"Where Worlds Collide"

The place where worlds collide is an international airport. In an essay, Pico Iyer describes the sounds and sights that greet immigrants arriving in Los Angeles.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 10 Unit 1's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: What Is Cultural Identity, Ethnic Hash, Two Kinds, Honestly Frida, Legal Alien, By Any Other Name, HAPA, Where Worlds Collide, My Mother Pieced Quilts, Everyday Use, Two Ways to Belong in America, An Indian Father's Plea
10 words 14 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. disoriented
    having lost your bearings
    they come out, dazed, disoriented, heads still partly in the clouds, bodies still several time zones--or centuries--away, and they step into the Promised Land.
  2. slogan
    a favorite saying of a sect or political group
    They see fast-talking, finger-snapping, palm-slapping jive artists straight from their TV screens shouting incomprehensible slogans about deals, destinations, and drugs.
  3. promiscuous
    not selective of a single class or person
    They have arrived in the Land of Opportunity, and the opportunities are swirling dizzily, promiscuously, around them.
  4. unintelligible
    not clearly understood or expressed
    Above them in the terminal, voices are repeating, over and over, in Japanese, Spanish, and unintelligible English, "Maintain visual contact with your personal property at all times."
  5. refrain
    part of a song or poem that recurs at regular intervals
    Out on the sidewalk, a man's voice and a woman's voice are alternating an unending refrain: "The white zone is for loading and unloading of passengers only.
  6. cordon
    a series of sentinels or posts enclosing some place or thing
    There are "Do Not Cross" yellow lines cordoning off parts of the sidewalk
  7. intone
    utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically
    More male and female voices are intoning continuously, "Do not leave your car unattended"
  8. restriction
    an act of limiting
    There are no military planes on the tarmac here, the newcomers notice, no khaki soldiers in fatigues, no instructions not to take photographs, as at home; but there are civilian restrictions every bit as strict as in many a police state.
  9. quarantine
    isolation to prevent the spread of infectious disease
    "This Terminal Is in a Medfly Quarantine Area," says the sign between the terminals.
  10. cacophony
    loud confusing disagreeable sounds
    Around them is an unending cacophony of antitheft devices, sirens, beepers, and car-door openers
Created on Wed Oct 08 14:14:38 EDT 2014 (updated Wed Oct 08 18:13:53 EDT 2014)

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.