| A | B |
|---|
| vestige (noun) | trace, sign, indication, remnant |
| quaint (adjective) | old-fashioned, charming |
| raucous (adjective) | rough, harsh, disorderly |
| dilemma (noun) | having two choices neither of which is particularly desirable |
| dirge (noun) | funeral song, elegy, requiem, lament |
| brood (noun) brooding (adjective) to brood (verb) | worry, mope, dwell on//offspring |
| stanchion (noun) | scaffold, brace, buttress, pillar, column |
| morbid (adjective) mobidly (adverb) | morose, gloomy, dark, moody |
| to dwindle (verb) dwindling (adjective) | decrease, decline, diminsh, reduce, fade |
| monotony (noun) montonous (adjective) | repetitiveness, sameness, boredom, tedium |
| dire (adjective) | serious, drastic, desperate |
| morale (noun) | confidence, self-esteem, spirits |
| perturbed (adjective) | troubled, anxious, disconcerted, nervous, agitated |
| to flay (verb) | whip, lash, thrash//criticize, condemn |
| ballast (noun) | weight, counterbalance |
| formidable (adjective) | alarming, frightening, dreadful, fearsome, all-powerful |
| putrid (adjective) | rotten, decayed, decomposed, fetid |
| to molt (verb) molting (adjective) | shed |
| crevasse (noun) | ravine, gulch, valley, gap, chasm |
| vestige (noun) | Atticus and Ruby gnawed on the beef shin bones all afternoon; not a ______ of meat, gristle, or fat was left on the shanks. |
| quaint (adj.) | Morris owns a ______ book store in the Notting Hill section of London; it has been in his family for a long time, and Morris has changed it little in the past thirty years. |
| raucous (adj.) | The small crowd of cheering fans became a ______ mob of screaming thugs once the McCoys and their friends arrived at the game. |
| dilemma (noun) | Thelma faced the ____ of her rotten tooth: she could have it pulled and face the embarrassment of a jack-o-lantern smile, or she could leave it in and take the chance that an infection would develop and spread to the jaw bone. |
| dirge (noun) | A ___ floated from the church down the street; a young man had been killed in a terrible car accident, and the community was mourning the tragic loss. |
| brood (noun) | Mrs. Santino arrived at Patsy's Pizzeria with her _____ , and the waitresses argued over who would have to serve this large unruly group. |
| brooded (verb) | Jackie had been despondent at college since he arrived and ______ for hours about his decision to stick it out until the holiday break or drop out and move back home. |
| stanchions (noun) | Old wooden ___ were pulled from the swamp; they were used for years to tie up the canoes of campers who no longer visit this area because of the horrible mosquito problem. |
| morbidly (adverb) | After hours of sea sickness, Alice was _____ convinced that the feeling of nausea would never lift. |
| dwindled (verb) | When Michael's finances _____, he had to think about returning to the States after many months of wandering around Europe. |
| monotony (noun) | The ____ of the church service was puncutated by the baby's screaming; it was the only thing that kept me awake. |
| dire (adj) | The middle school is in ____ need of airconditioning; there are days when the classrooms reach temperatures above 90. It could be a calamity if all the teachers began to faint from the heat. |
| morale (noun) | Mr. LaSpada knows the importance of a heightened _____ when facing a championship game. |
| perturbed (adj) | I was really _____ when I found that a student had taken my cell phone and entered his home phone number in my address book. |
| flayed (verb) | Ms. McDougall verbally _____ Harry for spilling paint all over her front shrubs. He never thought to use a drop cloth, and they were all completely ruined. |
| ballast (noun) | Tommy insisted on carrying bags of cement in the back of his pick-up as ______ during the winter to give the flat bed extra weight. |
| formidable (adj.) | Fixing the slate roof on the old mansion was a _____ task; three men from the last crew slipped and fell to their death. It is really scary to be up there on that slippery surface. |
| putrid (adj.) | The carton of milk that was left in the garbage for a week threw off a ___ smell that almost made me gag. |
| molting (adj.) | The _____ hairs from my Aunt Mary's old mink jacket covered the floor of my cedar closet and made me realize that it was time to get rid of it. |
| crevasse (noun) | Shackleton was lucky not to have fallen in a deep ______ ; it would have been certain death for him and decreased chances for rescue for the rest of the crew. |
| plight | predicament; difficulty |
| plight (noun) | Tommy O'Toole reported on the ___ (predicament) of the family that walked one hundred miles over a long weekend to get to a medical clinic. |
| putrid (adj) | I discovered the __ remains of last week's picnic when I got in the car this morning; it absolutley reeked! |
| dire (adj) | The US Army is in ___ need (serious) of new recruits; old soldiers are retiring by the thousands. |
| formidable (adj) | Skiing the ice encrusted bumps was a __ task, one that evoked feelings of terror, for the older man, but he managed to get himself down the run safely. |
| perturbed (adj) | Mr. Sands was quite ___ when his students garbled the words to the beautiful holiday song that he had selected for the concert. |
| morale (n) | The team's ___ was low after its coach quit in the middle of the losing season. |
| brooded (v) | Emma ___ over her B+ for days; she was used to scoring A's and only A's. |
| dirge (n) | The funeral __ struck an emotional cord in all that attended; there was not a dry eye in the chapel. |
| dilemma (n) | It was a true ___; Shackleton could sail 130 miles around South Georgia in a frail boat in trecherous seas or trek twenty-nine miles across glacial terrain. |
| dwindled (v) | His fascination for the pretty new girl in class __ when he heard some of her silly answers to easy questions. |
| raucous (adj) | Tenth period PE class tends to get slightly __ ; many of the students with disciplinary problems were all scheduled for that period. What a mistake! |
| quaint (adj) | Mrs. Wilson lives in the __ cottage on top of the hill; it was built for her great grandmother in the 1840's. |
| vestige (n) | There was not a __ of good feeling between the couple after their break-up; they never spoke again and avoided each other at business meetings that they both were required to attend. |
| brood (n) | The __ of chickens clucked constantly, and the neighbors asked that they be shut up for a few hours a day so that they could enjoy some peace and quiet. |
| dwindle (infinitive) | Cara's support began to ___ when she failed to deliver on her campaign promises. |
| vestige (n) | After Tara took a new job, Jasper felt that his job lost any ____ of appeal it ever had. |
| perturbed (adj) | Harry's abundance of energy set his babysitter into a ___ state day in and day out. |
| raucous (adj) | Not often do we hear ___ laughter emanating from Mrs. Cranky's classroom. |
| molts (v) | On the average, an adult spider __ once a year, but babies lose their skin more often due to their rapidly growing bodies. |
| flayed (v) | They __ the seal carcasses, dressed them, and prepared a feast. |
| formidable (adj) | The many frightening dangers and difficulties that Tracy and Kelly encountered on the path yesterday do not seem as ___ today now that they have had a proper meal and night's rest. |
| perturbed (adj) | Somewhat ___, Ms. Ratzo ordered the children never to eat fried onion again at lunch; the classroom was unbearably stinky. |
| dilemma (noun) | Coach Sandy had a __ on his hands: use the injured Suriano to start the game or pull from his sub-par bullpen. |
| putrid (adj) | The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stirred up a concoction of __ liquid and poured in down their sewer hole to ward off predators. |
| raucous (adj) | Assemblies seem to ignite the BMS sixth graders into a __ frenzy of shouting, but Super Teach swoops down on her electric broom and calms the crowd in seconds. |
| perturbed (adj) | After sixty years of marriage to Jerry, Judy exclaimed that she was ___ because of the lack of communication in their marriage; there goes Monday night football, Jerry! |
| formidable (adj) | A ____ opponent, Hank the Crank inspired fear and awe whenever he entered the ring; Hank was a powerful grappler. |
