Vocabulary ladder
Anna Karenina
Part ONE, 4
1,898 words. Everyday vocabulary (band A) covers 66% of the text; the hard 5% is 46 entries — all of them below.
A 65.7% (307 types) B 6.5% (85 types) C 2.4% (40 entries) D 1.5% (23 entries) E 0.4% (8 entries) N 2.7% (15 entries)
Band B — common reading vocabulary
A sample of 24 of 85 — you will meet these often; they are explained only at the fullest help level.
- honorable
- despair
- bald
- vicious ×2
- carriage ×2
- uttered
- maids
- mistress ×2
- fond
- nursery
- amazed
- fury
- glance · glanced ×3
- refuge
- gratitude
- punish ×2
- sighed
- cheek ×2
- scattered
- pity
- arrange
- sympathy
- wiped ×2
- slam · slamming ×3
Band C — recognition checklist
All 40 upper-intermediate words in this chapter. Tick the ones you know; the rest are explained at the fullest help level.
- watchmaker
- pocketbook
- hairpin
- quiver
- governess
- freshness
- unwell
- housekeeping
- pitiful
- avenge
- aversion
- bony
- submissive
- timid
- sunken
- sob
- didn
- startled
- soften
- subdued
- alarmed
- unnatural
- dine
- horribly
- plunge
- radiant
- hateful
- tread
- vulgar
- swell
- dreadful
- wrath
- litter
- lump
- reconciliation
- solitary
- drown
- betray
- tightly
- drawer
Band D — advanced (23 entries)
- dining-room
- the dining room
- vulgarly
- in a common and cheap way
- unwholesome
- unhealthy
- thinness
- being thin
- stiffened ×2
- grown stiff
- bewilderment
- utter confusion
- roubles
- the money of Russia
- contemptuous
- full of contempt
- nape
- the back of the neck
- loathsome
- disgusting
- pacified
- to calm; make peaceful
- beseeching
- to beg earnestly
- shriek · shrieked ×5
- a piercing scream
- scoundrel ×2
- a shameless villain
- punctual
- on time
- atone
- to make good a wrong
- exasperated
- to anger greatly
- clung
- held fast
- fastened
- fixed firmly on
- clasping
- to hold tight in the arms
- pang
- a sharp stab of pain
- resolute
- firmly determined
- repulsive
- disgusting
Band E — rare & archaic (8 entries)
- loathsomeness
- disgusting foulness
- unutterably
- beyond words
- expiate
- to make amends for
- shrilly
- in a high piercing tone
- tottered
- to walk unsteadily
- scanty
- barely enough; thin
- luxuriant
- growing thick and rich
- assiduously
- with steady care
False friends — common words wearing old senses (1)
- awful
- full of awe — the old sense here
Names (14)
- arkadyevitch ×6
- a Russian patronymic, meaning son of Arkady
- arkadyevna
- a Russian patronymic, meaning daughter of Arkady
- philimonovna ×2
- a Russian patronymic, meaning daughter of Filimon
- stiva ×2
- a familiar form of Oblonsky's name
- matvey ×6
- Oblonsky's valet
- matrona ×2
- a Russian woman's name
- alexandrovna ×4
- a Russian patronymic, meaning daughter of Alexandr
- darya ×5
- a Russian woman's name; also Dolly's full name
- stepan ×6
- a Russian man's name; also Oblonsky's first name
- dolly ×8
- the eldest Shtcherbatsky sister, married to Oblonsky
- anna ×2
- the woman this story follows, wife of a Petersburg official
- Anna Arkadyevna
- Anna, by her first name and patronymic
- Darya Alexandrovna
- Dolly, Oblonsky's wife, by her first name and patronymic
- Stepan Arkadyevitch
- Oblonsky, Anna's brother, by his first name and patronymic