Vocabulary ladder
Anna Karenina
Part ONE, 3
1,681 words. Everyday vocabulary (band A) covers 65% of the text; the hard 5% is 53 entries — all of them below.
A 64.9% (355 types) B 5.5% (80 types) C 4.0% (58 entries) D 1.4% (23 entries) E 0.6% (10 entries) N 3.0% (20 entries)
Band B — common reading vocabulary
A sample of 24 of 80 — you will meet these often; they are explained only at the fullest help level.
- flushed
- unpleasant ×2
- drift
- scent ×2
- thoughtful
- carriage ×2
- swallow
- fond
- discretion
- fog
- arose
- pencil
- sighed
- lightly
- puzzling
- reconstruction
- characteristic
- firmly
- inspire
- spite ×2
- cigarette · cigarettes ×2
- rational
- monkey
- merchant
Band C — recognition checklist
All 58 upper-intermediate words in this chapter. Tick the ones you know; the rest are explained at the fullest help level.
- attentively
- fondant
- pocketbook
- waistcoat
- recollect
- ashtray
- disown
- petitioner
- unsatisfactory
- affectionately
- unhappiness
- agreeable
- fragrant
- outcry
- whiff
- deceit
- tenderness
- frown
- ordinarily
- evoke
- gratification
- boldly
- diffuse
- digestion
- hydra
- quarrel
- mamma
- fling
- joyous
- crumb
- indispensable
- senseless
- decidedly
- sprinkle
- ache
- chilly
- liberalism
- reconcile
- fluent
- amend
- harass
- blush
- cigar
- cheerful
- interrupt
- damp
- hypocrisy
- posture
- sip
- susceptible
- eld
- reconciliation
- childish
- greet
- rumor
- unreasonable
- amusing
- curb
Band D — advanced (23 entries)
- drawing-room
- the sitting room for guests
- high-flown
- grand and overblown
- mother-of-pearl
- the shining lining of some shells
- office-papers
- the papers of an office
- dining-room
- the dining room
- grandmamma
- grandmother
- laughingly
- with laughter
- joyously
- joyfully
- personage
- a person of importance
- barbarous
- savage; brutal
- embittered
- made bitter
- legible
- plain enough to read
- gruff
- rough and deep of voice
- radicalism
- the holding that great change is needed
- innuendo · innuendoes ×2
- a sly hint
- clogging
- to dance a clog dance
- whiskers
- hair on the cheeks
- whence
- from where
- alluded
- to hint at
- stooping
- to bend down
- handkerchief
- a cloth for the nose or eyes
- repulsive
- disgusting
- sprawling
- spread out loose and wide
Band E — rare & archaic (10 entries)
- quickwittedness
- quickness of understanding
- shirt-cuffs
- the bands at the wrists of a shirt
- vexation
- annoyance; distress
- ironical
- mocking by saying the opposite
- obstinacy
- stubbornness
- imperceptibly
- too gradually to notice
- falsity
- falseness
- traditionalism
- the holding to what has been handed down
- mantelpiece
- the shelf over a fireplace
- pecuniary
- of money
False friends — common words wearing old senses (3)
- interest
- the spectacle that draws a crowd — the old sense here
- state
- ceremony; pomp — the old sense here
- use
- habit; custom — the old sense here
Names (15)
- arkadyevitch ×15
- a Russian patronymic, meaning son of Arkady
- beist
- part of a German phrase
- philimonovna
- a Russian patronymic, meaning daughter of Filimon
- oblonsky
- Anna's brother, a genial Moscow official
- matvey ×2
- Oblonsky's valet
- matrona
- a Russian woman's name
- kalinin
- a Russian family name
- rurik
- the Norseman said to have founded the Russian line of princes
- hoole
- a family name
- grisha ×2
- a familiar form of a Russian man's name
- wiesbaden
- a German spa town
- stepan ×15
- a Russian man's name; also Oblonsky's first name
- bentham
- an English thinker on law and happiness
- tanya ×2
- a familiar form of the name Tatiana; also Dolly's daughter
- Stepan Arkadyevitch
- Oblonsky, Anna's brother, by his first name and patronymic