The Veldt Vocabulary Part 2

Use context clues to define the underlined word and choose the correct synonym to replace it in the sentence.

When I punished him a month ago by locking the nursery for even a few hours - the tantrum be threw! And Wendy too. They live for the nursery."

"It's got to be locked, that's all there is to it."

"All right." Reluctantly he locked the huge door. "You've been working too hard. You need a rest."

• hesitantly

• willingly

• quickly

• carefully

Use context clues to define the underlined word and choose the correct synonym to replace it in the sentence.

"That's just it. I feel like I don't belong here. The house is wife and mother now, and nursemaid. Can I compete with an African veldt? Can I give a bath and scrub the children as efficiently or quickly as the automatic scrub bath can? I cannot. And it isn't just me. It's you. You've been awfully nervous lately."

• productively

• slowly

• randomly

• dangerously

Choose the context clue words or phrases from the sentence that help you come to a ballpark definition of the underlined term.

"I suppose I have been smoking too much."

"You look as if you didn't know what to do with yourself in this house, either. You smoke a little more every morning and drink a little more every afternoon and need a little more sedative every night. You're beginning to feel unnecessary too."

• every night

• smoking too much

• you look as if

• feel unnecessary too

Use context clues to define the underlined word and choose the correct synonym to replace it in the sentence.

At dinner they ate alone, for Wendy and Peter were at a special plastic carnival across town and had televised home to say they'd be late, to go ahead eating. So George Hadley, bemused, sat watching the dining-room table produce warm dishes of food from its mechanical interior.

• entertained

• annoyed

• waiting

• angered

Use context clues to define the underlined word and choose the correct synonym to replace it in the sentence.

Remarkable how the nursery caught the telepathic emanations of the children's minds and created life to fill their every desire. The children thought lions, and there were lions. The children thought zebras, and there were zebras. Sun - sun. Giraffes - giraffes. Death and death.

• thoughts

• beliefs

• saddness

• fears

Use context clues to define the underlined word and choose the correct synonym to replace it in the sentence.

George Hadley stood on the African grassland alone. The lions looked up from their feeding, watching him. The only flaw to the illusion was the open door through which he could see his wife, far down the dark hall, like a framed picture, eating her dinner abstractedly.

• unaware

• smiling

• depressed

• excited

Use context clues to define the underlined word and choose the correct synonym to replace it in the sentence.

"How did your wallet get there?"

"I don't know anything," he said, "except that I'm beginning to be sorry we bought that room for the children. If children are neurotic at all, a room like that -"

"It's supposed to help them work off their neuroses in a healthful way."

• anxious

• content

• young

• hungry

Use context clues to define the underlined word and choose the correct synonym to replace it in the sentence.

"Who was it said, 'Children are carpets, they should be stepped on occasionally'? We've never lifted a hand. They're insufferable - let's admit it. They come and go when they like; they treat us as if we were offspring. They're spoiled and we're spoiled."

• unbearable

• sweet

• encouraging

• fast

Use context clues to define the underlined word and choose the correct synonym to replace it in the sentence.

"They've been acting funny ever since you forbade them to take the rocket to New York a few months ago." "They're not old enough to do that alone, I explained." "Nevertheless, I've noticed they've been decidedly cool toward us since."

• refused

• allowed

• screamed

• encourage

Use context clues to define the underlined word and choose the correct synonym to replace it in the sentence.

"That all depends."

"On what?" snapped Peter.

"On you and your sister. If you intersperse this Africa with a little variety - oh, Sweden perhaps, or Denmark or China -"

"I thought we were free to play as we wished."

"You are, within reasonable bounds."

• scatter

• destroy

• ignore

• complain