O Pioneers! (Webster's Thesaurus Edition)

286 Pages·2006·2.33 MB·English

by  Willa Cather

O PIONEERS!

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Willa Cather

PSAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit Scholarship
Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT is a registered trademark of the College
Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE, AP and Advanced Placement are registered
trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT is a
registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book
nor endorses this book, LSAT is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither
sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.
O Pioneers!

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Willa Cather

PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered trademark of the
College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are
registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book,
GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated
with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council
which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.
ICON CLASSICS

Published by ICON Group International, Inc.
7404 Trade Street
San Diego, CA 92121 USA

www.icongrouponline.com

O Pioneers!: Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®, GMAT®, and AP® English
Test Preparation

This edition published by ICON Classics in 2005
Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright ©2005 by ICON Group International, Inc.
Edited by Philip M. Parker, Ph.D. (INSEAD); Copyright ©2005, all rights reserved.

All rights reserved. This book is protected by copyright. No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a
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International, Inc.

PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the
National Merit Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book;
SAT® is a registered trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses
this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the
Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a
registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither
affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law
School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights
reserved.

ISBN 0-497-25334-8
iii

Contents

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR..........................................................................................1

PART I THE WILD LAND...................................................................................................3

I.................................................................................................................................5

II.............................................................................................................................13

III............................................................................................................................19

IV............................................................................................................................29

V.............................................................................................................................39

PART II NEIGHBORING FIELDS.....................................................................................45

I...............................................................................................................................47

II.............................................................................................................................53

III............................................................................................................................59

IV............................................................................................................................69

V.............................................................................................................................75

VI............................................................................................................................79

VII...........................................................................................................................87

VIII..........................................................................................................................91

IX............................................................................................................................97

X...........................................................................................................................101

XI..........................................................................................................................107

XII.........................................................................................................................111

PART III WINTER MEMORIES.......................................................................................113

I.............................................................................................................................115

II...........................................................................................................................125

PART IV THE WHITE MULBERRY TREE.......................................................................129

I.............................................................................................................................131

II...........................................................................................................................139

III..........................................................................................................................143

IV..........................................................................................................................147

V...........................................................................................................................151
iv

VI..........................................................................................................................155

VII.........................................................................................................................161

VIII........................................................................................................................167

PART V ALEXANDRA....................................................................................................169

I.............................................................................................................................171

II...........................................................................................................................179

III..........................................................................................................................187

GLOSSARY...................................................................................................................193
Willa Cather 1

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR

Designed for school districts, educators, and students seeking to maximize performance on
standardized tests, Webster’s paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently
assigned readings in English courses. By using a running thesaurus at the bottom of each page, this
edition of O Pioneers! by Willa Cather was edited for students who are actively building their
vocabularies in anticipation of taking PSAT®, SAT®, AP® (Advanced Placement®), GRE®,
LSAT®, GMAT® or similar examinations.1

Webster’s edition of this classic is organized to expose the reader to a maximum number of
synonyms and antonyms for difficult and often ambiguous English words that are encountered in
other works of literature, conversation, or academic examinations. Extremely rare or idiosyncratic
words and expressions are given lower priority in the notes compared to words which are “difficult,
and often encountered” in examinations. Rather than supply a single synonym, many are provided
for a variety of meanings, allowing readers to better grasp the ambiguity of the English language,
and avoid using the notes as a pure crutch. Having the reader decipher a word’s meaning within
context serves to improve vocabulary retention and understanding. Each page covers words not
already highlighted on previous pages. If a difficult word is not noted on a page, chances are that it
has been highlighted on a previous page. A more complete thesaurus is supplied at the end of the
book; Synonyms and antonyms are extracted from Webster’s Online Dictionary.

Definitions of remaining terms as well as translations can be found at www.websters-online-
dictionary.org. Please send suggestions to [email protected]

The Editor
Webster’s Online Dictionary
www.websters-online-dictionary.org
1 P S A T ® i s a r e g i s t e r e d t r a d e m a r k o f t h e College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered
trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and
Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither
sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management
Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a
registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses
this product. All rights reserved.

Willa Cather 3

PART I

THE WILD LAND

Willa Cather 5

I

One %January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a
windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away. A mist of fine
snowflakes was curling and eddying about the cluster of low drab buildings
huddled on the gray prairie, under a gray sky. The dwelling-houses were set
about haphazard on the tough prairie sod; some of them looked as if they had
been moved in overnight, and others as if they were straying off by themselves,
headed straight for the open plain. None of them had any appearance of
permanence, and the howling wind blew under them as well as over them. The
main street was a deeply rutted road, now frozen hard, which ran from the squat
red railway station and the grain “elevator” at the north end of the town to the
lumber yard and the horse pond at the south end. On either side of this road
straggled two uneven rows of wooden buildings; the general merchandise stores,
the two banks, the drug store, the feed store, the saloon, the post-office. The
board sidewalks were gray with trampled snow, but at two o’clock in the
afternoon the shopkeepers, having come back from dinner, were keeping well
behind their frosty windows. The children were all in school, and there was
nobody abroad in the streets but a few rough-looking countrymen in coarse
overcoats, with their long caps pulled down to their noses. Some of them had
brought their wives to town, and now and then a red or a plaid shawl flashed
out of one store into the shelter of another. At the hitch-bars along the street a

Thesaurus
anchored: (adj) fixed, immobile, plod; (adj) junk, litter, huddle, shawl: (n) wrap, mantle, cape, muffler,
stationary, secure, stable, firm; (v) disarray. scarf, pall, mantlet Mantua, wrapper,
rock solid, moored, on a rock, plaid: (n) check, tartan, patchwork, kerchief, headscarf, stole.
tethered. kirtle, fabric, cloth, cape, tippet; (v) straying: (n) digression, departure,
drab: (adj) dreary, gloomy, dingy, mosaic, tesselated; (adj) checked. error; (adj) errant, mistaking,
cheerless, somber, boring, dowdy, prairie: (n) meadow, lea, grassland, containing error, incorrect,
dark, colorless, dull, depressing. field, savanna, steppe, heath, bush, misleading, astray, mistaken,
ANTONYMS: (adj) colorful, vivid, jungle, desert, pampas. erroneous.
brilliant, chic, flashy, interesting, rutted: (adj) uneven, not smooth, lined, tableland: (n) table, bench, mesa,
cheerful, distinctive, smart, strong. jagged, irregular, rough, furrowed, terrace, highland, Ardennes.
lumber: (n) timber, wood; (adj, n) crumpled, potholed, not level, trampled: (adj) crushed, damaged,
jumble, rubbish; (v) log, trail; (adv, v) bumpy. ANTONYM: (adj) level. flattened, compressed, packed down.