Grade 11-12: Vocabulary Lesson for Tuesday, Week 4

Word List 4

1. auspicious: attended by favorable circumstances; marked by success; prosperous
2. epiphany: a sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something; a sudden intuitive realization
3. usurp: to seize and hold by force without legal authority; to take over or occupy without right
4. reciprocal: performed, experienced, or felt by both sides; interchanged, given or owed to each other
5. vortex: a spiral motion of fluid within a limited area; a place or situation drawing into its center all that surrounds it
6. tempestuous: relating to, or resembling a tempest; tumultuous; stormy
7. bellicose: warlike or hostile in manner or temperament

Tuesday Activities

1. Make Flashcards - Write the word on one side of an index card and put the definition and a sentence on the opposite side You can find ideas for making flashcards on the Internet by clicking on the link
2. Write the vocabulary words on paper and cut them into individual word pieces. Lay your flash cards on the table with the definition side up. Match the paper words with the correct definition.
3. Write your vocabulary words in alphabetical order in your vocabulary notebook. Write your own definition beside each word.

Other Help

If you need more information on your words, click on the link to use a on-line dictionary.

Use the daily activities to help you remember words that you learn each week. It is much easier to remember what the words mean if you do something with them and use them frequently in talking with your parents, family and friends.

Sample sentences:

On Friday the thirteenth I was born into a poor family; hardly an auspicious beginning to life.
Hoping to provide an auspicious beginning to life, my uncle named his son Rich Man.

Seconds before the buzzer on Jeopardy the answer popped into my mind like an epiphany.
A chance encounter with a homeless man provided an epiphany that guided the founder of Meals on Wheels.

The dictator executed anyone who attempted to usurp his power.
The gang leader's greatest fear was that one of his assistants would usurp his position.

In reciprocal link agreements web sites provide links to each other on their sites.
As a change of pace the local pizza restaurant has a reciprocal agreement with a fried chicken restaurant; each providing lunch for the other's employees.

The tornado's vortex became a swirling mass filled with many loose objects.
The whirlpool's vortex pulled the tiny boat in ever tightening spirals.

The diva's tempestuous behavior kept everyone on the set on edge.
I was glad to be safely on land after flying through the swirling, tempestuous sky above Tampa.

The bellicose nature of General Hamid made diplomacy extremely difficult.
Although he was an excellent skater, the bellicose nature of the hockey player kept him in the penalty box for much of the last period.

 
 

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