WORD LISTS

"I Must Betray You" by Ruta Sepetys, "Beneath the Gilded Frame"–Chapter 7

Wed Jan 24 12:56:55 EST 2024
By Vocabulary.com (NY)Visual Thesaurus Moderator
In 1989 Romania, with the country controlled by a dictator, seventeen-year-old aspiring writer Cristian Florescu dreams of freedom, especially when he is blackmailed by the secret police into informing on the family of an American diplomat.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: "Beneath the Gilded Frame"–Chapter 7, Chapters 8–17, Chapters 18–36, Chapters 37–63, Chapter 64–Epilogue
undertow
They avoided the eyes of others. To look into the face of fear brought risk of getting trapped in its undertow.
perpetual
Always watching.
Romania’s perpetual sense of surveillance.
stoic
The citizens of Romania were stoic and resilient, but they suffered a terror of tyranny.
resilient
The citizens of Romania were stoic and resilient, but they suffered a terror of tyranny.
tedious
He walked toward me, passing the tedious sign shouting from the concrete wall.
New Men of Romania:
Long live Communism—the bright future of mankind!
casual
Comrade Director shifted his weight, trying to appear casual.
Nothing was ever casual.
pinafore
Luca and me, we wore navy suits and ties to liceu. All boys did. Girls, navy pinafores and white hair bands.
communism
We were told that we were all brothers and sisters in communism. Addressing each other with the term “comrade” reinforced that we were all equal, with no social classes to divide us. Good brothers and sisters in communism followed rules.
maverick
Our beloved leader. Our hero. Maverick of the grand Communist Party of Romania and vampire to the necks of millions.
agitator
Complaining aloud could get you arrested as a “political agitator.”
bolster
Reading English contraband bolstered my vocabulary.
abysmal
Abysmal conditions in Romania.
megalomaniac
Nicolae Ceauşescu. Ruthless leader. Megalomaniac.
sanity
Imagine a madhouse where the lunatics are running the asylum and the workers are punished for their sanity.
decree
Everyone was a possible target for surveillance. She, Mother Elena Ceauşescu, even decreed that balconies of apartments must remain fully visible.
compromise
It was not a proposal. It was an order, and one that compromised all principles of decency. I’d be a rat, a turnător, secretly informing on the private lives of others.
facility
Florescu was described to us as intelligent, quietly observant, with strong facility for the English language.
guise
Approached Florescu on school grounds and used guise of illegal stamp trading as basis for recruitment.
wary
Florescu appeared wary but agreed to provide information as OSCAR when medication for his grandfather was presented as an option.
ascertain
OSCAR will be used to:
–interact with Van Dorn’s son, Dan (16)
–determine schedule patterns of the Van Dorn family
–determine who frequents the residence
–provide detailed mapping and layout of the Van Dorn residence
–ascertain general attitudes of the Van Dorns toward Romania
monochrome
Living in Bucharest was like living inside a black-and-white photo. Life in cold monochrome.
palette
You knew that color existed somewhere beyond the city’s palette of cement and charcoal, but you couldn’t get there—beyond the gray.
leach
To me, the darkness felt poisonous, leaching into everything.
loom
They had no doors, no elevators, no stair railings. Similar concrete hulks loomed around the city, gray staircases to nowhere.
collectivize
Everyone will live together! Everything is collectivized, shared by the Party! was the mantra.
guttural
The animals lunged at the girl, growling wild and guttural.
subdue
“Culcat,” I ordered, extending the stick for the gnashing dogs to bite, speaking low to subdue them.
ensue
The dogs, eventually outnumbered by the group, ran off to search for easier prey. Frantic chatter ensued, arguments about the strays.
regime
When the regime bulldozed the city, dogs were lost and left to the streets.
maul
The month prior, our teacher’s baby was mauled to death in her stroller.
elated
For months I’d been trying to talk to Liliana Pavel. We were finally alone, talking, agreeing to see each other on Saturday night and instead of being elated, I was suspicious?
bland
The State broadcasts only two hours of bland television per day, mainly propaganda and salutes to Ceauşescu.
lament
“Bugs, bugs all around,” lamented Bunu. “Philips inside and outside.”
Philips were listening devices and rumored to be everywhere: hidden in walls, telephones, ashtrays.
mantra
So all families followed the same mantra:
At home we speak in whispers.
flustered
I looked up English words and phrases to describe her and wrote them in my notebook: Jittery. Distressed. Flustered. Freaked out.
ingenuity
I also admired his ingenuity. Because of Bunu, we had an illegal sofa wedged in our small alcove of a kitchen.
buffet
The living area consisted of an oval table with chairs, a narrow buffet cabinet, and a sofa that folded open.
elaborate
“A young man needs his own space for things, doesn’t he?”
I did but hoped Bunu wouldn’t elaborate and embarrass me.
feisty
One sick, yet feisty grandfather on an illegal sofa in the kitchen.
transgression
The transgressions made me think of the Securitate agent. These were the type of things I’d probably have to report about the American family. Things I myself was guilty of.

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