Vocabulary ladder
War and Peace
Book One, II
1,389 words. Everyday vocabulary (band A) covers 63% of the text; the hard 8% is 60 entries — all of them below.
A 62.9% (308 types) B 6.6% (70 types) C 2.9% (35 entries) D 2.0% (28 entries) E 0.9% (9 entries) N 5.0% (23 entries)
Band B — common reading vocabulary
A sample of 24 of 70 — you will meet these often; they are explained only at the fullest help level.
- accorded
- detained
- ribbon ×2
- sofa
- refined
- maid
- fond
- glance
- dull
- profound
- amid
- assembled
- lightly
- bent
- evident
- wicked
- behave
- delicate
- sailing
- specially
- visitor ×3
- badge
- differing
- spite
Band C — recognition checklist
All 35 upper-intermediate words in this chapter. Tick the ones you know; the rest are explained at the fullest help level.
- unsuited
- rearrangement
- amiable
- shortness
- hasten
- politeness
- impatience
- sweetly
- gravely
- rejoin
- brighten
- dismay
- hostess
- wretched
- solemn
- illegitimate
- stout
- alarmed
- acquaintance
- foreman
- youthful
- perpetual
- spectacle
- fashionable
- sway
- peculiar
- defect
- greeting
- feasible
- greet
- nod
- delightful
- velvet
- hierarchy
- invalid
Band D — advanced (28 entries)
- close-cropped
- cut very short
- gold-embroidered
- embroidered with gold thread
- half-open
- partly open
- lace-trimmed
- explained by the text itself
- light-colored
- explained by the text itself
- lowest-grade
- of the lowest rank
- self-confident
- sure of oneself
- too-noisy
- explained by the text itself
- workbag
- a bag for sewing work
- impoliteness
- rudeness
- toyshop
- a shop of toys
- well-known
- explained by the text itself
- grandee
- a great and powerful noble
- gaily
- merrily
- creaks
- a thin squeaking sound
- perceptible
- just able to be seen
- mournful
- full of mourning
- ruffle
- a gathered frill at the neck
- girdled
- bound around the waist
- unintelligible
- impossible to make out
- breeches
- knee-length trousers
- murmured
- to speak in a low soft flow
- gleam
- a soft flash of light
- observant
- quick to notice
- dainty
- small and prettily delicate
- spindle
- the turning spike that twists thread
- conversational
- of easy talk
- femme
- explained by the text itself
Band E — rare & archaic (9 entries)
- short-waisted
- cut high at the waist
- séduisante
- explained by the text itself
- soyez
- explained by the text itself
- tranquille
- explained by the text itself
- chimerical
- fanciful; impossible dream-stuff
- samovar
- the Russian tea urn
- dispirited
- with spirits sunk; downhearted
- vexatious
- annoying
- abbé ×4
- a French priest or tutor — French
False friends — common words wearing old senses (2)
- interest
- the spectacle that draws a crowd — the old sense here
- peculiar
- its own; particular — the old sense here
Names (18)
- bezúkhov
- the family name of the rich old count now dying in Moscow
- bolkónskaya ×2
- a lady of the Bolkónski family
- mortemart ×2
- the French royalist émigré vicomte
- pávlovna ×14
- a patronymic — daughter of Paul; Anna Pávlovna Schérer
- pétersbourg
- Petersburg — French
- vasíli ×4
- Prince Vasíli Kurágin, the smooth court intriguer
- morio ×3
- the abbé with the plan for perpetual peace
- hippolyte
- Prince Vasíli's dull elder son
- hélène ×2
- Prince Vasíli's beautiful daughter
- lise
- the little princess
- annette
- a pet form of Anna
- monsieur
- sir; mister — French
- catherine
- Catherine the Great, the famous Empress
- anna ×14
- a woman's name — Anna Pávlovna Schérer and others
- Anna Pávlovna
- the Petersburg hostess
- Soyez tranquille
- don't worry — French
- in spite of
- despite
- maid of honor
- a court lady attending the Empress