Endangered: Chapters 20–27

by Eliot Schrefer
Fourteen-year-old Sophie rescues a young chimp named Otto while visiting a wildlife sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But when the president is assassinated, Sophie must figure out how to protect Otto in a country at war.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–13, Chapters 14–19, Chapters 20–27
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. oblivious
    lacking conscious awareness of
    I found him in the lower branches of a tree, playing by swinging from side to side, oblivious to the bright green shock of a praying mantis walking across his knuckles.
  2. tributary
    a branch that flows into the main stream
    If I forded the river, I’d hit a tributary that would lead me to Ikwa, the village nearest my mother’s site.
  3. replenish
    fill something that had previously been emptied
    I had two goals now: getting to the hunting trail and replenishing my water.
  4. disoriented
    having lost your bearings
    I scratched an arrow in a tree trunk marking the direction I was heading in case I woke up disoriented, found a spot of thick grass that didn’t appear to have any ant colonies near it, and prepared to wait out the night.
  5. pulsate
    expand and contract rhythmically
    The calls got easier to hear, and I recognized the high-pitched, pulsating sound: Otto in distress.
  6. imploringly
    in a pleading manner
    She reached her rifle tip up and prodded Otto’s forehead, causing him to shriek and stare imploringly in my direction.
  7. snare
    a trap for birds or small mammals; often has a slip noose
    They had likely set the snare for smaller game, like macaque monkeys or antelope, but they’d be happy to eat a bonobo.
  8. guffaw
    laugh boisterously
    She moved forward stiffly, her gapped mouth open wide as she guffawed.
  9. dissipate
    move away from each other
    As the afternoon burned into evening and the crowds dissipated, the teenager was one of the few who remained at the plastic tables.
  10. distress
    extreme physical discomfort
    That bonobo mother probably heard Otto’s juvenile cries of distress and came to investigate, fleeing when I arrived.
  11. stupor
    a state of being half-awake
    It was for the best that he was in too much of a stupor to reach up; if Otto had been sober, this boy might have seen that we were close, and that would raise all sorts of questions.
  12. impervious
    not admitting of passage or capable of being affected
    He was probably right, but I refused my heart its loosening, kept it tight and impervious to him.
  13. ostracize
    expel from a community or group
    In the small, isolated villages, even local people suspected of sorcery were ostracized or killed
  14. improvise
    manage in a makeshift way; do with whatever is at hand
    I tugged at Otto’s ear and he, in response to the improvised game, swung his hand in the air, making a random Z.
  15. silhouette
    an outline of a solid object as cast by its shadow
    Once we were a few hundred feet along, I could no longer detect the silhouettes of any buildings near the water’s edge, so I hoped we would be hidden if we lay out until the sun came up.
  16. chaotic
    completely unordered and unpredictable and confusing
    It was no more than a sore in the earth, broad and chaotic, gouged out by human fingernails, ounce to pound to ton.
  17. decompose
    break down
    These corpses couldn’t have been more than a day or two old and weren’t visibly decomposed, but I still shuddered to think of Otto last night, drinking water steeped in rotting flesh.
  18. parched
    extremely thirsty
    I saved one of the sleeves for myself; the few drops of water disappeared onto my parched tongue like they’d never been.
  19. pantomime
    act out without words but with gestures and bodily movements
    Through my haze of discomfort, I pantomimed some of the games he liked to play, and even though Otto was sluggish, they were soon having a companionable time.
  20. unkempt
    not neatly combed
    Her hair, once an even curve from part to shoulder, was now unkempt and frizzled at the roots and tips, smooth only in the middle.
  21. interim
    serving during an intermediate interval of time
    The army general was serving as interim president until the UN could organize elections.
  22. wizened
    lean and wrinkled by shrinkage as from age or illness
    Marie-France’s wizened old eyes crinkled in sympathy as she explained in Lingala that no one had thoroughly searched the enclosure yet, that maybe some were deep in hiding.
  23. ruckus
    the act of making a noisy disturbance
    Somewhere during the ruckus of the last few months, he’d found a muddy pair of women’s pants and spread them out to lie on, like a beach blanket.
  24. antisocial
    shunning contact with others
    Being antisocial and aggressive was a flaw in peace and an advantage in war.
  25. brandish
    exhibit aggressively
    First to bound out of the tree line was Mushie, menacingly brandishing a tiny branch.
  26. sapling
    young tree
    When he saw who it was, he dropped it and rushed me, in his excitement climbing a nearby sapling and falling off, then picking himself up and racing near, only to skid in the dirt and present his back to me to groom.
  27. renovate
    restore to a previous or better condition
    But when we went to recover and renovate it, we ... were not able to enter.
  28. infuse
    fill, as with a certain quality
    I’m trying to network with European and American travel sites to arrange group visits to my mom’s sanctuary and to the gorilla hot spots in the east, and in so doing infuse money into the economy, not the bureaucrats’ pockets where so much foreign aid ends up.
  29. extort
    obtain by coercion or intimidation
    It’s going to take a long time, so today I’ve got a ten-dollar bill in each pocket of my pants, one for each person who extorts money from me just to get out of the terminal.
  30. fiance
    a man who is engaged to be married
    My fiance is thrilled that we’re moving to Kinshasa, and once he’s here I’m sure my mom will come around.
  31. impending
    close in time; about to occur
    To stave off the impending marriage argument, I ask my mom about the sanctuary.
  32. capsize
    overturn accidentally
    There’s a lot of shouting, and the pirogues nearly capsize multiple times in the process.
  33. wean
    detach the affections of
    I weaned him off me by spending half an hour at a time out of his presence, then an afternoon, and finally days away once he was comfortable with his new friends.
  34. monogamous
    having one mate
    Bonobos aren’t monogamous, so it’s impossible to know who is whose father, but these feel like Otto’s close companions.
  35. apprehensive
    in fear or dread of possible evil or harm
    There’s nothing apprehensive about her expression; she remembers Otto and seems excited to get out and greet her old friend and his new companions.
Created on Wed Dec 31 21:23:33 EST 2014 (updated Wed Sep 05 14:57:13 EDT 2018)

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