The Century Vocabulary Builder Part 31

. (With this group compare the _Speak_ and _Talk_ groups, below.)

_Sentences_: It was something I merely ____ in pa.s.sing; I would not ____ to it. I could not ____ in court, and therefore had to ____ before a notary. The scientist ____ that a seismograph will infallibly record earthquakes. He solemnly ____ that he would not ____ exemption from the draft.

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_Sentences_: The gorgeous parade ____ the boy. "____, ____, little star." He was witty that night; he fairly ____ At this compliment the old lady ____. "Now fades the ____ landscape on the sight." A rocket ____ in the darkness. She ____ her elderly wooer a look of defiance; then her eyes softened and ____ with amus.e.m.e.nt. "All that ____ is not gold." "How far that little candle throws his beams! So ____ a good deed in a naughty world.". The old man ____ into sudden anger.

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_Sentences_: A newspaper must be careful not to ____ any one. Too many supposedly religious people ____ their fellow believers. I do not ____ your motives. He ____ the character of everybody who chances to possess one.

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_Sentences_: The ____ of the flowers in the vase mingled with the ____ of boiling cabbage in the kitchen. The ____ of spring is on the meadows. So keen was the hound's sense of ____ that he quickly picked up the ____ again. Any smoker likes the ____ of a good cigar. The ____ of the handkerchief was delicate. Though it was a disagreeable ____, I should hardly call it a[n] ____. The ____ of spices told him that his mother was baking his favorite cake, and he also detected the ____ of coffee. The ____ of the ocean was in the air. He sniffed the ____ of frying bacon.

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_Sentences_: "They learn in suffering what they teach in ____."

The mother crooned a[n] ____ to her babe. The Highland girl sang a moving old ____ wors.h.i.+pers sang a[n] ____ of praise. Charles Wesley wrote many ____. As I approached the cathedral, I could hear the ____ of lark's outside and the ____ of the choir within. "Our sweetest ____ are those that tell of saddest thought." "A[n] ____ for her the doubly dead in that she died so young."

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(With this group compare the _Say_ group, above, and the _Talk_ group, below.)

_Sentences_: "His virtues Will ____ like angels trumpet-tongu'd against The deep d.a.m.nation of his taking-off." "Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest, ... Come I to ____ in Caesar's funeral." "Ay me! what act, That ____ so loud and ____ in the index?" "Hadst thou thy wits and didst ____ revenge, It could not move thus." "Thou canst not ____ of that thou dost not feel." "Nay, if thou'lt mouth, I' ____ as well as thou."

While the politician ____ in the senate chamber upon theoretical ills, the agitator outside ____ the mob about actual ones. "For murder, though it have no tongue, will ____ With most miraculous organ."

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_Sentences_: Large sums were ____ in rebuilding the devastated regions of France. ____ your money, but do not ____ it. One should not ____ more than one earns. The king ____ great sums upon his favorites. The political boss ____ the money among his henchmen. "The younger son ...

____ his substance with riotous living."

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_Sentences_: A ____ in the crystal. The ____ of Cain. A life free from ____. "Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black and grained ____ As will not leave their tinct." From the standpoint of theatrical effectiveness _A ____ in the 'Scutcheon_ is one of the best of Browning's plays. An eruption of the skin made a yellow ____ on his right hand. Dragging my sleeve across the fresh ink had made a ____ upon the page. The ____ of foam by the roadside proved that his horse had been going fast. The ____ at the end of his fingers told me he was a cigarette-smoker. On the left foreleg of the horse was a slight ____.

_Sentences_: The Israelites ____ in Egypt. He ____ to chat with us, but could not ____ overnight. I ____ in a wretched tavern. "I can ____, I can ____ but a night." "I did love the Moor to ____ with him." "He that shall come will come, and will not ____." "I will ____ in the house of the Lord forever." "If ye ____ in me, and my words ____ in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my G.o.d, than to ____ in the tents of wickedness." The guests ____ in the cheerful drawing-room.

. (With this group, which excludes the idea of violence, compare the _Robber_ group, above.)

_Sentences:_ I am of raid that our son ____ the purse from the gentleman. No one knows how long the cas.h.i.+er has been ____ the funds of the bank. To take our money on such unsound security is to ____ us. He slyly ____ a handkerchief or two. This paragraph is clearly ____. "Thou shalt not ____." Many government employees seem to think that to ____ is their privilege and prerogative. The crown jewels have been ____, She ____ a number of petty articles. A well-known detective story by Poe is called _The ____ Letter._ "Who ____ my purse ____ trash.... But he that ____ from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed." "A cut-purse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem ____, And put it in his pocket!"

_Sentences_: ____ him into the middle of next week. He ____ and ____ the poor beast unmercifully. "As of some one gently ____, ____ at my chamber door." "Unto him that ____ thee on the one cheek offer also the other." "Bid them come forth and hear me, Or at their chamber door I'll ____ the drum Till it cry sleep to death." "One whom I will ____ into clamorous whining." "____ for your altars and your fires!" By means of heavy stones the squaws ____ the corn into meal.

_Sentences_: "Between us and our hame [home], Where sits our ____, ____ dame, Gathering her brows like gathering storm, Nursing her wrath to keep it warm." A ____ old bachelor. A ____ Scotchman. He hated all men; he was truly ____. He sat ____ and silent all day; by nightfall he was truly ____.

(With this group compare the _Say_ and _Speak_ groups, above.)

_Sentences_: It was a queer a.s.sembly, and from it arose a queer medley of sounds: the baby was ____, the old crone ____, the gossip ____, the embarra.s.sed young man ____, the child ____ the tale-bearer ____, the hostess ____ with the most distinguished guest, and the trickster ____ with his intended victim. "Blest with each talent and each art to please, And born to write, ____, and live with ease." "I wonder that you will still be ____ Signor Bened.i.c.k; n.o.body marks you."

_Sentences_: The explosion of the sh.e.l.l ____ his flesh. The tailor ____ the garment along the seam. I'll ____ this paper into bits. Those savages would ____ you limb from limb. She ____ her dress on a nail. The cogs caught his hand and ____ it. How could such reproaches fail to ____ my feelings?

_Sentences_: Suddenly he ____ the glittering coins away. Goliath learned to his cost that David could ____ a stone. The explosion of the gunpowder ____ the bullet from the gun. "____ down your cups of Samian wine!" The children amused themselves by ____ the ball back and forth. He ____ himself dejectedly into a seat. The thief ____ a glance beside him.

The mischievous boy ____ a stone through the window. They ____ some of the cargo overboard to lighten the boat. The eager fisherman ____ the fly for the trout. The untidy fellow ____ the towel in a corner.

(This group limits the field of the _Punish_ group in Exercise A, and extends the list of synonyms.)

_Sentences_: The drunken driver ____ the excited horses. The zealot was accustomed to ____ himself. The ruler bade that the Christians be ____. The teacher ____ the small children gently, but he unsparingly ____ the big ones. "My father hath ____ you with whips, but I will ____ you with scorpions." The bully was always ____ men smaller than himself till one of them turned on him and ____ him thoroughly.

_Sentences:_ "I am fled From this ____ world, with ____ worms to dwell." A[n] ____ a.s.sault. "The ____ prize itself Buys out the law." It was, though not a[n] ____ act, a most ____ one. "There the ____ cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest."

_Sentences:_ The plan had all the faults of ____ judgment. Many great authors have written books of ____ fiction. The bird, which was still ____, was of course unable to fly. "Such sights as ____ poets dream On summer eves by haunted stream." He was in that ____ stage of development when one is neither a boy nor a man. "I was so ____, I loved him so, I had No mother, G.o.d forgot me, and I fell." He made a[n] ____ attempt to impress them with his importance. "Bacchus ever fair, and ever ____."

A red necktie gave him a more ____ appearance. The self-satisfied air of a[n] ____ youth is often trying to his elders.

EXERCISE D

In this exercise each group of synonyms is followed by quotations from authoritative writers in which the words are discriminatingly employed.

Find the meaning of each italicized word in these quotations, and differentiate the word accurately from the others in that group.