The Life of Pi - Part 3 (Vocabulary)

Part 3
(Chapter 99, page 294): “’I’m sorry to say it so bluntly, we don’t mean to hurt your feelings…’”
Bluntly means being honest. Sometimes when we are blunt we may hurt other people’s feelings, so when we say something, we have to say it carefully.

(Chapter 99, page 296): “Clearly it was a strain.”
Strain means injury or damage, instead of saying damage we can say strain, for something we did wrong and we want to repair.

(Chapter 99, page 297): “If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for? Isn’t love hard to believe?”
Believability is the ability of believing in something, I honestly don’t have that ability, because it’s hard for me to believe in what other people say.

(Chapter 99, page 300): “You’re bringing our service into disrepute!”
Disrepute is like disfavor or disgrace, so when Mr. Chiba says this it is because his friend is doing bad work.

(Chapter 99, page 300): “They were meerkats.”
Meerkats are small, burrowing South African carnivores, of a grayish color with dark bands across the back, related to mongooses and having social behavior similar to that of prairie dogs.

(Chapter 99, page 304): “’’His right leg was badly broken at the thigh.”
Thigh is the part of the leg between the hip and the knee.

(Chapter 99, page 305): “I couldn’t believe a human being could survive so much pain, so much butchery.”
Butchery is brutal or wanton slaughter of animals or humans, carnage. So this means Pi was in a terrible situation.

(Chapter 99, page 307): “The dead flesh was too decayed to hold to the fishing hook; it simply dissolved in the water.”
Decay is to decline in quality, health, etc. So the body was almost dying.

(Chapter 99, page 313): “Can anyone fathom the workings of a drunken man’s mind?”
Fathom is to understand, to penetrate to the truth of; comprehend.

(Chapter 100, page 319): “…his story is unparalleled in the history of shipwrecks.”
Shipwrecks are the remains of a wrecked ship.