Life As We Knew It: Chapters 17–21

by Susan Beth Pfeffer
In this first book of The Last Survivors, sixteen-year-old Miranda Evans describes in her journal the struggles of her family in Pennsylvania after an asteroid hits the moon, pushing it closer to Earth and causing disasters.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–4, Chapters 5–8, Chapters 9–16, Chapters 17–21

For more of our lists in this deadly series, click here.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. accumulation
    an increase by natural growth or addition
    “If there’s any kind of accumulation we’ll have a water supply.”
  2. suppress
    control and refrain from showing
    It was killing him to suppress his excitement. It was killing Mom to suppress her fear. And it was killing me to see both of them trying to hide their feelings.
  3. trudge
    walk heavily and firmly, as when weary, or through mud
    I watched as he began trudging back.
  4. squall
    sudden violent winds, often accompanied by precipitation
    Besides I didn’t know if it was going to keep snowing or if it was just a squall.
  5. isolated
    being or feeling set or kept apart from others
    “Well, we’re certainly isolated,” Matt said.
  6. occupational
    relating to an activity or job for which you are trained
    “Worrying is what I do,” Mom said. “Occupational hazard of motherhood. Now everybody back to the house for food and aspirin.”
  7. minimal
    the least possible
    I’m back at history, Jon at algebra, Matt at philosophy, and Mom at French. We share what we learn, so I’m getting a refresher course in algebra and keeping up with my extremely minimal French skills.
  8. desolate
    providing no shelter or sustenance
    He even goes outside and sketches our desolate winter landscape.
  9. idealize
    consider or render as the best or most appropriate type
    Now I look at it and I don’t see some idealized version of me. I see a skater, any skater, at a moment of perfect beauty.
  10. resolve
    reach a decision
    It wouldn’t be New Year’s without a resolution. I’ve resolved to take a moment every day for the rest of my life to appreciate what I have.
  11. skepticism
    doubt about the truth of something
    “And while we’re talking great ideas, I have one of my own.”
    “Yes?” Matt drawled, skepticism practically oozing out of him.
  12. aerobic
    enhancing respiratory and circulatory efficiency
    Matt pointed out to him that cross-country skiing is good aerobic exercise and he should think of it as wind sprints, which he’ll need to do when the baseball season starts.
  13. delirious
    experiencing hallucinations
    We ran over to him and saw he was delirious, crazed with fever.
  14. functional
    fit or ready for use or service
    There weren’t any lights on, and I wondered if their generator had finally stopped working.
    If the hospital wasn’t functional, what chance did any of us have?
  15. flippant
    showing an inappropriate lack of seriousness
    I remembered how Jon had asked me what he would do if he were the only one of us to survive and how flippant I’d been.
  16. flail
    thrash about
    Jonny was delirious, but he was covered and not flailing around so much.
  17. dissolve
    become or cause to become soft or liquid
    She coughed a lot and threw the pills back up, so I dissolved them in tea.
  18. stupor
    a state of being half-awake
    Jonny alternates between delirium and stupor.
  19. tinge
    color lightly
    There was an ice storm last night. The tree branches are all covered in gray- tinged ice.
  20. subside
    wear off or die down
    I gave Matt his first and his cough subsided enough that he was able to help me give the medicine to Jonny and Mom.
  21. overwhelm
    overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli
    Panic overwhelmed me.
  22. exposure
    aspect resulting from the direction a building faces
    The window I took the plywood off of has an eastern exposure. I can see the sky lightening, so I guess it’s dawn.
  23. famished
    extremely hungry
    And when I finished the can of vegetables I realized I was famished. I went back to the pantry and made myself a can of carrots and ate all of that.
  24. crabby
    annoyed and irritable
    Everybody was crabby and demanding. Get me this. Bring me that. I’m hot. I’m cold. It’s too bright. It’s too dark. Why did you do that? Why didn’t you do that?
  25. groggy
    stunned or confused and slow to react
    I guess I slept for two straight days. I feel real groggy and hungry.
  26. recuperate
    restore to good health or strength
    Matt remains weak, which is really annoying him. Mom keeps telling him that people recuperate at different speeds and he should just not rush things.
  27. basin
    a bowl-shaped vessel used for holding food or liquids
    Since he can wash the dishes in the old basin we found in the cellar, he doesn’t even have to leave the sunroom to do that.
  28. invalid
    someone who is incapacitated by a chronic illness or injury
    “What if I’m a useless invalid for the rest of my life?”
    “You may be an invalid, but you’ll never be useless,” I said.
  29. spontaneous
    said or done without having been planned in advance
    I could hear the thousands of people in the stands cheering my every move. My crossovers, my Mohawks, my spiral, my spins. My breathtaking single toe loop. My Ina Bauer. The brilliantly choreographed, seemingly spontaneous footwork sequence.
  30. podium
    a platform raised above the surrounding level
    I stood proudly on the podium as the American flag went up.
  31. disoriented
    having lost your bearings
    We were all asleep when suddenly noises woke us up. Noises and light.
    I think we all woke up disoriented.
  32. litany
    any long and tedious address or recital
    Most of the news was bad, the way it had been last summer. Earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, the litany of natural disasters.
  33. inventory
    a detailed list of all the items in stock
    I did another inventory of the pantry. There’s so little in there, it didn’t take much time for me to check.
  34. barter
    exchange goods without involving money
    Matt can tell him who to go to so he can barter any leftover firewood for food.
  35. compact
    make more packed together by pressing
    For the first mile footing wasn’t too bad, since Jon and I had skied there and compacted the snow.
  36. yearn
    desire strongly or persistently
    It took all my strength to go a few feet, and the harder I worked, the more I yearned to give up and let myself die then and there.
  37. eerie
    inspiring a feeling of fear; strange and frightening
    It was eerie standing on the main street of town, seeing no one, hearing no one, smelling nothing but the stench of death.
  38. carcass
    the dead body of an animal
    I saw the carcasses of dogs and cats, pets people had left behind that couldn’t survive in the cold without food.
  39. pore
    direct one's attention on something
    Jon was too busy poring through the bags and holding things up for all of us to see.
  40. balmy
    mild and pleasant
    The sky is still gray, though, and even though the temperature’s been above zero for a week now, 20 degrees still feels balmy.
Created on Tue Sep 10 13:03:17 EDT 2013 (updated Mon Jul 10 12:11:19 EDT 2023)

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