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Reaching for the Moon: Chapter 1

In this inspiring autobiography, Katherine Johnson tells the story of her life and how she became instrumental in the success of some of NASA's most famous missions.

Here are links to our lists for the book:
Chapter 1, Chapter 2 , Chapters 3–4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapters 7–Epilogue
25 words 516 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

  1. orderly
    neat or organized
    Mama adored us, but she was very orderly and from time to time she could be a bit strict.
  2. bedrock
    solid unweathered stone beneath surface deposits of soil
    The number of times the train engineers blew the whistle as they traveled through the trees, echoing off the granite bedrock that rose above us and formed the valley within which our town, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, was nestled.
  3. modest
    limited in size or scope
    A passenger train also rolled through town, carrying not only travelers of modest means but also the well-appointed private coaches that the wealthy magnates of that era owned and used to travel around the country.
  4. inferior
    of or characteristic of low rank or importance
    Many White people convinced themselves that Colored people were an inferior race and so justified using guns, whippings, beatings, rape,
  5. prevalent
    most frequent or common
    These attitudes and behaviors were prevalent for many decades after slavery ended, including in education.
  6. subordinate
    an assistant subject to the authority or control of another
    In its 1857 Dred Scott decision, our nation’s highest court, the Supreme Court, ruled that Colored people were an “inferior and subordinate class of beings” as compared to Whites.
  7. considerable
    large in number, amount, extent, or degree
    Despite these considerable obstacles, Colored people fought for our rights and took pride in our achievements.
  8. formal
    in accord with established conventions and requirements
    This brings me to Mary McLeod Bethune, a Colored woman born shortly after the end of slavery whose parents had been not only enslaved but also denied a formal education.
  9. inhumane
    reflecting a lack of pity or compassion
    Then we’d listen to the chicken running around like crazy under the tub until it died and the noise stopped—something we no longer do today because it’s inhumane, but back then it was just how we fed ourselves.
  10. commotion
    a disorderly outburst or tumult
    Only one time, when we got a little older, did Daddy let us sit in the back of the church with the rest of the children our age. But during service, one of the other kids acted out and there was a small commotion.
  11. segregation
    a social system that provides different facilities for minority groups
    “You are no better than anyone else, but nobody else is better than you,” Daddy would emphasize to us over and over, even as he guided us to understand the restrictions of segregation.
  12. emphasize
    stress or single out as important
    “You are no better than anyone else, but nobody else is better than you,” Daddy would emphasize to us over and over, even as he guided us to understand the restrictions of segregation.
  13. accumulate
    get or gather together
    Some people say that he was the descendant of Colored people who had never been enslaved and as a result had been able to accumulate more than the average Colored person.
  14. subsequently
    happening at a time later than another time
    As the story goes, the colonel subsequently provided for her and their mixed-race children.
  15. profound
    of the greatest intensity; complete
    What Daddy lacked in formal education, he made up for with his profound knowledge of and appreciation for the natural world.
  16. undermine
    weaken or impair, especially gradually
    Farmers are dependent upon factors such as whether the sun shines enough or too much, when the rain comes and how much falls, and whether pests like the apple moth will undermine their crops and leave them with little to harvest, or whether frost or an early snowfall will leave them with scarcely anything to show for their months of work.
  17. treacherous
    dangerously unstable and unpredictable
    That’s when the roads became treacherous and often impassable with snow and ice.
  18. sustenance
    a source of food or nourishment
    It often took all day to create every meal from scratch, laboring in a hot kitchen to cook enough sustenance to support dawn- to-dusk physical labor.
  19. imposed
    set forth authoritatively as obligatory
    Though racial segregation was imposed in town, during planting season and the harvest, Colored people and Whites became just a community of farmers coming together to help one another live.
  20. adhere
    be compatible or in accordance with
    Perhaps that’s also how I learned from an early age to not always adhere to the customs of the color line.
  21. buggy
    a small lightweight carriage
    His show horses, who were named Bill and Frank, transported our family in a horse-drawn buggy.
  22. deliver
    cause to be born
    He would get out of bed and go help the heifer deliver her baby.
  23. indigenous
    originating where it is found
    Before the European settlers arrived and killed off most of the indigenous people, Greenbrier County was part of the Can-tuc-kee territory, where the Shawnee and Cherokee peoples lived.
  24. reputation
    the general estimation that the public has for a person
    His honorable reputation preceded him, and his word was his bond— you could always trust what he said.
  25. perilous
    fraught with danger
    Even though Greenbrier’s jobs were good for that era, Daddy didn’t want his children to have to work there when they grew up, experiencing either its snubs or the perilous accusations that White people could capriciously make against Colored people—you never knew when.
Created on Thu Dec 05 06:07:14 EST 2024 (updated Fri Dec 06 04:54:37 EST 2024)

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