onerous - very difficult work or an activity that requires a great struggle (often physical); if something is burdensome, it is onerous
to bristle - literally this is when hair or bristles stand up on an animal indicating fear or aggression; to bristle means to become upset and consequently to become more aggressive. A person might bristle at the actions of another person.
sullen - this describes a person who is upset or sad and who simply won't talk
infamous - famous for negative reasons
to indulge oneself - to give yourself some source of pleasure, usually as a type of reward
a coup - an achievement that was unexpected and amazing
to calibrate - to adjust some type of measuring device so that it can measure something with the utmost accuracy
ghastly - terrible, disgusting
a palisade - a fence established to provide protection - the fence is usually made of wooden posts with pointed tips at the top
Answers are below the exercise:
Joe _______________ at Mike's suggestion that he was lazy and not working at full capacity. Joe felt himself to be a hard worker and took pride in this.
Al Capone was the most _________________ gangster and criminal in Chicago's history. He bribed police and officials and was a cold-blooded killer.
Bob had been ill for several weeks. Frankly, when I saw him he looked __________________; he was as pale as a ghost and seems quite tired and weak.
These days many children feel that taking care of elderly parents is an ________________ task but it is often unavoidable.
I am not even sure how far I walked yesterday. It's true I wore a special device on my shoe to measure my number of steps, but it turns out that the device wasn't properly ________________________ and did not count any steps.
Getting a great writer like Maribel for our magazine was a real ______________. Everybody wanted her and she chose us because she liked our energy and integrity.
It was just impossible to communicate with Bill yesterday. Due to the death of his dog he was _______________ all day.
I have been working so hard for so long that I think it's time I _________________ myself in a long night of eating chocolate.
Jamestown is known as the first sustainable European-type city in North America. Yet, it wasn't really a city. Basically it was a little collection of houses surrounded by a __________________ to ensure safety from potential native American attacks.
Answers are below:
Answers:
bristled
infamous
ghastly
onerous
calibrated
coup
sullen
indulged
palisade
