Unit One Chapter 2: Telephone Salespeople

Matching Words with Definitions

Cautious; on guard

• The fast-food manager trained workers to give polite, full answers to customers, not curt responses.
• Betsy doesn’t mean to be curt. When she’s with other people, she often says just a few quick words to them because she’s so shy.

• Cara’s refusal to date my brother demoralized him so completely that for months, he lacked the confidence to ask another woman out.
• When Bonita gained a pound during her diet, it so demoralized her that she ate a banana split.

• The store manager faced a dilemma: either having a needy elderly man arrested or ignoring store rules about shoplifters.
• In old romantic movies, the heroine’s dilemma often involves choosing between a rich boyfriend and the poor man she really loves.

• My inclination is to major in nursing, but I’m going to speak to a few nurses before I make my final decision.
• Because Lee fears the dentist, his inclination is to wait until he's in extreme pain before making an appointment.

• If Kate got angry only occasionally, I could take her more seriously, but she’s always irate about something or other.
• Ray gets mad when his wife misplaces the TV’s remote control, and she becomes equally irate when he leaves muddy footprints on the freshly mopped floor.

• When I told my parents I’d put the dishes in the dishwasher the next morning, my father retorted, “Maybe we should serve you dinner in the mornings, too.”
• “What do you want?” the young woman asked Dracula. “Only to drink in your charms,” he retorted.

• Terrorist groups train their members to sabotage airports and other public places.
• A fired programmer sabotaged the company’s network by infecting it with a computer virus.

• “I was hired as a stock boy,” said the company president. “My subsequent jobs took me steadily up the company ladder.”
• The first few times Janet drove on a highway, she was terrified, but on subsequent trips, she felt more relaxed.

• “There’s no such thing as a free lunch” means that we should be wary about promises of getting something for nothing.
• I’m a little wary of people who, when they first meet me, treat me as if I’m their best friend.

• Velma attacked her food with such zeal that I thought she hadn’t eaten for a week!
• My neighbor has so much zeal about keeping our neighborhood clean that he sweeps our sidewalk if we don’t do it ourselves.