Unit 4: Vocabulary from Readings 2

This list covers The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, Section 101, "President Outlines Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts," "An Editorial: It’s Time for a Nation to Return the Favor," "Who’s a Looter?," "A Failure of Initiative," and "The Need for Science in Restoring Resilience to the Northern Gulf of Mexico."
10 words 4 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. alleviate
    provide physical relief, as from pain
    It is the intent of the Congress, by this Act, to provide an orderly and continuing means of assistance by the Federal Government to State and local governments in carrying out their responsibilities to alleviate the suffering and damage which result from such disasters...
  2. mitigation
    the action of lessening in severity or intensity
    It is the intent of the Congress, by this Act, to provide an orderly and continuing means of assistance by the Federal Government to State and local governments in carrying out their responsibilities to alleviate the suffering and damage which result from such disasters by...encouraging hazard mitigation measures to reduce losses from disasters, including development of land use and construction regulations...
  3. infrastructure
    basic facilities needed for the functioning of a country
    In my flyover, I saw a lot of destruction on major infrastructure. Repairing the infrastructure, of course, is going to be a key priority.
  4. oblige
    provide a service or favor for someone
    They wanted to sample the joyous beauty of our jazz and our food. And we were happy to oblige them.
  5. lambaste
    censure severely or angrily
    On Friday night, the rapper Kanye West ignored the teleprompter during NBC’s live broadcast of “A Concert for Hurricane Relief,” using the opportunity to lambaste President Bush and criticize the press. “I hate the way they portray us in the media,” he said.
  6. carp
    raise trivial objections
    We agreed early on that the task before us was too important for carping.
  7. sovereign
    not controlled by outside forces
    Still, no political storm surge from Katrina should be allowed to breach the sovereign boundaries between localities, states, and the federal government.
  8. sanctify
    make pure or free from sin or guilt
    But faith in federalism alone cannot sanctify a dysfunctional system in which DHS and FEMA simply wait for requests for aid that state and local officials may be unable or unwilling to convey.
  9. litany
    any long and tedious address or recital
    In many respects, our report is a litany of mistakes, misjudgments, lapses, and absurdities all cascading together, blinding us to what was coming and hobbling any collective effort to respond.
  10. synoptic
    presenting a summary or general view of a whole
    This volume contains a synoptic overview of the immediate scientific assessments that were conducted by USGS throughout the Gulf Coast region.
Created on Tue Nov 30 13:50:14 EST 2021 (updated Thu Jan 20 15:22:13 EST 2022)

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