vocab pt.2

Question 1

undistinguished

Answer 1

(adj) common; nothing special (23)

Question 2

pretense

Answer 2

(n) pretending or feigning; make-believe; a false show of something (24)
“All pretenses but living itself have long since vanished from the very atmosphere of this room.” (24).

Question 3

exasperated

Answer 3

(adj) irritated; provoked; irked (28)

Question 4

viciously

Answer 4

(adv) with violence or fury (29)

Question 5

sullen

Answer 5

(adj) showing irritation or ill humor by a cgloomy silence or reserve (29)
“Ruth: ‘get carefareand milk money–(waving one finger)–and not a single penny for no caps, you hear me’ Travis: (with sullen politeness) ‘yes’m…’ “

Question 6

vindicated

Answer 6

(v) cleared of accusation, blame, or doubt (30)
“ (the boy finally turns around and rolls his eyes at her knowing the mood has changed and he is vindicated; he does not, however, move towards her yet)…” (30).

Question 7

proposition

Answer 7

(n) a suggested plan (33)

Question 8

vengeance

Answer 8

(n) revenge (35)

Question 9

tentatively

Answer 9

(adv) uncertainly (44)

Question 10

furtively

Answer 10

(adv) stealthily; in a way that hides motive (44)
RUTH: “(Studying her mother-in-law furtively and concentrating on her ironing, anxious to encourage without seeming to)”

Question 11

futile

Answer 11

(adj) useless (45)
MAMA: “ But Lord, child, you should know all the dreams I had ’bout buying that house and fixing it up and making me a little garden in the back—(She waits and stops smiling) And didn’t none of it happen. (Dropping her hands in a futile gesture)”

Question 12

tyrant

Answer 12

(n) dictator; harsh ruler (52)

Question 13

forlornly

Answer 13

(adv) pitifully; desperately; hopelessly (57)
“(RUTH comes in forlornly and pulls off her coat with dejection. They both turn to look at her)” (they: mama, and beneatha)

Question 14

mutilated

Answer 14

(adj) maimed; damaged (61)

Question 15

assimilationism

Answer 15

(n) belief that minority cultures should be absorbed into a dominant culture (63)

Question 16

insinuatingly

Answer 16

(adv) with more meaning than is spoken; implied (66)

MAMA ”…Lord, that’s a pretty thing just went out here! (Insinuatingly, to her daughter) Yes, I guess I see why we done commence to get so interested in Africa ’round here.”

Question 17

haphazardly

Answer 17

(adv) carelessly (66)

Question 18

arrogant

Answer 18

(adj) proud; haughty (76)

Question 19

eccentric

Answer 19

(adj) deviating from the norm; strange (80)

GEORGE “Oh, don’t be so proud of yourself, Bennie—just because you look eccentric. BENEATHA How can something that’s natural be eccentric?”

Question 20

oppressive

Answer 20

(adj) tyrannical (81)
BENEATHA: “ It means someone who is willing to give up his own culture and submerge himself completely in the dominant, and in this case oppressive culture!”

Question 21

cliché

Answer 21

(n) trite or overused expression or idea (82)

Question 22

plaintively

Answer 22

(adv) sorrowfully; pathetically (86)
“RUTH (Plaintively) Walter Lee—why don’t we just try to talk about it …”

Question 23

menacingly

Answer 23

(adv) threateningly (90)
“(MAMA clamps her lips together, and RUTH advances toward her son menacingly)”

Question 24

exuberant

Answer 24

(adj) marked by unrestrained enthusiasm (93)
“—(And she builds with momentum as she starts to circle the room with an exuberant, almost tearfully happy release”

Question 25

presumably

Answer 25

(adv) probably; reasonably supposed (96) “At rise: Packing crates mark the intention of the family to move. BENEATHA and GEORGE come in, presumably from an evening out again.”

Question 26

rebuff

Answer 26

(n) blunt refusal (96) “(He starts to kiss her, she rebuffs him again and he jumps up)”

Question 27

revelation

Answer 27

(n) new information (91, 105) “RUTH She said Mr. Arnold has had to take a cab for three days … Walter, you ain’t been to work for three days! (This is a revelation to her) Where you been, Walter Lee Younger?...”

Question 28

amiably

Answer 28

(adv) good-naturedly (114)

Question 29

ludicrous

Answer 29

(adj) ridiculous (124)

Question 30

ominous

Answer 30

(adj) menacing; threatening “still surrounded by the now almost ominous packing crates” (131).

Question 31

plunder

Answer 31

(v) to rob; to loot “just plain idiots who will come into power and steal and plunder the same as before” (134).

Question 32

wrought

Answer 32

(v) shaped; made “Yes—just look at what the New World hath wrought” (137).

Question 33

monologue

Answer 33

(n) long speech by one person

Question 34

eccentricity

Answer 34

(n) quality of being strange or unusual in behavior “BENEATHA ignores the eccentricity of his actions” (138).

Question 35

epitaph

Answer 35

(n) inscription on a tombstone “You done wrote his epitaph too” (145).