Question 3 The Landlady

Swanky: Imposingly fashionable and elegant.
Personal sentence: First class on Emirates Airlines is quite swanky.
word used in extract: '... and it was obvious that once upon a time they had been very swanky residences.'

Congenial: Suitable to your needs.
Personal sentence: The sledgehammer was congenial to smashing Mr. De Santa's house down.
word used in extract: 'On the other hand, a pub would be more congenial than a boardinghouse.'

Rapacious: Excessively greedy and grasping.
Personal sentence: The parrot was rapacious for the cherries I was eating, because he was ravenous.
word used in extract: 'The name itself conjured up images of watery cabbage, rapacious landladies, and a powerful smell of kippers in the living room.'

Dither: Be undecided or uncertain.
Personal sentence: Slowly the parrot's appetite for my cherries starts to dither.
word used in extract: 'After dithering about like this in the cold for two or three minutes...'

Compelling: Driving or forcing.
Personal sentence: The thought of winning the £1,000 prize was compelling me to complete the survey.
word used in extract: '... staring at him through the glass, holding him, compelling him, forcing him to stay where he was...'

Compulsion: An urge to do something that might be better left undone.
Personal sentence: The compulsion to help the injured in the riot was intense.
word used in extract: 'The compulsion or, more accurately, the desire to follow after her into that house was extraordinarily strong.'

Dotty: Slang word for mentally irregular.
Personal sentence: If I keep listening to this weird song over and over again, I'll go dotty.
word used in extract: The old girl is slightly dotty, Billy told himself. But at five and sixpence a night, who cares about that? “I should’ve thought you’d be simply swamped with applicants,” he said politely.

Dainty: Elegantly beautiful
Personal sentence: My grandmother's china pottery, is so dainty that my father, can not put his finger through the handle to drink from it.
word used in extract: '“Dear me,” she said, shaking her head and heaving a dainty little sigh. “I would never have thought it. How time does fly away from us all, doesn’t it, Mr. Wilkins?”'

Tantalizing: Arousing desire or expectation for something unattainable.
Personal sentence: Queen Elizabeth was tantalizing the public for them to meet her, when really only government officials can meet her.
word used in extract: 'There is nothing more tantalizing than a thing like this that lingers just outside the borders of one’s memory. He hated to give up.'

Lingers: Remain present although waning or gradually dying.
Personal sentence: As the alcohol effects clear away, the headache still lingers.
word used in extract: There is nothing more tantalizing than a thing like this that lingers just outside the borders of one’s memory. He hated to give up.