Unit 4 ■ 57

1. The meaning of bastion (line 1) isa. broadcaster c. citadelb. cesspool d. fountainhead

2. Pecuniary (line 4) most nearly meansa. superficial c. premeditatedb. financial d. unnecessary

3. Nettled (line 6) is best defined asa. incensed c. confusedb. amused d. delighted

4. The meaning of stratagem (line 25) isa. ruse c. codeb. costume d. company

5. Flotsam (line 27) most nearly meansa. paper c. trinketsb. symbols d. wreckage

6. Jocular (line 29) most nearly meansa. appropriate c. facetiousb. primitive d. famous

Tea TimeAlthough people today tend to think of colonial Boston as a bastion of

revolutionary fervor, anti-British sentiment there grew slowly in the 1760s and1770s. Not surprisingly, the provocation that eventually turned many loyal colonistsagainst their mother country was pecuniary. In 1767 a financially strapped BritishParliament placed duties, or taxes, on several items imported into the Americancolonies. This nettled the colonists because they had no representatives in theBritish Parliament to speak against the taxes on their behalf.

The British government, on the otherhand, saw the taxes as fair since it hadincurred huge debts in the French andIndian War—a war the British believedbenefited their American subjects. Inthe end, the British governmentrepealed all of the taxes except theone on tea. In 1773 the Britishprovoked the colonists once againwhen they decreed that the BritishEast India Company would be theexclusive seller of tea to the Americancolonies. Such a monopoly was aclear threat to the businesses of localtea merchants.

When three shiploads of tea arrivedin Boston Harbor in December 1773,the colonists developed a stratagem to foil the British. Before the tea could besold, colonists disguised as Indians boarded the ships and emptied 342 chests oftea into the harbor. The next morning the empty chests were mere flotsam, and theBritish had not earned a penny on tea. This incident has since been given thejocular title the Boston Tea Party, but unlike most tea parties, it did nothing to bringthe colonists and the British together.

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4

Read the following passage, in which some of the words you havestudied in this unit appear in boldface type. Then complete eachstatement given below the passage by circling the letter of the item thatis the same or almost the same in meaning as the highlighted word.

Boston Tea Party reenactment

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Tea Time

Vocabulary in Context

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Vocabulary Workshop, Level G Unit 4 ■ 1