Word Power
Language can capture the outdoors just as vividly as a point-and-shoot camera. Here are some words to help you zoom in on every detail of the natural world
9. sylva—a: forest trees of a particular region. B: luminous phytoplankton. C: white crystals found in sandy soil.
10. ventifact—a: swampy area. B: stone polished by windblown sand. C: windy outcropping.
11. whitewash—a: stains from bird excrement. B: vegetation beneath a forest’s canopy. C: certain kind of fungi.
12. snag—a: edible roots of certain water plants. B: dead tree that’s still standing. C: noise of wind through the trees.
13. tarn—a: mountain lake or pool. B: unfrozen patch of ground. C: narrow inlet.
14. deciduous—a: shedding leaves annually. B: blooming every other year. C: desert-like.
15. erratics—a: habitat for laying eggs on land. B: glacier-transported boulders that differ from local bedrock. C: a particular kind of weave of spiderweb.
1. gloam—[a] twilight; Ricardo loved to watch the bats in the gloam of a summer evening.
2. pea-souper—[c] thick, yellow fog; It was a typical day in the old port city, right down to the pea-souper smothering the skyline.
3. dingle—[a] small wooded valley; Cecile tramped to the bottom of the dingle to dangle her feet in the stream, as she had done as a child.
4. slatch—[b] area of quiet water between two breaking waves; With winds churning the ocean, we carefully launched the boat in a slatch and quickly began paddling to the island.
5. copse—[a] thicket of small trees or shrubs; They followed the deer to the edge of a copse at the far end of the property, where the creature disappeared from sight.
6. moonbow—[b] rainbow made by moonlight; When the clouds cleared around midnight, Gina spotted a moonbow—a shimmering white arc in the sky.
7. estuary—[a] area where a river flows into the sea; Rich in nutrients, the estuary is densely packed with all kinds of shellfish.
8. derecho—[c] fast-moving windstorms; Jerry’s video captured
134 the derecho as it cut a path of destruction across several farms.
9. sylva—[a] forest trees of a particular region; Not historically part of the sylva, the mountain ash was visible for miles.
10. ventifact—[b] stone polished by windblown sand; I spotted a ventifact in the shape of a pyramid.
11. whitewash—[a] stains from bird excrement; Fresh whitewash near last year’s nest told us that the owl was back.
12. snag—[b] dead tree that’s still standing; In the wild, Mihka explained, snags provide safe nesting sites for a wide variety of species.
13. tarn—[a] mountain lake or pool; The coldest tarn Levi ever swam in was in Kananaskis, Alta.
14. deciduous—[a] shedding leaves annually; With 14 deciduous trees in his garden, Hugo spends a week each autumn just raking.
15. erratics—[b] glacier-transported boulders that differ from local bedrock; The white and pink erratics at Chimney Bay look like dinosaur eggs.
VOCABULARY RATINGS 7–10: fair
11–12: good
13–15: excellent
14.