The Hound of the Baskervilles (Webster's Thesaurus Edition)

288 Pages·2006·2.33 MB·English

by  Arthur Conan Doyle

THE HOUND OF THE
BASKERVILLES

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Arthur Conan Doyle

PSAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit Scholarship
Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT is a registered trademark of the College
Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE, AP and Advanced Placement are registered
trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT is a
registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book
nor endorses this book, LSATis a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither
sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.
The Hound of the
Baskervilles

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Arthur Conan Doyle

PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered trademark of the
College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are
registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book,
GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated
with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council
which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.
ICON CLASSICS

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www.icongrouponline.com

The Hound of the Baskervilles: Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

This edition published by ICON Classics in 2005
Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright ©2005 by ICON Group International, Inc.
Edited by Philip M. Parker, Ph.D. (INSEAD); Copyright ©2005, all rights reserved.

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PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the
National Merit Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book;
SAT® is a registered trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses
this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the
Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a
registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither
affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law
School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights
reserved.

ISBN 0-497-01011-9
iii

Contents

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR..........................................................................................1

CHAPTER 1 MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES.............................................................................3

CHAPTER 2 THE CURSE OF THE BASKERVILLES.........................................................11

CHAPTER 3 THE PROBLEM...........................................................................................23

CHAPTER 4 SIR HENRY BASKERVILLE..........................................................................35

CHAPTER 5 THREE BROKEN THREADS........................................................................49

CHAPTER 6 BASKERVILLE HALL...................................................................................61

CHAPTER 7 THE STAPLETONS OF MERRIPIT HOUSE...................................................71

CHAPTER 8 FIRST REPORT OF DR. WATSON................................................................87

CHAPTER 9 THE LIGHT UPON THE MOOR....................................................................95

CHAPTER 10 EXTRAACT FROM THE DIARY OF DR. WATSON....................................113

CHAPTER 11 THE MAN ON THE TOR...........................................................................125

CHAPTER 12 DEATH ON THE MOOR...........................................................................139

CHAPTER 13 FIXING THE NETS..................................................................................153

CHAPTER 14 THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES....................................................167

CHAPTER 15 A RETROSPECTION................................................................................179

GLOSSARY...................................................................................................................191

Arthur Conan Doyle 1

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR

Designed for school districts, educators, and students seeking to maximize performance on
standardized tests, Webster’s paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently
assigned readings in English courses. By using a running thesaurus at the bottom of each page, this
edition of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle was edited for students who are
actively building their vocabularies in anticipation of taking PSAT®, SAT®, AP® (Advanced
Placement®), GRE®, LSAT®, GMAT® or similar examinations.1

Webster’s edition of this classic is organized to expose the reader to a maximum number of
synonyms and antonyms for difficult and often ambiguous English words that are encountered in
other works of literature, conversation, or academic examinations. Extremely rare or idiosyncratic
words and expressions are given lower priority in the notes compared to words which are “difficult,
and often encountered” in examinations. Rather than supply a single synonym, many are provided
for a variety of meanings, allowing readers to better grasp the ambiguity of the English language,
and avoid using the notes as a pure crutch. Having the reader decipher a word’s meaning within
context serves to improve vocabulary retention and understanding. Each page covers words not
already highlighted on previous pages. If a difficult word is not noted on a page, chances are that it
has been highlighted on a previous page. A more complete thesaurus is supplied at the end of the
book; Synonyms and antonyms are extracted from Webster’s Online Dictionary.

Definitions of remaining terms as well as translations can be found at www.websters-online-
dictionary.org. Please send suggestions to [email protected]

The Editor
Webster’s Online Dictionary
www.websters-online-dictionary.org
1 P S A T ® i s a r e g i s t e r e d t r a d e m a r k o f t h e College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered trademark of the
College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are
registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book,
GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated
with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council
which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.

Arthur Conan Doyle 3

CHAPTER 1

MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES

Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon
those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the
breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our
visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood,
bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a "Penang lawyer." Just under the
head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across. "To James Mortimer,
M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.," was engraved upon it, with the date
"1884." It was just such a stick as the old-fashioned family practitioner used to
carry--dignified, solid, and reassuring.%
"Well, Watson, what do you make of it?"
Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had given him no sign of my
occupation.
"How did you know what I was doing? I believe you have eyes in the back of
your head."
"I have, at least, a well-polished, silver-plated coffee-pot in front of me," said
he. "But, tell me, Watson, what do you make of our visitor's stick? Since we have
been so unfortunate as to miss him and have no notion of his errand, this

Thesaurus
engraved: (adj) carved, inscribed, infrequent: (adj) few, rare, scarce, detective, secret agent, detective,
etched, sculptured, chased, cut in, seldom, exceptional, occasional, shamus, principal investigator,
graphic, graven; (prep) insculptured; unwonted, sparse, sporadic, unusual, intelligence officer, intelligence agent.
(v) fixed, imprinted. deficient. ANTONYMS: (adj) unfortunate: (adj) inauspicious, sad,
errand: (n) chore, mission, job, task, common, regular, usual. hapless, bad, inopportune,
assignment, embassy, duty, charge, practitioner: (n) homeopath, lawyer, disastrous, adverse, deplorable,
messenger, communication, work. worker, practicer, doctor, infelicitous, untoward, lamentable.
holmes: (n) Autocrat of the Breakfast- professional, player, addict, ANTONYMS: (adj) lucky, auspicious,
Table, Poet at the Breakfast-Table, homoeopath, clinician, stager. good, opportune, joyous, timely,
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Arthur seated: (adj) sat, sedentary. appropriate, successful, easy,
Holmes, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, sherlock: (n) pi, private eye, private privileged.
Sherlock Holmes. investigator, private detective, house
4 The Hound of the Baskervilles
accidental souvenir becomes of importance. Let me hear you reconstruct the
man by an examination of it."
"I think," said I, following as far as I could the methods of my companion,
"that Dr. Mortimer is a successful, elderly medical man, well-esteemed since
those who know him give him this mark of their appreciation."
"Good!" said Holmes. "Excellent!"
"I think also that the probability is in favour of his being a country
practitioner who does a great deal of his visiting on foot."
"Why so?"
"Because this stick, though originally a very handsome one has been so
knocked about that I can hardly imagine a town practitioner carrying it. The
thick-iron ferrule is worn down, so it is evident that he has done a great amount
of walking with it."
"Perfectly sound!" said Holmes.%
"And then again, there is the 'friends of the C.C.H.' I should guess that to be
the Something Hunt, the local hunt to whose members he has possibly given
some surgical assistance, and which has made him a small presentation in
return."
"Really, Watson, you excel yourself," said Holmes, pushing back his chair
and lighting a cigarette. "I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you
have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually
underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but
you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a
remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess, my dear fellow, that I am very
much in your debt."
He had never said as much before, and I must admit that his words gave me
keen pleasure, for I had often been piqued by his indifference to my admiration
and to the attempts which I had made to give publicity to his methods. I was
proud, too, to think that I had so far mastered his system as to apply it in a way
which earned his approval. He now took the stick from my hands and examined

Thesaurus
attempts: (adj) trying. wontedly, conventionally, arms, in a huff, offended, huffy,
earned: (adj) deserved, realized, due. commonplacely. ANTONYMS: (adv) excited. ANTONYM: (adj)
excel: (v) top, surpass, cap, outdo, unusually, seldom, erratically, unconcerned.
pass, eclipse, beat, transcend, lead, exceptionally, occasionally. possessing: (adj) fruitive.
outshine; (adj, v) better. luminous: (adj) glowing, brilliant, reconstruct: (v) alter, restore, build,
ANTONYMS: (v) flunk, trail. lustrous, lucent, sunny, lambent, mend, rehabilitate, repair,
ferrule: (n) cap, hoop, collar, thimble, radiant, light, aglow; (adj, n) lucid, reconstitute, reconstructing,
ferule, stick, collet chuck, bowl, clear. ANTONYMS: (adj) dark, rebuilding, redo, retrace.
verrel, brace, cork. obscure. souvenir: (n) memory, memorial,
habitually: (adv) usually, ordinarily, mortimer: (n) Roger de Mortimer. present, token, relic, gift, keepsake,
normally, generally, regularly, piqued: (adj) irritated, irate, hurt, reminder, trophy, commemoration;
frequently, commonly, routinely, irked, intoxicated, indignant, up in (adj, n) remembrance.
Arthur Conan Doyle 5
it for a few minutes with his naked eyes. Then with an expression of interest he
laid down his cigarette, and carrying the cane to the window, he looked over it
again with a convex lens.%
"Interesting, though elementary," said he as he returned to his favourite
corner of the settee. "There are certainly one or two indications upon the stick. It
gives us the basis for several deductions."
"Has anything escaped me?" I asked with some self-importance. "I trust that
there is nothing of consequence which I have overlooked?"
"I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions were erroneous.
When I said that you stimulated me I meant, to be frank, that in noting your
fallacies I was occasionally guided towards the truth. Not that you are entirely
wrong in this instance. The man is certainly a country practitioner. And he walks
a good deal."
"Then I was right."
"To that extent."
"But that was all."
"No, no, my dear Watson, not all--by no means all. I would suggest, for
example, that a presentation to a doctor is more likely to come from a hospital
than from a hunt, and that when the initials 'C.C.' are placed before that hospital
the words 'Charing Cross' very naturally suggest themselves."
"You may be right."
"The probability lies in that direction. And if we take this as a working
hypothesis we have a fresh basis from which to start our construction of this
unknown visitor."
"Well, then, supposing that 'C.C.H.' does stand for 'Charing Cross Hospital,'
what further inferences may we draw?"
"Do none suggest themselves? You know my methods. Apply them!"
"I can only think of the obvious conclusion that the man has practised in
town before going to the country."

Thesaurus
cane: (n, v) scourge, whip; (v) flog, fallacious, amiss, unsound, faulty; settle, chair, form, stall, davenport,
beat, birch, thrash, lash; (n) stick, bat, (adj, v) mistaken. ANTONYMS: (adj) chesterfield, squab.
rattan, twig. valid, right, accurate, true, reliable, stimulated: (adj) excited, ablaze,
conclusions: (n) data. real, wise, logical. intoxicated, aroused, roused,
convex: (adj) gibbous, biconvex, guided: (adj) conducted, directed, led. motivated, affected, aflame, angry,
hunched, bulgy, protuberant, indications: (n) discriminating marks, angry waves, randy.
prominent; (adj, n) crescent; (v) indicia, chance. supposing: (adv) admitting,
protrude, bulge out, stick out, noting: (adj) conscious. conditionally, in case; (n)
projecting. ANTONYMS: (adj) self-importance: (n) arrogance, pride, supposition, conjecture, thought,
concave, sunken. conceit, pretension, assumption, theory, assumption; (conj) although,
erroneous: (adj) incorrect, inaccurate, egoism, gall. what if; (v) suppose.
false, untrue, wrongful, improper, settee: (n) sofa, bench, lounge, divan,