May 07 18:03:53 EDT 2014 (updated Tue Jun 24 17:42:19 EDT 2025)

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