The Bean Trees: Chapters 4–6

by Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver's first novel tells the story of Taylor Greer, who leaves Kentucky and tries to make a life for herself and an orphaned Native American girl in Tucson, Arizona.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–6, Chapters 7–8, Chapters 9–12, Chapters 13–17

Here is a link to our lists for The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. dilapidated
    in a state of decay, ruin, or deterioration
    One block down and across the street, old Bobby Bingo sold vegetables out of his dilapidated truck.
  2. condone
    excuse, overlook, or make allowances for
    In Aimee's opinion it would have been condoning sin to let Sandi and her illegitimate son stay there for free.
  3. still life
    a painting of inanimate objects such as fruit or flowers
    "It’s not to eat,” she would explain to any- and everybody as she clumped along the sidewalk pushing an interesting-smelling shopping cart that had at some point in history belonged to Safeway. "It’s for still lifes.” She told me she painted nothing but madonnas: Orange-peel madonna. Madonna and child with strawberries.
  4. homeostasis
    metabolic equilibrium maintained by biological mechanisms
    “I’m Fay,” the toe-ring woman said, “spelled F-E-I, and this is La-Isha and that’s Timothy. You’ll have to excuse Timothy; he used caffeine yesterday and now his homeostasis is out of balance.”
  5. sheik
    the leader of an Arab village or family
    It reminded me of an extremely long movie I had once seen about an Arabian sheik.
  6. decal
    a design that can be transferred from paper to some surface
    On the tray there were decals of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, which Turtle was slapping with her hands.
  7. faze
    disturb the composure of
    It broke my heart to see that colorful jungle turned to black slime, especially on this of all days when people everywhere were sending each other flowers, but it didn't faze Mattie.
  8. aptitude
    inherent ability
    I told her I had no aptitude whatsoever for those things, and was that a real scorpion on that guy’s belt buckle that was just in here?
  9. foist
    force onto another
    I felt a little badly about foisting her off on Lou Ann at all, but she insisted that Turtle was so little trouble she often forgot she was there.
  10. communist
    a socialist in favor of collectivism in a classless society
    "I can just hear what my Granny Logan would say if I tried to feed her Russian cabbage soup. She'd say we were all going to turn communist.'"
  11. tote
    carry with difficulty
    The way she said it, you would think I was toting an M-16.
  12. ottoman
    a low seat or a stool to rest the feet of a seated person
    I dumped the rest of the bag of chips out into the bowl on the ottoman between us.
Created on Tue Dec 04 11:00:53 EST 2018 (updated Tue Aug 05 13:12:49 EDT 2025)

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