Vocabulary #8

1. emaciated - wasted away

2. surge - to rush suddenly

3. tranquil - peaceful

4. sanctuary - place of protection

5. ascend - to rise

6. malnutrition - inadequate diet

7. afflict - to trouble greatly

8. besiege - to surround

9. privation - lack of necessities

10. sinister - evil

11. ubiquitous - being everywhere at once

12. remote - distant

13. thwart - to hinder

14. harbinger - forerunner

15. malignant - becoming progressively worse

16. excruciating - agonizing

17. respite - postponement

18. reverberating - reechoing

19. fretful - worrisome

20. succumb - yield

 Emaciated         Surge           Tranquil            Sanctuary             Ascend

Enter Dr. Thomas A. Dooley

            In 1956, Look Magazine named Thomas Dooley as one of the year’s ten most outstanding men.  Just under thirty years of age at the time, Dr. Dooley had already distinguished himself by cared for a half-million sick and emaciated Vietnamese refugees.  When fighting broke out in the divided country of Vietnam, the northern Communist Viet Minh forces surged southward, scattering thousands of refugees before them.  At the time, Dr. Dooley was a lieutenant, assigned to a tranquil naval hospital in Yokosuka, Japan.  Forthwith* he volunteered for duty on a naval ship that had been chosen to transport the refugees to sanctuary in Saigon.  The curtain was beginning to ascend on Dooley’s real career.

Sample Sentences:  Use the new words in the following sentences

1. The _________ residents of the Warsaw Ghetto managed to win several skirmishes* from the Nazis.
2. A firecracker terminated* the _________ climate of the neighborhood.
3. When Richard III violated the _________ of the church to seize the princes, he exceeded his jurisdiction*. 
4. Chicago put its heaviest players up front, but they were helpless as the Giants’ line _________ toward them.
5. Inexorable* the determined climber began to _______ the Himalayan peak.

 Definitions:  Match the new words with their meanings 

6. emaciated                          _____ a. to rush suddenly

7. surge                                  _____ b. shelter

8. tranquil                              _____ c. quiet

9. sanctuary                          _____ d. abnormally thin, wasted away

10. ascend                              _____ e. to rise

Sour grapes--- to disparage* something that you cannot have (from Aesop’s fable about the fox who called the grapes sour because he could not reach them)

Marcia said that she didn’t want to be on the Principal’s Honor Roll anyway, but we knew that it was just sour grapes on her part.

8^th Week   2^nd Day

 Dooley’s Mission

            Aboard the refugee ship, Dooley’s destiny took shape.  He became painfully cognizant* of the malnutrition, disease, ignorance, and fear that afflicted the natives.  In addition, he discerned* how active the Communists had been in spreading their anti-American propaganda.  Tom Dooley pitched in to build shelters in Haiphong, and to comfort the poor Vietnamese there before that besieged city fell to the powerful Viet Minh forces.  He was seemingly unconcerned by the many privations he had to endure.  For his services, Dooley received the U.S. Navy’s Legion of Merit.  He told the story of this exciting experience in Deliver Us from Evil, a best seller that alerted America to the plight of the Vietnamese as well as to the sinister menace of communism.

Sample Sentences:   Use the new words in the following sentences.

1. The stool pigeon, the detective’s confidant* told him about the ________ plot.
2. By running up a white flag, the _______ troops indicated their desire to withdraw from the fray*.
3. Citizens of several Kentucky mountain communities are _______ by the worst poverty in the nation.
4. The emaciated* prisoners were obviously suffering from advanced _________.
5. Albert Schweitzer endured considerable _______ as a jungle doctor.

Definitions    Match the new words with their meanings

6. malnutrition                      _____ a. lack of necessities

7. afflict                                  _____ b. faulty or inadequate diet

8. besiege                               _____ c. evil, ominous

9. privation                            _____ d. to surround, hem in

10. sinister                             _____ e. to trouble greatly, to distress

To swap horses in midstream- to vote against a candidate running for reelection, to change one’s mind

The mayor asked for our support, pointing out how foolish it would be to swap horses in midstream. 

8^th Week   3^rd Day

Stymied* by Personal Sickness

            After an extensive lecture tour in 1956, Dr. Dooley returned to Laos to set up a mobile medical unit.  Because the Geneva Agreement barred the entrance of military personnel to the country, he resigned from the Navy and went to work as a civilian.  That story is told in The Edge of Tomorrow.  Next year, despirte a growing illness, the ubiquitous Dooley turned up in the remote village of Muong Sing, attempting to thwart his traditional enemies—disease, dirt, ignorance, starvation—and hoping to quell* the spread of communism.  But his trained medical eye soon told him that the pain in his chest and back was a harbinger of a malignant cancer.

Sample Sentences:   Use the new words in the following sentences

1. Sprinting all over the court, the ______ referee called one foul after the other.
2. Ben’s reprehensible* table manners led his fraternity brothers to sear him in a _______ corner of the dining room.
3. The excellent soup was a _______ of the delicious meal to follow.
4. In an attempt to ________ the voracious* ants, Ernie surrounded his house with a moat of burning oil.
5. The surgeon finally located the _______ tumor that had afflicted* his patient for many months.

Definitions   Match the new words with their meanings.

6. Ubiquitous             ____ a. distant, hidden away

7. Remote                              ____ b. being everywhere at the same time

8. Thwart                               ____ c. likely to cause death

9. Harbinger                          ____ d. to hinder, defeat

10. Malignant                        ____ e. a forerunner, advance notice

To cool one’s heels—to be kept waiting

The shrewd mayor made the angry delegates cool their heels in his outer office.

8^th Week   4^th Day

“Promises to Keep”

            From August, 1959 until his death in January, 1961, Dooley suffered almost continuous, excruciating pain.  His normal weight of 180 was cut in half, and even the pain-killing drugs could no longer bring relief.  Knowing that he did not have long to live, Dr. Dooley worked without respite on behalf of MEDICO, the organization he had founded to bring medical aid and hope to the world’s sick and needy.  The lines of Robert Frost kept reverberating in his mind during those fretful days: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep/ But I have promises to keep/ And miles to go before I sleep.”  When he finally succumbed, millions throughout the world were stunned and grief-stricken by the tragedy.

Sample Sentence  Use the new words in the following sentences

1. With _______ slowness, the minute hand inched its way around the clock.
2. The rescue team heard the miner’s voice ______ through the caves.
3. Around income tax time ________ faces are ubiquitous*.
4. The voluble* insurance salesman gave my father no _________.
5. Besieged* by debts, the corporation finally had no ________ to bankruptcy.

Definitions   Match the new words with their meanings.

6. Excruciating                      _____ a. an interval of relief, delay

7. Respite                               _____ b. worrisome, irritable

8. Reverberating                  _____ c. reechoing, resounding

9. Fretful                                _____ d. agonizing, torturing

10. Succumb                          _____ e. to give way, yield

A red herring—something that diverts attention from the main issue (a red herring drawn across a fox’s path destroys the scent)

We felt that the introduction of his war record was a red herring to keep us from inquiring into his graft.