Week Nine Assignment

11/5/2007

1.  Read and Respond:

      Tuesday:  Read Oliver Twist, chapters 45-53.  Summarize each chapter succinctly and sparklingly (due November 13).

               

2.  Vocabulary:

1.  Precipitous:  Resembling a precipice; very steep: extremely rapid or abrupt.

2.  Quasar:  An extremely distant celestial object whose power output is several thousand times that of the entire Milky Way Galaxy.

3.  Quotidian:  Commonplace or ordinary, as from everyday experience.

4.  Recapitulate:  To repeat in concise form; to make a summary.

5.  Reciprocal:  Existing, done, or experienced on both sides; done, given, felt, or owed in return.

6.  Reparation:  The act or process of making amends for a wrong.

7.  Respiration:  The act or process of inhaling and exhaling; breathing.

8.  Sanguine:  Cheerfully confident; optimistic.

9.  Soliloquy:  A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or reveals his thoughts when alone or unaware of the presence of other characters.

10.  Subjugate:  To bring under control; conquer.

 

3.  Write: 

Go outside and sit placidly under a tree (or, if you prefer, draped over a branch like a possum).  Write an account of what transpires around you—use action verbs, juicy nouns, and at least two appositives and two absolute phrases.  Be inspiring or witty or incisive or scientific or introspective or all of the above.  Most important—be happy as you write (500 words; due Thurswday, November 15).

 

4.  Very Important!!!  Memorize your selection for the open house.  Be prepared to recite it from memory (again) on Tuesday, November 13.  You will receive a grade for it!!!

 

5.  A Lark, a lark!!!  I will be traveling back in time to visit the Dickens Faire at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on Saturday, December 8.  You are most cordially invited to join me there—I will be dressed in Victorian costume—you may do likewise…or not, as you please.  For information on the event, go to www.dickensfair.com.  Please let me know if this appeals to you!