On August 15, 1979, the movie Apocalypse Now, the acclaimed Vietnam War film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, opened in theaters around the United States. On this date in 1969, the Woodstock festival opened in Bethel, New York. And on August 15, 1914, the Panama Canal opened. The American-built waterway across the Isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, was inaugurated with the passage of the U.S. vessel Ancon, a cargo and passenger ship.
See if your vocab skills resemble “the horror… the horror” of failure or if they rock from ocean to ocean like nobody’s business.
1. napalm
(a) an irritant vesicant oily liquid used especially as a chemical weapon
(b) trade name for natural palm oil
(c) a thickener consisting of a mixture of aluminum soaps used in jelling gasoline (as for incendiary bombs)
(d) mustard gas
2. palindrome
(a) an instrument designed to mark exact time by a regularly repeated tick
(b) an oval stadium for horse and chariot races in ancient Greece
(c) a word, verse, or sentence (as *Able was I ere I saw Elba*) or a number (as 1881) that reads the same backward or forward
(d) an unmanned aircraft or ship guided by remote control
3. Zonian
(a) a member of the armed forces of the nation of Panama
(b) a warrior from the planet Zoni
(c) the rogue colonel in Apocalypse Now
(d) a United States citizen living in the Panama Canal Zone
4. sheen
(a) a lustrous surface imparted to textiles through finishing processes or use of shiny yarns
(b) a coarse woolen or cotton fabric napped to imitate felt
(c) a fine soft sheer fabric of plain weave made of various fibers
(d) a line at a 45-degree angle to the selvage often utilized in the cutting of garments for smoother fit
5. riff
(a) breach; estrangement
(b) an ostinato phrase (as in jazz) typically supporting a solo improvisation
(c) interference
(d) harmony
6. LSD
(a) lysergic acid diethylamide
(b) latent steroidal dysfunction
(c) last seen deceased
(d) laser stimulated depression
7. played The Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock
(a) Jethro Tull
(b) Yardbirds
(c) Jimi Hendrix
(d) Caspian - the world-famous post-rock band
8. antebellum
(a) existing before war
(b) existing after war
(c) existing during war
(d) ancient
9. Vietcong
(a) a guerrilla member of the Vietnamese apartheid movement
(b) a guerrilla member of the Vietnamese Communist movement
(c) a guerrilla member of the Vietnamese capitalist movement
(d) a guerrilla member of the Vietnamese separatist movement
10. Agent Orange
(a) herbicide
(b) fruit drink
(c) OJ salesman
(d) code for Army Intelligence
Correct answers:
1c; 2c; 3d; 4a; 5b; 6a; 7c; 8a; 9b; 10a
Your rating today:
| Score | Well? |
| All 10 | You’re the smartest person from East to West and then some |
| 7-9 | At least you know your canals from your cannolis |
| 4-6 | You rock but you don’t quite roll |
| 2-3 | You’re here just for the music…uh huh |
| 0-1 | You’ve been loving the smell of napalm in the morning way too much |
Intro text: history.com
Definitions: Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Dictionary
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