Woodsong: Chapters 1–2

by Gary Paulsen
The author invites the young reader into the grueling experience of training for and running the Alaskan Iditarod dogsled race. It is a study in preparation, training, perseverance, learning from hardship and failure, teamwork, commitment, humility, and how to finish.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–2, Chapters 3–4, Chapters 5–6, Chapters 7–Day 1, Chapters Day 2–Days 16 and 17
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. ignorance
    the lack of knowledge or education
    I understood almost nothing about the woods until it was nearly too late. And that is strange because my ignorance was based on knowledge.
  2. paradox
    a statement that contradicts itself
    Perhaps the greatest paradox about understanding “the woods” is that so many who enjoy it, or seem to enjoy it, spend most of their time trying to kill parts of it.
  3. lope
    a slow pace of running
    The dogs were still running at a lope, though we had come over seven miles, and I was full of them; my life was full of them.
  4. precise
    sharply exact or accurate or delimited
    I was in and of beauty and at that precise moment a doe, a white-tailed deer, exploded out of some willows on the left side of the team, heading down the bank toward the lake.
  5. sheer
    complete and without restriction
    She was up instantly, clambering and working to get back up on top of the ice next to the hole. Through sheer effort in her panic she made it.
  6. predator
    any animal that lives by preying on other animals
    In all my time in the woods, in the wondrous dance of it, I have many times seen predators fail.
  7. outwit
    beat through cleverness
    I have seen rabbits outwit foxes and watched red squirrels tease martens and get away with it, but this time it was not to be.
  8. preconceived
    formed beforehand
    Largely because of Disney and posed “natural” wildlife films and television programs I had preconceived ideas about wolves, about what wolves should be and do.
  9. amuck
    wildly; without self-control
    The state of Minnesota was having a rough time with beavers. They had more or less run amuck and were damming up rivers and flooding highways, filling pastures, even beginning to invade the cities.
  10. standoffish
    lacking cordiality; unfriendly
    He was large and wolf-like, with a thick gray mane and a tail that curled over his back. He was standoffish. He did not want to be petted.
  11. genetic
    occurring among members of a family usually by heredity
    Of course they all pull. It is genetic, so old a code or command that it has become part of what sled dogs are; the fiber of their very being.
  12. inversion
    when a layer of air is cooler than an overlying layer
    As the dogs moved through the dark shadows of the forest and climbed the hill we went through some strange kind of temperature inversion...
  13. collective
    done by or characteristic of individuals acting together
    ...and just as they came back out into the moonlight, into the flat-white light at the top of the hill, the steam from their collective breath came up and over their backs and hid them.
  14. dappled
    having spots or patches of color
    It was hard going, with the new snow, and frequently having to stop and chop through downed trees with an axe, then hump the sled over them; hacking and swearing and pushing, the dogs slamming and jerking and pulling until finally we got through and were in calm forest again, winding through thick spruce trees. In and out of dappled moonlight and beauty.
  15. falter
    be or become weak, unsteady, or uncertain
    He never once faltered, and did not falter for six more years, never stopped pulling.
Created on Sat Dec 20 21:23:02 EST 2025 (updated Tue Feb 03 10:26:50 EST 2026)

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