Vocabulary Workshop Level D Unit 14 Completing the sentence

With one flashing stroke of his mighty axe, the skilled woodsman was able to _________ the heavy branch from the tree trunk.

cleave

We certainly did not expect to receive such a(n) ______ greeting from someone who had been described to us as cold and unsociable.

cordial

The roman numeral MCMXCVI is inscribed on the commemorative plaque that adorns the _____ of the building.

cornerstone

Our dress rehearsal was a disaster: actors blew their lines, doors on the st got stuck shut; it was a complete _____!

debacle

The illness so _____ her that it was several weeks before she could return to her job.

devitalized

Three customers fought noisily over the last sale-priced sweater until they finally ______ the store manager in their dispute.

embroiled

By proving that his 18th birthday came one day before the election, the student was ______ of the charge of unlawful voting.

exonerated

He is certainly a(n) __________ talker, but does he have a firm grasp of the subject he's discussing?

glib

His books are scattered around in such a(n) _____ manner that it is a mystery to me how he can find the ones he wants.

haphazard

The entertainer cleverly ___________ limericks and other comic rhymes on subjects suggested by the audience.

improvised

Rebels would find it difficult to _________ people who are reasonably well satisfied with their government to rise up against it.

incite

The heavy rains of June brought a(n) ________ of mosquitoes into the neighborhoods bordering the marshland.

influx

Her deathly _______ and distraught expression told us she had already received the tragic news.

pallor

My dog Rover may look like a mutt at first glance, but in fact he has a distinguished _______.

pedigree

I saw nothing but peril in the prospect of trying to scale a cliff so sheer and ______ that even expert climbers shield away from it.

precipitous

In the untended garden the weeds were so ______ that they all but smothered the few flowers that managed to blossom.

profuse

As we grow older and perhaps wiser, we _____ ourselves to the fact that we will never achieve all that we had hoped in life.

reconcile

Of the millions of immigrants who came to America from all over the world, only the Africans arrived here in _________.

shackles

His old-fashioned clothes were patched and _____, but we could see that he had made every effort to keep them spotlessly clean.

threadbare

With the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Jefferson _____ a vast territory that doubled the size of the nation.

annexed