Vocabulary 1 -All Summer in a Day

They were all nine years old, and if there had been a day, seven years ago, when the sun came out for an hour and showed its face to the stunned world, they could not recall.

What does stunned mean in this sentence?

• Excited

• Worried

• Shocked

• Round

I think the sun is a flower, that blooms for just one hour.

That was Margot's poem, read in a quiet voice in the still classroom while the rain was falling outside.

"Aw, you didn't write that!" protested one of the boys.

"I did," said Margot. "I did."

Protested in this text means which of the following?

• argued

• approved

• yelled

• agreed

But that was yesterday. Now the rain was slackening, and the children were crushed in the great thick windows.

What does Slackening mean in this text?

• to tighten

• to change color

• to become stronger

• to become less active

Margot stood alone. She was a very frail girl who looked as if she had been lost in the rain for years and the rain had washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth and the yellow from her hair. She was an old photograph dusted from an album, whitened away, and if she spoke at all her voice would be a ghost.

What does frail mean in this section of text?

• very tall

• having delicate health, weak

• unfriendly

• sturdy or strong

When the class sang songs about happiness and life and games her lips barely moved. Only when they sang about the sun and the summer did her lips move as she watched the drenched windows.

What does drenched mean in this part of the text?

• soaked

• broken

• dry

• solemn

But she remembered and stood quietly apart from all of them and watched the patterning windows.

What does patterning mean in this sentence?

• opening

• cracking or breaking

• colorful

• a design

There was talk that her father and mother were taking her back to earth next year; it seemed vital to her that they do so, though it would mean the loss of thousands of dollars to her family.

What does vital mean in this text?

• full of energy

• time

• not needed

• important or necessary

And so, the children hated her for all these reasons of big and little consequence.

What does consequence mean in this sentence?

• problems

• importance

• decisions

• time