Answers: An Artist Named Vincent vocabulary

 

Question

Apartment Problems

Although I’m ordinarily a(n)   (1)gregarious person, I’m tempted to move into a cave, far from other people—and landlords. Okay, I admit that I didn’t use enough   (2)discretion in choosing apartments to rent. But does every one of them have to be a   (3)detriment to my health, mental stability, and checkbook?

When I moved into my first apartment, I discovered that the previous tenant had already subleased the place to a very large family—of cockroaches. Although I kept trying, I was never   (4)dexterous enough to swat any of them; they were able to dodge all my blows. In time, they became so bold that they paraded across the kitchen floor in the daytime in a(n)   (5)ostentatious manner meant to impress upon me how useless it was to try to stop them. As soon as I could, I moved out.

My second apartment was a(n)   (6)sensory nightmare—the filth was hard on the eyes and the nose. The place even assaulted the ears, as the walls were as thin as cardboard. My neighbors played music until all hours. Since I was too poor to buy my own sound system, I became a dedicated listener. I even attended some of the neighbors’ parties, in a(n)   (7)vicarious way—with my ear to the wall. When my landlord found out, he tried to charge me seven dollars a day for entertainment, and he wasn’t being   (8)facetious—he meant it. I moved again, hoping to find a decent,   (9)scrupulous landlord.

I rented my last apartment because it was supposedly located in an area of   (10)optimum safety, considering the rent I can afford. A week after I moved in, I came home to find the locks broken and my belongings all over the floor. On the dresser was an angry note: “What gives you the right to live in such a nice neighborhood and not have anything worth stealing?”

Maybe I should have stayed with the cockroaches. At least they were honest.

Answers: 5~3~1~2~7~9~10~4~8~6

1. If it is unusual for the writer to want to get away from other people, the writer must normally be a sociable (gregarious) person.
2. If every apartment turns into a nightmare, the writer must not use good judgment (discretion) in choosing them.
3. If the apartments have damaged the writer’s health, mental stability, or checkbook, they have caused harm (been a detriment).
4. If the cockroaches dodged all the writer’s blows, the writer must not have been skillful (dexterous) enough to hit them.
5. If the cockroaches were trying to impress the writer, they must have marched in a showy (an ostentatious) manner. The words paraded and impress are clues.
6. The writer mentions unpleasant sights, smells, and sounds. Therefore, the apartment must have been a nightmare to the senses (a sensory nightmare).
7. If the writer listens to the parties through the wall rather than going to them, he or she attends the parties in an indirect (a vicarious) way.
8. To be charged an entertainment fee for listening to the neighbors’ noisy parties sounds like a joke. But, if the landlord meant it, he was not being humorous (facetious).
9. A decent landlord would be ethical (scrupulous).
10. If the apartment was broken into during the first week, the writer is not living in an area of maximum (optimum) safety.