My Life with the Chimpanzees: Chapters 8–11

by Jane Goodall
In this memoir, primatologist Jane Goodall recounts her childhood love of animals and her work with chimpanzees in Africa.

Here are links to our lists for the memoir: Chapters 1–3, Chapter 4, Chapters 5–7, Chapters 8–11
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. retaliate
    make a counterattack and return like for like
    He would threaten chimps older and stronger than he was, because he knew that if they dared to retaliate, his mother, his sister, or one of his brothers would rush to help him.
  2. wean
    gradually deprive of mother's milk
    Then Flo began to wean him.
  3. sparse
    not dense or plentiful
    Her teeth were worn to the gum, her once black hair was brown and sparse, and she was shrunken and frail-looking like a little old lady.
  4. tolerant
    forgiving under provocation
    Fifi was affectionate and protective, tolerant and playful.
  5. instinctive
    unthinking
    Some of her behavior was inherited, or instinctive.
  6. precocious
    characterized by exceptionally early development
    Frodo watched everything that big brother Freud did and often tried to do the same himself. Because he was always trying to copy Freud, Frodo became very precocious.
  7. ploy
    a maneuver in a game, conversation, or situation
    As I smiled at his ploy, I remembered eighteen-year-old Faben doing exactly the same when Flint was a baby—because Flo didn’t want to stop feasting on termites and Faben was impatient to be gone.
  8. treacherous
    dangerously unstable and unpredictable
    The Tanzanian field staff are wonderful at following the chimps, even through the most difficult places and up the steepest and most treacherous slopes.
  9. sheer
    very steep; having a prominent and almost vertical front
    They can’t follow when the chimps cross a narrow, steep-sided valley by swinging from tree to tree, or when they climb the slender vines that often hang down a sheer cliff face.
  10. chrysalis
    pupa of a moth or butterfly enclosed in a cocoon
    You can collect a caterpillar and keep it in a jar until it turns into a chrysalis.
  11. brood
    sit on (eggs)
    It is very exciting to watch a pair of birds as they go about making a nest. Don’t get too close, though, or they will leave the site, especially during the building and the brooding.
  12. ecologist
    a biologist who studies organisms and their environment
    You could become a zoologist, a biologist, an anthropologist, or an ecologist.
  13. anesthetic
    a drug that causes temporary loss of bodily sensations
    A doctor trying desperately to save someone’s life on a battlefield may have to cut off an arm or a leg without anesthetics.
  14. standoffish
    lacking cordiality; unfriendly
    The three females were more standoffish, but they didn’t seem to mind Marc coming onto their island.
  15. deforestation
    the removal of trees
    And then think how the 250,000 chimps are not all together, but separated (by deforestation) into small populations often not numbering more than 150, as at Gombe.
  16. buffet
    strike against forcefully
    On a number of occasions that meant that Spindle himself got buffeted around.
  17. noble
    having high or elevated character
    Human beings can do all sorts of wonderful and noble things—people even give their lives to help others.
  18. incidentally
    by the way (used to introduce a new topic)
    And tell me, incidentally, about you.
  19. conservation
    careful management of the environment and natural resources
    A highlight of the week was the official opening of one of our most exciting projects, TACARE, a Tanzanian reforestation, conservation, and education program.
  20. frill
    a strip of pleated material used as a decoration or a trim
    Well, that is the message I have seen in the eyes of little chimps for sale in the markets, and looking out from under the frills of the circus costumes, and from the grim prisons of the medical research labs.
Created on Tue Aug 27 10:37:39 EDT 2019 (updated Tue Aug 27 11:37:11 EDT 2019)

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