TRAVELING THROUGH THE DARK

Traveling Through the Dark
by William Stafford

Traveling through the dark I found a deer
dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.
It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.

By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car
and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.

My fingers touching her side brought me the reason–
her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.

The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;
under the hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.

I thought hard for us all–my only swerving–,
then pushed her over the edge into the river.

QUESTIONS

What does the writer mean "to swerve might make more dead"?

What is a doe?

Why is the side of the deer still warm?

Why does the man hesitate?

Why does the man say his car "purred"? Is that at all symbolic or metaphoric?

What does he mean when he says, "I could hear the wilderness listen"?

What does he mean when he says, "I thought hard for all of us," just before he pushes the deer into the canyon?

Is there a link, a connection, between the fourth line where he writes, "to swerve might make more dead," and the second to last line where he writes, "–my only swerving–"?

EPI Internet-Egg Hunt

Find the meaning of to nickle and dime [to death]. Write a sentence with this idiom. You might try answers.com.

What is a portmanteau word? Give 2 examples. Write a sentence for each. You might try wikipedia.org.

What is the etymology (origin) of the phrase portmanteau word? You might try answers.com.

Is flibbertigibbet a real word? If it is, what is its etymology? Can you write a sentence using this word.

Is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious a word? Click on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b-Z0SSyUcw

Watch the video (It has subtitles), and answer these questions:

At the very beginning of the video, the woman says on the contrary. What does this phrase mean? Please use it in a sentence.

Complete this sentence: Even though the sound of it is something quite ___________. What does the missing word mean? You will be tested on this word.

Complete the sentence as well: If you say it loud enough you'll always sound _______? What does this word mean? You will be tested on this word.

An easy question: What 2 words rhyme with Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?

What does um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay mean?

What's a lad?

What does it mean to give a nose a tweak?

When you say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to Dukes and Maharajas, they ask you out for what?

The song says you must use this word carefully, or it may what?

What happened to the little man in the video when he said Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to his girl?

What does the cat's got your tongue mean?

Based on the accents, what country do you think the singers are in?

What do you think Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious means?

IDIOMS

1. have something down pat: know/understand something completely and thoroughly.

"I know I did well on the test. I had all the material down pat."

2. get one's wires crossed: be confused or mistaken about something.

A: "Bill said there was a meeting this morning. Don't we have one?"
B: "No. The meeting's tomorrow. I guess Bill got his wires crossed."

3. get out of hand: become out of control; become badly managed.

"Your absences are getting out of hand, Bob. You'd better do something quickly to improve the situation if you want to keep your job."

4. go with the flow: take things as they come.

"There's no need to worry. Everything will be OK if you just go with the flow."

5. grab a bite: get something to eat.

"I'm really hungry. Would you like to grab a bite with me?"

6. head honcho: person in charge; top boss.

"Dave's the head honcho of the ESL Cafe on the Web."

7. hit the books: study.

"I wish I could go to the movies, but I've got to hit the books."

8. hit the hay: go to bed; go to sleep.

"It's late, so I guess I'll hit the hay."

9. hit the sack: go to bed.

"I'm really tired. I think I'll hit the sack."

HILLS LIKE WHITE ELEPHANTS

Hills Like White Elephants
By Ernest Hemingway


The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this siode there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went to Madrid.
'What should we drink?' the girl asked. She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.

'It's pretty hot,' the man said.

'Let's drink beer.'

'Dos cervezas,' the man said into the curtain.

'Big ones?' a woman asked from the doorway.

'Yes. Two big ones.'

The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glass on the table and looked at the man and the girl. The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry.

'They look like white elephants,' she said.

'I've never seen one,' the man drank his beer.

'No, you wouldn't have.'

'I might have,' the man said. 'Just because you say I wouldn't have doesn't prove anything.'

The girl looked at the bead curtain. 'They've painted something on it,' she said. 'What does it say?'

'Anis del Toro. It's a drink.'

'Could we try it?'

The man called 'Listen' through the curtain. The woman came out from the bar.

'Four reales.' 'We want two Anis del Toro.'

'With water?'

'Do you want it with water?'

'I don't know,' the girl said. 'Is it good with water?'

'It's all right.'

'You want them with water?' asked the woman.

'Yes, with water.'

'It tastes like liquorice,' the girl said and put the glass down.

'That's the way with everything.'

'Yes,' said the girl. 'Everything tastes of liquorice. Especially all the things you've waited so long for, like absinthe.'

'Oh, cut it out.'

'You started it,' the girl said. 'I was being amused. I was having a fine time.'

'Well, let's try and have a fine time.'

'All right. I was trying. I said the mountains looked like white elephants. Wasn't that bright?'

'That was bright.'

'I wanted to try this new drink. That's all we do, isn't it - look at things and try new drinks?'

'I guess so.'

The girl looked across at the hills.

'They're lovely hills,' she said. 'They don't really look like white elephants. I just meant the colouring of their skin through the trees.'

'Should we have another drink?'

'All right.'

The warm wind blew the bead curtain against the table.

'The beer's nice and cool,' the man said.

'It's lovely,' the girl said.

'It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig,' the man said. 'It's not really an operation at all.'

The girl looked at the ground the table legs rested on.

'I know you wouldn't mind it, Jig. It's really not anything. It's just to let the air in.'

The girl did not say anything.

'I'll go with you and I'll stay with you all the time. They just let the air in and then it's all perfectly natural.'

'Then what will we do afterwards?'

'We'll be fine afterwards. Just like we were before.'

'What makes you think so?'

'That's the only thing that bothers us. It's the only thing that's made us unhappy.'

The girl looked at the bead curtain, put her hand out and took hold of two of the strings of beads.

'And you think then we'll be all right and be happy.'

'I know we will. Yon don't have to be afraid. I've known lots of people that have done it.'

'So have I,' said the girl. 'And afterwards they were all so happy.'

'Well,' the man said, 'if you don't want to you don't have to. I wouldn't have you do it if you didn't want to. But I know it's perfectly simple.'

'And you really want to?'

'I think it's the best thing to do. But I don't want you to do it if you don't really want to.'

'And if I do it you'll be happy and things will be like they were and you'll love me?'

'I love you now. You know I love you.'

'I know. But if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you'll like it?'

'I'll love it. I love it now but I just can't think about it. You know how I get when I worry.'

'If I do it you won't ever worry?'

'I won't worry about that because it's perfectly simple.'

'Then I'll do it. Because I don't care about me.'

'What do you mean?'

'I don't care about me.'

'Well, I care about you.'

'Oh, yes. But I don't care about me. And I'll do it and then everything will be fine.'

'I don't want you to do it if you feel that way.'

The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on the other side, were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees.

'And we could have all this,' she said. 'And we could have everything and every day we make it more impossible.'

'What did you say?'

'I said we could have everything.'

'No, we can't.'

'We can have the whole world.'

'No, we can't.'

'We can go everywhere.'

'No, we can't. It isn't ours any more.'

'It's ours.'

'No, it isn't. And once they take it away, you never get it back.'

'But they haven't taken it away.'

'We'll wait and see.'

'Come on back in the shade,' he said. 'You mustn't feel that way.'

'I don't feel any way,' the girl said. 'I just know things.'

'I don't want you to do anything that you don't want to do -'

'Nor that isn't good for me,' she said. 'I know. Could we have another beer?'

'All right. But you've got to realize - '

'I realize,' the girl said. 'Can't we maybe stop talking?'

They sat down at the table and the girl looked across at the hills on the dry side of the valley and the man looked at her and at the table.

'You've got to realize,' he said, ' that I don't want you to do it if you don't want to. I'm perfectly willing to go through with it if it means anything to you.'

'Doesn't it mean anything to you? We could get along.'

'Of course it does. But I don't want anybody but you. I don't want anyone else. And I know it's perfectly simple.'

'Yes, you know it's perfectly simple.'

'It's all right for you to say that, but I do know it.'

'Would you do something for me now?'

'I'd do anything for you.'

'Would you please please please please please please please stop talking?'

He did not say anything but looked at the bags against the wall of the station. There were labels on them from all the hotels where they had spent nights.

'But I don't want you to,' he said, 'I don't care anything about it.'

'I'll scream,' the girl siad.

The woman came out through the curtains with two glasses of beer and put them down on the damp felt pads. 'The train comes in five minutes,' she said.

'What did she say?' asked the girl.

'That the train is coming in five minutes.'

The girl smiled brightly at the woman, to thank her.

'I'd better take the bags over to the other side of the station,' the man said. She smiled at him.

'All right. Then come back and we'll finish the beer.'

He picked up the two heavy bags and carried them around the station to the other tracks. He looked up the tracks but could not see the train. Coming back, he walked through the bar-room, where people waiting for the train were drinking. He drank an Anis at the bar and looked at the people. They were all waiting reasonably for the train. He went out through the bead curtain. She was sitting at the table and smiled at him.

'Do you feel better?' he asked.

'I feel fine,' she said. 'There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.'



QUESTIONS

1. The two speakers are only identified as "a man" and "girl"? You know that Man means "male" and girl means "female," but what other difference is there between the two words? What do these two words tell you about the relationship between the two speakers?

2. The man says to the girl, "They just let the air in and then it's all perfectly natural." What do you think he is refering to, and what do you think is the purpose of the trip the two travelers are taking? "To let the air" may be a euphemism or euphemistic. What is a Euphemism?

3. A white elephant is defined as:

A rare, expensive possession that is a financial burden to maintain.

Given this definition, what do think is the SYMBOLISM of the girl saying the hills are like white elephants? What might she actually be thinking of? And what is the relevance of the fact that the man does not see white elephants when he looks at the hills?

4. The nickname the man uses for the girl is very unusual. He calls her Jig. Do you know the idiom "The jig is up"? It means that "The trick or deception has been exposed." Do you think that Hemmingway is using a PUN here? Is her nickname SYMBOLIC of something, perhaps?

5. Why does the girl repeat the word "please" seven times? Anger? Hysteria? Fear? Frustration? Why does the man leave her at the table?

6. The railroad station setting is important to the the PLOT (the progress) of the story. Is the fact that they are waiting for a train SYMBOLIC in any way?

7. At the end of the story the girl says, "I feel fine...There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine." Do you believe her? Why or why not?

WEDNESDAY'S CLASS: GO TO THE LIBRARY!!

BORIS YELTSIN'S BEQUEST

NOTE: PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING EDITORIAL AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS AFTER EACH PARAGRAPH. YOU WILL BE TESTED ON THE WORDS IN BOLD

Editorial: New York Times
Published: April 24, 2007


BORIS YELTSIN'S BEQUEST

It is in the nature of men who lead revolutions that they rarely prove to be effective leaders of governments. So it was with Boris Yeltsin.

[WHAT IS THE MAIN IDEA?]

He was a Communist Party man who engineered the dissolution of both the party and the Soviet Union, then became Russia’s first democratically elected leader. He struggled to introduce Western political and economic values and tried to ensure that there would be no turning back. But his shock therapy led to the collapse of Russia’s economy and left much of its wealth in the hands of oligarchs.

[WHAT DOES THE WORD "PARTY" MEAN HERE? IS IT A BIRTHDAY PARTY? A SALSA PARTY?]

[WHY IS THE WORD "WESTERN" CAPITALIZED?]

[WHAT IS SHOCK THERAPY?]

His constant political and personal roiling — including bouts of drunkenness — left many in his country yearning for a traditional strongman, which is what they got with Mr. Yeltsin’s handpicked successor, Vladimir Putin.

[WHY DID THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE BEGIN TO WANT A STRONG LEADER?]

Perhaps the most accurate judgment of Mr. Yeltsin is the one he passed on himself when he abruptly resigned on the last day of 1999: “I want to ask for your forgiveness. For the fact that many of the dreams we shared never came true.”

[WHY DID YELTSIN ASK FOR FORGIVENESS?]

[WHAT DOES THE COLLOCATION "TO PASS JUDGEMENT" MEAN?]

Mr. Yeltsin was a huge figure in an extraordinary time. Brought into the ruling Politburo by Mikhail Gorbachev at the dawn of perestroika— the restructuring that couldn’t save the system — Mr. Yeltsin electrified Muscovites with his openness and accessibility. His defiance of the Communist Party was a deadly blow to its rule, and when party loyalists staged their putsch in August 1991, Mr. Yeltsin’s speech from atop a tank collapsed the rebellion.

[POLITBURO AND PERESTROIKA ARE BOTH RUSSIAN WORDS WHICH THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE HAS APPROPRIATED*. WHAT DO THEY MEAN?]

[WHAT HAPPENED IN 1991?]

As president, Mr. Yeltsin tolerated brazen corruption, ended a 1993 rebellion by ordering tanks to fire on the Parliament and launched the brutal military campaign in Chechnya. The deals he made to ensure his 1996 re-election undermined the democracy he championed. The country he turned over to Mr. Putin was a mess. Looking back, we can identify the most egregious failings of this man. But without Mr. Yeltsin, the death throes of that terrible dictatorship could have been far worse.

[THIS PARAGRAPH IDENTIFIES 4 THINGS WHICH HAVE HURT YELTSIN'S LEGACY--the way he is remembered--WHAT ARE THEY?]

[WHAT DOES THE LAST SENTENCE SIGNIFY?]



[*LOOK AT THE DEFINITION OF "APPROPRIATE" BELOW. WHICH OF THE 3 MEANINGS DO I USE IN ONE OF MY QUESTIONS? WHAT LANGUAGE DID THE WORD ORIGINALLY COME FROM? AND HOW DO YOU THINK THIS WORD FROM ANOTHER LANGUAGE GOT INTO ENGLISH?]


ap·pro·pri·ate (ə-prō'prē-ĭt)

Adjective

Suitable for a particular person, condition, occasion, or place; fitting.

Transitive Verb, -at·ed, -at·ing, -ates. (-āt')

1. To set apart for a specific use: appropriating funds for education.
2. To take possession of or make use of exclusively for oneself, often without permission: Lee appropriated my unread newspaper and never returned it.

[Middle English appropriat, from Late Latin appropriātus, past participle of appropriāre, to make one's own : Latin ad-, ad- + Latin proprius, own.]


EXTRA CREDIT

DO YOU KNOW WHAT LANGUAGE THE WORD "PUTSCHE" ORIGINALLY COMES FROM?

BIG BIG EXTRA CREDIT


WHAT WAS THE BEER HALL PUTSCH?

ON WEDNESDAY GO TO THE LIBRARY

ON WEDNESDAY MEET IN THE LIBRARY ON THE COUCHES JUST INSIDE THE DOORS. MARGARET PERKINS WILL BE TEACHING YOU

THE SNIPER

"The Irish Civil War (June 28, 1922 – May 24, 1923) was a conflict between supporters and opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 6, 1921, which established the Irish Free State, precursor of today's Republic of Ireland. Opponents of the treaty objected to the fact that it retained constitutional links between the United Kingdom and Ireland and that the six counties of Northern Ireland would not be included in the Free State. The Civil War cost the lives of more than had died in the War ofIndependence that preceded it and left Irish society deeply divided. Its influence in Irish politics remains evident today" ("Irish Civil War" Wikipedia intro.)


The Sniper

by LIAM O'FLAHERTY


The long June twilight faded into night. Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of the moon that shone through fleecy clouds, casting a pale light as of approaching dawn over the streets and the dark waters of the Liffey. Around the beleaguered Four Courts the heavy guns roared. Here and there through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms. Republicans and Free Staters were waging civil war.

On a rooftop near O'Connell Bridge, a Republican sniper lay watching. Beside him lay his rifle and over his shoulders was slung a pair of field glasses. His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic. They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death.

He was eating a sandwich hungrily. He had eaten nothing since morning. He had been too excited to eat. He finished the sandwich, and, taking a flask of whiskey from his pocket, he took a short draught. Then he returned the flask to his pocket. He paused for a moment, considering whether he should risk a smoke. It was dangerous. The flash might be seen in the darkness, and there were enemies watching. He decided to take the risk.

Placing a cigarette between his lips, he struck a match, inhaled the smoke hurriedly and put out the light. Almost immediately, a bullet flattened itself against the parapet of the roof. The sniper took another whiff and put out the cigarette. Then he swore softly and crawled away to the left.

Cautiously he raised himself and peered over the parapet. There was a flash and a bullet whizzed over his head. He dropped immediately. He had seen the flash. It came from the opposite side of the street.

He rolled over the roof to a chimney stack in the rear, and slowly drew himself up behind it, until his eyes were level with the top of the parapet. There was nothing to be seen--just the dim outline of the opposite housetop against the blue sky. His enemy was under cover.

Just then an armored car came across the bridge and advanced slowly up the street. It stopped on the opposite side of the street, fifty yards ahead. The sniper could hear the dull panting of the motor. His heart beat faster. It was an enemy car. He wanted to fire, but he knew it was useless. His bullets would never pierce the steel that covered the gray monster.

Then round the corner of a side street came an old woman, her head covered by a tattered shawl. She began to talk to the man in the turret of the car. She was pointing to the roof where the sniper lay. An informer.

The turret opened. A man's head and shoulders appeared, looking toward the sniper. The sniper raised his rifle and fired. The head fell heavily on the turret wall. The woman darted toward the side street. The sniper fired again. The woman whirled round and fell with a shriek into the gutter.

Suddenly from the opposite roof a shot rang out and the sniper dropped his rifle with a curse. The rifle clattered to the roof. The sniper thought the noise would wake the dead. He stooped to pick the rifle up. He couldn't lift it. His forearm was dead. "I'm hit," he muttered.

Dropping flat onto the roof, he crawled back to the parapet. With his left hand he felt the injured right forearm. The blood was oozing through the sleeve of his coat. There was no pain--just a deadened sensation, as if the arm had been cut off.

Quickly he drew his knife from his pocket, opened it on the breastwork of the parapet, and ripped open the sleeve. There was a small hole where the bullet had entered. On the other side there was no hole. The bullet had lodged in the bone. It must have fractured it. He bent the arm below the wound. the arm bent back easily. He ground his teeth to overcome the pain.

Then taking out his field dressing, he ripped open the packet with his knife. He broke the neck of the iodine bottle and let the bitter fluid drip into the wound. A paroxysm of pain swept through him. He placed the cotton wadding over the wound and wrapped the dressing over it. He tied the ends with his teeth.

Then he lay still against the parapet, and, closing his eyes, he made an effort of will to overcome the pain.

In the street beneath all was still. The armored car had retired speedily over the bridge, with the machine gunner's head hanging lifeless over the turret. The woman's corpse lay still in the gutter.

The sniper lay still for a long time nursing his wounded arm and planning escape. Morning must not find him wounded on the roof. The enemy on the opposite roof coverd his escape. He must kill that enemy and he could not use his rifle. He had only a revolver to do it. Then he thought of a plan.

Taking off his cap, he placed it over the muzzle of his rifle. Then he pushed the rifle slowly upward over the parapet, until the cap was visible from the opposite side of the street. Almost immediately there was a report, and a bullet pierced the center of the cap. The sniper slanted the rifle forward. The cap clipped down into the street. Then catching the rifle in the middle, the sniper dropped his left hand over the roof and let it hang, lifelessly. After a few moments he let the rifle drop to the street. Then he sank to the roof, dragging his hand with him.

Crawling quickly to his feet, he peered up at the corner of the roof. His ruse had succeeded. The other sniper, seeing the cap and rifle fall, thought that he had killed his man. He was now standing before a row of chimney pots, looking across, with his head clearly silhouetted against the western sky.

The Republican sniper smiled and lifted his revolver above the edge of the parapet. The distance was about fifty yards--a hard shot in the dim light, and his right arm was paining him like a thousand devils. He took a steady aim. His hand trembled with eagerness. Pressing his lips together, he took a deep breath through his nostrils and fired. He was almost deafened with the report and his arm shook with the recoil.

Then when the smoke cleared, he peered across and uttered a cry of joy. His enemy had been hit. He was reeling over the parapet in his death agony. He struggled to keep his feet, but he was slowly falling forward as if in a dream. The rifle fell from his grasp, hit the parapet, fell over, bounded off the pole of a barber's shop beneath and then clattered on the pavement.

Then the dying man on the roof crumpled up and fell forward. The body turned over and over in space and hit the ground with a dull thud. Then it lay still.

The sniper looked at his enemy falling and he shuddered. The lust of battle died in him. He became bitten by remorse. The sweat stood out in beads on his forehead. Weakened by his wound and the long summer day of fasting and watching on the roof, he revolted from the sight of the shattered mass of his dead enemy. His teeth chattered, he began to gibber to himself, cursing the war, cursing himself, cursing everybody.

He looked at the smoking revolver in his hand, and with an oath he hurled it to the roof at his feet. The revolver went off with a concussion and the bullet whizzed past the sniper's head. He was frightened back to his senses by the shock. His nerves steadied. The cloud of fear scattered from his mind and he laughed.

Taking the whiskey flask from his pocket, he emptied it a drought. He felt reckless under the influence of the spirit. He decided to leave the roof now and look for his company commander, to report. Everywhere around was quiet. There was not much danger in going through the streets. He picked up his revolver and put it in his pocket. Then he crawled down through the skylight to the house underneath.

When the sniper reached the laneway on the street level, he felt a sudden curiosity as to the identity of the enemy sniper whom he had killed. He decided that he was a good shot, whoever he was. He wondered did he know him. Perhaps he had been in his own company before the split in the army. He decided to risk going over to have a look at him. He peered around the corner into O'Connell Street. In the upper part of the street there was heavy firing, but around here all was quiet.

The sniper darted across the street. A machine gun tore up the ground around him with a hail of bullets, but he escaped. He threw himself face downward beside the corpse. The machine gun stopped.

Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother's face.

VOCABULARY only the words in Bold will be tested

fleecy
beleaguered
spasmodically
to wage war (Collocation: again notice the alliteration)
sniper
ascetic
fanatic (the word "fan," as in sports fan, is derived from this word, yet softer)
draught (Ah, those crazy--MAD--Irish and Brits. They spell draft as draught. Here it means a sip of something, not a bit of wind)
parapet
panting
turret
oozing
to grind one's teeth
paroxysm
muzzle
ruse
silhouette
nostrils
death agony
grasp
bitten by remorse (A very common collocation: filled with remorse)
revolted
gibber
concussion

QUESTIONS

1. What sort of man was the sniper at the start of the story? Reread the paragraphs down to, "Then he thought of a plan." What do these things reveal about his character:

a) The look in his eyes.

b) Killing an old woman in cold blood.

c) The dressing of his wounded arm.

2. the Sniper did not give a second thought to the old woman, or the man in the car whom he had killed. Why do you think he was so curious about the other sniper he had killed?

3. What did you think of the ending?

4. Describe, in as much detail as you can, the setting of this story. Is the setting important to the events that occur in this story? Explain your answer.

5. Before you can answer question 5, you need to understand that there are 5 traditional POINTS OF VIEW in literature. In the First Person Point of View the narrator tells his own story. In the Second Person Point of View the author tells the story as if it is happening to the reader. In the Third Person Point of View the
author tells what each character does or says but does not let us look into their minds and thoughts. In the Third Person Omniscient Point of View the author not only shows us what characters do but also lets us see their thoughts. A variation is the Third Person Limited Omniscient Point of View where we see into some of the character's minds but not all of them.

Now that you know all this, what point of view does the author use to tell this story? How do you know?

6. Identify and describe one example from the story for each of the following kinds of conflict:

a) Man vs. Man

b) Man vs. Himself

c) Man vs. Circumstance

TWO SHORT POEMS BY SHEL SILVERSTEIN

NOBODY by Shel Silverstein


Nobody loves me,

Nobody cares,

Nobody picks me peaches and pears.

Nobody offers me candy and Cokes,

Nobody listens and laughs at me jokes.

Nobody helps when I get in a fight,

Nobody does all my homework at night.

Nobody misses me,

Nobody cries,

Nobody thinks I'm a wonderful guy.

So if you ask me who's my best friend, in a whiz,

I'll stand up and tell you that Nobody is.

But yesterday night I got quite a scare,

I woke up and Nobody just wasn't there.

I called out and reached out for Nobody's hand,

In the darkness where Nobody usually stands.

Then I poked through the house, in each cranny and nook,

But I found somebody each place that I looked.

I searched till I'm tired, and now with the dawn,

There's no doubt about it-

Nobody's gone!


VOCABULARY

in a whiz
in each cranny and nook
dawn

QUESTIONS

1. After reading the poem, how do you think the person was feeling, and why?

2. What does the person realize about being alone? How do you know?

3. Write about a time you might have felt alone and in need of a friend. How did you feel? Who made you feel better and how did you do it? If you never felt alone before, or even if you have, how could you help someone who may feel this way?

***********************************************************************************

NOTE: the next poem uses the word "bear." Here it does not mean "to carry". What does it mean? Hint: it's a noun.

BEAR IN THERE by Shell Silverstein

There's a Polar Bear
In our Frigidaire--
He likes it 'cause it's cold in there.
With his seat in the meat
And his face in the fish
And his big hairy paws
In the buttery dish,
He's nibbling the noodles,
He's munching the rice,
He's slurping the soda,
He's licking the ice.
And he lets out a roar
If you open the door.
And it gives me a scare
To know he's in there--
That Polary Bear
In our Fridgitydaire

VOCABULARY

polar
Frigidaire (Why is Frigidaire capitalized? Do you know the word "trademark"?)
nibbling
munching
slurping
roar

My Papa's Waltz

by Theodore Roethke

The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.

On a Quiet Night

by Li Po

I saw the moonlight before my couch,
And wondered if it were not frost on the ground.

I raised my head and looked out on the bright moon;

I bowed my head and thought of my far-off home.

Favorte Poem Project--Online

http://www.favoritepoem.org/

http://www.favoritepoem.org/poems/index.html

Gun Laws Not Likely To Change

Washington diary: Virginia shootings
By Matt Frei
BBC News, Washington

America has witnessed at least 19 fatal school shootings in the last decade.

Police say the university's size made it difficult to "lock down"
What is it that makes men, and in some cases boys get up in the morning, slaughter innocent civilians in a place of learning and then end their own lives?

The question pursued us on our way to Virginia Tech. Outside Washington the headquarters of the NRA - the National Rifle Association - glints at passing cars.

The lights were on in many of the offices. Was this usual? Or were they busy working on damage control for the inevitable criticism?

Another 100 miles further down the Interstate you enter the Bible Belt. Periodically giant illuminated crucifixes jostle for attention with huge billboards advertising injury lawyers and fast-food outlets. Just before the city of Roanake there is a Wal-Mart. "Guns for sale all year round", it boasts, "except on Xmas Day".

'Aftermath'

We were in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains only a few miles from the West Virginia border. It was bitterly cold. The expectant dishes of a phalanx of satellite trucks pointed silently at the stars. The stage was set for the pageantry of grief and healing that follows every tragedy of this kind.

Cho Seung-Hui

One teacher described Cho Seung-Hui as a deeply disturbed individual
The aftermath of every school shooting may have produced its own ritual, but every tragedy is different and full of baffling details. In Pennsylvania last October, when a milkman killed five girls execution style in a village school the Amish world of horse drawn buggies, straw hats and militant pacifism collided with modern gun violence, visited upon innocent children by a friendly neighbour.

In Virginia Tech, an institution devoted to learning and clarity of thought was brutalised by the murky mind of a painfully shy Asian American. As he rampaged from the Maths class to the Engineering Class, from German to French he may have felt like Rambo but he still looked like the quintessential science geek.

The stereotype doesn't fit. And as we discovered nor does the location. The campus of Virginia Tech sprawls across the rolling landscape. It is huge. The university has 100 buildings. It boasts its own airport and power station. Size is one of the reasons why the police say that they couldn't easily "lock down" a virtual city that is home to almost 26,000 students.

But the place is also surprisingly beautiful. The college buildings are tastefully built in beige quarried rock. The fluorescent green lawns are meticulously manicured.

A lot of money has clearly been well spent. A golf course snakes between half a dozen artificial lakes and the students we spoke to were impeccably polite, despite our intrusions into their grief. In short, Virginia Tech is the kind of university you would want to send your daughter or son to.

Right to bear arms

On the sports field between the hall of residence where Cho Seung-Hui shot his first two victims and the Norris Hall where he gunned down the remaining 30, I spotted Chris Mucklow, a 22-year-old sociology student who loved soccer.

He was sitting by himself and crying silently. I asked him, whether he thought there should be stricter laws against gun ownership. "More background checks, absolutely," he replied. "But I wish I had had a gun that day. I wish some of the professors had had guns on them. They could have taken the shooter down."

It was an opinion I heard from many students at Virginia Tech and it goes beyond the abstract debate about the "right to bear arms", enshrined in the Constitution. It is about self defence in the face of a rampaging menace.

If Professor Liviu Librescu, the 76-year-old Holocaust survivor who died wedging himself against the door to stop the gunman from killing his students, had had a weapon, perhaps he would he alive today.

But it strikes me that this is a reaction rather than a solution. "You can't control guns with more guns for chrissake". That's how Brendan Quirk, an engineering student who watched as the victims jumped from the second story windows of Norris Hall put it.

If the state of Virginia had been obliged to conduct a thorough background check and seek references before granting Cho the right to bear arms, they might have discovered what his teacher Lucinda Roy knew from his writings: that he was a deeply disturbed individual who fantasised in his creative writing exercises about shooting people in the face - first one eye, then the other.

Debate

Would John Markell, the owner of the Roanoke firearms shop really have wanted to sell Cho the 9mm Glock if he had read some of these pages? After all four guns sold from his shop had already been reportedly involved in other homicides.

George Bush watches Laura Bush sign a memorial
Mr Bush said it was impossible to make sense of such violence
Yes, this tragedy has sparked a debate about gun control but mostly outside America. Even Australian Prime Minister John Howard, that stalwart friend of George W Bush, was quick to blame "the US gun culture".

But on Capitol Hill, the Democrats, who have sunk their teeth into every other aspect of the administration, have remained largely silent on the issue. Gun control puts voters off in swing states, their research has discovered. Best to say little about it especially with an election approaching.

Remember Howard Dean, the country doctor turned governor, turned Presidential candidate, turned Chairman of the Democratic Party? He railed against George W Bush "shooting from the hip" but he never really spoke out for gun control. Why? Because his liberal home state of Vermont hates fast-food as much as it likes hunting.

Despite this week's bloodbath there will be no overwhelming demand for gun control in this country. Like evangelical Christianity, baseball and a love of Pumpkin Pie it is just one of those things that separates Europeans from Americans.

Will the next shooting take place at another university, a high school, a nursery or a secretarial college?

In our hotel they were handing out ribbons made by the staff, displaying the colours of Virginia Tech. Orange and red. It was a touching gesture. On campus thousands of students gathered with candles in hand to commemorate the dead.

Earlier in the day they had sat in silence in the football stadium to listen to President Bush explain that the victims found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. America is at its most impressive when it grieves and remembers. But will the soul-searching ever produce legislation and will it make schools safer?

SUMMARY WRITING GUIDELINES

A summary is a condensation of the main ideas of an article. The length depends on the assignment and the complexity and length of the original article.

The qualities of a summary are:

1. Objectivity: No idea that is not the author's should be included in the summary, and no opinion of the summary writer should be inserted. No judgments are permitted.

2. Completeness: Depending on the assignment, the summary should contain every main idea in the article. Stating only the first main idea, or only one main idea and details to support it, will not give the reader a complete sense of what the article was about.

3. Balance: Giving equal attention to each main idea and stressing ideas that the author stressed will result in an accurate summary.

The goal, then, is to give readers an objective, accurate, balanced view of an article they have not read.

Steps to Follow (check off as you do them):

_1. Preview the article (the title, headings, the first paragraph, the first paragraph of subsequent paragraphs, and the last paragraph.) This gives you a sense of the general topic of the reading. Look up unknown words that you deem to be important.

2. Read the article.

3. Make boxes (or underline) over key concepts, words, phrases that you have already underlined. (Boxes should constitute about 5% of the article.)

4. Make an informal outline of the article from your boxes. Emphasize the points the author emphasizes.

5. Begin to write your summary from your outline, without looking at the original article. WHY??

6. The first sentence MUST follow this convention: In her article/essay/editorial "March on Washington" (Newsweek, April 8, 1991), Mary Smith states (or argues, points out, believes, addresses, sets forth, focuses on, explains... Make sure you know the GRAMMAR of each verb!) Be certain that the first sentence is the THESIS (or main idea) statement!
NB: If you are summarizing an EDITORIAL, the thesis must reflect the author's OPINION (and your verb has to be an OPINION verb, such as regrets, criticizes, applauds, praises, urges, warns).

7. At a later point in your summary, remind us again that you are summarizing someone else's work, e.g., Smith also/further states...

8. Do not quote an author directly. (Why?)

9. Include a response at the end (i.e., AFTER you have completed the summary). Make certain that you title it: My response. This is your opportunity to offer your opinion, evaluation or judgment about the article.

10. Return to your summary and make sure you have NOT COPIED anything except fixed terms (e.g., culture shock, grade inflation, ).

11. Read the summary out LOUD to ensure the meaning is clear and the grammar and spelling are correct. (For grammar check, begin by reading the LAST sentence in your summary, ending up with the thesis statement. WHY?)

12. PREFERABLY type the summary and use the spell-check. (At the university, typing your papers is universally required.)

13. Count the number of words (EXCLUDING the response!!) and WRITE it at the top of Page 1 of your summary.

14. AVOID the pronouns I, you, we and you (plural). Use she, he, it or they. (Why?)

A Tell-Tale Heart--Vocabulary and Questions

THE STORY FOLLOWS THE VOCABULARY AND QUESTIONS

VOCABULARY

NOTE: Only the words in bold will be tested. You should learn the others, however.

dreadfully
haunted
vulture
foresight
dissimulation
cunningly
vexed
chuckled
as black as pitch
hearkening
suppositions
enveloped
stealthily
fury
scarcely
gaily
dismembered
sauvity (sauve=adjective)
reposed
derision
shrieked

QUESTIONS

1. Describe the narrator in detail. What is your first impression of him?

2. What specifically is it about the old man that troubles the narrator? Why does it trouble him?

3. What does the narrator do every night? Why?

4. How does the narrator feel after he commits the murder? Is he worried about being caught?

5. Why does the killer confess?

6. Name 3 details, descriptions, or actions that the author uses to create an atmosphere of horror.

THE TELL-TALE HEART

The Tell-Tale Heart

By Edgar Allan Poe

TRUE!-NERVOUS--very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am! but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses--not destroyed--not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily--how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

It is impossible to tell how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture--a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees--very gradually--I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded--with what caution--with what foresight--with what dissimulation I went to work!

I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it--oh, so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, so that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly--very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha!--would a madman have been so wise as this? And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously--oh, so cautiously--cautiously (for the hinges creaked)--I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did for seven long nights--every night just at midnight--but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye. And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he had passed the night. So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept.

Upon the eighth night I was more than usually cautious in opening the door. A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than did mine. Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers--of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph. To think that there I was, opening the door, little by little, and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts. I fairly chuckled at the idea; and perhaps he heard me; for he moved on the bed suddenly, as if startled. Now you may think that I drew back--but no. His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness (for the shutters were close fastened, through fear of robbers), and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door, and I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily.

I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening, and the old man sprang up in bed, crying out: "Who's there?"

I kept quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down. He was still sitting up in the bed listening;--just as I have done, night after night, hearkening to the death watches in the wall.

Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or grief--oh no!--it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well. Many a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him, although I chuckled at heart. I knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise, when he had turned in the bed. His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy them causeless, but could not. He had been saying to himself: "It is nothing but the wind in the chimney--it is only a mouse crossing the floor," or "it is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp." Yes, he had been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions; but he had found all in vain. All in vain; because Death, in approaching him. had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim. And it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel--although he neither saw nor heard--to feel the presence of my head within the room.

When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little--a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it--you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily--until, at length, a single dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and full upon the vulture eye.

It was open--wide, wide open--and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness--all a dull blue, with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones; but I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person: for I had directed the ray, as if by instinct, precisely upon the damned spot.

And now--have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?--now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well too. It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.

But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eye. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker' and louder and louder every instant. The old man's terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment!--do you mark me well? I have told you that I am nervous: so I am. And now at the dead hour of night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me--the sound would be heard by a neighbor! The old man's hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once--once only. In an instant I dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done. But, for many minutes, the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This, however, did not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall. At length it ceased. The old man was dead. I removed the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone, stone dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more.

If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.

I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings. I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye--not even his--could have detected anything wrong. There was nothing to wash out--no stain of any kind--no blood-spot whatever. I had been too wary for that. A tub had caught all--ha! ha!

When I had made an end of these labors, it was four o'clock--still dark as midnight. As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street door. I went down to open it with a light heart--for what had I now to fear? There entered three men, who introduced themselves, with perfect suavity, as officers of the police. A shriek had been heard by a neighbor during the night: suspicion of foul play had been aroused; information had been lodged at the police office, and they (the officers) had been deputed to search the premises.

I smiled--for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome. The shriek, I said, was my own in a dream. The old man, I mentioned, was absent in the country. I took my visitors all over the house. I bade them search--search well. I led them, at length, to his chamber. I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed. In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim.

The officers were satisfied. My manner had convinced them. I was singularly at ease. They sat, and while I answered cheerily, they chatted familiar things. But, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears: but still they sat and still chatted. The ringing became more distinct:--it continued and became more distinct: I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definiteness--until, at length, I found that the noise was not within my ears.

No doubt I now grew very pale,--but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased--and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound--much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath--and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly--more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased. Why would they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observation of the men--but the noise steadily increased. Oh, God; what could I do? I foamed--I raved--I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder--louder --louder! And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty God!--no, no! They heard!--they suspected--they knew!--they were making a mockery of my horror!--this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die!--and now--again!--hark! louder! louder! louder!

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed!--tear up the planks!--here, here!--it is the beating of his hideous heart!"

SHOOTING RAMPAGE KILLS 33

SHOOTING AT VIRGINIA TECH UNIVERSITY


A US shooting rampage at the Virginia Tech university has left 33 people, including a suspected gunman, dead.

There were two incidents two hours apart, at a student dorm where two were killed and at an engineering building where 30 and the gunman died.

Officers said they were working to link the attacks and had not yet identified the gunman. Fifteen people were hurt.

After the deadliest shooting at a US school, President George W Bush said the US was "shocked and saddened".

"Schools should be places of safety and sanctuary and learning. When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community," he said.

The state university in the town of Blacksburg is home to 26,000 students

Virginia Tech police chief Wendell Flinchum said that emergency services had received a call at 0715 (1215 GMT) alerting them to a shooting at the dormitory - West Ambler Johnston Hall.

He said that two hours later there was a second report of shooting, this time at the engineering building, Norris Hall.

Asked why the campus was not closed after the first shooting, Mr Flinchum said that, at that stage, it was thought to be an isolated incident.

Police believed the first shooting may have been a "domestic incident" and that the gunman had left the campus.

Eyewitnesses locked down inside the university buildings were using the internet to try to glean information about what is happening and many emailed the BBC News website.

Nikolas Macko was in a mathematics class in Norris Hall when they heard a series of loud bangs in the hallway which prompted a female student sitting near the door to move to close it.

"She peeked out into the hallway, and saw the shooter, so she immediately closed the door. Three other students moved a table that was in front of the room - it seats approximately 40 students at capacity - and barricaded it against the door.

"A few seconds later, the shooter tried to open the door, but my classmates kept it well shut, as they held the table against it from floor level.

"The shooter shot the door twice at chest level, which resulted in two holes in the door, one of which hit the podium in the front of the class room and the other continued out the window. At this point he reloaded, shot the door again - this shot did not penetrate - and moved on to the other classrooms," Mr Macko said.

He said there were "many, many shots" fired.

A fleet of ambulances has ferried the injured to nearby hospitals. However, rescue efforts were reportedly hampered by high winds which meant that medical helicopters could not be used.

Mr Flinchum said the gunman had no identity on him and it was unclear if he was a student. Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said: "Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions."

He said the university was in the process of informing the next of kin of those killed and that counsellors were in place at the campus for student families.

The university urged students to call parents to let them know they were safe.

The US has a history of deadly school shootings.

In 1966, the day after killing his wife and mother, gunman Charles Whitman opened fire from a tower on the campus of the University of Texas killing 14 people and injuring 31 others.

In 1999 two teenagers at Columbine High School in Colorado killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.

VOCABULARY

rampage
sanctuary
violate
impact
alert
isolated
domestic (domestic dispute: This is a collocation. Notice the ALLITERATION)
locked down (a lock down)
bang
barricade
reload
penetrate
fleet
to ferry (a ferry)
hamper
monumental proportions
next of kin

QUESTIONS

How many people were shot and killed?

What happened to the gunman?

What did president Bush say about the killings?

What is a lockdown?

There were two shootings. Why was the campus not "locked down" after the first shooting?

What happened after students in one classroom barricaded the door?

According to the article "The US has a history of deadly school shootings." Why do you think this type of trajedy occurs in the United States?

Has anything like this shooting ever happened in your country? If yes, explain.

Can you think of any reasons why someone might want to kill people in a school?

The U.S. Constitution guarantees the "right to bare arms." Some people believe the Constitution should be changed and that thereshould be gun control in the United States. What do you think?

Are you worried that something like this might occur here at USC?

Affixes

Reagan Latin and Greek Roots and Affix List



A comprehensive list of roots, stems, prefixes, and suffixes to help students break down words for better understanding:



Root/Affix Definition Example



1. a-, an- not, without abyss

2. ad‑ to; toward advance

3. agri/agro field agriculture

4. ama/ami/amor love, friend amorous,

amiable

5. ambi- both ambivalent

6. andr/o man, male android

7. ann/enn year annual

8. ante‑ before anteroom

9. anthrop/o man, human anthropology

10. anti‑ against anti‑nuke

11. aqua water aquatic

12. arch/archi rule, first, chief archenemy

13. astro/aster/astr star astronomy

14. aud hear auditory

15. auto‑ self; alone automatic

16. avi bird aviation

17. bel(l) war bellicose

18. bene‑ good; well benefit

19. bi‑/bin- two bifocal

20. bibl/i/o book Bible

21. bio life biology

22. caco- bad, ill cacophony

23. capit head decapitate

24. capt take, hold, seize capture

25. cardi/o heart cardiogram

26. carn/carni flesh, meat carnivore

27. cata- down, completely, catastrophe

against, intensive

28. cede/ceed/cess move, yield recede

29. cent‑ hundred century

30. cephal/o head hydrocephalic

31. chrom color monochromatic

32. chron time chronological

33. -cide, cis to kill; cut suicide,

excision

34. circum‑ around circumference

35. clar clear clarity

36. cogn knowledge incognito

37. con‑, com‑, cor- with; together companion

38. contra‑/counter- against counteract

39. corp/o, corpor body corporal

40. cosmo universe, world cosmopolitan

41. -cracy/crat govern democracy

42. cred believe incredible

43. cycl/o circle, wheel bicycle

44. de‑ from; down; away descend

45. dec‑ ten decade

46. dem people democracy

47. derm skin dermatology

48. di‑ apart divorce

49. dia- through; across diaphanous

50. dic/dict say, speak dictate

51. dis‑ not; apart disapprove

52. duc, duct lead educate

53. dyn/a, dynam/o power, energy, dynamic

strength

54. dys- bad, difficult dysfunctional

abnormal, impaired

55. e‑, ex‑ out of exonerate

56. ecto- outside ectotherm

57. ego self egotistical

58. en-, em- in energy

59. endo- inside endocarditis

60. epi- outside, over epicanthus,

among, after epilogue

61. equi‑ equal equilateral

62. erg/o work ergophobic

63. eu- good, well euphoria

64. extra‑, extro- outside, extravagant

beyond, above

65. fac(t)/fec/fic do, make manufacture

66. -fer/-ferous carry, produce transfer

67. fid trust infidelity

68. fin end final

69. flu f low fluctuate

70. frater brother fraternal

71. fus pour profusion

72. gen/gon birth; origin genesis

73. geo earth geography

74. glott tongue glottal

75. gnos/gnom knowledge diagnosis

76. graph/gram write; record autograph

77. greg flock congregation

78. gress/grad/e to step, to go transgress

degrade

79. gyn woman; female gynecology

80. heli/o sun heliocentric

81. hemi‑ half hemisphere

82. hemo/em blood hemophilia

83. hetero different, other heterogeneous

84. hom/o man homicide

85. homo/homeo same, similar, homonym

equal

86. hydr/o water hydrant

87. hyper‑ above; over hyperactive

88. hypo‑ below hypodermic

89. in‑, im‑, ir‑, il not incorrect;

irrational

90. inter‑ between; among intertwine

91. intra‑, intro- within, inward intramural

into

92. -itis -titis inflamation of dermatitis

93. ject throw; hurl reject

94. junct join conjunction

95. kilo‑ thousand kilowatt

96. later side unilateral

97. laud praise laudatory

98. leg law legal

99. lingu tongue; language linguistics

100. lith stone monolith

101. log/o/ology study of; word dialogue

reason geology

102. luc/lus/lumen light translucent;

illuminate




Root/Affix Definition Example



103. lun/luni moon lunar

104. macro- large, long macroscopic

105. magni‑ large magnify

106. mal‑ bad maladjusted

107. man/u/i hand manipulate

108. mania excessive desire kleptomania

109. mar/e sea maritime

110. mater/matr mother maternal

111. meta- change; beyond metamorphosis

112. meter/metr measure thermometer

113. micro‑ very small microscope

114. mid‑/medi- middle; halfway midterm

115. mil(l)‑ thousand millennium

116. mis‑ wrong mistake

misnomer

117. mis-/miso- to hate misanthropic

118. mit/miss send transmit

missive

119. mobile movable mobility

120. mono‑ one monogram

121. morph/o form; shape amorphous

122. mort/mor death immortal

123. multi‑ many multitude

124. mut change mutation

125. nasc/nat birth; born prenatal;

nascent

126. naut sailor; seaman nautical

127. nav ship; boat navigation

128. necr/o dead, death necropolis

129. neo‑ new neophyte

130. nomen/nom name; noun nomenclature

131. non- not nonconformist

132. nov new renovate

133. nym/onym name; word acronym

134. omni- all omnipotent

135. ortho straight, correct orthodontics

136. pac peace pacific

137. pan‑ all; every pandemic

138. para‑ similar paraphrase

139. pater/patri father paternal

140. path/o/pathy feeling; disease empathetic;

141. ped/i/-pede/pod foot centipede

142. pend hang suspend

143. per‑ through perforate

144. peri- around, surround periscope

145. phag to eat esophagus

phagocyte

146. phil/o/phile love; affinity for bibliophile

147. -phobia fear agoraphobia

148. phon/e sound telephone

149. phor/e bear, produce metaphor

carry

150. phos/phot light phosphorescence

photograph

151. poly‑ many polygon

152. pon/pos place; put depose

153. port carry transport

154. post‑ after postpone

155. pot/poss power potent

156. pre‑ before pre‑war

157. pro‑ for; forth pronoun;

proceed

158. pseud/o false pseudopod

159. psych mind psychology

160. pyro fire; heat; fever pyromaniac

161. quad‑ four quadruplets

162. re‑ back; again return

163. retro- backward; behind retroactive

164. sci know prescient

165. scop, -scope view; examine endoscope

166. scrib/scrip write scripture

167. semi‑ half semicircle

168. sen old senile

169. sent/sens feel; think presentiment

170. sol sun parasol

171. soph wise philosopher

172. soror sister sorority

173. spec/t/spic look at; examine spectator

174. spir/o breathe respiration

175. sta/t/-stasis stand; firm; homeostasis

stable, steady

176. struct build construct

177. sub‑ under subway

178. super‑ above; over superintendent

179. syn-, sym-, syl- together, same synthesis

180. tele‑ far telescope

181. temp time temporary

182. ten/tin/tain hold tenacious

183. terra earth; land terrain

184. the/o God atheist

185. therm/o heat thermometer

186. tom/tome to cut appendectomy

187. tort turn; twist distortion

188. tox poison toxemia

189. tract draw; pull extract

190. trans‑ across transfer

191. tri‑ three triple

192. un‑ not unwise

193. uni‑ one unilateral

194. ven come convene

195. ver true verity

verisimilitude

196. vers/vert to turn versatile

197. vic/vinc conquer victory

198. vid/vis see evident

199. viv/i/vit/vi life survive

200. voc/vok call, voice vocal/provoke

201. vol wish volunteer

202. volv/volut roll revolve

203. vor devour; eat voracious

204. xen/o foreign xenophobic

205. zo animal zoology

The Gift of the Magi

THE GIFT OF THE MAGI
by O. Henry

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent IMPUTATION of PARSIMONY that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the MENDICANCY squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could COAX a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young."

The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and UNASSUMING D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of LONGITUDINAL strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she FALTERED for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.

On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.

Where she stopped the sign read: "Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie."

"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della.

"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it."

Down rippled the brown CASCADE.

"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.

"Give it to me quick," said Della.

Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present.

She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends--a mammoth task.

Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.

"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty- seven cents?"

At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.

Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: "Please God, make him think I am still pretty."

The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.

Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.

Della wriggled off the table and went for him.

"Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won't mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say `Merry Christmas!' Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice-- what a beautiful, nice gift I've got for you."

"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.

"Cut it off and sold it," said Della. "Don't you like me just as well, anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?"

Jim looked about the room curiously.

"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

"You needn't look for it," said Della. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?"

Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.

Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.

"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first."

White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply CRAVED and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.

But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"

And them Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!"

Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it."

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on."

The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful CHRONICLE of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

QUESTIONS

Who are The Magi?

What is the THEME of the story?

What is the CLIMAX of the story?

An implied PARADOX in the story is that Della and Jim Young are both poor and rich. How is that possible?

ALLITERATION occurs when a writer begins words with the same letter, for example "Six silly boys suddenly surfaced smiling. In this example, the letter "s" is repeated. Can you find an example of alliteration in the story?

What kind of person is Jim? Give two examples for your opinion.

Comment on the meaning of the following sentence in the fifth paragraph of the story: “She stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard.”

The story ends with what is called in English, "An Ironic Twist." What is this ironic twist?


WORDS

imputation
parsimony
mendicancy
to coax
unassuming
longitudinal
to falter
to cascade (a cascade)
to crave
to chronical (a chronical)