VOCABULARY ASSIGNMENT 10 The Kite Runner 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 on the lines provided. 1. I bow to the west and kiss the ground and promise that I will do zakat, I will do namaz, I will fast during Ramadan and when Ramadan has passed I will go on fasting, I will commit to memory every last word of His holy book, and I will set on a pilgrimage to that sweltering city in the desert and bow before the Ka'bah too. 2. _________________________________________________________________ In the daytime, the hospital was a maze of teeming, angled hallways, a blur of blazing-white overhead fluorescence. 3. _________________________________________________________________ Sohrab was under twenty-four-hours-a-day suicide watch. Hospital protocol, Dr. Nawaz had informed me. 4. _________________________________________________________________ So what I took as a yes from him was in actuality more of a quiet surrender, not so much an acceptance as an act of relinquishment by one too weary to decide, and far too tired to believe. 5. _________________________________________________________________ I had been the entitled half, the society-approved, legitimate half, the unwitting embodiment of Baba's guilt. 6. _________________________________________________________________ It would be erroneous to say Sohrab was quiet. Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the VOLUME knob on life. Silence is pushing the OFF button. Shutting it down. All of it. 7. _________________________________________________________________ With time, the queries about our adopted--and decidedly eccentric--little boy had mercifully ceased, and, considering how tactless Afghan queries can be sometimes, that was a considerable relief. 8. _________________________________________________________________ With time, the queries about our adopted--and decidedly eccentric--little boy had mercifully ceased, and, considering how tactless Afghan queries can be sometimes, that was a considerable relief. 9. _________________________________________________________________ The novelty had worn off. Like dull wallpaper, Sohrab had blended into the background. _________________________________________________________________ 84 Copyright 2008 Teacher's Pet Publications, Inc. 10. Behind us, kids were scampering, and a melee of screaming kite runners was chasing the loose kite drifting high above the trees. _________________________________________________________________ Copyright 2008 Teacher's Pet Publications, Inc. 85 The Kite Runner Vocabulary Worksheet Assignment 10 Continued Part II: Determining the Meaning -- Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions. ____ 1. PILGRIMAGE A. Unintentional; accidental; not knowing; unaware ____ 2. TEEMING B. Departing from a recognized, conventional, or established norm ____ 3. PROTOCOL C. Containing error; mistaken; incorrect; wrong ____ 4. RELINQUISHMENT D. A code of correct conduct ____ 5. UNWITTING E. Something unique or new ____ 6. ERRONEOUS F. Questions; inquiries ____ 7. QUERIES G. A journey, especially a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion ____ 8. ECCENTRIC H. Abounding or swarming with something, as with people ____ 9. NOVELTY I. Giving up; surrendering ____ 10. MELEE J. A confused hand-to-hand fight or struggle among several people 86 Copyright 2008 Teacher's Pet Publications, Inc.