Vocabulary - The Catcher in the Rye Chapters 18 - 21

Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Contextual Clues

Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence. Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think the underlined words mean in the space provided.

28. Jane said he wasn't a show-off. She said he had an inferiority complex.

29. The bartender was a louse, too.

30. He kept telling her she had aristocratic hands.

31. . . . I was careful as hell not to get boisterous or anything. I didn't want anybody to notice me . . . .

32. All of them swimming around in a goddam pot of tea and saying sophisticated stuff to each other and being charming and phony.

33. I have this one stupid aunt with halitosis that kept saying how peaceful he looked lying there.


Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.

_____28. inferiority A. Noisy and unruly
_____29. louse B. Of an upper class; distinguished
_____30. aristocratic C. Bad smelling breath
_____31. boisterous D. Strong feelings of inadequacy
_____32. sophisticated E. A person regarded as mean or contemptible
_____33. halitosis F. Worldly wise; refined