Word Power

ANSWERS

1. abridged (b) shortened. Peter read an abridged version of War and Peace right before his book club meeting. 2. riffle (a) skim. Work has been so busy, I’ve barely had time to riffle through my inbox. 3. saga (c) heroic tale. The latest Avengers saga was a box office smash. 4. prosaic (b) dull. In her weekly newspaper column, Mina can make even the most prosaic subjects feel profound. 5. omnibus (b) collection. Priya settled into an armchair with an omnibus of medieval poetry. 6. scrivener (b) writer. An amateur scrivener since middle school, Tim published his first bestseller in his fifties. 7. stanza (c) poem part. “What does the imagery in the second stanza tell us?” the professor asked the class. 8. lexicon (a) dictionary. Armed with a bilingual lexicon and a pot of coffee, Ginny spent all night cramming for her French final. 9. hyperbole (a) overstatement. Since you’re my only sibling, I can say without hyperbole that you’re the best brother I’ve ever had! 10. elegy (b) mournful poem. Billy composed an elegy for Lee—his dearly departed goldfish. 11. tome (c) large book. I can’t believe you’re using my antique Tolkien tome as a doorstop. 12. vignette (b) short scene. The novel’s central mystery is revealed through a series of seemingly unrelated vignettes. 13. analogy (c) comparison. As a longtime football coach, my dad often uses the sport as an analogy for life. 14. epigraph (a) opening quotation. The book’s epigraph comes from a Stevie Wonder song. 15. synopsis (b) brief summary. Here’s a synopsis of Moby Dick: It’s about a whale. Vocabulary Ratings 9 & below: scribbler 10–12: wordsmith 13–15: laureate