Unit 1: Vocabulary from Readings 3

She still held him. But she bent down enough to permit him to stoop and pick up her purse.

Then she said, “Now ain’t you ashamed of yourself?”

He looked as if he were fourteen or fifteen, frail and willow-wild, in tennis shoes and blue jeans.

In another corner of the room behind a screen was a gas plate and an icebox.

The island of Crete was ruled by King Minos, whose reputation for wickedness had spread to every shore.

King Minos wanted Daedalus to build him a palace, with soaring towers and a high, curving roof.

But when he found out the purpose of the maze in the cellar, he shuddered with horror.

They ate delectable food and wore expensive clothes.

When a bird came for the seed, Daedalus begged it to spare him one feather.

Then he gave a cry as his father nudged him off the windowsill. He plunged
downward.

Then a plume of feathers fluttered slowly down.

An ugly sweater like that, all raggedy and old, but Mrs. Price believes her.

In my head I’m thinking how long till lunchtime, how long till I can take the red sweater and throw it over the schoolyard fence, or leave it hanging on a parking meter, or bunch it up into a little ball and toss it in the alley.

My face all hot and spit coming out of my mouth because I can’t stop the little animal noises from coming out of me, until there aren’t any more tears left in my eyes, and it’s just my body shaking like when you have the hiccups, and my whole head hurts like when you drink milk too fast.