At the terrifying sight of the nasty sentence completion question, his heartbeat
fluctuated wildly.
foment
to stir up; agitate; incite (think: when you stir something up it foams)
When your foe warned you not to foment the army against him, your foe meant
he was afraid of getting his butt kicked.
forbearance
patience
He played dead with forbearance until the four bears got antsy and went away.
forte
strong point (think: forts are strong; pronounced “fort” or “for-tay”)
His forte was sneaking into the fort that was just before Fort B.
frugal
sparing in expense; stingy; miserly
They told me that I was frugal because I bought a plastic bugle.
futile
completely ineffective
The one-armed floor layer felt his work was futile because he could lay only a
few tiles a day.
Fred the Fish Thief
Freddy had a flaw. He stole fish, sometimes with fervor and sometimes with
forbearance, but he never fluctuated from his forte. One day his mother,
returning from the garden, said facetiously, “Freddy, is it feasible that you’ll
foment a fish odor if you continue to flaunt your fish stealing habits?”
Freddy frowned. “That is a fatuous as well as fallacious suggestion,” he
fulminated. “This facet of my abilities is not futile, as it provides fish for our
otherwise frugal dinner. You should fawn over me.”
The preceding story is fictitious, fabricated by the authors.