Vocabulary

1. On others she presided over family dinners cooked on Sunday afternoons for children who were now gray with age. (para. 1)

preside over/at: be the chairman (at); sit at the head of the table (at a formal dinner)

with: because of

2. “I’m being buried today,” she declared briskly, as though announcing an important social event. (para. 8)

Explain the use of the present continuous tense

Explain the meaning of “social event”

More examples with “social”

2.brisk

They set off at a brisk pace.

Business is always brisk during the holiday season.

Put on your sweater, it’s brisk out

3. She had always been a small woman—short, light-boned, delicately structured…(para. 10)

3.delicate

·delicate skin, delicate health

·delicate child

·delicate situation, delicate operation

·delicate perfume

4. “It’s not always good policy to tell people exactly what’s on your mind,” I used to caution her. (para. 12)

4.policy

Under the circumstances, silence has always been his policy.

5. Russell’s way out west,” she advised me. (para. 18)

way out west: far out west, a great distance out west way

collocations

way above/over/under

way ahead/beyond/behind/back/off

(2)(infml) very

We were way tired after the hike.

Dad will be way mad if we’re late.

6. Three years earlier I…had written her with some banal advice to look for the silver lining, to count her blessings instead of burdening others with her miseries. (para. 33)

silver lining

As the trip’s been cancelled, I’ll be able to go to the match this Saturday. Every cloud has a silver lining.

The fall of inflation is the silver lining of the prolonged recession.

count your blessings:

to think about the good things in your life, often to stop yourself becoming too unhappy about the bad things

7. At dinner one evening a son had offended me with an inadequate report card… (para. 46)

inadequate:

not enough or not good enough for a particular purpose

·The girl realized that her answers were inadequate.

·He makes me feel totally inadequate.

·The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.