Ground Zero: List 1

by Alan Gratz
A teen in New York City fights for his life during the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, while on September 11, 2019, a teen in Afghanistan gets caught up in war.

This list covers "How We Survive"–"J Is for Jihad."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3
35 words 2090 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. mezzanine
    intermediate floor just above the ground floor
    Up above, there was a wraparound mezzanine where a second floor would have been, leaving the space open and airy.
  2. arid
    lacking sufficient water or rainfall
    The mountains were arid and brown, with snowcapped peaks.
  3. pang
    a sudden sharp feeling
    Soon, Reshmina realized with a pang of sadness, it would be time for the harvest. Reshmina’s parents would keep her home from school to help.
  4. scoff
    laugh at with contempt and derision
    Pasoon scoffed. “Darwesh and Amaan say that when the Taliban win and the Americans leave, nobody will care about speaking English anymore.”
  5. makeshift
    done or made using whatever is available
    Reshmina scratched at his neck with her makeshift claws, and Pasoon fell to the ground.
  6. reconcile
    bring into consonance or accord
    Brandon’s skin tingled, and he felt dizzy as his brain struggled to reconcile standing so high up with being safe behind the glass.
  7. obscure
    make unclear or less visible
    Its windows, like the North Tower’s, were partially obscured by thin aluminum supports.
  8. shaft
    a vertical passageway through a building
    The elevator couldn’t swing this far in the elevator shaft.
  9. unperturbed
    free from emotional agitation or nervous tension
    Anaa continued to do her needlework, unperturbed, but Reshmina’s mother snatched up little Zahir, then pulled Reshmina and Marzia to her, like the soldiers had come to take them all away from her.
  10. cache
    a secret store of valuables or money
    “The Americans were told there is a cache of Taliban weapons in this village,” the translator told Reshmina and her family in Pashto.
  11. spindly
    long, thin, and often weak or fragile
    The doll was all mouth and tongue and long spindly arms and legs, and it had a wild, mischievous look in its eyes.
  12. flank
    be located at the sides of something or somebody
    Reshmina saw that Pasoon was there too, flanked by two other ANA soldiers.
  13. warily
    in a manner marked by keen caution and watchful prudence
    Pasoon looked around warily, then pulled Reshmina into a shadow on the stairs.
  14. tinge
    a slight but appreciable amount
    Something smelled like it was burning, but not like a kitchen fire. It had a chemical tinge to it, like when you squirted lighter fluid on the burning charcoal in a grill.
  15. blanch
    turn pale, as if in fear
    Brandon blanched. The Twin Towers fall over?
  16. hack
    chop or cut away
    Mike took the knife and hacked at the Sheetrock.
  17. chador
    a cloth used as a head and body covering by Muslim women
    “Some women wore the chador, but only if they wanted to,” Anaa told them. A chador was a robe that covered a woman from head to toe, with only her face visible.
  18. mangle
    destroy or injure severely
    Her husband—your father and my son—had his leg mangled by an old Soviet mine right after they were married.
  19. meek
    very docile
    “Yes, Mor,” Reshmina said meekly.
  20. frantically
    in an uncontrolled manner
    Brandon coughed and looked around frantically.
  21. distraught
    deeply agitated especially from emotion
    Reshmina understood why the soldier was distraught. He was badly injured and alone.
  22. hobble
    walk unevenly due to pain, injury, or weakness
    Together, Baba and the soldier hobbled into the house, Reshmina trailing behind them.
  23. insurgent
    a member of an irregular force that fights a stronger force
    The very people they were swearing to protect Taz from were the village’s sons and nephews and brothers who had left to join the insurgents in the mountains.
  24. blunt
    characterized by directness in manner or speech
    She hated to be so blunt, but she didn’t have the words to say it more gently.
  25. bleat
    cry plaintively like a sheep or goat
    The goats bleated at her, angry they hadn’t been taken up into the mountains to graze.
  26. cascade
    rush down in big quantities
    Whatever the stuff was, more of it came cascading down the stairs, creating a little waterfall, and suddenly Brandon was surrounded.
  27. sprawl
    sit or lie with one's limbs spread out
    He lay sprawled among the broken drywall.
  28. reel
    be dizzy, disoriented, or bewildered
    Brandon’s mind reeled. How was this possible?
  29. warp
    bend or twist out of shape
    The door to the 89th floor was a little bent, the way a cheap plastic chair warped when somebody big sat in it, and broken Sheetrock crowded the floor in front of it.
  30. humble
    cause to be unpretentious
    The enormous mountains always humbled her. It was easy to see only the village you lived in and not the wider world if you never stopped to look up.
  31. barren
    providing no shelter or sustenance
    They roamed the barren mountains and passes between here and Pakistan, slipping back and forth over the unguarded, unmarked border like they owned the place.
  32. turret
    a self-contained weapons platform housing guns
    The boys lined up along one side of the tank’s cannon and pushed it, turning the turret uphill, against gravity. When the turret was as far as they could push it, they hopped on top of the long cannon and rode it as it swung back down.
  33. lope
    run easily
    A young boy loping along, singing a song to his goats as they climbed into the mountains.
  34. primer
    an introductory textbook
    Their first textbooks, the ones they had used to learn their letters in Pashto, were old anti-Soviet primers printed by the United States and smuggled in from Pakistan.
  35. infidel
    a person who does not acknowledge your god
    Jihad is the kind of war that Muslims fight in the name of God to free Muslims and Muslim lands from the enemies of Islam. If infidels invade, jihad is the obligation of every Muslim.
Created on Mon Apr 12 10:55:41 EDT 2021 (updated Tue Apr 13 15:36:20 EDT 2021)

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