English

"Yes?"

"Up to now I have never kissed you."

Lucy suffering from the most grievous wrong which this world has yet discovered: diplomatic advantage had been taken of her sincerity, of her craving for sympathy and love.

1. diplomatic  [͵dɪpləˋmætɪk] (adj.) able to deal with people in a sensitive way that does not upset or offend them

Persephone whom he asked leave to pick up on the way, saying that she was his sister─Persephone, tall and slender and pale, returning with the Spring to her mother's cottage, and still shading her eyes from the unaccustomed light.

1. slender  [ˋslɛndɚ] (adj.) tall or long and thin in an attractive way

Lucy, elegantly dressed in white, sat erect and nervous amid these explosive ingredients, attentive to Mr. Eager, repressive towards Miss Larvish, watchful of old Mr. Emerson, hitheto fortunately asleep, thanks to a heavy lunch and the drowsy atmosphere of Spring.

1. amid  [əˋmɪd] (prepositon) if something happens amid particular feelings or events, it happens while people have these feelings or while these events are happening

He turned towards her frowning, as if she had disturbed him in some abstract quest.

1. frown [fraʊn] (v.) to move your eyebrows down and closer together because you are annoyed, worried, or thinking hard

This afternoon she was peculiarly restive.

1. peculiar  [pɪˋkjuljɚ] (adj.) strange, often in a unpleasant way

A few people lingered round and praised her playing, but finding that she made no reply, dispersed to their rooms to write up thieir diaries or to sleep.

1. linger  [ˋlɪŋgɚ] (v.) to stay somewhere longer or spend longer doing something than necessary for your own enjoyment or benefit

〝My dear,〞said the old man gently, 〝I think that you are repeating what you have heard older people say. You are pretending to be touchy, but you are not really. Stop being so tiresome, and tell me instead what part of the church you want to see. To take you to it will be a real pleasure.〞

1. touchy (adj.) tending to become angry or upset very easily

Now, this was abominably impertinent, and she ought to have been furious. But it is sometimes as difficult to lose one's temper as it is difficult at other times to keep it. Lucy could not get across.

1. abominable  [əˋbɑmənəb!] (adj.) [ formal ] extremely bad, offensive, or unpleasant

They were tired, and under the guise of unselfishness they wrangled.

1. guise  [gaɪz] (n.) [ formal ] the way someone or somethng appears to people

It was then that she saw, pinned up over the washstand, a sheet of paper on which was scrawled an enormous note of interrogation. Nothing more.

1. interrogation mark (n.) a question mark

〝Ah, then you look into the court.〞 She sighed. 〝If only Mr. Emerson was more tactful! We were so sorry for you at dinner.〞

1. tactful  [ˋtæktfəl] (adj.) someone who is tactful is very careful in the way they speak and behave so that they do not upset other people

Some of their neighbours interchanged glances, and one of them─one of the ill-bred people whom one does meet abroad─leant forward over the table and actually intruded into their argument.

1. intrude  [ɪnˋtrud] (v.) to become involved in a situation in a way that is not welcome to other people, for example by getting involved in their private lives

There have also been problems in financing these expensive projects, and in buying large quantities of environmentally friendly building materials.

1. finance (v.) to pay for something such as a large project

In order to cut down on waste and to create more energy, sewage will be used to create methane gas that can be used for cooking.

1. cut down ( phrasal vb ) cut down sth to reduce an amount of something

Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill, a famous physicist from Princeton University, has said that in the future we will have satellites in space to produce solar energy and send it to the Earth.

1. satellite  [ˋsæt!͵aɪt] (n.) an object that is sent into space to travel round the Earth in order to receive and send information

Many hearing-impaired people use sign languages, in which gestures do the work of the sound system of spoken languages.

1. hearing-impaired (adj.) unable to hear as well as most people can. Many people prefer this word to deaf.

If they do not lift their hand from the paper, they can smudge the ink.

1. smudge  [smʌdʒ] (v.) if you smudge something such as ink, or it smudges, you make it spread across the page in an untidy way by touching it when it is still wet

“Sure, the Yankees won their opening game, but one swallow does not make a summer.”

1. one swallow doesn't make a summer─ don't jump to conclusions based on incomplete evidence

George Orwell's 1984 depicts a frightening, monolithic government.

1. depict  [dɪˋpɪkt] (v.) to describe someone or something using words or pictures: portray