PSAT: Commonly Confused Words: List 6

Drums beat and fifes blew and beneath everything was the steady clockwork blast of the British cannons firing at the troops stationed north of us. Chains

By then I’d read Chancellor Williams, J. A. Rogers, and John Jackson—writers central to the canon of our new noble history. Between the World and Me

The movie’s climactic moment features a dark-cloaked hero chasing a villain in white on horseback, finally toppling him from his horse in front of a church. Salon

If these climatic and geological disasters occurred throughout the Norte Chico, they could have brought to an end the civilization that began in the area two millennia before. 1491

So Theseus became King of Athens, a most wise and disinterested king. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes

But when she tried to engage him in conversation he seemed uninterested, taking my hand and backing away, his gestures saying, “Thanks, but no thanks.” The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother

New beekeepers are told that the way to find the elusive queen is by first locating her circle of attendants. The Secret Life of Bees

There were no shadows under the trees but everywhere a pearly stillness, so that what was real seemed illusive and without definition. Lord of the Flies

The virus had been endemic in Europe for centuries, which meant that most Europeans were exposed to it before adulthood. 1491

A smallpox epidemic in 1713 was the biggest single step in the destruction of South Africa’s native San people by European settlers. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies