VOCABULARY

Choose from the list of words selected from “Leiningen Versus the Ants” to fill in the blanks in the sentences below. After each sentence define the word by using a dictionary, and tell me what part of speech it is being used as. Be sure to spell the words correctly, as there will be a spelling test on this word list.

placidly (34)devastations (34)grapple (35)imminent (35)

quadrilateral (35)tamarind (35)plunderers (35)vista (36)

imprecations (36)voracious (36)cranium (36)mandibles (36)

impelled (37)simultaneously (37)aura (37)dervish (38)

pirouette (38)floundering (38)fusillades (38)ominous (39)

vermin (40)intermittent (40)cisterns (41)zealously (41)

razing (42)rampart (42)repulse (42)whet (42)

repulsed (44)apathy (44)knoll (47)draught (47)

  1. Leiningen was determined to send the ______back to the hell where they belonged, somehow, anyhow.

Def.______

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  1. All vegetation for miles around were hulled with ants ______gobbling the yield of long weary months of strenuous toil.

Def.______

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  1. Long before Leinengen had started work on his plantation, he had lived enough to know of the fearful ______sometimes wrought by these ravenous insects.

Def.______

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  1. The southern stretch of ditch – the upper side of the ______was nearly three mils long.

Def.______

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  1. The Indians believed they could see the brilliant, cold eyes and the razor-edged ______of this host of infinity.

Def.______

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  1. Had the ants assaulted ______along the entire length of the ditch, the outlook for the defenders would have been black indeed.

Def.______

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  1. Screaming, frantic with pain, the peon danced and twirled like a __dervish__.

Def._noun- religious follower who obtains ecstasy through whirling around

  1. All the same, he was forced to admit to himself that the situation was far more ______than it had been the day before.

Def.______

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  1. The ______flushing prevented the fording of the ditch.

Def.______

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  1. Leiningen lounged ______sucking on a cigar as he pondered the approaching devils.

Def.______

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  1. Few would be able to sleep until the ______had departed and left the plantation alone.

Def.______

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  1. They had been warned repeatedly about the ______appetite of the ants.

Def.______

  1. Leiningen’s men gave vent to their suspense in screams and ______.

Def.______

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  1. The billions of ants were ______by the mighty cascade behind them to struggle nearer and nearer to the inner bank.

Def.______

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  1. The peon ceased his ______then tore off his shirt and plunged his arms into the petrol.

Def.______

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  1. The inner moat was the site of three great petrol ______which would be used to fill the ditches.

Def.______

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  1. As soon as the petrol was lit, it burst into a towering ______of fire encompassing the garrison.

Def.______

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  1. Even the vast plantation had not sated their appetite and they were now intent on ______the area inside of the inner moat.

Def.______

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  1. Leiningen’s men began to shuffle towards him with the ______of death already stamped on their faces.

Def.______

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  1. The alluvium of ants tried again and again only to be ______by streams of petrol back into the flood.

Def.______

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  1. Along the west side of the outer moat was a __tamarind____ wood which the ants soon make use of .

Def.__noun – an evergreen-like tree______

  1. As Leiningen moved among his men, he gave orders for the ______struggle and his men received them with the calmness with which they were given.

Def.______

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  1. The wide ______of green herbage was being mown as by a giant sickle, leaving only the vast moving shadow.

Def.______

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  1. Leiningen had such an ______of confidence that the Indians forgot their fear of the peril that was only a yard or two away.

Def.______

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  1. The ______insects eddied in thousands along the flow.

Def.______

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  1. The spectacular and instant ______caused by the flaming petrol threw the Indians into ecstasy.

Def.______

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  1. Each setback suffered by the ants only seemed to ______their appetite for more of the same.

Def.______

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  1. The old medicine man held out to his master a gourd full of a powerful sleeping ______that Leiningen gulped down.

Def.______

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  1. The inner part of the plantation was located on a ______in the middle and northern end of Leiningen’s land.

Def.______

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  1. Leiningen had always known how to ______with and for life.

Def.______

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  1. His ______was filled with the intense desire to not only stay alive but to thrive.

Def.______

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  1. ______of clods of dirt drove the ants round the bend toward the mouth of the ditch.

Def.______

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