H2O by Virginia Bergin - Vocabulary Flash Cards - Q3

(noun) Edinburgh

Scotland's capital, which has a medieval old town and is well known for its theater. "A woman behind a desk was talking to two men on screens behind her; it was said they were in Manchester and Edinburgh." pg. 53

(noun) amateur

nonprofessional "It was amateur. You know what it reminded me of? When me, Lee, Ronnie, and Molly had done our media studies project." pg. 53

(adjective) logistical

of the implementation of an operation "I had what Simon would have called "a slight logistical problem," which is what he said when he said when I told him where I was going to go and he pointed out that that would on me getting a ride from "someone" and that "someone" had other plans that did not involve driving me about like a chauffeur." pg. 160

(noun) Sir Edmund Hillary

a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer who became one of the first people to conquer Mt. Everest "Supposing Sir Edmund Hillary had looked outside his tent and said, "You know what? It's raining I don't think I'll bother conquering Everest after all." pg. 38

(noun) altocumulus

a broken up cloud that occurs at a medium altitude "some kind of altocumulus type I now think they must have been, but I can't remember whether they were castellanus or floccus." pg. 89

(noun) gargoyle

a carving of a human or animal face that is projecting from the gutter of a building "some weird look that was almost like a slow, astonished smile creeping onto his face at the sight of me - and then he looked at that bottle and that weird look curled up into a miserable frown and turned to stone. Gargoyle face." pg. 130

(noun) castellanus

a cloud that has small turrets "some kind of altocumulus type I now think they must have been, but I can't remember whether they were castellanus or floccus." pg. 89

(noun) cirrus fibratus

a cloud that is hair-like and streaked in composition "only some cirrus fibratus, most likely: fine streaks of cloud, flicked about on high winds - like Queen Cumulonimbus Capillatus had raked across the sky as she stormed out." pg. 110

(noun) floccus

a cloud that is made up of small rounded tufts "some kind of altocumulus type I now think they must have been, but I can't remember whether they were castellanus or floccus." pg. 89

(adjective) contagious

a disease that spreads from one person or organism to another by direct or indirect contact "Don't drink any water and by the way it is contagious." pg. 136

(noun) bacterium

a member of a large group of unicellular microorganisms that have cell walls but lack organelles and an organized nucleus, including some that can cause disease "A bacterium. A thing that had lived in the asteroid for millions - maybe billions ?! - of years." pg. 78

(noun) extremophile

a microorganism that survives in an extreme condition "They didn't know how it did that, but apparently even some bacteria on Earth - extremophiles, that's what they said they were called - can survive for endless centuries." pg. 78

(noun) polyextremophile

a microorganism that survives in two or more extreme conditions "They said the space-thing was a kind of polyextremophile because, unlike your regular extremophile, there were tons and tons of things it couldn't care less about: heat, cold, radiation..." pg. 78

(noun) cumulonimbus capillatus

a puffy cloud that has an upper part made out of a disorderly mass of air "by then, she's the tallest thing on earth; cumulonimbus capillatus, the thundery queen of all clouds." pg. 100

(noun) quarantine

a state, period or place of isolation "quarantine" makes it sound as if you might come out alive (you won't)." pg. 80

(adjective) contrite

affected by guilt "look contrite, I thought - which means looking really sorry even if you're not." pg. 61

(noun) smithereens

small pieces "The asteroid is blown to smithereens" pg. 6

(noun) hypothermia

the condition of having an abnormally low body temperature "I dunno, that she had stayed out in the rain too long or something? That she was old anyway, so she could have just had a heart attack. Died of hypothermia." pg. 51

(verb) blitzed

to defeat with an all-out attack "On even the most rain blitzed, you can still make out faces, blobs of faces that had once been real people." pg. 148

(verb) warbling

to sing in a quavering voice "As soon as I'd gotten the first warbling word out, I knew I made yet another horrible mistake." pg. 1

(noun) nimbostratus

a type of cloud that is thick, grey and at a low altitude "It was coming down in sheets, pouring down, from the kind, grey sky that's got no hope of sun in it. That's nimbostratus." pg. 59

(noun) floozies

a woman who has a reputation for promiscuity "...They'd split up to, and he was now dating "floozies" - that's what I heard my mom tell my aunt Katie." pg. 39

(adjective) cunningly

craftiness "Because she's cunningly polite to them and makes a showy effort to understand whatever it is they are talking about" pg. 22

(verb) scarfed

eat or drink something enthusiastically "I snatched the peanuts off him, scarfed some, then guzzled some water" pg. 155

(noun) Winston Churchill

the Prime Minister of the U.K during WWII "Imagine if Winston Churchill had said, "You know what, It's a little rainy in Europe. Let's just let Hitler get on with it." pg 38