Vocabulary ladder
Crime and Punishment
Part I, I
3,374 words. Everyday vocabulary (band A) covers 61% of the text; the hard 4% is 102 entries — all of them below.
A 61.3% (488 types) B 6.1% (158 types) C 4.3% (108 entries) D 2.1% (58 entries) E 1.2% (27 entries) N 0.9% (17 entries)
Band B — common reading vocabulary
A sample of 24 of 158 — you will meet these often; they are explained only at the fullest help level.
- filthy ×2
- sticky
- enjoyment
- sofa ×2
- spoil
- confessed
- exploit
- refined
- creep
- uttering
- curtain · curtains ×3
- alleys
- rubbish
- clutched
- gossip
- proximity
- disliked
- misery
- positively
- rack
- unlocking
- continually
- glance ×2
- terribly
Band C — recognition checklist
All 108 upper-intermediate words in this chapter. Tick the ones you know; the rest are explained at the fullest help level.
- colourless
- plaything
- halfpenny
- shortcoming
- pester
- thickly
- unseemly
- hesitating
- indecision
- hatter
- recklessness
- jeweler
- landlady
- involuntarily
- bolder
- revolting
- wither
- errand
- mistrust
- cowardice
- acutely
- hopelessly
- fondly
- giddy
- artisan
- cleanliness
- monologue
- grotesque
- reckoning
- overtake
- malignant
- scarcely
- conspicuous
- continual
- degrade
- pancake
- fumble
- torment
- haste
- chatter
- inquire
- distrust
- cowardly
- unnoticed
- manifestation
- brightly
- cupboard
- invariably
- bitterness
- hideous
- stout
- uneasy
- smear
- painfully
- eagerly
- flap
- engrave
- inhabit
- distinctly
- pawn
- plaster
- redeem
- acquaintance
- hesitation
- rag
- tavern
- glitter
- hen
- staircase
- hum
- cheerful
- disgust
- hostility
- pavement
- rusty
- storey
- tailor
- unseen
- dim
- refrain
- accustom
- dread
- thirst
- courtyard
- casually
- drunken
- trivial
- partition
- peculiar
- sip
- verge
- rehearsal
- accumulate
- akin
- daring
- gaze
- meaningless
- knot
- contempt
- exceptionally
- frightened
- noticeable
- queer
- oblige
- definite
- drawer
- faint
- notch
Band D — advanced (58 entries)
- cigarette-box
- a box for holding cigarettes
- dressing-table
- a lady's table for dressing
- pot-houses
- small low drinking places
- well-built
- strongly built
- inquiringly
- with a questioning look
- thirty-five
- thirty-five
- overstrained ×2
- stretched too tight
- strong-boxes
- strong cases for keeping money safe
- door-keepers
- those who keep the door
- good-day
- a greeting on meeting or parting
- untenanted
- untenanted: empty
- looking-glass
- a mirror
- old-fashioned
- of the old fashion
- blankness
- empty whiteness; nothing to see
- strong-box
- a locked box for valuables
- wretchedness
- misery
- overwrought
- strained too far
- scowl
- to frown darkly
- grizzled
- gray-streaked
- derangement
- madness
- geraniums
- a house plant with red or pink flowers
- passers-by
- those passing by
- repulsion
- driving away; deep dislike
- muslin
- fine thin cotton cloth
- preponderance
- outweighing greater share
- loathsome ×3
- disgusting
- bawling
- to shout loudly
- mutter · muttered ×3
- to speak low in the throat
- foreboding
- a dark feeling of what is coming
- insufferable
- unbearable
- locksmiths
- a maker and opener of locks
- resolutely
- with firm determination
- tenements
- a dwelling
- oppress
- weighed down
- damsels
- a young lady
- garret ×3
- a room at the top of a house, under the roof
- spiteful
- full of spite
- trifles ×5
- a thing of no importance
- impotence
- powerlessness
- gleam · gleamed ×2
- a soft flash of light
- bustle
- hurried stir and fuss
- inquisitive
- prying; curious
- abject
- sunk low; miserable
- axiom
- a self-evident rule
- speck
- a tiny spot
- tremor
- a fine trembling
- diminutive
- a pet short form of a name
- exclamations
- a cry of surprise or feeling
- irritable
- quick to anger
- scaffolding
- the builder's raised platforms
- tangle
- twisted together in a mass
- stench ×2
- a foul smell
- amuse
- entertained; smiling
- groaned
- to give a deep pained cry
- atrocious
- terrible
- phew
- explained by the text itself
- flannel
- soft woollen cloth
- agitation ×2
- troubled excitement
Band E — rare & archaic (27 entries)
- airlessness
- the want of fresh air
- bespattered
- splashed with mud
- brimless
- with no edge round it
- five-storied
- having five floors
- full-skirted
- with wide skirts
- copecks ×6
- a small Russian coin, a hundredth of a rouble
- shabbiness
- the state of being worn and poor
- glassful
- glassfuls: as much as a glass holds
- fastidiousness
- being hard to please
- lizaveta
- the pawnbroker's younger sister
- tremulously
- with a shaking voice
- prevaricate
- to speak so as to avoid the truth
- inquisitively
- with lively curiosity
- hypochondria
- sickly gloom about one's health
- disconcerted
- thrown off and made uneasy
- waggon
- a four-wheeled cart
- mangy
- with the hair falling out; shabby
- kerchief
- a cloth worn over the head
- rouble · roubles ×10
- the money of Russia
- concertina
- a squeeze-box musical instrument
- jeered
- to mock loudly
- scornful
- full of scorn
- tantalising
- to hold a wished for thing just out of reach
- tinkle ×2
- to ring lightly
- jostling
- pushed and shoved together
- dray
- a low heavy cart
- ikon
- a holy picture of a saint, used in Russian worship
False friends — common words wearing old senses (5)
- condition
- social rank — the old sense here
- interest
- the spectacle that draws a crowd — the old sense here
- passage
- a sea-journey — the old sense here
- peculiar
- its own; particular — the old sense here
- use
- habit; custom — the old sense here
Names (7)
- alyona ×3
- the old woman who takes pledges for money
- raskolnikov ×6
- the young former student this story follows
- ivanovna ×3
- a Russian patronymic, meaning daughter of Ivan
- zimmerman
- a Petersburg hat shop
- Alyona Ivanovna
- the old pawnbroker, by her formal name
- Hay Market
- the crowded market square at the heart of Raskolnikov's Petersburg
- Petersburg
- St Petersburg, then the capital of Russia