Pert -- Bold and lively
"pert beauty contestant"
Paucity -- Scarcity, lack
"a paucity of intelligence"
Rococo -- very highly ornamented
"a rococo palace"
Smelt -- to melt metal in order to refine it.
"smelting ore"
Vocabulary Serial
We'll be releasing the following story in installments as we learn new vocabulary words. Check out http://seedsoflearning.blogspot.com to see the latest updates.
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A pert little girl with a mind of her own, Cornelia marched into the House Rothingford despite her father's warnings.
"What in the world are you doing here, my dear?" the duchess of Rothingford asked from behind a pillar. Cornelia knew the Duchess from chapel and answered quickly,
"Just doing some errands for my mother, Lady." The Duchess looked skeptically at Cornelia, but Cornelia did not pay attention. She was too busy staring at the rococo columns of marble and moldings of Cupid along the wall.
"What a paucity of manners," the Duchess said to herself as Cornelia drew her fingers in wonder across a statue. "I wonder if that little girl has ever learned proper etiquette." Out loud, the Duchess said, "So what errand brings you here, Cornelia?"
"I must get some iron ore to smelt," Cornelia said hastily. The Duchess gasped and put her hand to her heart, looking absolutely terrified.
"Oh, please don't touch the ore! Take the statue! Take the pillars! But leave us our ore," the Duchess said, pale white. And Cornelia, afraid that the Duchess would faint, fetched some smelling salts at once.
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