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Page 216

To the Police

Thursday was his next-to-last day. He had been tenacious in following up every lead. Now he was behind the eight ball.* He could hardly galvanize* himself to do anything else. The façade of hope he had worn for almost a week was crumbling; there was nothing left to be sanguine* about. In desperation he turned to the police and placed his problem within their jurisdiction.* They asked many questions, and they requested that he not expurgate* anything. Some of the questions seemed asinine. When they inquired about his relationship to the missing girl, he replied, with a grimace, "Fiancee." When they suggested she might be hiding in that part of the city where the "punk" coterie* congregated, he was incredulous* and accused the police of calumny against her good name and reputation.

Sample Sentences

Insert the new words in these sentences.

1.He held on to his antiquated* beliefs with a __________ obsession.*

2.The woman was noted for her vituperative* __________ against her innocuous,* although senile,* neighbor.

3.She could not abjure* a __________ when she saw the disheveled figure.

4.How __________ of the boy to fabricate* that bizarre* story!

5.His face wore the most doleful* __________.

Definitions

Match the new words with their definitions.

Page 217

Evelyn Discovered

Failure was imminent,* and Robert was bereft* of hope. It was now Friday. Despite his abstemious* and parsimonious* way of living, his money had been reduced to a mere pittance. A perverse* impulse brought him to the section where young people in strange clothing and with uncouth* manners made him recoil* in unmitigated* disgust. He had never been au courant with the "hippies" and "punks." He was always fastidious about proper dress and behavior. A moment later he saw her! Evelyn! She was sitting at a table in a coffee shop, surrounded by a coterie* of the most noisome individuals he had ever seen. Evelyn was not incongruous,* for she herself was unkempt. So this was her new habitat! At that instant Robert knew as an incontrovertible* fact that he had lost her. With a grimace,* he turned and walked, a doleful* and melancholy figure, toward the bus depot and home.

Sample Sentences

Insert the new words in these sentences.

1.Styles are such transient* things that what is __________ today, is archaic* tomorrow.

2.The tip he had been offered was a mere __________, and the taxi driver threw it on the ground in disdain.*

3.Children think mothers are asinine* to get upset about __________ rooms.

4.It was inevitable* that they discover the hidden body by its __________ aroma.

5.He was so __________ about table manners that he lost his equanimity* when his son reached for the bread. Definitions

Match the new words with their definitions.