On Air with Zoe Washington: Excerpt from Radio Interview–Chapter 12

by Janae Marks
In this sequel to From the Desk of Zoe Washington, the fourteen-year-old pastry chef is now determined to help her biological father, who has been released from prison, to achieve their shared dream of opening a restaurant in Boston.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Excerpt from Radio Interview–Chapter 12, Chapters 13–25, Chapter 26–Eight Months Later
35 words 43 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. exonerated
    freed from any question of guilt
    Before the break, we talked to Marcus about how he
was wrongfully convicted of murder fifteen years ago,
and recently exonerated.
  2. determined
    characterized by great firmness of purpose
    Well, once I realized Marcus might be
innocent of the crime, I had to know the truth. I’d
never investigated anything before, but I don’t
know—I was just determined.
  3. verdict
    findings of a jury on issues submitted to it for decision
    When the judge read the verdict, I was in the
courtroom, sitting in the row right behind Marcus. My
parents were next to me. I think I screamed and then
started crying when the judge said, “not guilty.”
  4. attest
    authenticate; affirm to be true, genuine, or correct
    Zoe brought some of her treats to the studio,
so I can attest to how delicious her baking is.
  5. translucent
    allowing light to pass through diffusely
    Her earrings, which were made of small translucent
shells, jangled as she twisted in her seat to talk to me.
  6. ambient
    completely enveloping
    The pale-blue
walls that matched the Ari’s Cakes T-shirt I was wearing. The little bud vases holding fresh flowers that sat on
every table and next to the cash register. The ambient,
cheery music playing lightly over the speakers. This was
my home away from home.
  7. intern
    someone who works for an expert to learn about a job
    But because I wasn’t sixteen years old, I wasn’t
legally allowed to bake in the kitchen. I’d gotten away
with helping in the kitchen as an intern because I hadn’t
been an official employee.
  8. cobbler
    a pie made of fruit with rich biscuit dough on top
    “I could definitely come up with a dessert menu.
In a barbecue restaurant, we could do...” I paused to
think. “...a multilayered red velvet cake, creamy banana
pudding, peach cobbler. We could even do different
homemade ice creams. What do you think?”
  9. plead
    appeal or request earnestly
    I looked up
at Marcus with pleading eyes, willing him to say yes.
  10. incarcerate
    lock up or confine, in or as in a jail
    “And then there’s the issue with previously incarcerated
people having trouble finding jobs,” Marcus continued.
  11. logistics
    supplying an operation with labor and materials as needed
    “To be honest, I spent more time
dreaming of menus and not a lot of time figuring out the logistics of opening a restaurant.”
  12. undertaking
    any piece of work that is attempted
    Wow. That sounds
like a big undertaking.
  13. casual
    appropriate for ordinary or routine occasions
    “And
I love how passionate you are. But you don’t become a
pastry chef at a restaurant overnight. It’s a full-time job,
and bakers usually go to culinary school first.”
    “True, but this is going to be a really casual restaurant.
We’d serve cake, pies, ice cream, that sort of thing. Nothing I haven’t baked before.”
  14. pitfall
    an unforeseen or unexpected or surprising difficulty
    As soon as I got home, I opened my laptop and searched
for the phrase “How to open a restaurant.” A bunch of articles came up, and I started skimming through them. One
of them talked about creating a business plan. Another
was about how to pick the best location. Another talked
about restaurant pitfalls.
  15. overwhelm
    charge someone with too many tasks
    There was so much to figure out,
and already I felt overwhelmed.
  16. alibi
    proof that someone accused of a crime could not have done it
    “You know, baby,” Grandma said, “I didn’t think you’d
be able to find Marcus’s alibi witness, and you did that.
You can absolutely do anything you put your mind to. I
can’t wait to see you with that chef’s hat on.”
  17. insist
    be emphatic or resolute and refuse to budge
    “He’s insisted on making me dinner a few times a week, since
he’s staying in my guest room. I told him he doesn’t owe
me anything, but the food is excellent, so I can’t complain. He’s got something special.”
  18. delicate
    exquisitely fine and subtle and pleasing
    Then I watched Liz
as she molded flowers out of gum paste. By the time she
finished one, it looked so delicate and realistic.
  19. hypothetical
    a conjectural possibility or circumstance
    “Well, it’s not that. This is hypothetical.” I
wasn’t sure if I should mention Marcus’s restaurant idea,
since I didn’t want Ariana to think he was spending his
time at work thinking about planning his own business.
  20. furnish
    provide with objects or articles that make a room usable
    “It costs a lot of
money to open a restaurant. You have to rent space, furnish it, hire kitchen workers and waitstaff. A manager. All that costs money.”
  21. eligible
    qualified for or allowed or worthy of being chosen
    My lawyer said I’m eligible for exoneree compensation, but he
also said it doesn’t always come so easily.
  22. statute
    an act passed by a legislative body
    It talked about the Massachusetts wrongful conviction compensation statute, a law that says that
people who have been exonerated of a crime can get up
to $500,000.
  23. gist
    the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work
    Some of it was confusing, but I got the gist—Massachusetts didn’t make it easy to get that money.
  24. compensation
    something given or received as payment or reparation
    My lawyer is already working on it, but he
told me not to expect compensation anytime soon. That’s
why I’m grateful for my two jobs. I can build up some
savings again.
  25. conviction
    a final judgment of guilty in a criminal case
    He’d been released from prison after the charges against
him were finally dropped. But the original conviction was still on his record, and he had a hard time getting a
job.
  26. inspiration
    arousal of the mind to unusual activity or creativity
    I flipped through a
few cookbooks on my shelf to find inspiration and decided
on key lime pie with fresh whipped cream.
  27. marinate
    soak food in a seasoned or flavorful liquid before cooking
    Marcus started mixing up his special sauce so the
chicken could marinate.
  28. zest
    the outer part of the peel of a citrus fruit, used as flavoring
    Then I combined the juice and zest with sweetened condensed milk
and yogurt.
  29. assumption
    a statement that is held to be true
    Was he
acting nervous because this was a ridiculous assumption,
or because I was right?
  30. assorted
    consisting of a haphazard variety of different kinds
    I held up a box of six cupcakes. They were assorted flavors: one cookies n’ cream, one strawberry shortcake,
one banana nut, one tie-dye surprise (the surprise was
cookie butter filling), one vanilla with chocolate frosting,
and one chocolate with vanilla frosting.
  31. rambling
    straying from the main point or covering a range of subjects
    "...It’s a long story.” I was rambling, but Hannah didn’t seem to mind.
  32. khaki
    a sturdy type of cloth that is a light brown color
    He was wearing a pair of khakis and a blue button-down shirt.
  33. partition
    separate or apportion into sections
    Marcus and I followed her to her office, which was a partitioned area in the back corner of the bank.
  34. finance
    the management of money and credit and banking
    “Long enough for me to get my finances in order.
I’m basically starting from scratch. I have a new bank
account, but no savings yet. I should probably get a credit
card, too, so I can prove to the bank that I can pay a bill
on time. It’s good that I have these two jobs, but it’ll take time for my credit to build up. Maybe even years.”
  35. criterion
    the ideal in terms of which something can be judged
    “Maybe a different bank would have different criteria.”
Created on Tue Jun 25 09:49:09 EDT 2024 (updated Tue Jul 16 15:10:39 EDT 2024)

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