Unit #3 of the weekly foreign words series for senior English. These words are a collection of foreign words that are used in our English language today. I am using the word list from "The Literature Teachers Book of Lists".
7.
1. A gracious gesture.
2. A gesture noble in form
but meaningless in
substance.
“My fellow writers
supported me by writing
letters of protest to the
publisher, but their beau
geste could not prevent the
inevitable.”
9.
Pet peeve
A person or thing
strongly detested or
avoided
Doing my own tax return is
the bête noire that haunts
me every April.
10.
Take it or leave it attitude
Unconcerned; nonchalant
He had a blasé attitude
about housecleaning.
11.
A swift intensive military attack, using tanks supported
by aircraft, designed to defeat the opposition quickly
German : Blitz, lightning
Answer:
The Germans used Blitzkrieg in World War II to capture Austria
and Czechoslovakia and later Poland, by taking these countries
by surprise and in a very quick manner.
12.
My grandmother insisted on going to open
house with my parents this year. She usually
babysits for my family on that night, so we
au pair
had to pay the _________ from next door to
come over that night to watch my little
sisters.
My parents drove over to my grandma’s
house. She was waiting on the front steps
babushka
bete noir
wearing a _________. That is my ________- it’s
so annoying when she wears that! I tried to
blasé
act ________ so she wouldn’t know I was
annoyed.
13.
When we walked into the school and passed the
trophy case, my dad commented that the popular
beau monde
jocks were considered the __________ back in his
day.
The first teacher we met with was my English
avant-garde
teacher. All he could talk about was ___________
literature and how it was so great!
Then we went to my history class. The teacher in
there was discussing how our class would be
blitzkrieg
studying World War II and the __________ strategy
of the German Army. When we would study
recent history, the teacher would be covering
what life is like in other cultures, including a
barrio
virtual tour of a _________ in California.
14.
When we got home that night, the au pair
decided not to charge my parents for her
bambino
work, saying that the __________ of my family
was so well behaved.
beau geste
My parents thanked her for her _____________.