Vocabulary ladder
The Count of Monte Cristo
Volume ONE, 4
2,261 words. Everyday vocabulary (band A) covers 60% of the text; the hard 9% is 76 entries — all of them below.
A 60.3% (350 types) B 4.6% (83 types) C 3.0% (55 entries) D 1.5% (28 entries) E 0.6% (13 entries) N 7.3% (35 entries)
Band B — common reading vocabulary
A sample of 24 of 83 — you will meet these often; they are explained only at the fullest help level.
- confront
- seized · seizing ×2
- honorable
- temper
- confess
- despair
- remedy
- interrupted
- swallowed
- interfere
- misery
- voyage
- uniting
- senses
- offended
- pistol
- dull
- motive
- squeezed
- threatens
- execute
- wit
- pity
- propose
Band C — recognition checklist
All 55 upper-intermediate words in this chapter. Tick the ones you know; the rest are explained at the fullest help level.
- belfry
- unassisted
- undertone
- impatiently
- detest
- tipsy
- sever
- tombstone
- unhappiness
- assassinate
- flask
- entail
- denounce
- instinctively
- trembling
- fishy
- hastily
- quarrel
- woe
- treacherous
- fling
- rattle
- revert
- incarceration
- misfortune
- vanish
- noodle
- wager
- dearly
- restrain
- arbor
- eagerly
- intellect
- staggering
- persist
- cologne
- invent
- superiority
- accusation
- tailor
- waiter
- dread
- drunken
- remark
- depart
- adore
- comprehend
- compel
- motif
- undertake
- await
- infamous
- foremost
- stab
- loudly
Band D — advanced (28 entries)
- drinking-song
- a song sung over drink
- ill-used
- badly treated
- toper
- one who drinks strong drink often
- supercargo
- an officer in charge of a ship's cargo
- wide-awake
- a low hat with a broad brim
- unshaken
- not shaken
- intrusted
- entrusted: given into the care of
- wherewithal
- the means needed
- usurper ×2
- one who seizes a throne without right
- denunciation ×2
- a public charge against someone
- drunkard
- one always drunk
- hallo
- hello
- adieu
- goodbye, in French
- muttered ×3
- to speak low in the throat
- methinks
- it seems to me — old form
- meddle ×3
- to interfere
- betrothed
- promised in marriage
- muddled
- mixed up and confused
- crumpled
- crushed into wrinkles
- hurrah
- a cheer
- exclaimed ×2
- to cry out
- jest
- a joke
- bien
- well, in French
- glimmer
- to shine faintly
- intoxication
- drunkenness; carried-away joy
- stoop
- to bend down
- eau
- water
- thwarted
- thwarting: blocking
Band E — rare & archaic (13 entries)
- buveurs
- drinker, in French
- denunciatory
- making a public charge
- déluge
- flood, in French
- muddlehead
- a person of confused mind
- méchants
- wicked, in French
- prouvé
- proved, in French
- procureur
- the public prosecutor, in French
- effectually
- with real effect
- betide
- to happen to
- ruminate
- to chew over in thought
- père
- father, in French
- sont
- are, in French
- stammered
- to speak with halting breaks
False friends — common words wearing old senses (4)
- condition
- social rank — the old sense here
- hit
- captured exactly — the old sense here
- interest
- the spectacle that draws a crowd — the old sense here
- use
- habit; custom — the old sense here
Names (23)
- accoules
- a quarter and church of Marseilles
- infirmeries
- the rooms where the sick are tended, in French
- mercédès ×10
- the Catalan girl Dantès is to marry
- porto-ferrajo
- the chief town of Elba
- saint-victor
- a Paris street name
- pamphile
- a French man's name
- dantès ×27
- the young sailor this story follows
- pillon
- a French family name
- caderousse ×26
- a tailor of Marseilles, neighbour to the Dantès family
- vieilles
- old, in French, used in street names
- pharaon ×2
- the name of Morrel's ship
- danglars ×30
- the shipowner's clerk, later a rich banker
- bonapartist ×2
- a supporter of Napoleon
- fernand ×27
- the Catalan fisherman who loves Mercédès
- catalans ×3
- the fishing village of Catalans near Marseilles
- tous
- all, in French
- murat
- a marshal of Napoleon who became a king
- elba
- the island where Napoleon was first sent
- edmond ×6
- the first name of the young sailor this story follows
- porte
- the government of the Turkish sultan
- catalan ×2
- of Catalonia in Spain; also the fishing village near Marseilles
- nicolas
- a French man's name
- Edmond Dantès
- the young sailor this story begins with