Unit 8: Vocabulary from Readings

This list covers "Legend of the Feathered Serpent," "Pecos Bill," "Where the Girl Rescued Her Brother," "Blackbeard’s Last Fight," and "Paul Bunyan of the North Woods."
16 words 6 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. exquisite
    lavishly elegant and refined
    The song of his beloved birds, the exquisite perfume from his gardens and the flavorful feasts no longer provided Moctezuma with joy or pleasure.
  2. prophecy
    a prediction uttered under divine inspiration
    The voices of the prophecy haunted his long days and sleepless nights.
  3. mortal
    a human being
    He who was called the mighty Feathered Serpent by their ruler was but a mad and ruthless mortal.
  4. perpetrator
    someone who commits wrongdoing
    Itauqui’s body trembled with anger and he readied himself to strike against the perpetrators.
  5. maneuver
    act in order to achieve a certain goal
    The poets, musicians and dancers helped with their tired arms and bleeding hands until they maneuvered the statue into the hole.
  6. homestead
    dwelling that is usually a farmhouse and adjoining land
    The new family settled about fifty miles from where Bill’s folks had built their homestead.
  7. cyclone
    a violent rotating windstorm
    “It’s just a cyclone,” Pecos Bill told his horse, patting the golden neck.
  8. quiver
    shake with fast, tremulous movements
    It stuck there, quivering, just long enough for Bill to reach out and grab it.
  9. ally
    an associate who provides cooperation or assistance
    She knew that today they were on their way to meet their old allies, the Lakota.
  10. determined
    characterized by great firmness of purpose
    But confronted by that determined group of women, the grizzly bear stopped in its tracks.
  11. retreat
    pull back or move away or backward
    From one side to the other, groups of men attacked and retreated as the guns cracked, cannons boomed, and smoke filled the air.
  12. ravage
    cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
    Of the many pirates who ravaged the coast of North Carolina during the early years of the eighteenth century, by far the most fearsome was Blackbeard.
  13. tuft
    a bunch or cluster of strands, as of grass, hair, etc.
    Sometimes to make himself even more horrible, he would attach slow-burning fuses to some ragged tuft of his inky beard to give the impression he was about to blow up.
  14. cow
    subdue or overcome by affecting with fear or awe
    Governor Charles Eden was so cowed by this scurvy villain that he let him roam at will along the coast.
  15. apparition
    a ghostly appearing figure
    Who made Paul Bunyan, who gave him birth as a myth, who joked him into life as the Master Lumberjack, who fashioned him forth as an apparition easing the hours of men amid axes and trees, saws and lumber?
  16. shanty
    a small crude shelter used as a dwelling
    He grew up in shanties, around the hot stoves of winter, among socks and mittens drying, in the smell of tobacco smoke and the roar of laughter mocking the outside weather.
Created on Mon Feb 22 11:23:17 EST 2021 (updated Thu Feb 25 14:29:38 EST 2021)

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