Unit 2: Selection Vocabulary

Many long years ago, there lived an arrogant and cruel young lord who ruled over a small village in the western hills of Japan.

I therefore decree that anyone over seventy-one must be banished from the village and left in the mountains to die.

I therefore decree that anyone over seventy-one must be banished from the village and left in the mountains to die.

"If only I could some how deceive the cruel lord,” the farmer thought.

Then one day there was a terrible commotion among the villagers, for Lord
Higa of the town beyond the hills threatened to conquer their village and make it his own.

Once more the lord commended the young farmer and rewarded him with many pieces of gold. “You are a brilliant man and you have saved our village again,” he said gratefully.

Spying on one’s countrymen is something of a national pastime. There were the young vigilantes from the Socialist Youth League like the one who stopped Mrs. Song for not wearing a badge.

Since the country was too poor and the power supply too unreliable for electronic surveillance, state security relied on human intelligence—snitches.

Chang-bo’s interrogation lasted three days. The agents yelled and cursed at him, although they never beat him—at least that’s what he told his wife.

At the North Hamgyong Provincial Broadcasting Company, where he worked, he and his colleagues heard uncensored news reports from the foreign media.

Chang-bo knew better than anyone that the supposed triumphs of the North Korean economy were fabrications.

“They’re fixing the malfunction. For the time being. The doctor’s coming out.”

“If things neural were going swimmingly with Vi, the number you detect would be about ninety-eight percent.”

I want to get...out of here and visit some Mayan temples. I want you to take my picture next to the sacrificial stone.

Odds are given on their ages, whether they’re Seam or merchant, if they will break down and weep.

He lists the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained.

He lists the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained.

Then came the Dark Days, the uprising of the districts against the Capitol. Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated.