The Life of Pi - Part 1 (Vocabulary)

Part 1

(Chapter 1, page 3): “My suffering left me sad and gloomy.”: Gloomy means depressing, this word is more useful than another word because is a feeling that all human beings feel in any moment of our lives.

(Chapter 4, page 12): “The riot of flowers is incessant.”
Incessant means never stopping. When someone never stops bothering you or harassing you, you can use wisely this adjective.

(Chapter 5, page 23): “I repeated the stunt with every teacher.”
Stunt is a dangerous and difficult action that somebody does to entertain people, especially as part of a film or movie. This next quote uses this word very assertive: - “As much as possible, I try to encourage people to use stunt men because that is really their job.” Sammy Neill

(Chapter 7, page 25): “Mr. Kumar was the first avowed atheist I ever met.”
Avowed means that something has been admitted or stated in public, for example when you avow your love for someone you really love and want to spend the rest of your life with.

(Chapter 8, page 31): “There was so many eager, curious hands that pulled at the curtain that we had to replace it regularly.”
Eager means to do something very interested and excited by something that is going to happen about something you want to do. This is a very useful word because when you really want something you are eager.

(Chapter 9, page 39): “The key aim is to diminish an animal’s flight distance, which is the minimum distance at which an animal wants to keep a perceived enemy.”
Aim is the purpose of doing something, like the objective. So instead of saying “the objective of this”, you can use instead “the aim of this”, and it is, as well, a very useful word.

(Chapter 12, page 42): “Each time is the same: my taste buds shrivel up and die, my skin goes beet red, my eyes well up with tears, my head feel like a house on fire, and my digestive tract starts to twist and groan in agony like a boa constrictor that has swallowed a lawn mower.”

Shrivel means to become or make something dry and wrinkled. This word is useful because you don’t always mean it to refer to a plant but also to a person.
Beet is a plant with a root that is used as a vegetable; you can use this to refer to your appearance, when you get flushed like Pi.
Groan is to make a long deep sound because you are annoyed, upset or in pain, or with pleasure. This word is very useful because you groan many times during your whole life, it depends on the feelings mentioned before.
Swallowed means to make food, drink go down your throat into your stomach. This happens every day in our lives so it’s a very important word.

(Chapter 16, page 47): “If there is a change, it is usually for the lesser rather than the grater, many people seem to lose God along life’s way.”
Lesser is not as great in size, amount or importance as something else, it is a very useful word because you can compare anything with it.

(Chapter 16, page 49): “The night is dark, the fire in their midst roars and crackles, the beat of the music gets ever faster.”
Midst is the middle part of something. You can use this word in any context you are anytime.

(Chapter 16, page 49): “She was my foster mother.”
Foster mother is the one who has raised you since you were a child. You have one when you don’t have a mother of your own and when you grow you don’t know how to thank her.

(Chapter 23, page 67): “Those were drooling epileptic fits brought on by the swaying of his camel, not divine revelation.”
Drooling is to let saliva come out of your mouth. This happens most of the times in babies or when you say, for example, you are drooling for him, it is because you are totally in love with him.

(Chapter 26, page 74): “’Good grief,’ she said.”
Grief is a feeling of great sadness, especially when somebody dies, so when a familiar or someone very special for us dies we can say we have a lot of grief.