Name _____________________
Date ___________ Period _____
10th Grade Vocabulary Study – Unit 3
I. Sentence Completion and Context Clues: Use the context clue(s) to determine which word from
your list best completes each sentence. Write your answer neatly on the line. Spelling and
capitalization DO count!
1. Robin Hood was a _____________________who led a group of men to rob from the rich and give to the poor.
2. The _______________chap stick made Ursula’s chapped lips feel smooth.
3. The girl was the ________________ of the bully’s hard punch.
4. The student ______________(ed) the assignment by using sloppy handwriting.
5. The patrons will ____________________ Netflix until the company lowers their prices.
6. Another name for a class clown is a _________________________ because he likes to pull tricks on others in a poor
attempt to make them laugh.
7. “_____________________the horse, do not ride side-saddle,” said the trainer to the little girl.
8. My aunt always sends me ____________________, or ugly ornaments for Christmas.
9. The player saw his shattering a baseball as an ___________________ that they will win the game.
10. My grandfather used to __________________baseball cards with his friends until he received the player he wanted.
II. Synonyms and Antonyms: Provide a term from this week’s list on the blank provided.
SYNONYMS
1. to prohibit - _____________________________2. a joker - _____________________________
3. abrupt - ________________________________4. helpful - _____________________________
5. a knickknack - __________________________
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ANTONYMS
6. to beautify - ___________________________7. a lie - _________________________________
8. police- _______________________________ 9. peaceful scene - ________________________
10. below - _____________________________
III. Word Power: Using the definition for each word part as a starting point, answer the following questions.
1. A body of departments working together as one company is called a __________________________________.
2. Something that is beyond the normal is called an _______________________________________ event.
3. A Decalogue is a basic set of _______________ rules carrying binding authority.
4. Merchandise that is only on display at certain times of the year, because it relates to a particular season is
called ____________________________ merchandise.
5. If you had to decode the word incapable, what does the in- prefix mean? __________________
What does the suffix –able mean? _______________________________
IV. Reading Comprehension – Read the passage then answer the following questions.
From My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass
The slave mother can be spared long enough from the field to endure all the bitterness of a mother’s anguish, when it adds
another name to a master’s ledger, but not long enough to receive the joyous reward afforded by the intelligent smiles of her
child. I never think of this terrible interference of slavery with my infantile affections, and in diverting them from their
natural course, without feelings to which I can give no adequate expression.
I do not remember to have seen my mother at my grandmother’s at any time. I remember her only in her visits to me
at Col. Lloyd’s plantation, and in the kitchen of my old master. Her visits to me there were few in number, brief in duration,
and mostly made in the night. The pains she took, and the toil she endured, to see me, tells me that a true mother’s heart was
hers, and that slavery had difficulty in paralyzing it with unmotherly indifference.
My mother was hired out to a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles from old master’s, and, being a field hand,
she seldom had leisure, by day, for the performance of the journey. The nights and the distance were both obstacles to her
visits. She was obliged to walk, unless chance flung into her way an opportunity to ride; and the latter was sometimes her
good luck. But she always had to walk one way or the other. It was a greater luxury than slavery could afford, to allow a
black slave mother a horse or a mule, upon which to travel twenty-four miles, when she could walk the distance. Besides, it
is deemed a foolish whim for a slave mother to manifest concern to see her children, and, in one point of view, the case is
made out—she can do nothing for them. She has no control over them; the master is even more than the mother, in all
matters touching the fate of her child. Why, then, should she give herself any concern? She has no responsibility. Such is the
reasoning, and such the practice. The iron rule of the plantation, always passionately and violently enforced in that
neighborhood, makes flogging the penalty of failing to be in the field before sunrise in the morning, unless special
permission be given to the absenting slave. “I went to see my child,” is no excuse to the heart of the overseer.
Recalling Facts
1. Slave masters wanted
slave women to
a. love their children.
b. educate their children.
c. have children
2. The narrator couldn’t recall
his mother
a. visiting at his grandmother’s.
b. ever visiting him.
c. loving him.
3. The narrator saw his mother
mostly
a. at night
b. in the morning.
c. during the summer.
4. The narrator’s mother worked for
a. herself
b. Mr. Stewart
c. Colonel Lloyd
5. The penalty for failing to show
up for work on time was
a. lost privileges. b. confinement.
c. a flogging.
Understanding the Passage
6. To the master, slave women were
a. unproductive.
b. completely helpless.
c. like farm animals.
7. The narrator
a. accepted the conditions of slavery.
b. could barely control his rage.
c. never saw his mother.
8. The narrator’s mother
a. truly loved him.
b. could barely control his rage.
c. never saw his mother.
9. Slaves usually traveled by
a. horse.
b. mule.
c. foot.
10. Overseers of slaves were
a. hardhearted.
b. well-meaning..
c. easily bribed.
.