CHAPTER 1
1. A veritable bedlam of chirrupings – refers to the noise and confusion caused by the chirrupings of the sparrows
2. Absurd – Illogical
3. Accepted her seclusion with resignation – the grandmother accepted a lonely life as she accepted the separation from her grandson without objection
4. An expanse of pure white serenity – refers to the calm, relaxed and peaceful character of the author’s grandmother
5. Beads – a small piece of glass or stone threaded with others to make a rosary or necklace
6. Bedlam – confusion
7. Blaze – a very large burning fire
8. Bothered – to be concerned
9. Cherished – hold something dear
10. Chirrupings – the noise of a small bird
11. Clasped – hold tightly
12. Contentment – a state of happiness and satisfaction
13. Corpse – dead body
14. Courtyard – verandah
15. Cremated – dispose of or burn a body after it is dead
16. Criss-cross – a pattern of intersecting straight lines
17. Crude – in a natural state, roughly made
18. Customary – traditional
19. Dilapidated – in a state of despair or ruin
20. Distressed – suffer from extremely sorrow, anxiety or pain
21. Earthen – made of baked or fired clay
22. Fables – fictitious stories with a moral teaching
23. Fetch – go for and then bring back something for someone
24. Frivolous – not having any serious purpose, light-hearted
25. Frivolous rebukes – light-hearted scoldings
26. Gentlefolk – People of noble birth
27. Growling – making a low guttural sound in the throat
28. Harlots – Prostitutes
29. Hobbled – walked in an awkward way
30. Imprint – impression or stamp
31. Inaudible – unable to be heard
32. Lewd Association – Indecent or Obscene
33. Locks – hair
34. Mantelpiece – a structure of wood, marble, or stone above and around a fireplace
35. Moist – wet
36. Monotonous – dull and boring
37. Omitted – leave out or exclude something
38. Overstraining – overdoing something
39. Pallor – an unhealthy pale appearance
40. Perched – alight or rest on something
41. Persuade – to talk someone into doing something, request
42. Plastered – covered with a layer of plaster
43. Portrait – painting or picture
44. Prophets – saints
45. Protested – express an objection against something or someone
46. Puckered – a face contract into wrinkles
47. Rebuke – disapproval of something or someone
48. Revolting – unpleasant
49. Rosary – a string of beads for keeping count of number of chants made of a religious prayer
50. Sagging – sinking downwards
51. Scattered – disorganized
52. Scriptures – the sacred writings of a religion
53. Seclusion – the state of being private and away from the people
54. Sentimental – a feeling of nostalgia, sadness or tenderness; an emotional feeling
55. Serenity – the state of being peaceful and calm
56. Shooed – make a person or animal go away by shouting or saying ‘shoo’
57. Shroud – a piece of cloth used to wrap a dead person
58. Slate – a flat plate of slate formerly used for writing on in schools
59. Snapped – break suddenly and completely
60. Spinning-wheel – a household machine with a wheel attached to it for spinning yarn
61. Spotless white – she wore clean, white-colored dresses
62. Stale – no longer fresh and pleasant to eat; hard, musty, or dry
63. Stoop – bend one’s body forward
64. The sagging skins of the dilapidated drum – The loose surface of the worn-out drum
65. The thought was almost revolting – it was very hard for the author to believe
66. Thumped – hit
67. Undignified – disrespectful
68. Untidily – not neat
69. Veritable – used to describe something which is very interesting or unusual
70. Wrinkled – having lines or folds
71. Years rolled by – time passed
CHAPTER 2
1. Abated – something unpleasant to become less intense
2. Aft – near the stern of the ship
3. Anchored – moor a ship to the sea bottom
4. Ashore – on the shore of the land
5. Atrocious – bad; of a very poor quality
6. Auxiliary engine – small secondary engine used on board ships to operate a windlass in the ship
7. Bashed – strike hard; hit
8. Bleak – an area of land lacking vegetation
9. Boom – pole that controls the angle and shape of the sail
10. Bulged – swell
11. Bunk – bed
12. Canvas – a strong unbleached cloth
13. Capsizing – be overturned in the water
14. Caricatures – picture of a person; cartoon
15. Crest – reach the top of a wave
16. Debris – rubbish
17. Deck – a floor of a ship
18. Deflected – turned aside
19. Deteriorate – get worse
20. Dinghies – a small boat for recreation with mast or sail
21. Donned – put on, wore
22. Dozed off – went off to sleep
23. Enormous – a very large size
24. Forestay – a rope to support a ship’s foremast
25. Frightful – very unpleasant or shocking
26. Gales – a very strong wind
27. Gigantic – huge; of a big size
28. Hatch – door
29. Heave to – to raise or lift with effort
30. Honing – sharpen, improving
31. Honing our seafaring skills – improving the skills required to travel by sea
32. Hull – the framework of the vessel
33. Hurled – throw with a great force
34. Impending – about to happen
35. Jib – a triangular staysail set forward of the mast on a ship
36. Keel – steel structure along the base of the ship
37. Knots – a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, used especially for ships, aircraft, or winds
38. Lashed – to hit with a lot of force
39. Leisure – free time
40. Loop – a shape produced that bends round and crosses; bent
41. Mast – a tall upright structure on a boat or ship
42. Mayday calls – words used to signal ships stuck in a disastrous situation through radio
43. Mooring – the ropes, chains, or anchors by or to which a boat, ship, or buoy is moored
44. Offshore – situated at sea some distance from the shore
45. Oilskins – heavy cotton cloth waterproofed with oil
46. Ominous silence – unpleasant or threatening silence
47. Optimistic – hopeful and confident
48. Paraffin – colorless flammable oil liquid
49. Pinpricks – a prick caused by a pin
50. Pinpricks in the vast ocean – the two small islands in the vast ocean were very tiny like the prick caused by a pin
51. Respite – a short period of rest
52. Rigging – the ropes and wires supporting the structure of the ship
53. Scrambled – climb; claw one’s way
54. Seafaring – regularly traveling by sea
55. Sextant – an instrument with a graduated arc of 60 degrees for taking altitudes and navigation
56. Shook – past tense of shake (vibrate)
57. Sloshed – move through liquid with a splashing sound
58. Smashed – badly broken
59. Smashed – shattered or violently broken
60. Starboard – side of a ship which is on the right side when one is facing forward
61. Stark – sharply defined
62. Stern – the back part of a ship or a boat
63. Taut – stretched or pulled tightly
64. Timbers – wood board used in the building of a ship
65. Torrent – a fast-moving stream of water
66. Tousled head – disarranged hair of the narrator’s son, Jonathan
67. Tremendous – very great in amount
68. Voyage – a long journey by sea or space
69. Wooden-hulled – a watertight body of a ship
70. Wrenched – pull suddenly, removed.
CHAPTER 3
1. Adorned – decorated
2. Adornments – ornaments
3. Afterlife – life after death, based on the belief that the essential part of an individual’s identity continues to the next life after the death of the physical body
4. Aftermath – after-effects of an unpleasant event
5. Amulet – an ornament or small piece of jewellery thought to give protection against evil, danger, or disease
6. Anatomy – the branch of science which deals with the bodily structure of humans, animals or other living beings
7. Antiquity – age, oldness
8. Apron – a protective garment worn over the front of one’s clothes and tied at the back
9. Astonishing – amazing
10. Blazing – very hot
11. Budged – moved or shifted; a slight movement
12. Burial – burying the dead
13. Casket – a small ornamental box or chest for holding jewels, letters, or other valued objects
14. Casket grey – It means that the grey clouds were like a grey coloured casket which contained the stars. The stars are like jewels which are kept in a casket.
15. Cemetery – a large burial ground
16. Chiselled away – to cut something with a chisel
17. Circumvented – find a way around; thieves would have found a way to tackle the guards and remove the gold from the tomb
18. Computed Tomography – Also called a CT scan, it is a three-dimensional scan of a body with the help of hundreds of X-Rays in cross-section together
19. Concealed – hid
20. Cramped – very small to fit into
21. Dark-bellied – dark in colour
22. Death rattle – the gurgling sound produced in the throat of a person who is about to die
23. Demise – death
24. Descended – moved or gathered
25. Eerie detail – strange image of Tut’s head as visible with the help of CT scan
26. Forensic Reconstruction – the process of recreating the face of an individual
27. Forensics – the application of the scientific method to investigate a crime
28. Funerary Treasures – the valuable things with which the king was buried
29. Futile – pointless; incapable of producing the result of something
30. Garlands of willow – a wreath of flowers and leaves
31. Gazed – to look in surprise or in admiration
32. Ghostly – eerie and unnatural; unreal
33. Gilded – covered with a thin sheet or coating of gold
34. Glided – quite, continuous motion
35. Hastily – fast; swiftly
36. Heir – Inheritor, successor
37. Hydraulic lift – a lift that uses a machine to lift or move heavy objects with a pressure
38. Iconic – something or someone who is a symbol or it represents some other thing
39. Inlaid – a decorative pattern on a surface
40. Intervening – occur in the time between events
41. Intriguing – to arouse one’s curiosity
42. Laden – loaded
43. Legitimate – reasonable
44. Lingering – long-lasting
45. Mummy – a body of a human being or animal that has been ceremonially preserved by removal of the internal organs, treatment with natron and resin, and wrapping in bandages
46. Murals – a painting or other artwork executed directly on the wall
47. Pallbearers – a person who helps to escort a coffin at a funeral
48. Pharaoh – a ruler in ancient Egypt
49. Pixels – a pixel is a single point in a graphic image
50. Pondering – think about something carefully
51. Probe – to investigate, find out
52. Ransacked – raid; go through a place to steal or damage something
53. Resins – a sticky flammable substance that is insoluble in water
54. Resting place – here, the grave
55. Resurrection – restoration to life
56. Ritual – here, the resins used in the ceremony of mummification
57. Rock-cut – made in a rock by cutting it
58. Scudded across – moving quickly; it refers to the movement of the dark-bellied clouds
59. Sheaths – a close-fitting cover
60. Shrine – holy place
61. Shroud – a length of cloth in which a dead person is wrapped
62. Speculated – form a theory without evidence
63. Sprinted – ran at a high speed
64. Spun – to turn around
65. Startling – unexpected or surprising
66. Stirred – move or cause to move slightly
67. Striking – prominent
68. Swirling – to spin or twist
69. Three nested coffin – three coffins placed one in another in order of decreasing size. The innermost coffin houses the body of the deceased
70. Tomb – an enclosure to bury the dead
71. Veiling – to cover something
72. Vertebrae – series of small bones which form a backbone
73. Wacky – amusing in a slightly odd way
74. Whisper – to speak in a low voice
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