Notice urgency, gratitude, and contempt
Read for meaning first. Select a highlighted word if you want a closer look.
A nervous tenant in a fictional comedy begins to implore a neighbor for a folding screen moments before guests arrive at his unfinished room. The tenant then behaves like an ingrate, accepting the borrowed screen without thanks and complaining that carrying it upstairs took too long. The tenant's attempt to spurn a second offer of help includes a sneer that the neighbor's spare lamp is beneath his taste. The audience can distinguish the urgent request from the later lack of gratitude and contemptuous rejection, each of which changes the tone of the exchange.
The tenant may implore someone earnestly without being entitled to the favor he requests, a distinction the neighbor makes with a calm reply. The label ingrate fits his shown lack of gratitude after receiving help, rather than merely the fact that he asks for another item. To spurn the lamp is more than to decline it because there is no space: the sneer supplies contempt. The comic scene ends with the tenant noticing that the borrowed screen already improves the room, creating an opportunity for the thanks he has neglected.
Before you move on
Look away from the passage. Can you explain each focus word in your own words?
Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.