Vocabulary for Coming of Age

A set of fill-in-the-blank flashcards based on vocabulary words and their context from ‘Coming of Age’ unit texts.

I suppose that __________ waiting was the sorrowful background music of our impoverished little community when I was young.

futile

In the context of the story 'Marigolds', the word futile means __________.

pointless

President Kennedy would become part of the __________ of martyrs they prayed to for favors that only one who had died for a cause would understand.

hierarchy

In 'Light', the father and daughter share chores, but each is somewhat __________, being too intimidated by their sullen housegirl to order her around.

inept

The narrator in 'The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant' observes that she seemed the incarnation of __________ and youth to those jaded twenty-year-olds.

innocence

When Sheila Mant lay flat on the diving board with her hand trailing idly in the water, she was __________, not to be disturbed.

pensive

The connections between the SAT and the mother's past seem __________ at best, yet the outcome of the first informs the second.

tenuous

The children in 'Marigolds' were not __________ aware of how thick were the bars of their cage.

consciously

The word __________ refers to a state of being aware or knowing, according to the student's notes.

conscious

Despite the narrator's wild __________, she stood there awkward and ashamed as she realized the woman never planted marigolds again.

contrition

The word __________ is associated with being ashamed or feeling remorseful.

contrite

The narrator wonders if Sheila Mant's antipathy toward fishing was nothing more than normal __________ rebellion.

filial

When her return to the States was __________ with delays and visa issues, they made the mistake of deciding she should not travel back to Nigeria.

fraught