120 Words Every 11th Grader Should Know: List 5

The altercation threatened to descend into an acrimonious civil war, and I did my best to prevent a rupture. Long Walk to Freedom

Gone was the affable smile, the playful look in his eyes. The Kite Runner

But sometimes a person who seems easy is one whose calm outside belies a troubled and turbulent inside. Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers

Laila marveled at her daughter’s manner of speech, her cadence and rhythm, her thoughtful pauses and intonations, so adult, so at odds with the immature body that housed the voice. A Thousand Splendid Suns

“I contend it is a possibility, at the very least.” The Night Circus

Had she glanced at their faces, though, she would have seen not derision but admiration. Little Fires Everywhere

And with the steady advances in telecommunications, they would soon be able to disseminate their own digital content in so many new ways to so many more people. The World Is Flat

The king issued a royal edict ordering the dissolution of parliament, effective Sunday. Reuters (Sep 27, 2020)

He knew he couldn't tell stories, that he always included extraneous details and tangents that interested only him. An Abundance of Katherines

She continued her concert career for a few years, but in 1958 she took a hiatus from performing to be with her family. Washington Post (Nov 27, 2020)

After forging the blade, she had spent another three months using Transformation to engrave the weapon, imbuing it with its magical properties. The Reader

It takes intelligence and character to listen to the other side and use facts and logic rather than hatred and invective. Forbes (Sep 26, 2012)

I have never felt like this—slow-witted and languorous, dreamy, absentminded, forgetful, focused only on each moment as it comes. Orphan Train

I felt it, too: the dread, the weight of the horrors we’d seen, which replayed themselves in an endless, lurid loop in my mind. Hollow City

The least partisan voters in the survey seem to occupy the middle ground — but they are not necessarily moderates. Washington Post (Nov 9, 2021)

Monday marked the 79th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. Fox News (Dec 7, 2020)

Here, her father would seem crass, with his unnecessary big words, and her mother provincial and small. Americanah

Mr. Jones was a man of the world, and, moreover, was a wise and sagacious man of business.  Davies, R. Rice

Western ambassadors found him to be polite, stolid and rather dull. The Guardian (Jul 29, 2017)

His visage also beams down at them from a large portrait donated by demonstrators. New York Times (Sep 21, 2020)