A Step from Heaven: List 1

by An Na
Young Ju immigrates to the United States from Korea when she is four years old, but she struggles to fit in and to cope with her increasingly fractured family.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3
25 words 268 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. grovel
    show submission or fear
    What did I just tell you! Apa shouts. Woman, were you listening? Did you hear anything I said? I do not want to grovel anymore...
  2. heritage
    an attribute that is inherited from ancestors
    Every Han Gook baby has that spot. It is the mark of our blood. Our heritage. A long, long time ago, all Han Gook people came from Mongolia.
  3. ferment
    cause to undergo the breakdown of sugar into alcohol
    How is cider different from apple juice? What is fermenting? I have found that the dictionary doesn’t always explain everything.
  4. linger
    remain present although waning or gradually dying
    Apa grabs the edge of the open door frame, the smell of bleach and Windex from cleaning the lawyers’ offices last night still lingering on his hands.
  5. humiliation
    strong feelings of embarrassment
    Joon’s eyes squint against the pain, but more than that, the humiliation of being punished in public, in front of his friend.
  6. glower
    look angry or sullen as if to signal disapproval
    Joon lifts his face. His eyes glower.
  7. drone
    talk in a monotonous voice
    I forgot, Joon drones.
  8. snarl
    utter in an angry, sharp, or abrupt tone
    Say it all, Apa snarls, biting down on his lower lip.
  9. shard
    a broken piece of a brittle artifact
    Joon never saw it. Never got to prepare his body. The mask of glass explodes into fine shards of pain, etching his face unrecognizable, old.
  10. etch
    cause to stand out or be clearly defined or visible
    Joon never saw it. Never got to prepare his body. The mask of glass explodes into fine shards of pain, etching his face unrecognizable, old.
  11. abrupt
    exceedingly sudden and unexpected
    Apa grabs her by the shoulder and stops her in one abrupt movement.
  12. gape
    be wide open
    Joon’s mouth gapes wide open as he fights for air.
  13. hobble
    walk unevenly due to pain, injury, or weakness
    Joon hobbles over to the Legos.
  14. callus
    cause a thick or hard area of skin to form on
    Apa with his yellow callused palms from gardening all day and then cleaning up the lawyers’ offices at night.
  15. scoff
    laugh at with contempt and derision
    “We’re not going to win,” Joon scoffs, but he plops down on the sofa anyway.
  16. wispy
    thin and weak
    Others talk and talk, making the information lady tilt her head to one side and blow her wispy bangs off her forehead.
  17. reluctantly
    with a certain degree of unwillingness
    Apa reluctantly places the baby-blue scrap of paper back on the counter. The information lady gives us another number, 36, and points to window four. We find ourselves another set of seats.
  18. octave
    a musical interval of eight tones
    He has long, lean piano fingers like what Amanda wishes she had so she could stretch her hand across one full octave.
  19. paranoid
    suffering from delusions of persecution or grandeur
    Ever since Apa had to go four times to clear up some mistake with Joon’s Social Security number, he has become paranoid that people are trying to trick him.
  20. crest
    reach a high point
    The way Apa takes his time, licking his fingertips to separate each page from the next, makes the blood crest under my cheeks.
  21. billow
    rise and move, as in waves
    But in every dream there are always the clouds just beyond my grasp. They float close above me in thick, solid folds of billowy white sheets.
  22. guttural
    relating to or articulated in the throat
    The guttural roar of a lone car driving by the house draws my eyes to the window.
  23. luminous
    softly bright or radiant
    I notice the moonlight on the chain-link fence, the way it turns even the ugliest pattern into a delicate, luminous web.
  24. beckon
    appear inviting
    I take a step back, my warm bed beckoning, when I think of something to say.
    Apa, are you going to go back to Korea for the funeral?
  25. soothing
    freeing from fear and anxiety
    I remember the way Halmoni would sing me to sleep, beating the soothing rhythm of a song on the wing of my shoulder blade.
Created on Mon Apr 06 21:04:55 EDT 2020 (updated Thu Apr 09 09:40:35 EDT 2020)

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