Ask the Passengers: Chapters 32–44

by A.S. King
After her family moves to the insular small town of Unity Valley, Astrid feels unable to open up to her parents and confused by her relationships with her friends — so she explores her feelings by imagining conversations with passengers in the airplanes that fly overhead.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–15, Chapters 16–31, Chapters 32–44

Here is a link to our lists for Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King.
40 words 32 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. empathetic
    showing ready comprehension of others' states
    She just walks off with Jessie, who gives me an empathetic look.
  2. magistrate
    a lay judge or civil authority who administers the law
    The letter from the district magistrate’s office is at my place setting, opened.
  3. obtuse
    lacking in insight or discernment
    I send love to myself for playing that so vague. Astrid, man, you’re smooth. I love the way you just made that completely obtuse.
  4. smug
    marked by excessive complacency or self-satisfaction
    Mom looks a mix of confused and smug.
  5. smoldering
    showing scarcely suppressed anger
    Once I let go of how mad I am at Mom, I realize that I’m steaming about Kristina. On fire. Smoldering. Exploding.
  6. mantra
    a commonly repeated word or phrase
    I try my mantra. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.
  7. impiety
    unrighteousness by virtue of lacking respect for a god
    “Try being on trial for impiety on a Wednesday. It’s far worse.”
  8. discrepancy
    a difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions
    “That’s a really long line of whisper down the lane. I can only imagine the discrepancies.”
  9. immaculate
    completely neat and clean
    Our little house on Main Street (with the immaculately pressed curtains) is part of the Unity Valley cave, which has its Unity Valley fire that casts Unity Valley shadows.
  10. unconditional
    not modified or restricted
    Frank Socrates doesn’t have conditions, because he’s dead. He loves me unconditionally.
  11. encompass
    include in scope
    I can't explain why I feel it or how, but it's a big feeling. Bigger than I can put into words. It's all-encompassing, like all the love I've poured into all the someones I've loved is now coming back to me.
  12. turnpike
    an expressway on which tolls are collected
    By the time I get on and off the turnpike, I’m starving, so I go to a drive-thru and then cruise the fraternity and sorority houses looking for those familiar Greek letters.
  13. dumbfounded
    as if rendered speechless with astonishment and surprise
    She stands there dumbfounded.
  14. fleck
    a small contrasting part of something
    The janitor took pity on me and cleaned off the wall above my locker, even though I can still see the flecks of red crayon embedded in the crannies of the painted cinder blocks.
  15. flustered
    thrown into a state of agitated confusion
    “But that’s not what I meant,” she says. Then she gets flustered and starts going through her notes.
  16. mangle
    destroy or injure severely
    I’ve seen Jorge’s cousin devein shrimp. His method is called mangling the shrimp.
  17. impromptu
    with little or no preparation or forethought
    Mom says some stuff to her without looking, and then when Ellis doesn’t answer, she turns and says, “That does it! I call an impromptu Mommy and Me night!”
  18. tolerance
    willingness to respect the beliefs or practices of others
    The first noticeable sign of Tolerance Day: They moved the NO PLACE FOR HATE sign from in front of the guidance office fourteen feet to a spot in front of the main office.
  19. yield
    cause to happen or be responsible for
    “Oh, good. So what do you think this whole Tolerance Day will be like? My money is on it yielding a whole bag of nothing.”
  20. inherently
    in an essential manner
    “The world is made of so many types of different people, and we have to learn that though they might be scary at first, they are not inherently bad because they are different.”
  21. resentful
    full of or marked by indignant ill will
    I start to feel resentful.
  22. remedial
    tending or intended to rectify or improve
    You mean to tell me that it’s 2011 and this guy gets paid to have remedial talks with high school students about how they shouldn’t hate other people?
  23. elementary
    easy and not involved or complicated
    Isn’t this elementary? Shouldn’t it be automatic?
  24. ingrained
    deeply rooted; firmly fixed or held
    He says, “No matter how many times I tried to explain to her how stupid this was, she never changed. It was just ingrained in her.
    “Some of you have it ingrained in you. You weren’t born with it. You were taught. No baby has hate for anything.”
  25. catwalk
    a narrow pathway high in the air
    I say to Frank, who is sitting up on the catwalk operating the spotlight, “Frank, that baby is smarter than half of my humanities class. Is this how things have always been?”
  26. incensed
    angered at something unjust or wrong
    I’m incensed. I never really felt like this before.
  27. discreet
    marked by prudence or modesty and wise self-restraint
    "...I think if you’re going to do it, you should be more discreet,” I say.
  28. intimate
    marked by close acquaintance, association, or familiarity
    I’m questioning the strict definitions and boxes...and why we care so much about other people’s intimate business.
  29. limbo
    the state of being disregarded or forgotten
    ...I end up living in this weird limbo that’s no good for anyone.
  30. frazzle
    exhaust physically or emotionally
    She looks genuinely frazzled. “I didn’t mean it that way. I mean that I just wish I knew before now.”
  31. pacifist
    someone opposed to violence as a means of settling disputes
    I mean, I’m usually Astrid Jones, pacifist poet type who doesn’t usually pick fights outside of correcting your grammar.
  32. notion
    a general inclusive concept
    This whole notion of perfection intrigues me.
  33. aesthetic
    relating to or dealing with the philosophy of beauty
    Perfection implies that there really is a right and wrong way to be. And what type of perfection is the best type? Moral perfection? Aesthetic? Physiological? Mental?
  34. beholder
    a person who becomes aware through the senses
    “Perfection is equal,” someone says. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
  35. yahoo
    a person who is not intelligent or interested in culture
    Camus-loving Clay gets the superintendent all wound up about the true meaning of education by saying that in recent years, our highly paid administrators are simply puppets for yahoo school boards who don’t know anything about the tenets of a good education.
  36. trinket
    a small cheap ornament, knickknack, or piece of jewelry
    I don’t think it ever ends—this feeling of having to be perfect. Look at our culture. Look at the computer-enhanced people we compare ourselves to. Look at the expensive cars and trinkets we’re all supposed to have. Look at how many people are wrapped up in that!
  37. obscure
    marked by difficulty of style or expression
    Mom insists that we all have a piece of her freshly baked courgette bread, which makes me want to scream, They’re called zucchinis, okay? Zucchinis! I don’t scream anything, though. If she wants to use obscure European words for everything to feel better about living here, then she can.
  38. respective
    considered individually
    While Mom carves the turkey, Dad dishes the carrots and corn and mashed potatoes and gravy into their respective bowls, and I fill the water glasses with ice cubes and water.
  39. lacquer
    a hard glossy coating
    I spray-paint the roof tiles and then coat them with a few layers of weatherproof lacquer.
  40. swaddle
    wrap very tightly in cloth, as a baby
    I wrap my love for Marie into a tight ball of mental swaddling. I wrap it in a soft flannel blanket, four, ten, a hundred times. I wrap it so well that nothing can hurt it.
Created on Thu Apr 25 15:31:31 EDT 2019 (updated Thu May 02 10:57:33 EDT 2019)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.