Sold: List 3

by Patricia McCormick
Lakshmi's stepfather tells her she must leave their impoverished Nepalese village and work in the city — but when Lakshmi arrives, she discovers that she is a victim of trafficking.

This list covers "The City"–"Understanding Anita."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4
30 words 157 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. rube
    a person who is not intelligent or interested in culture
    I cover myself with my hands, but Auntie pries them away, saying I am a hopeless rube.
  2. bearing
    characteristic way of holding one's body
    He wheels around and slaps Auntie across the face, and she turns from a woman of queenly bearing to a frightened child.
  3. rickshaw
    a small two-wheeled cart for one passenger
    The cart we are traveling in now is called a rickshaw.
  4. trill
    sing or play alternating with the half note above or below
    In the meantime, I am writing in my notebook about the strange things I have seen so far: all the houses here have glass suns like the one in Gita’s hut. And the men carry devices that trill like birds and cause them to shout Hello!
  5. flush
    turn red, as if in embarrassment or shame
    The old husband’s cheeks are flushed with pride now as he grabs the girl by the arm and leads her away.
  6. incense
    a substance that produces a fragrant odor when burned
    This place is dark as a cave, and it smells of liquor and incense.
  7. sari
    a draped dress worn primarily by Hindu women
    Inside a darkened chamber, a fat woman in a purple sari lounges on a cot.
  8. frond
    compound leaf of a fern or palm or cycad
    There are posters of gods and movie stars on the walls.
    An electric sun hanging from the middle of the ceiling.
    A rope bed.
    A palm frond machine that stirs the air.
    And iron bars on the windows.
  9. sultry
    characterized by oppressive heat and humidity
    I pray for a mountain breeze, brisk with the promise of snow, and instead I see the palm frond machine lazily churning the same sultry city air.
  10. saunter
    walk leisurely and with no apparent aim
    The dark-skinned girl sits and waits, while the others saunter away.
  11. notation
    a comment or instruction (usually added)
    She opens to a page in her book and points to the notation for 10,000 rupees.
  12. warp
    bend or twist out of shape
    My head is spinning now, but I see only one thing: the number in her book. It warps and blurs, then fractures into bits that swim before my eyes.
  13. poise
    cause to be balanced or suspended
    Mumtaz draws back, the jaw of the scissors poised at my neck.
  14. heed
    careful attention
    I don’t let myself smell the onions frying in the kitchen below,
    or pay heed to the chatter of the girls as they head past my door to the midday meal.
  15. rasp
    a harsh, grating tone or noise
    I have grown to dread one sound more than any other: the rasping of the key in the lock, which means that Mumtaz has arrived with her strap and her taunts.
  16. mongrel
    an inferior dog or one of mixed breed
    She points to a mongrel that has stopped to nose through a ditch full of human waste.
  17. bazaar
    a street of small shops, especially in the Middle East
    Soon the sounds from the bazaar below bleed into one another, a soup of bleating horns and snarling engines.
  18. bleary
    indistinct or hazy in outline
    She has blackened tiger eyes and bleary chili pepper lips.
  19. scorn
    lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
    She looks back at me full of sadness and scorn and says,
    You have become one of them.
  20. sheen
    the visual property of something that shines
    The sunset red of Nepali dirt.
    The tinkling music of Ama’s earrings.
    The silver-white sheen of the mountain in moonlight.
    At first, these recollections came unbidden.
  21. threadbare
    thin and tattered with age
    But eventually, with much tracing and retracing,
    they became threadbare, thin as the blanket on my bed,
    until one day my heart nearly stopped when I could not
    summon them up.
  22. halting
    limping; not able to walk steadily or properly
    I move toward the door with the halting steps of an old woman.
  23. tentative
    hesitant or lacking confidence; unsettled in mind or opinion
    I attempt a first step into the hallway, then another, and watch as the new girl enters my old room with tentative steps, as if she is clenching her feet inside her new shoes like a poor frightened bat clinging to a branch.
  24. bout
    a period of illness
    As Shahanna is speaking, Pushpa is seized with a bout of coughing that racks her entire body.
  25. subside
    wear off or die down
    When the coughing subsides, she spits into a handkerchief, sighs heavily, then curls up on her bed with her face toward the wall.
  26. avail
    a means of serving
    But it is to no avail.
  27. dote
    shower with love; show excessive affection for
    They dote on them, going even deeper into debt with Mumtaz to buy them fresh clothes for school, hair ribbons, and sneakers.
  28. daze
    overcome as with astonishment or disbelief
    Morning comes early for the children at Happiness House, and they beg for more sleep with dazed and cloudy eyes.
  29. preen
    dress or groom with elaborate care
    She preens and struts and twines her arms around the men like a thirsty vine.
  30. frugal
    avoiding waste
    I have been frugal with myself, not daring to unwrap the bundle more than once a day, for fear that it would lose its magic.
Created on Thu Jul 18 11:08:45 EDT 2019 (updated Thu Jul 18 11:25:43 EDT 2019)

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