____ step.
Some people consider it ____ to wear a wrist watch. Her ____ heart was
touched at the sight. It is ____ to jump at the sight of a mouse.

<Fight, combat, struggle, scuffle, fray, affray, attack, engagement,
assault, onslaught, brawl, melee, tournament, battle, conflict, strife,
clash, collision, contest, skirmish, encounter, brush, bout, set-to.>

_Sentences_: "A darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of ____ and
flight." The ____ upon Fort Sumter was the direct cause of the Civil War.
The ____ between our forces and theirs was brief and trivial; it was only
a cavalry ____. There is an excellent account of a knightly ____ in
_Ivanhoe_. We repelled their general ____; then ourselves advanced;
the ____ of our lines with theirs soon resulted in an inextricable ____.
A chance ____ of small forces at Gettysburg brought on a terrible ____.
There had long been ____ between the two factions within the party.
Angered by what had begun as a playful ____, one of the men challenged the
other to ____.

<Fleeting, transient, transitory, ephemeral, evanescent.>

_Sentences_: It is the lot of every one to endure many sorrows in
this ____ life. They saw for a short while a[n] ____ comet. The ____
glories of dawn had merged into the sordid realities of daytime. The
remark made but a[n] ____ impression upon him. The ____ moments sped away.
"Art is long, and time is ____." Joy is ____. Much of the popular
literature of the day is ____ in character.

<Frank, candid, open, artless, guileless, ingenuous, unsophisticated,
naive.>

_Sentences_: It was a[n] ____ excuse. It was a pleasure to meet a
person so simple and ____. He was ____ to say that he did not like the
arrangement. "Who, mindful of the unhonored dead, Dost in these lines
their ____ tale relate." "The Moor is of a free and ____ nature." He gave
them his ____ opinion.

<Frustrate, foil, thwart, counteract, circumvent, balk, baffle,
outwit.>

_Sentences_: The schemers were themselves ____. He was ____ by the
many contradictory clues. Circumstances ____ all his plans to get rich.
The parents ____ the attempt of the couple to elope. The guard ____ the
prisoner's attempt to escape. He was ____ at every turn. They put forth a
statement to ____ the influence of their opponents' propaganda. By
slipping away during the night, Washington ____ the enemy. The politician
by his shrewdness ____ the attempt to discredit him.

<Glad, happy, cheerful, mirthful, j