VOCABULARY STUDY- The Great Gatsby- Chapter 6 & 7
Name:
Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Contextual Clues: Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear
in the text. Read the sentence. Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and
write what you think the underlined words mean in the space provided.
1. He saw Dan Cody’s yacht drop anchor over the most insidious flat on Lake Superior.
2. A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the wash-stand and the
moon soaked with wet light his tangled clothes upon the floor.
3. The none too savory ramification by which Ella Kaye, the newspaper woman, played Madame de Maintenon to his
weakness and sent him to sea in a yacht, were common knowledge to the turgid journalism of 1902.
4. I remember a portrait of him up in Gatsby’s bedroom, a grey, florid man with a hard empty face—the pioneer
debauchee who during one phase of American life brought back to the eastern seaboard the savage violence of the
frontier brothel and saloon.
5. The dilatory limousine came rolling up the drive.
6. The immediate contingency overtook him, pulled him back from the edge of the theoretical abyss.
7. We were listening to the portentous chords of Mendelssohn’s Wedding March from the ballroom below.
8. The music had died down as the ceremony began and now a long cheer floated in at the window, followed by the
intermittent cries of ‘Yea—ea—ea!’ and finally by a bust of jazz as the dancing began.
9. Her voice was cold but the rancor was gone from it.
10. Tom talked incessantly, exulting and laughing, but his voice was as remote from Jordan and me as the foreign
clamor on the sidewalk or the tumult of the elevated overhead.
Part II: Determining the Meaning: Match the vocabulary words to their definitions. Identify the part of speech as
well.
______ 1. Insidious
A. Unutterable; too great for words
______ 2. Ineffable
B. Pompous, inflated
______ 3. Turgid
______ 4. Debauchee
C. Of momentous or ominous significance
D. Subtle, cunning, treacherous
______ 5. Dilatory
______6. Contingency
______7. Portentous
______8.Intermittent
E. A possible but unlikely future event or
condition
F. Occurring occasionally; irregular intervals
G. Self-indulgent man (drinking, promiscuity)
______9. Rancor
______10. Tumult
H. Inclined to delay or waste time
I.
Malicious resentfulness or hostility
J.
A loud, confused noise; commotion