Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

n. He was eager to show that the change in his voice was nothing more than the first sign of a bad cold, an occupational ailment of the traveling salesman.

v. [trans] You barricade yourself in your room, answer only "yes" and "no," cause your parents serious, unnecessary worry, and you neglect your duties to the firm in a really shocking manner.

n. The picture showed a lady done up in a fur hat and a fur boa, sitting upright and raising up a heavy fur muff in which her whole forearm had disappeared.

v. [trans] He grabbed the cane and, stamping his feet, started brandishing the cane and the newspaper to drive Gregor back into the room.

v. [intrans] Why was only Gregor condemned to work for a firm where at the slightest omission they immediately suspected the worst?

v. She brought bones left over from the evening meal, caked with congealed white sauce.

v [trans] Was his sister now supposed to work - who for all her seventeen years was still a child and whom it would be such a pity to deprive of the life she had led until now?

v. [trans] One right after the other, and with eyes streaming with tears of contentment, he devoured the cheese, the vegetables, and the sauce.

n. True, at the moment, he was lying on the rug, but Gregor could not simply be dismissed just because of this slight discourtesy, for which an appropriate excuse would easily be found later on.

n. Gregor slowly lugged himself toward the door, pushing the chairs in front of him, then let go of it, threw himself against the door, held himself upright against it, and for a moment rested there from the exertion.

v. [trans] The pads on the bottom of his little legs exuded a little sticky substance.

n. Across the street, he could see clearly a section of the endless, grayish black building opposite, with its regular windows starkly piercing the grayish black facade.

v. [trans] I thought I knew you to be quiet, reasonable person, but now you suddenly seem to want to start strutting about, flaunting strange whims.

n. The door to the foyer was open, and since the front door was open too, it was possible to see out onto the landing and the top of the stairs going down.

Over the table hung the picture which he had recently cut out of a glossy magazine and lodged in a pretty gilt frame.

He thought of the grueling job he'd picked, having the torture of traveling, worrying about changing trains, eating miserable food at all hours, constantly seeing new faces, no relationships that last or get more intimate.

adj She brought a piece of cheese, which two days before Gregor had declared inedible.

adj. He made an effort, by meticulous pronunciation and by inserting long pauses between individual words, to eliminate everything from his voice that might betray him.

n. Seeing your incomprehensible obstinacy, I am about to lose even the slightest desire to stick up for you in any way at all.

v. [trans] The rain was still coming down, but only in large, separately visible drops that were also pelting the ground literally one at a time.

adj. He had only his numerous little legs, which were in every different kind of perpetual motion and which he could not control.

n. Last night I already had a slight premonition that I would not feel well, and my parents must have been able to tell by looking at me.

adv. He lay lopsided in the opening, one of his flanks scraped raw, ugly blotches marring the white door, his little legs on one side dangling in midair, when his father gave him such a hard shove that he flew far into his room, bleeding profusely from his flank.

n. Without letting Gregor out of his sight, he backed toward the door, yet very gradually, as if there were some secret prohibition against leaving the room.

n. Because he didn't like the milk at all, although it used to be his favorite drink, he turned away from the bowl almost with repulsion.

v. [intrans] That immediately startled him, although he was almost asleep, and he scuttled under the couch again.