Vocabulary List 2 - 9-26-13

Words taken from Jane Eyre

Vocabulary quiz #2 Wednesday (October 9)

1.  protagonist (noun)

the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work; the principal character of a story; a proponent for or advocate of a political cause or social program.

e.g. 1.  Jane Eyre is the protagonist in the novel by her name.

e.g. 2.  We are all the protagonists in our own autobiographies.

2.  antagonist (noun)

a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes against; opponent; adversary; the enemy of a hero of protagonist; rival foe.

e.g. 1. Barrack Obama's leading antagonist in the Congress is John Boehner, speaker of the house of Representatives.

e.g. 2. On the golf course, Tiger Wood's worst antagonist is Sergio Garcia.

3.  refractory (adjective)

hard or impossible to manage; stubbornly disobedient; incorrigible; intractable; rebellious; headstrong.  

e.g. 1. Mrs. Reed viewed Jane as a refractory child who needed discipline.

e.g. 2.  The dean gave the refractory student detention for four days for being late to class repeatedly.

4.  chide (verb)

to scold; to reprove; to mildly rebuke; to criticize; to express displeasure with.

e.g. 1. Mrs. reed chided Jane for her rebellious behavior.

e.g. 2. The teacher chided her students for not paying attention to the lesson on grammar.

5.  torpid (adjective)

dormant; inactive; lethargic; sluggish; apathetic; listless; indolent.

e.g. 1. The caged animals in a zoo often are torpid.

e.g. 2.  The energetic boy because increasingly torpid as he felt a cold developing.

6. thwart (verb)

to stop something from happening; to hinder; to oppose; to frustrate; to prevent from accomplishing a purpose.

e.g. 1. Bad weather thwarted our plans for a picnic.

e.g. 2. John Reed deliberately thwarted Jane's pleasure in reading.

7.  mettle (noun)

courage; inner spirit, quality of disposition or temperament; pluck; inner resource; fortitude.

e.g. 1. War tests the mettle of soldiers.

e.g. 2.  Jane Eyre had the mettle to stand up to Mrs. Reed when her aunt accused her unjustly of disobedience.

8.  antipathy (noun)

a natural and basic dislike; an aversion; repugnance; an instinctive opposition in feeling; habitable antagonism; animosity.

e.g. 1.  Mrs. Reed felt a natural antipathy to Jane.

e.g. 2. The student felt an inexplicable antipathy to math even though he excelled in solving problems in geometry.

9.  divest (verb)

to strip; to deprive; rid of; to free from; to dispossess.

e.g. 1.  The wind divested the trees of their leaves.

e.g. 2.  Mrs. Reed divested herself of all responsibility for Jane when she sent her away to Lowood Institute.

10.  bilious (adjective)

irritable; ill-tempered; suffering caused by trouble with the liver or bile; peevish; cranky; extremely unpleasant; grumpy; cross; dyspeptic; grouchy.

e.g. 1.  Mr. Brocklehurst's bilious nature was destructive to the orphans dependent on his charity.

e.g. 2.  Though Mrs. Reed was surrounded by luxury, she was bilious in her dealings with less fortunate people.

11.  infer (verb)

to derive by reasoning; to conclude from evidence; to guess; to surmise to draw a conclusion based on reasoning.

e.g. 1.  The student inferred the teacher's disappointment in her by the fact that she did not smile at her when she returned the test.

e.g. 2.  In forecasting the weather, meteorologists often infer favorable conditions by the gradual shifting of the cloud covering.

12.  shroud (verb)

to cover or hide from view; to veil as in a mystery; to wrap or clothe for burial.

e.g. 1. The room where her husband died was shrouded in darkness.

e.g. 2.  Jane Eyre shrouded her fear in rebellion.

Here are some Quizlet flashcards made by Yeliz and Johnnie:
quizlet.com/27163197/new
http://quizlet.com/27722769/dr-rowes-vocab-2-jane-eyre-flash-cards/

Grammar Lesson 9-27-13

Grammar test is on Wednesday (October 2) and 10 collective nouns in your grammar notebooks are also due Wednesday.

* When writing informally, you are familiar with your audience (e.g. writing to someone who knows you personally and knows more about you than what is on the page you wrote).

* When writing formally, you aren't familiar with the audience and they only know about you by what is written on the paper.

Review:

* proper nouns - capitalized, specific

* common nouns - general, not capitalized

* parts of speech - building blocks of sentence structure

* number noun - noun is either singular or plural; collective noun as the subject determines the form of the verb and pronoun.

Singular collective noun examples:

singular collective nouns - group functioning in unison as one entity

The board allows the girl to go free of all charges.

The congregation walks down my street.

The rock band performed a concert.

Plural collective noun examples:

plural collective nouns - group functioning in unison as one entity OR individuals

- Think of a group working separately.

* When people in a group work individually - plural

The faculty shared their ideas with their boss.

The soccer team ate their victory cake after they won their game.

The cast performed their roles well.

The crew ate dinner at different restaurants.

Grammar Lesson 9-24-13 - Collective Nouns

Collective Nouns 
Examples:
1. class                  9. student body
2. school               10. pack
3. family               11. committee
4. legislature         12. audience
5. troop                 13. troupe
6. army                 14. company
7. navy                 15. orchestra
8.  faculty             16. band
                             17. team

The noun-number:
Is the noun singular or plural?
*  Pronouns + subject must coordinate
*  e.g.  Matthew(subject) wave their(pronoun) hand. - INCORRECT ("Matthew" is singular while "their" is plural.)
Matthew waves his hand. - CORRECT (Pronoun and subject coordinate.  Both are singular.)
Question:  Is the subject "orchestra" singular or plural when used in this example?  The orchestra performed its concert. 
Answer:  "orchestra" is singular because the orchestra is playing in unison.
Note:  To make the orchestra plural, you must make the pronoun plural.  The orchestra performed their individual solos during the concert.  When the subject works separately as individuals, then it becomes plural.
Another example is:  The cast played their roles.  "Cast" is plural because each member in the cast is working individually (not in unison).


FORMAT FOR THE VOCAB TEST ON 9-25-13

Verb:  Include 2 definitions (must be infinitive) and 1 sentence.
Nouns + Adjectives: 1.  Spellcheck.  2.  Choose either 4 synonyms, 2 definitions, or 1 definition AND 2 synonyms.  3.  Include 1 sentence with correct punctuation and capital letters (or no credit).

Grammar Lesson 2 - 9-19-13

Aim:  Grammar - NOUN

Noun - person, place, thing, idea, or activity

Common noun - general, generic - not capitalized
e.g. high school, school, college, teacher, mother, father, ice cream

Proper noun - specific, particular, capitalized
e.g.  Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Arts and Performing Arts
*  Major/important words must be capitalized
*  Write full titles (e.g. for colleges, write Yale University instead of Yale)
- Teachers:
*  Don't address the authority by their first name.  The first time you introduce them, you may say "Dr. Barbara Rowes", and after that you can address the teacher as "Dr. Rowes".

Extra note:  Only use mother and father because mom, mommy, dad, daddy, are informal. ("guys" and "kids" --> also informal)

Question:  Is civil rights movement capitalized?
Answer: It is not capitalized, but it may change over time.

* * * * * * * * * * *

- Organizations - American Red Cross
- Institutions - Department of Education, University of Mexico
- Stores - Armani Exchange
- Companies - Apple, Inc.

NOTE:  MAKE SURE PROPER NAME IS SPECIFIC!

Do not use periods when abbreviating organizational names and capitalize all letters. (e.g. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA))
Correct: UCLA         Incorrect: U.C.L.A, u.c.l.a, ucla

Historical events:  Periods of time (e.g. The Middle Ages), documents (e.g. Declaration of Independence) are capitalized.

Capitalize: B.C., A.D, B.C.E., C.E., A.M., P.M. and include periods between letters and after last letter.
Correct:  B.C.          Incorrect: BC, B.C, b.c., bc, b.c

Capitalize ALL months, days of the week, and holidays.

Do not capitalize seasons.

Grammar Lesson 1 9/13/13

Many people speak English informally (pigeon talk) , rather than formally.

Here are some examples of informal grammar:

* Talking to friends
* Personal correspondence (e.g. sending an e-mail)
* Tweeting/Facebook
* Texting
* Creative writing (e.g. writing a novel)
* Journalism - the writer determines rules for writing

Here are some examples of formal grammar:

* Academic writing
* Research papers
* Business reports
* Applications for jobs/colleges
* College essays
* Resumes

In the end, it is not grammar that has decreased in America.  It is our level of education that is falling.

Extra Notes:

The verb is the most important part of a sentence in English.

Noun:

* A person, place, thing, idea, or activity
* Proper noun - specific and capitalized
* Common noun - general and NOT capitalized
* Collective noun - function as a group
* Gerund - a verb acting as a noun

Vocabulary List 1

Vocabulary List 1

Words taken from Into the Wild

1.  Ominous - adjective

Menacing; threatening; foreboding; inauspicious; portending evil or harm; having the significance of an omen.  

e.g.  The ominous, dark clouds boded rain.

e.g. 2.  The ominous music in the movie created a feeling of suspense.

2.  Anomaly - noun

A deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement or form; an abnormality; an exception; an incongruity; an inconsistency.

e.g.  The musician was an anomaly in a family of scientists.

e.g. 2.  The freezing temperatures in July were an anomaly in the weather pattern in Florida.

3.  Contumacious - adjective

Stubbornly resistant to authority; willfully disobedient; defiant; refractory; willfully obdurate.

e.g.  The dean gave the student detention for his contumacious behavior of speaking disrespectfully to his teacher whenever she asked him a question in class.

e.g. 2.  Consistent lateness to class is a contumacious act.

4.  Principle - noun

A basic truth, law, or assumption; a rule of standard especially of good behavior or judgment; a fixed or predetermined policy or mode of action.

e.g.  Nelson Mandela is a man of great principle.

e.g. 2.  The President of the United States is expected to uphold the principles of democracy.

5.  Flout - verb

To treat with disdain, scorn, or contempt; to scoff at; to mock; to repudiate.

e.g.  In refusing to remove their caps in the hallways, the students flouted the rules of the school.

e.g. 2.  Students in the art studio often flout the conventions of dress to express themselves through their outrageous outfits.

6.  Sublime - adjective

Awesome; inspiring; majestic; transcendental; resplendent; elevated or lofty in thought of language; impressing the mind with a sense of grandeur.

e.g.  The beauty of the mountain was sublime.

e.g. 2.  The ballerina's grace on stage was sublime.

e.g. 3.  Great chefs concoct sublime desserts.

7.  Hector - verb

To bully; to torment; to harass; to act in a domineering or blustering way.

e.g.  The senior hectored the freshman on the first day of school.

e.g. 2. The prosecutor hectored the witness on the stand to discredit his testimony.

8.  Ironic - adjective

Using words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning; an incongruity between the actual results of a sequence of events and the normal expected outcome; contradictory; device in language in which the real intent is concealed or contradicted by the literal meaning of the words.

e.g.  It was an ironic situation in that he made himself sick by worrying so much about his health.  e.g. 2. It was ironic that the police officer was arrested for unlawful conduct.

9.  Chasten - verb

To inflict suffering upon for the purpose of moral improvement; to chastise; to subdue; to discipline; to castigate; to punish.

e.g.  The student was chastened by the teacher for failing to do his homework.

e.g. 2.  Old age has chastened his violent temper.

10.  Emulate - verb

To try to equal or excel; to imitate with an effort to surpass.

e.g.  Most sons try to emulate their successful fathers.

e.g. 2. Will Smith's son Jaden tried to emulate his famous father by acting in a film.