Vocabulary ladder
The Count of Monte Cristo
Volume ONE, 2
2,521 words. Everyday vocabulary (band A) covers 61% of the text; the hard 6% is 76 entries — all of them below.
A 61.1% (363 types) B 4.5% (88 types) C 2.8% (57 entries) D 1.5% (34 entries) E 0.6% (10 entries) N 4.4% (32 entries)
Band B — common reading vocabulary
A sample of 24 of 88 — you will meet these often; they are explained only at the fullest help level.
- vicinity
- pardon
- refusal
- uttered
- seventeen
- misery
- esteem
- gesture
- glance
- fierce
- gratitude
- lent
- sixty
- hollow
- purse ×2
- cheeks
- fortunate ×2
- fortunately
- suspicions
- mistaken
- paused ×2
- wiping
- probability
- cloth ×2
Band C — recognition checklist
All 57 upper-intermediate words in this chapter. Tick the ones you know; the rest are explained at the fullest help level.
- coldness
- assuredly
- strapping
- flattery
- solemnly
- agreeable
- rejoin
- alternately
- smuggle
- brighten
- lament
- quay
- repress
- tremble
- complexion
- pooh
- ascend
- linger
- annoyance
- citadel
- bearded
- exceedingly
- inquire
- traverse
- foliage
- cupboard
- implicit
- patronage
- annoy
- rejoice
- hush
- alarmed
- franc
- dine
- lest
- brow
- comrade
- endeavor
- induce
- moderately
- cloak
- staircase
- congratulate
- grin
- chap
- tailor
- await
- remark
- revive
- downstairs
- patron
- nod
- greedy
- amuse
- banker
- sailor
- probable
Band D — advanced (34 entries)
- coat-lining
- the cloth lining a coat
- half-open
- partly open
- ill-concealed
- badly hidden
- ivory-white
- white like tusk
- black-eyed
- with black eyes
- twenty-five
- twenty-five
- twenty-one
- twenty-one
- well-known
- known by many
- shipowner
- a man who owns ships
- personage
- a person of importance
- proffered
- to hold out an offer
- negligently
- with careless neglect
- uneasiness
- uncomfortable worry
- insinuate · insinuating ×2
- insinuating: hinting slyly
- trellis
- trellis: a frame of crossed strips for plants
- honeysuckle
- the sweet climbing flower
- wench
- a country girl
- foi
- a small weakness
- perspiration
- sweat
- allude ×2
- to hint at
- befallen
- to happen to
- insolent
- rudely bold
- muttered
- to speak low in the throat
- upstarts
- a person newly risen
- vexed
- to annoy; trouble
- astonishment
- great surprise
- countenance
- the face; composure
- murmured
- to speak in a low soft flow
- sycamores
- a large spreading tree
- elated
- lifted high in spirits
- civility
- polite courtesy
- exclaimed
- to cry out
- oblige · obliged ×3
- to compel; bind by duty
- mulberry
- a dark purple fruit
Band E — rare & archaic (10 entries)
- five-franc
- worth five francs
- ill-concealing
- hiding badly
- baluster
- one of the short posts holding a stair rail
- nasturtiums ×2
- a garden plant with round leaves and bright flowers
- askance
- sideways, with doubt or fear
- père
- father, in French
- clambered
- to climb with effort
- clematis ×2
- the climbing flowering vine
- ails ×2
- to be sick
- stammered ×2
- to speak with halting breaks
False friends — common words wearing old senses (1)
- use
- habit; custom — the old sense here
Names (23)
- allées
- walks, in French
- canebière
- the chief street of Marseilles
- catalane ×2
- a woman of the Catalan village near Marseilles
- infirmeries
- the rooms where the sick are tended, in French
- malgue
- a place near Marseilles
- meilhan
- a street of Marseilles
- mercédès ×4
- the Catalan girl Dantès is to marry
- senac
- a French family name
- pamphile
- a French man's name
- dantès ×24
- the young sailor this story follows
- leclere
- the captain of the Pharaon at the start of this story
- caderousse ×20
- a tailor of Marseilles, neighbour to the Dantès family
- vieilles
- old, in French, used in street names
- morrel ×6
- the shipowner of Marseilles who employs Dantès
- réserve
- a tavern near Marseilles
- pharaon
- the name of Morrel's ship
- danglars ×9
- the shipowner's clerk, later a rich banker
- noailles
- a great French noble family
- marseillaise
- the French national song; also a woman of Marseilles
- catalans ×3
- the fishing village of Catalans near Marseilles
- edmond ×12
- the first name of the young sailor this story follows
- catalan
- of Catalonia in Spain; also the fishing village near Marseilles
- nicolas
- a French man's name