Vocabulary List #3 for Life of Pi

Life of Pi Vocabulary List #3

1.      idle: not in active use

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: But an idle mind tends to sink, so the mind should be kept occupied with whatever light distraction may suggest itself.

2.      tethered: confined or restricted with or as if with a rope or chain

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:: I brought out a second rope and tethered the raft to the lifeboat with it.

3.      capacity: ability to perform or produce

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The stills looked pretty and very technological as they floated on the water, but they also looked flimsy, and I was doubtful of their capacity to produce fresh water.

4.      sentient: endowed with feeling and unstructured consciousness

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: It was the first sentient being I had ever killed.

5.      placidly: in a quiet and tranquil manner

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Indeed, as they floated placidly in an arc, they looked almost like cows grazing in a field.

6.      algae: primitive chlorophyll-containing mainly aquatic eukaryotic organisms lacking true stems and roots and leaves:

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The smell of spent hand-flare shells, and prayers at dawn, and the killing of turtles, and the biology of algae, for example.

7.      sextant: a measuring instrument for measuring the angular distance between celestial objects; resembles an octant

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The castaway was to his mind an experienced sailor who, compass, chart and sextant in hand, knew how he found his way into trouble, if not how he would get out of it.

8.      ambit: an area in which something acts or operates or has power or control: "the range of a supersonic jet"

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Fish that were local in their ambit made the net their neighborhood, and the quick ones, the ones that tended to streak by, the dorados, slowed down to visit the new development.

9.      carapace: hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as arthropods and turtles

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: I did it by bringing the victim alongside the bow of the boat, carapace against hull, and tying a rope to its neck, a front flipper and a back flipper.

10.  ordeal: a severe or trying experience

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: But there was only the survival manual, which I must have read ten thousand times over the course of my ordeal.

11.  revulsion: intense aversion

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: My body developed a revulsion for salt that I still experience to this day.

12.  acrid: strong and sharp; "the pungent taste of radishes"

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The taste was acrid, but it wasn’t that.

13.  gregarious: (of animals) tending to form a group with others of the same species

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: But to know that and to apply it are two very different things (and it’s a useless bit of knowledge if you’re hoping to stare down a gregarious cat.)

14.  unambiguous: admitting of no doubt or misunderstanding; having only one meaning or interpretation and leading to only one conclusion

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Treatment should be repeated until the association in the animal’s mind between the sound of the whistle and the feeling of intense, incapacitating nausea is fixed and totally unambiguous.

15.  malaise: physical discomfort (as mild sickness or depression)

EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Just one shrill blow and you will see your animal shudder with malaise and repair at top speed to the safest, furthest part of its territory.