VOCABULARY EXERCISES
“Rip Van Winkle”
Look up each of the following words in a dictionary. Be sure to choose the definition that fits the part of speech indicated for each word. Write the definition next to each word.
1. ALLY -noun -
2. ANTIQUE - adjective -
3. BEWILDER - verb -
4. CONTENTMENT - noun
5. DESPAIR - noun -
6. DREAD - verb
7. GRAVE - adjective -
8. IDLE - adjective -
9. MEEK - adjective -
10. MISCHIEF - noun -
11. PRECEDE - verb -
12. RECOLLECT - verb -
13. STOUT - adjective -
14. TOIL - verb -
15. VIGIL - noun
Part I: MATCHING DEFINITIONS: “Rip Van Winkle”
Write the letter of the correct definition in the blank next to each word.
1.______ALLY A. to remember; to recover knowledge; to recall to mind
2.______ANTIQUE B. harm or trouble; a cause of minor injury or annoyance
3.______BEWILDER C. gentle; mild; without spirit or courage; humbly patient
4.______CONTENTMENT D. an act of wakeful watching (often when sleep is customary, a period of observing
5.______DESPAIR E. modest satisfaction; happiness with what one has; ease of mind
6.______DREAD F. to confuse or puzzle entirely
7.______GRAVE G. someone on your side; someone united with another; a friend
8.______IDLE H. to fear greatly; to feel extreme reluctance to meet face to face
9.______MEEK I. not working; not active; worthless; useless; lazy
10._____MISCHIEF J. to come before; to be or go ahead of or in front of
11._____PRECEDE K. loss of hope; depression; feeling of being defeated; hopelessness
12._____RECOLLECT L. serious; weighty or important; solemn or somber; threatening harm or danger
13._____STOUT M. to work hard and long; to put in great effort
14._____TOIL N. ancient; belonging to the past; old-fashioned
15._____VIGIL O. thick or bulky in figure; solid and heavy; sturdy; strong; plump
Part II: SENTENCE COMPLETION
“Rip Van Winkle”
The sentences below are all taken from the story. Fill in each blank with a word from the list. Each word will only be used once. If the word changes form, the correct ending for the word is indicated in brackets ([ ]) at the end of the blank.
1. Rip Van Winkle is described as “a kind neighbor and an obedient, henpecked husband. He had a ______[ness] of spirit which gained him wide popularity, for the men most likely to be pleasing abroad are under the strict discipline of wives at home.”(p.46)
2. “If left to himself, he would have whistled away his life in perfect ______, but his wife continually complained in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family.”(p.49)
3. Rip’s only ______at home was his dog Wolf, who was as much henpecked as his master, for Dame Van Winkle regarded them as companions in idleness. (p.49)
4. When Rip hears his name called in the mountains, he “saw a strange figure slowly ______[ing] up the rocks and bending under the weight of something he carried on his back.”(p.54)
5. One of the things that makes this figure so unusual is that “his dress was of ______Dutch fashion: a cloth jerkin strapped round his waist, and breeches decorated with rows of buttons down the side.” (p.54)
6. The commander of the group of little men playing ninepins was “a ______old gentleman, with a weatherbeaten face.” (p.55)
7. “What seemed particularly odd to Rip was that though these folks were amusing themselves, they maintained the ______[est] faces, the most mysterious silence, and were, in fact, the most melancholy party he had ever witnessed.”(p.56)
8. When Rip wakes up and tries to find the little men again, “he found the gully up which he and his companion had climbed the ______[ing] evening, but to his astonishment a mountain stream was now foaming down it, leaping from rock to rock, and filling the glen with babbling murmurs.”(p.58)
9. Even though he cannot find the little men, Rip didn’t want to go home since he grieved to give up his dog and gun; he ______[ed] to meet his wife; but it would not do to starve in the mountains.(p.59)
10. Rip is confused when he returns homes because he doesn’t meet anyone he knows: “there was as usual a crowd of folk about the door [of the inn], but none that Rip ______[ed].”(p.62)
11. When all of the people he asks about turn out to be long gone, eventually Rip had no courage to ask after any more friends, but cried out in ______, “Does nobody here know Rip Van Winkle?”(p.64)
12. When people point to the figure leaning against the tree who looks just like himself, Rip was “completely confounded. He doubted his own identity. In the midst of his ______[ment] the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was and what was his name?”(p.65)
13. After Rip tells his story, the people in the village think he has gone crazy, so they whisper among themselves “about securing the gun and keeping the old fellow from doing ______.”(p.65)
14. Although Rip’s story of meeting this company of little men bowling in the mountains seems crazy to the people in the village, old Peter Vanderdonk “affirmed that the great Henry Hudson, the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of ______there every twenty years, with the crew of his ship, the Half Moon.”(p.68)
15. By the end of the story Rip is quite contented, for “having nothing to do at home, and having arrived at that happy age when a man is allowed to be ______, he took his place once more on the bench at the inn door.”(p.70)
Part III: APPLICATION: “Rip Van Winkle”
Use a complete sentence to answer each of the questions below in the blank provided.
1. What letter PRECEDES the letter “F” in the alphabet?
2. On what night would you be likely to keep a VIGIL for Santa Claus?
3. What is one time in the past when you were MEEK? Why?
4. If a person feels CONTENTMENT, would he/she want things to change?
5. What country was an ALLY of America during the Revolutionary War?
6. Are you IDLE while you are doing these vocabulary exercises?
7. Why might you not want to sit on an ANTIQUE chair?
8. In what situation might a person have a GRAVE look on his/her face?
9. Whom do you know who is STOUT?
10. What is one example of MISCHIEF that would get you in trouble at school?
11. What is one time in the story that Rip is willing to TOIL?
12. When does Rip feel DESPAIR?
13. What does Rip DREAD?
14. Why does Rip feel BEWILDERMENT when he strokes his chin?
15. What does Rip’s daughter RECOLLECT about what happened to her father?