Vocabulary enrichment
it is obvious that olaudah equiano faced a harsh reality during his journey on the middle passage. can you choose a word
other than "harsh" that has a more precise definition of what he endured? today, you are going to enhance your
vocabulary by demonstrating your understanding of nuances. think of nuances /noo ans es/ as subtle (slight) differences in
meanings like a tint or shade of a color. choosing the perfect word will give your message more power than choosing a
bland or ordinary word. to practice this concept and enrich your vocabulary, i want you to choose five synonyms to replace
the word "harsh" and explain why each synonym is a better fit for equiano's depiction of the middle passage.
here are the words to choose from: disturbing, ruthless, punitive, austere, acrid, acrimonious, arduous, burdensome,
tyrannical, disastrous, unpalatable, heartbreaking, bleak, inhuman, barbarous, vicious.
*you need to incorporate the actual definition of the words into your explanations.
1. for each synonym, write the definition and explain how it relates to equiano's description. use textual evidence to
support your answer! there should not be duplicate answers. there are 5 pages to this narrative, so you can get
information from every page.
example:
relentless: unforgiving, persistent,
equiano's captors were relentless. they showed that their behavior was unforgiving to the slaves in spite of their demands
to eat the fish. according to page 173, equiano and the other slaves "begged and prayed for food" and still were not given
food by their captors.
also, there are 16 words to choose from. you are welcome to choose your own synonyms, but note that i will
automatically suspect copying if you and another student chose the same words as well as the same evidence from the text.
trust your judgement and present authentic work.

words:
disturbing
tyrannical
unpalatable
bleak
inhuman