极速168赛车官方网站图片

A Likely Story: "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane used his real-life experiences as the inspiration for this tale of survival after a shipwreck. Read the full text here.

Here is a link to our lists for The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane.
35 words 1,033 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First极速168赛车 ff18fdb65698d487e49c8a9eb508bac4
Print Flashcards极速168赛车 2c19a19afa925b8c3a1fe00e145d9755

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. dejection
    a state of melancholy depression
    The injured captain, lying in the bow, was at this time buried in that profound dejection and indifference which comes, temporarily at least, to even the bravest and most enduring when, willy nilly, the firm fails, the army loses, the ship goes down.
  2. surmount
    reach the highest point of
    A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important and just as nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats.
  3. tumultuous
    characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination
    The crest of each of these waves was a hill, from the top of which the men surveyed, for a moment, a broad tumultuous expanse; shining and wind-riven.
  4. wrath
    intense anger
    The birds sat comfortably in groups, and they were envied by some in the dinghy, for the wrath of the sea was no more to them than it was to a covey of prairie chickens a thousand miles inland.
    Attributing wrath to the sea is personifying or deifying it (as if it were the Greek god Poseidon). This wrath would usually be caused by something the sailors did to hurt or disrespect the sea--which in this case, could be the war they waged and lost.
  5. capsize
    overturn accidentally
    The captain naturally wished to knock it away with the end of the heavy painter, but he did not dare do it, because anything resembling an emphatic gesture would have capsized this freighted boat, and so with his open hand, the captain gently and carefully waved the gull away.
    Here, a painter is "a line that is attached to the bow of a boat and used for tying up, during docking or towing." This definition reveals the possible irony of the scene: the bird had decided to dock on the captain's head, while the captain has nowhere to dock the dinghy. The captain wants to knock away the bird with an object intended for tying a boat securely, but if he does so, the dinghy would capsize.
  6. wallow
    rise up as if in waves
    She seemed just a wee thing wallowing, miraculously, top-up, at the mercy of five oceans.
  7. subtle
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    It would be difficult to describe the subtle brotherhood of men that was here established on the seas.
  8. cynical
    believing the worst of human nature and motives
    And after this devotion to the commander of the boat there was this comradeship that the correspondent, for instance, who had been taught to be cynical of men, knew even at the time was the best experience of his life.
  9. impetuous
    marked by violent force
    But the waves continued their old impetuous swooping at the dinghy, and the little craft, no longer under way, struggled woundily over them.
    Compare with "tumultuous"--both adjectives are used to describe the sea, but "tumultuous" describes the up and down, wind-blown movement of the waves, while "impetuous" focuses more on the violent force of these waves. "Impetuous" also means "characterized by undue haste and lack of thought"--this definition would emphasize the personification of the sea.
  10. apropos
    at an opportune time
    Shipwrecks are apropos of nothing. If men could only train for them and have them occur when the men had reached pink condition, there would be less drowning at sea.
  11. founder
    sink below the surface
    Of the four in the dinghy none had slept any time worth mentioning for two days and two nights previous to embarking in the dinghy, and in the excitement of clambering about the deck of a foundering ship they had also forgotten to eat heartily.
  12. ingenuous
    characterized by an inability to mask your feelings
    The correspondent wondered ingenuously how in the name of all that was sane could there be people who thought it amusing to row a boat.
    "Ingenuous" also means "lacking in sophistication or worldliness"--both definitions fit the correspondent, because he goes on to wonder the same point out loud, and because he seems less experienced than the others in the dinghy (which is why a large part of the story is seen through his perspective).
  13. aberration
    a disorder in one's mental state
    It was not an amusement; it was a diabolical punishment, and even a genius of mental aberrations could never conclude that it was anything but a horror to the muscles and a crime against the back.
  14. impending
    close in time; about to occur
    After a search, somebody produced three dry matches, and thereupon the four waifs rode in their little boat, and with an assurance of an impending rescue shining in their eyes, puffed at the big cigars and judged well and ill of all men.
  15. opprobrious
    expressing offensive reproach
    It is fair to say here that there was not a life-saving station within twenty miles in either direction, but the men did not know this fact and in consequence they made dark and opprobrious remarks concerning the eyesight of the nation's life-savers.
  16. epithet
    a defamatory or abusive word or phrase
    Four scowling men sat in the dinghy and surpassed records in the invention of epithets.
    "Opprobrious" and "epithet" are both used to describe the same angry, cursing mood. But the author does not give any examples of the men's cursing insults; he only includes this understatement after the cursing has run its course: "Funny they don't see us."
  17. admonition
    cautionary advice about something imminent
    "If we don't all get ashore, I suppose you fellows know where to send news of my finish?" They then briefly exchanged some addresses and admonitions.
  18. formidable
    inspiring fear or dread
    The billows that came at this time were more formidable.
  19. obstreperous
    boisterously and noisily aggressive
    His head, pillowed on a thwart, was within an inch of the swirl of a wave crest, and sometimes a particularly obstreperous sea came in-board and drenched him once more.
  20. haggard
    showing the wearing effects of overwork or care or suffering
    The cook's arm was around the oiler's shoulders, and, with their fragmentary clothing and haggard faces, they were the babes of the sea, a grotesque rendering of the old babes in the wood.
    "Haggard" also means "very thin, especially from disease, hunger or cold"--both definitions partially fit the oiler and cook (the cook is described as fat, but he is as hungry and cold as his dinghy-mates). Only the second definition fits the image from a 16th century tale: the babes in the wood are two children who escape being murdered, only to be abandoned to wander around until they die in each other's arms.
  21. contemplate
    look at thoughtfully; observe deep in thought
    "If I am going to be drowned--if I am going to be drowned--if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods, who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?"
  22. abominable
    exceptionally bad or displeasing
    During this dismal night, it may be remarked that a man would conclude that it was really the intention of the seven mad gods to drown him, despite the abominable injustice of it.
  23. maim
    injure or wound seriously and leave permanent disfiguration
    When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples.
  24. supplicant
    humbly entreating
    Then, if there be no tangible thing to hoot he feels, perhaps, the desire to confront a personification and indulge in pleas, bowed to one knee, and with hands supplicant, saying: "Yes, but I love myself."
  25. plight
    a situation from which extrication is difficult
    Myriads of his school-fellows had informed him of the soldier's plight, but the dinning had naturally ended by making him perfectly indifferent.
  26. profound
    showing intellectual penetration or emotional depth
    The correspondent, plying the oars and dreaming of the slow and slower movements of the lips of the soldier, was moved by a profound and perfectly impersonal comprehension. He was sorry for the soldier of the Legion who lay dying in Algiers.
  27. respite
    a pause from doing something
    This plan enabled the oiler and the correspondent to get respite together.
  28. bequeath
    leave or give, especially by will after one's death
    Neither knew they had bequeathed to the cook the company of another shark, or perhaps the same shark.
  29. repose
    freedom from activity
    As the boat caroused on the waves, spray occasionally bumped over the side and gave them a fresh soaking, but this had no power to break their repose.
    Compare with "respite"--the two nouns are used synonymously to describe the break from rowing that the oiler and correspondent would get, which they would use to sleep. The Latin roots show the different urgency of the words: "respite" comes from "respectus" which means "refuge" while "repose" comes from "pausare" which means "to rest."
  30. acquiesce
    agree or express agreement
    If we stay out here much longer we will be too weak to do anything for ourselves at all." The others silently acquiesced in this reasoning.
  31. beneficent
    doing or producing good
    She did not seem cruel to him, nor beneficent, nor treacherous, nor wise. But she was indifferent, flatly indifferent.
    The pronoun "she" refers to Nature. This personification makes the indifference to the men's plight seem heartless, but this is contradicted by the list of adjectives, which could be grouped into two antonymous pairs: neither beneficent nor cruel; neither wise nor treacherous ("dangerously unstable and unpredictable" or "tending to betray").
  32. plausible
    apparently reasonable, valid, or truthful
    It is, perhaps, plausible that a man in this situation, impressed with the unconcern of the universe, should see the innumerable flaws of his life and have them taste wickedly in his mind and wish for another chance.
  33. pallor
    an unnatural lack of color in the skin
    There were no hurried words, no pallor, no plain agitation.
  34. cessation
    a stopping
    In his struggle to reach the captain and the boat, he reflected that when one gets properly wearied, drowning must really be a comfortable arrangement, a cessation of hostilities accompanied by a large degree of relief, and he was glad of it, for the main thing in his mind for some moments had been horror of the temporary agony.
  35. hospitality
    kindness in welcoming guests or strangers
    The welcome of the land to the men from the sea was warm and generous, but a still and dripping shape was carried slowly up the beach, and the land's welcome for it could only be the different and sinister hospitality of the grave.
    "Warm and generous" are fitting adjectives for the land that welcomes the three survivors from the dinghy. The adjective "sinister" ("stemming from evil characteristics or forces") is not usually associated with hospitality, but it also fittingly describes the land that provides the oiler with a grave.
Created on 四月 11, 2014 (updated 八月 6, 2018)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner 一分钟极速历史开奖直播, gold-punch.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.