The Lost Year: Chapters 8–15

by Katherine Marsh
Stuck in his New Jersey house during the Covid pandemic, thirteen-year-old Matthew helps his hundred-year-old great-grandmother organize her stuff and learns about her life as a Young Pioneer in 1930s Ukraine.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–7, Chapters 8–15, Chapters 16–24, Chapters 25–36, Chapter 37–Epilogue
40 words 20 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. artful
    marked by skill or cunning in achieving a desired end
    The fresh snow bent every branch, like a
 ballet mistress adjusting the arms of her troupe into ever more artful
 poses.
  2. allotted
    given as a task or a portion
    The breadlines were not as long as
 usual, but I still felt sorry for those who had to wait on them for
 their allotted loaf of black bread; Dasha did our shopping at the 
special distribution center for Party officials.
  3. conservatory
    a schoolhouse with special facilities for fine arts
    She was supposed to watch to make 
sure that I had practiced sufficiently, and that Anna Mikhailovna
 was not filling my head with too much “intelligentsia nonsense”
 from her own pre-Revolutionary days at the conservatory.
  4. staccato
    (music) separating the notes
    I thought I was doing a pretty fine job 
of it—even hitting all those staccato sharp notes—but when I had
 finished, Anna Mikhailovna looked dissatisfied.
  5. mortar
    a vessel in which substances can be ground with a pestle
    Baba Yaga is out in the forest, maybe whizzing
 around in her mortar and pestle.
  6. capitalist
    of an economic system based on private ownership
    “All children in the Soviet Union are lucky,” I said. “Papa Stalin protects us, unlike children in capitalist countries, who are forced to work and cannot play or go to school.”
  7. transpose
    transfer from one place or period to another
    I played the piece two more times, trying to transpose my fear onto
 the image of those children running from the witch through the dark 
forest, their little hearts pounding, branches scratching their cheeks.
  8. rendition
    a performance of a musical composition or a dramatic role
    But toward the end of my second rendition, Anna
 Mikhailovna rested her fingers on top of mine.
  9. embroider
    decorate with needlework
    Mom handed me her handkerchief, which she’d embroidered herself with pink roses.
  10. compel
    necessitate or exact
    My face burned, but I felt compelled to confess all of it.
  11. ledger
    a record in which commercial accounts are recorded
    Pop kept his correspondence next 
to his accounting ledger and bills in the desk drawer of the secretary.
  12. retainer
    an appliance that holds teeth in position after treatment
    I reached down from my bunk bed, ready to jam my retainer into my mouth, but Mom refused to hand it over.
  13. resolution
    a formal expression by a meeting, agreed to by a vote
    Then we’d take minutes and vote on resolutions like “May 15 is the National Holiday of Motherless Daughters” or “Motherless Daughters Should Get Extra Cake.”
  14. spindly
    long, thin, and often weak or fragile
    Her tights
 pooled around her spindly legs, and her feet were bundled in rags.
  15. pestilence
    any epidemic disease with a high death rate
    Perhaps
 they had realized their plan to infect Papa and me with typhus had
 failed, so they had sent this girl to spread the pestilence in person.
  16. manipulate
    influence or control shrewdly or deviously
    Papa would be enraged if he heard Dasha talking religious nonsense—the State had banned religion, which Papa said the tsars had used to fool and manipulate the people—but I couldn’t blame her reaction.
  17. infiltrate
    enter a group or organization in order to spy on the members
    A record number of enemies had infiltrated the Ukrainian Communist Party, and Moscow was concerned.
  18. naive
    marked by or showing unaffected simplicity
    “Of course she’s lying! I have no family. How can you be so naïve?”
  19. defiantly
    in a rebellious manner
    “I’m not naïve!” I said defiantly.
  20. vigilance
    alert attentiveness
    “Where is your vigi
lance? Everyone is a possible enemy!”
  21. yield
    give in, as to influence or pressure
    "Page three, right column, ‘Roosevelt Yields on Farm Aid Bill.' Margaret, please read."
  22. adjourn
    break from a meeting or gathering
    But the story was filled with words I didn’t know—adjourn,
 commodity—and soon I was back to my regular worry: What had
 happened to my cross?
  23. commodity
    any good that can be bought and sold
    “Some extra commodities, peanuts and flax, were added to the president’s farm relief bill so more senators would vote for it.”
    That’s what commodities were, I thought, things you’d buy in a store, like the one Ruth’s parents ran.
  24. keen
    demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions
    Mr. Jones is a man of a keen and active mind, and he has taken
 the trouble to learn Russian, which he speaks with considerable
 fluency, but this writer thought Mr. Jones’s judgment was somewhat 
hasty...conditions are bad, but there is no famine.
  25. dawdle
    take one's time; proceed slowly
    I figured he’d be late, dawdling somewhere on the very afternoon I was desperate to get away.
  26. wallop
    hit hard
    In no time at all, I was on those boys, walloping them with my fists, my satchel.
  27. idle
    not having a job
    FAMINE GRIPS RUSSIA, MILLIONS DYING, IDLE ON RISE, SAYS BRITON
  28. impending
    close in time; about to occur
    Famine on a colossal scale, impending death of
 millions from hunger, murderous terror and the beginnings
 of serious unemployment in a land that had hitherto prided 
itself on the fact that every man had a job—this is the summary of Mr. Jones’s first-hand observations.
  29. auburn
    (of hair) colored a moderate reddish-brown
    Ruth and I were the same size, but she looked older with her fashionable bob of auburn curls and serious expression.
  30. casually
    not methodically or according to plan
    Over breakfast, I casually asked Dasha where she thought Nadiya had gone.
  31. methodical
    characterized by orderliness
    I took a map of Kyiv from Papa’s office and approached the matter methodically.
  32. thoroughfare
    a public road from one place to another
    Lypky, where I lived, was mostly government buildings and homes; anyone wandering the neighborhood aimlessly was likely to attract the attention of the police. But less than a ten-minute walk downhill was Khreschatyk, the busy main thoroughfare of Kyiv.
  33. hooligan
    a rowdy, violent, and typically youthful troublemaker
    Papa was always warning me to stay away from these children, who he said were hooligans and thieves, but I needed the kind of information only they could provide.
  34. disdainfully
    without respect
    The boys tittered disdainfully.
  35. distinguish
    be a distinctive feature, attribute, or trait
    What I remembered most was that she looked half-starved, though I feared this hardly seemed like a distinguishing feature to boys like these.
  36. grim
    harshly ironic or sinister
    The other boys laughed grimly, but I didn’t follow. I had no idea what the Collector was.
  37. dole out
    distribute or dispense, as in small portions
    They were such a pitiful sight that I doled out one to each of them even though it left me only a few in reserve.
  38. socialist
    advocating the state ownership of industry
    A loudspeaker mounted at the corner boomed out messages praising Papa Stalin and the socialist fatherland.
  39. tarpaulin
    waterproofed canvas
    But when the doors finally burst open, there were no children, just the hunched figures of four men holding the corners of a sagging tarpaulin.
  40. waif
    a person, especially a young woman, who is extremely thin
    In my disoriented state, I thought I was imagining the sight: a skeletal waif bundled in rags peering at my door from across the street.
Created on Tue Oct 10 16:24:44 EDT 2023 (updated Wed Oct 11 16:17:06 EDT 2023)

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