lindsay's+vocab

VOCAB of DAY 5

Gambit is like a strategy that one would use for something that is challenging. ex) His tactical gambit allowed him to get the job at one of the top 5 companies.

Journal #1: "The Fly" by Katherine Mansfield

The Fly was a very interesting story that touched my heart. Although it was hard to understand of what is going on, as the characters developed along with the plot, it came to me. The Boss is the main character with no name. The boss relates to the fly in that his memories of his son's death are testing him. So he is testing the fly if it can survive. Nevertheless, he shows quite resentment towards his son's death because he had lived and worked just for his son. He was proud of position and environment and wanted to pass it on to his son; however, it turned out to be nothing. There was nothing that the boss could do about the son's death but let time pass. I was quite surprised that he shows such anger towards the son's death when it was his SON who died, not just another worker. He should have showed some kind of grief. And yet, he did. As he sees the fly dying in front of him, he is urging the fly to survive and flap the wings and use a gambit of itself. He is thinking about his son as he is cheering on to the fly. He admires the fly's courage for fighting; at the same time, he admires son's courage for going to war. So we see a lot parallelism between a fly that the boss used to hate and the son that he has been hating since his death. At the end, however, as the fly dies, his memories about the son's death also fades away. As one dies, the other fades as well. I thought the character's emotional development was well structured with the plot of the story with the "fly" as a simulacrum.

Day 6 Vocab Inveterate: having a particular habit that is unlikely to change

Day 7 8/31/09

pinguid: oily or greasy

ex) There is a big difference between fast food french fries and slow food french fries: the first one is pinguid and the latter is not.

Teleological: one that holds all things to be designed for or directed toward a final result, that there is an inherent purpose or final cause for all that exists.


 * Sophism: a fallacious argument**

In Tlon, when the narrator talks about the nine coins, he is trying to deceive us that those are the coins that he lost. However this is a sophism because it is not true. He is putting forth an argument to confuse us.


 * Correct This Sentence**: The Boston Common, a public area in downtown, is the main setting for the short story of the patriot, which is about a man who argues to such an extent that it becomes a sophism.

Write a journal entry (a bulleted list) containing the word and one other about the Breen essay**
 * 1. Vocab -- endemic

-Masturbation is endemic among homosexuals according to what Breen said. This supposedly endemic symptom seems to be found in Gregor as well, as Breen interprets: Gregor presses "his body against a image of woman in furs" (Breen 10), and Breen says that this is also a masturbation. -The family soon is unable to identify with Gregor and it seems like Kafka is trying to tell the story of the fallout of September 11 terror. The United States had gone through a cultural and spiritual shift, and Gregor's transformation is linking to that instance. The mood shift was endemic in US at that time.

The school inculcated the students not to speak Korean by giving detentions to those who violated the rule.
 * Inculcate: to instill by persistent instruction**

The article states that the women in wrestling is seemed unpleasant to men because they are overpowering men. This uncomfortable feeling, when men are watching the wrestling, represents "castration." Moreover, men sees his mother as "lacking" because the mother doesn't have male genital. The child obviously doesn't know the difference between men and women. However, he is inculcated to the belief the women are inferior.
 * Castration**

The idea of castration complex was quite infuriating to me, as a woman, yet it was very interesting. The idea about how women are dominated by men was inculcated to the society since the ancient times, due to sporting events and general perspectives. This castration complex suggests that the difference between men and women is just the penis. Just because women don't have "it," they were the "lacking version of men." The women are born castrated; therefore they are subordinate and incomplete.


 * Epicurean** is a person devoted to sensual enjoyment especially that derived from fine food and drink.


 * Iniquity** : immoral or grossly unfair behavior.


 * Diaphanous:** light and delicate


 * Rapacious:** aggressively greedy or grasping


 * Varnished:** to gloss over or apply varnish to make it shiny (esp. on wood)

"varnish over the truth"


 * Veneration:** regard with great respect


 * mizzen:** the post/stick/mast of the ship.


 * sepulcher or sepulchre :** a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried.

The draped women thought that the emissary was doing good to them. She believed that the emissary will enlighten them and lead them. Because she was "blindfolded" to the truth, she did not know what exactly was going on for real.
 * emissary:** a person sent on a special mission

The mysterious signs on the sepulchre was intentionally made by the killer to trick people into ciphering the signs. That is how the emissary died as well.
 * cipher:** a secret or disguised way of writing

antonym=cheerful synonym=sad
 * jocund:**

antonym=escape.avoid synonym=confront
 * abscond:**

Parallelism

If you have high fever, if you cough a lot, or if you feel dizzy, then you should not be at school because you would spread H1N1!!!

Repetition

She had swine flu, the flu known for its rapid spread.


 * The colon performs a special function: It signals the reader that something important or explanatory will follow (as this very sentence illustrates).**

Walton seems to be a very interesting character: he is ambitious and courageous. He always reach out for something unique and wants to be "that person" who discovers things first. I think Frankenstein is very similar to Conrad's Heart of Darkness as well. The characters in both novels are in search of something and they both create such monsters. The dark humans in the Heart of Darkness and the creature that Walton creates later on (based on what I know before reading this book). I noticed one thing from reading the preface: Walton takes risk of his life for a single discovery. Walton would sacrifice everything he has for it. But I'm not sure if he should be called selfish for what he does. It could be viewed as a selfish act since he discovers for his own satisfaction. He doesn't like to share his discoveries and studies with others, but keep it to himself only.

1. Look carefully at the following sentence. Does it work? If so, why? If not, where can the sentence be broken into two or shorter ones that are not overwhelming.** Robert Mondavi's father, Cesare, came from Sassafarento near Ancona, on the Adriatic coast of the Marches. It is not a particularly rich or fertile part of Italy even now, nor, except for Verdicchio, much of a wine-growing region, and a good deal less so. No doubt, in 1883, when Cesare was born, the son of a large, simple family and possibly the first member of it, I have read somewhere, to be able to sign his name.
 * EXERCISE -- Copy and paste this entire exercise into your own page. Write your answers in a different color or font. We will chose two people's in class to go over.

The fact that you can' figure out what's going on in the sentence tells us that we have to break up the sentence.**


 * 2. Does this sentence work? If so, why? If not, please correct.

The typical teenage user of snuff is white, active, and athletic, and subjected to very heavy peer pressure.

This sentence works because there's two parts in this sentence. But it depends where you want to emphasize. The fact that they are getting peer pressure**


 * 3. Same instructions -- The children gathered around the clown wishing for a balloon, angling for a smile, bowing before the childhood consumerism.**

The sentence does not work because the one that is bowing before the childhood consumerism is not the children but the clown.
 * The children gathered around the clown wishing for a balloon, angling for a smile, so the clown bowed before the childhood consumerism.**

But thinking of the rhythm, the sentence works.