Fallen Angels: List 3

by Walter Dean Myers
After finishing high school, aspiring writer Richard Perry does not have the money for college, so he decides to enlist in the army and ends up fighting for his life in Vietnam.

This list covers pages 205–309 in the 1988 edition published by Scholastic Inc.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3
35 words 313 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. concussion
    injury to the brain caused by a blow
    “Looks like shock, maybe a concussion.”
  2. proportion
    relation with respect to comparative quantity or magnitude
    The words didn’t have the right proportion somehow. There was this feeling that everything I was going to say was either too loud or too strange for a world in which people did normal things.
  3. sliver
    a small thin sharp bit of wood, glass, or metal
    The shrapnel—small slivers of metal—hadn’t hit anything vital.
  4. awol
    absent without leave
    I wouldn’t go back. I would go AWOL.
  5. chaplain
    a member of the clergy ministering to some institution
    The chaplain was Catholic, and the Catholic guys had a mass or something.
  6. preliminary
    a minor match preceding the main event
    What he looked like was a middleweight who fought preliminaries in Atlantic City.
  7. rickety
    inclined to shake as from weakness or defect
    The boards were rickety, but they were better than oozing down into the mud.
  8. racket
    a loud and disturbing noise
    Crickets made a terrible racket. Things slithering through the grass could wake up the dead.
  9. muffled
    being or made softer or less loud or clear
    There was a muffled scream.
  10. requisition
    make a formal request for official services
    We got Gearhart to requisition some gloves and baseballs from battalion supply.
  11. swelter
    suffer from intense heat
    Later, lying in the bunk sweltering in the heat, I wondered what it did mean about “maximizing” destruction.
  12. dehydrated
    preserved by removing natural moisture
    “The officers ain’t eating no powdered eggs,” Johnson said.
    “What are they eating?”
    “Dehydrated potatoes.”
  13. canopy
    the uppermost layer of branches and foliage in a forest
    Lieutenant Gearhart picked the route with the most cover for us. We went through a heavy canopy area, and the branches scratched my face and ripped at my hands.
  14. steep
    set at a high angle (of a slope)
    We moved up the hill. It was steep.
  15. contingent
    a temporary military unit
    They left a small headquarters contingent behind as they moved out.
  16. suppress
    put down by force or authority
    The first fire came from the flank. Two squads of ARVNs moved out to suppress it.
  17. disciplined
    trained mentally or physically by instruction or exercise
    If it was the Second Regulars, they would be more disciplined, and better armed than the VCs.
  18. stamina
    enduring strength and energy
    Being away from the fighting had weakened my stamina. It did even more to my nerves. I was shaking.
  19. billowing
    characterized by great swelling waves or surges
    I turned to see the napalm explode and then roll up the hill in a billowing cloud.
  20. prone
    lying face downward
    Johnson got down in a prone position and started stitching the bushes.
  21. thatch
    cover with roofing material made of plant stalks
    It was a hamlet, the same thatched roofs, the same smell of burnt bamboo.
  22. mutilate
    destroy or injure severely
    It was better than having the Congs get them, maybe mutilating the bodies.
  23. impassive
    having or revealing little emotion or sensibility
    The ARVNs who hadn’t already left watched us impassively. They didn’t want any part of what we were doing.
  24. scrounge
    collect or look around for
    What would they do for a body? Would they send home an empty coffin? Would they scrounge pieces from Graves Registration?
  25. gale
    a strong wind moving 34–40 knots
    It burst into the trees, rolling, rushing, a gale of fire through the trees.
  26. napalm
    gasoline jelled with aluminum soaps for use in bombs
    Guys were dropping around me as the heat from the napalm sucked up the air.
  27. nondenominational
    not restricted to a particular religious group or sect
    The chaplain came around and asked if we wanted to come to nondenominational services.
  28. giddy
    having or causing a whirling sensation; liable to falling
    They were sitting around a tin can full of carbon tet cleaning the cosmolene off the weapons. The whole hooch smelled of the carbon tet and the guys were getting a little giddy.
  29. engage
    carry on, as a war, battle, or campaign
    “We're not supposed to engage any large units,” Brunner said.
  30. elite
    selected as the best
    It was supposed to be near an ARVN ranger outpost, but I didn’t see any of the South Vietnamese elite troops around.
  31. helter-skelter
    lacking a visible order or organization
    What would Morningside Avenue look like now? It would be day and the park would be filled with kids, their screaming and laughter would slide along the light beams into the helter skelter world of monkey bars and swings.
  32. sporadic
    recurring in scattered or unpredictable instances
    The distant boom of artillery switched from its sporadic night rhythm to the purposeful daylight pounding.
  33. gurney
    a metal stretcher with wheels
    Monaco held my hand until the doctor, rolling the gurney I was on, pulled it from his hand.
  34. residue
    matter that remains after something has been removed
    My mouth was dry and tasted like gasoline residue.
  35. basin
    the geographical area drained by a river and its tributaries
    The papers mentioned something about the Third NVA, a crack Cong regiment, being pushed out of the Nui Loc Son basin, but it was only that, a mention.
Created on Tue Aug 08 09:34:27 EDT 2023 (updated Tue Aug 08 14:34:44 EDT 2023)

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