Mastering Key Vocabulary and Textual Analysis

Key Vocabulary by Category

Official Authority, Government, and Law

• Inquisition: A period of prolonged and intensive questioning or investigation.
• Insurrection: A violent uprising against an authority or government.
• Junta: A military or political group that rules a country after taking power by force.
• Municipal: Relating to a city or town or its governing body.
• Lobby: To seek to influence a politician or public official on an issue.
• Oligarchy: A small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution.
• Ordinance: A piece of legislation enacted by a municipal authority.
• Ratify: To sign or give formal consent to (a treaty, contract, or agreement), making it officially valid.
• Regime: A government, especially an authoritarian one.
• Sanction: A threatened penalty for disobeying a law or rule; official permission or approval for an action.
• Sovereign: A supreme ruler, or possessing supreme or ultimate power.
• Suffrage: The right to vote in political elections.
• Triumvirate: A group of three powerful men sharing power.
• Summons: An order to appear before a judge or magistrate, or a call to duty.

Words, Spoken or Written Communication

• Jargon: Special words or expressions used by a particular profession or group that are difficult for others to understand.
• Litany: A long, tedious, or repetitive recital or list.
• Malapropism: The mistaken use of a word in place of a similar-sounding one, often with unintentionally amusing effect.
• Nomenclature: The devising or choosing of names for things, especially in a science or other discipline.
• Oxymoron: A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g., 'jumbo shrimp').
• Panegyric: A public speech or published text in praise of someone or something.
• Parable: A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson.
• Pontificate: To express one's opinions in an arrogant or pompous way.
• Prattle: Talk at length in a foolish or inconsequential way.
• Query: A question, especially one addressed to an official or organization.
• Repartee: Conversation or replies that are quick and witty.
• Sarcasm: The use of irony to mock or convey contempt.
• Salutation: A gesture or utterance made as a greeting or acknowledgment of another's arrival or departure.
• Shibboleth: A custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people.
• Synopsis: A brief summary or general survey of something.
• Syntax: The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.
• Thesis: A statement or theory that is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved.

Religious Concepts and Terms

• Karma: The sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.
• Mystic: A person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the Deity or the absolute.
• Nirvana: (In Buddhism) A transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth.
• Occult: Supernatural, mystical, or magical beliefs, practices, or phenomena.
• Paranormal: Denoting events or phenomena such as telekinesis or clairvoyance that are beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding.
• Phantasm: A product of fantasy; a deceptive or illusory appearance.
• Pilgrimage: A journey to a sacred place or shrine.
• Sect: A group of people with somewhat different religious beliefs (typically regarded as heretical) from those of a larger group to which they belong.
• Specter: A ghost or phantom.
• Surreal: Having the qualities of surrealism; bizarre.
• Uncanny: Strange or mysterious, especially in an unsettling way.
• Shrine: A place regarded as holy because of its association with a divinity or a sacred person or relic, typically marked by a building or other construction.
• Seminary: A college that prepares students to be priests, ministers, or rabbis.

Money and Possessions

• Materialistic: Excessively concerned with material possessions and wealth.
• Miser: A person who is excessively greedy and hoards money, often to the point of being extremely frugal or stingy.
• Plunder: To steal goods from (a place or person), typically using force and in a time of war or civil disorder.
• Remuneration: Money paid for work or a service.
• Stipend: A fixed regular sum paid as a salary or allowance, typically to a clergyman or teacher.
• Subsidize: To support (an organization or activity) financially.
• Underwrite: To sign and accept liability under (an insurance policy), thus guaranteeing payment in case loss or damage occurs.
• Usury: The illegal action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest.

Travel and Motion

• Jaunt: A short excursion or journey for pleasure.
• Meander: To wander aimlessly or casually without urgent destination.
• Momentum: The quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity.
• Odyssey: A long and eventful or adventurous journey or experience.
• Peregrination: A journey, especially a long or meandering one.

Conflict and Rebellion

• Insurrection: A violent uprising against an authority or government.
• Junta: A military or political group that rules a country after taking power by force.
• Melee: A confused fight or scuffle.
• Nemesis: The inescapable agent of someone's or something's downfall.
• Oust: To drive out or expel (someone) from a position or place.
• Pummel: To strike repeatedly with the fists.
• Reprisal: An act of retaliation.
• Rout: A disorderly retreat of defeated troops; a decisive defeat.
• Skirmish: An episode of irregular or unpremeditated fighting, especially between small or outlying parts of armies or fleets.
• Vanquish: To defeat thoroughly.
• Vie: To compete eagerly with someone in order to achieve something.

Specific Term Definitions

• Viscous: Having a thick, sticky consistency between solid and liquid (e.g., honey).
• Effervescent: Bubbly, fizzy, or lively (e.g., very soapy water).
• Pungent: Having a sharply strong taste or smell (e.g., vinegar, smell of gym socks).
• Pliable: Easily bent; flexible.
• Stymied: Prevented or hindered from accomplishing something; discouraged.
• Scorn: The feeling or expression of contempt or disdain for someone or something.

Character and Role Definitions

• Perpetrator: A person who committed an act or crime.
• Savant: A learned person, especially one with profound knowledge in a particular area.
• Nomad: A person who wanders from place to place; a member of a people having no permanent abode.
• Reprobate: A wicked or unprincipled person.
• Liaison: A person who works as a connection or intermediary between others.
• Miser: A person who is excessively greedy and hoards money, often to the point of being extremely frugal or stingy.
• Protégé: A person who is guided and supported by an older and more experienced or influential person.
• Layman: A person who attends church but is not a member of the priesthood.

Literary Works and Analysis Notes

Short Story References

• My First Day in Hell by Jack Handey
• The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury

Poetry Analysis Notes

"Nobody"

• Rhyme Scheme: ABCB
• Meter: Lines 1, 3, 4 break common meter; Line 2 is perfect common meter.

"Death"

• Meter: Lines 1, 3: iambic tetrameter; Lines 2, 4: iambic trimeter.

"Fly"

• Meter: Common meter (iambic tetrameter + iambic trimeter)
• Rhyme: Imperfect rhyme
• Techniques: Imagery, paradox, onomatopoeia, sensory details.

Textual Analysis Insights

"Declaration" (Possibly Declaration of Independence)

• 1D: "Life, Liberty"
• 2C: Colonists' request
• 3B: 43 in every
• 4C: Introduction
• 5A: Absence
• 6D: Total
• 7B: Change
• 8A: Impartial
• 9B: Condemn
• 10C: Damaged
• 11C: 62 enemies

"Mars"

• 1A: Life
• 2B: 12 twin
• 3D: Could not
• 4C: 45 this
• 5C: Little chance
• 6B: Very dry
• 7C: Function
• 8B: Result
• 9A: Imperfect
• 10B: Mars'
• 11C: Mars' at

"Kazuo" (Possibly Kazuo Ishiguro's work)

• 1B: Example
• 2D: Restrain
• 3D: 53 my father
• 4A: Nervous
• 5A: 12 oil
• 6C: Hasn't
• 7C: Adjusting
• 8D: Tell
• 9C: Reinforce
• 10B: Emotionless

"EU History"

• 1B: Restrictive
• 2C: 43 foremost
• 3D: Limited
• 4A: Offer
• 5D: Unfixed
• 6B: 55 throughout
• 7C: Control
• 8C: Keen
• 9D: Circumstance
• 10A: Attitude
• 11A: Structure

"Protein"

• 1B: Feature
• 2D: Both
• 3A: Nearby
• 4C: Only benefit
• 5C: 79 Because
• 6D: Maintain
• 7B: Significant
• 8A: Informs
• 9B: Saying
• 10C: 71 only
• 11D: Gather