Hi there! I’d like to share some cool vocabulary from my pleasure reading book with you!
1) To betoken= be a signal for or a symptom of=означать
His musical powers were as dazzling as ever; he did not feel ill — he had never felt better; and the mistakes were so ludicrous — and so ingenious — that they could hardly be serious or betoken anything serious.
Synonyms: to denote, to indicate, to bespeak
Antonyms: to deny
2) Peremptory= not allowing contradiction or refusal=категоричный
Swiftly, fluently, unthinkingly, melodiously, he pulled the plates towards him and took this and that in a great gurgling stream, an edible song of food, until, suddenly, there came an interruption: a loud, peremptory rat-tat-tat at the door.
Synonyms: autocratic, absolute, categorical, firm, imperative
Antonyms: indulgent, lenient, mild
3) torrid= emotionally charged and vigorously energetic; бурный, страсный
What was more striking was that he failed to identify the expressions on her face or her partner’s, though in the course of a single torrid scene these passed from sultry yearning through passion, surprise, disgust, and fury to a melting reconciliation.
Synonyms: impassioned, ardent,
Antonyms: cold, unsensual
4) Farcical= broadly or extravagantly humorous; фарс, нелепо
What had been funny, or farcical, in relation to the movie, was tragic in relation to real life. By and large, he recognized nobody: neither his family, nor his colleagues, nor his pupils, nor himself.
Synonyms: comical, ludicrous, ridiculous, preposterous, absurd
Antonyms: usual, sensible, ordinary
5) Indomitable= impossible to subdue =неукротимый
But the saddest difference between them was that Zazetsky, as Luria said, ‘fought to regain his lost faculties with the indomitable tenacity of the damned,’ whereas Dr P. was not fighting, did not know what was lost, did not indeed know that anything was lost.
Synonyms: steadfast, unyielding, stubborn, insuperable, invincible
Antonyms: flexible, weak
6) To forbear= refrain from doing=воздерживаться, удерживаться
‘No, that’s not it,’ I said to myself (but forbore to say it to poor Mrs P.).
Synonyms: abstain, avoid, eschew
Antonyms: accept, allow, keep on
7) Conspicuous=obvious to the eye or mind=заметный, бросающийся в глаза
Where Dr P. might mistake his wife for a hat, Macrae’s patient, also unable to recognise his wife, needed her to identify herself by a visual marker, by ‘…a conspicuous article of clothing, such as a large hat’.
Synonyms: apparent, evident, distinct, visible
Antonyms: hidden, obscured, unclear, vague
8) To engender= call forth=порождать, вызывать
Perhaps, in his cubist period, there might have been both artistic and pathological development, colluding to engender an original form;
Synonyms: cause, arouse, provoke, stimulate
Antonyms: destroy, prevent, discourage
9) Philistine= a person who is uninterested in intellectual pursuits=обыватель
Finally, in the last paintings, the canvasses became nonsense, or nonsense to me — mere chaotic lines and blotches of paint. I commented on this to Mrs P.
‘Ach, you doctors, you’re such Philistines!’ she exclaimed.
Synonyms: rube
Antonyms: gentlemen, highbrow, intellectual
10) To renounce= turn away from; give up=отрекаться, отступиться, отказываться
‘Can you not see artistic development — how he renounced the realism of his earlier years, and advanced into abstract, nonrepresentational art?’
Synonyms: abandon, reject, deny
Antonyms: acknowledge, admit, approve
