Take song and die. First, find all the satisfactory synonyms you can for yourself. Then if possible improve your list by studying the list under the corresponding word in Exercise A. Finally, compare your revised list with the one in Exercise C.
EXERCISE C
After three introductory groups (dealing with thoroughly concrete ideas and words) the synonyms in this exercise are arranged alphabetically according to the first word in each group.
Discriminate the words in each group, and fill each blank in the illustrative sentences with the word that conveys the meaning exactly.
<See, perceive, descry, distinguish, espy, discern, note, notice, watch, observe, witness, behold, view>.
Sentences: The intruder he ____ in the early dawn-light might have been man or beast; he could not have ____ one from the other. After a long search I ____ on the map the name of the town. The teacher ____ the throwing of the paper wad, but thought best not to ____ it. "He that hath eyes to ____, let him ____." I ____ the encounter. "I hope to ____ my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar." "When my eyes turn to ____ for the last time the sun in heaven." I sat by the flower and ____ the bee plunder it. The scrawl on the paper was meaningless, but at length by close attention he ____ secret writing. "Your young men shall ____ visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." He had ____ human nature manifesting itself under various conditions.
<Kill, slay, slaughter, massacre, butcher, murder, assassinate, execute, hang, electrocute, guillotine, lynch, despatch, decimate, crucify>.
Sentences: With the jawbone of an ass Samson ____ a thousand of his enemies. It was his duty as sheriff to ____ the criminal, and the method decreed by the state was that he should ____ him. Previously the method of carrying out a sentence of death had been to ____ the criminal. On our left wing we lost one man in ten: thus our lines were literally ____ On our right wing, where we advanced to the attack in the open, our men were simply ____. After the garrison had laid down its arms the Indians ____ men, women, and children. "I would not ____ thy soul." During the French Revolution many of the nobility were ____. In the country late fall is the time to ____ hogs. Thinking that his accomplice was no longer of use, he quietly ____ him. The anarchist who had ____ the governor was taken by a mob and ____.
<Sleep, slumber, repose, nap, doze, drowze, lethargy, dormancy, coma, trance, siesta>.
Sentences: Since he had not exerted himself beforehand, his state was one of ____ rather than one of ____. The sultry heat of the day put him into a ____. "Not poppy, nor mandragora, Nor all the ____ syrops of the world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet ____ Which thou ow[n]edst yesterday." Light and pleasant be thy ____. "And still she slept an azure-lidded ____." From the ____ induced by his injury the physicians were unable to arouse him. "Oh ____! it is a gentle thing, Beloved from pole to pole!" "The poppied warmth of ____ oppress'd Her soothéd limbs, and soul fatigued away." In Spanish-speaking South American countries every one expects to take his ____. He lay down under the tree for a short ____ and had just fallen into a preliminary ____ when the picnic party arrived. "Macbeth does murder ____, the innocent ____, ____ that knits up the ravel'd sleave of care."