Grammar Time, Yay!
Does this sentence contain the CORRECT placement of commas?
"I washed my hair my face and my miniature elephant named Maurice."
NO! We need to separate the ideas!
"I washed my hair, my face, and my miniature elephant named Maurice."
Is this vocab word used CORRECTLY in the sentence?
"I would never falter in my devotion to Lady Gaga," said Miss Lexi to her cats, who were dutifully listening to her while she held their treat container.
Yes!
Falter: v.
start to lose strength or momentum.
In "Nethergrave", the CLIMAX of the story is when chaos ensues, and the main character steps off the floating path, cowering behind a tree after witnessing a terrible and frightening T Rex appear?
Nope.
That's actually the Climax of A SOUND OF THUNDER :)
A metaphor is:
A. An object or reoccuring idea representing a bigger concept
OR
B. a tool used by the author for comparison of two seemingly unlike things.
It's B!
(PS. Similes are the comparisons that use "like" or "as" in their construction. You are all as wonderful as a warm and gentle breeze... :) See? Like that! )
Another way to explain Exposition would be to say it is "background info" of a story that helps you understand the setting, characters, and potential conflicts happening about to happen in a story.
TRUE or FALSE?
TRUE! :) Geniuses, all of you!
Identify if this is a DEPENDANT or INDEPENDENT clause:
"Despite my many efforts to contact Pedro Pascal"
It is a DEPENDANT clause, also known as a FRAGMENT. It needs a comma and then an independent clause to be a complete thought!
"Despite my many efforts to contact Pedro Pascal, The Mandalorian actor has denied my romantic advances and threatened to sue me."
Is this vocabulary word used CORRECTLY in this sentence?
"She went to escalate her favorite kitchen items at Williams and Sonoma, but they were out of stock."
NO! Not sure what word this person wanted, but this word doesn't fit!
Escalate, v. increase rapidly
Jeremy is a teenage boy who is popular, has intense soccer skills, and is beloved by his peers. His mom is home every day when he gets home from school and he doesn't feel the need to use the computer to cope with his life.
TRUE or FALSE?
Um.... False? Did you even read the story, person who wrote this question?!
Jeremy IS a teeanger, but he is addicted to his computer, is not well liked, has horrible soccer skills, and keeps a binder of his lies at his desk to keep up the appearance that he is.. well, the opposite of who he really is.
Imagery uses JUST vivid descriptions of things you can see to get the audience closer to a theme!
TRUE or FALSE
Falsity falsefalse!
"Imagery" is the use of ALL sensory language to craft that certain something in your head that you're reading! Authors can use sensory language that triggers smells, sights, sounds, textures, and even TASTE to inform their author of the topic, and USUALLY the theme. Whoa.
There are 5 Types of Conflicts in a story:
Character versus Themselves
Character versus Society
Character versus Nothing
Character versus Character
Character versus Nature
Whoops, an extra one snuck in there!
Character Versus Nothing is not a conflict at all if you think about it... Weird!
Is this a CORRECT, FRAGMENT, or RUN-ON SENTENCE?
"A long time ago in a Galaxy far far away it is a period of civil war rebel spaceships striking from a hidden base have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire but during the battle Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon the DEATH STAR...
Whoa, that is a RUN ON Sentence! This needs some punctuation! It makes more sense like this:
"A long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away...It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.
During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR..."
Is this vocabulary word used CORRECTLY in this sentence?
"The gist of her argument was that she was right, and I was wrong; She was big and I was small, and she was not going to hear anything different."
YES! What a rude argument, though!
Gist: n.
the main point or idea
In "The Call of the Wild," which of these is the MOST discussed theme in the story?
A. Love and affection between two people or creatures
B. Pride and belonging in a cruel world
C. Returning to primal urges in order to survive
It's C!
Returning to primal urges in order to survive, otherwise known as "survival of the fittest"! Thanks, Darwin and Jack London!
"Othering" is a term that describes the act of treating someone as though they are not part of a group and are different in some way.
From the list of characters from Semester A readings, who experiences "othering"? Check all who apply.
A. Buck from TCOTW
B. John Thornton from TCOTW
C. Travis from ASOT
D. Jeremy from Nethergrave
E. All of the above
F. A and D
Buck experiences isolation and confusion when he is first dropped into the Alaskan wilderness with the other sled dogs, and Jeremy is bullied for being unathletic and dorky at his school.
Remember that Othering has to do with the idea of singling someone out or potentially excluding them just for being "different" than the "norm".
(What IS normal, anyway?)
An example of a Climax in a story would be the where and when, or the place and time that the story takes place.
TRUE or FALSE?
FALSE! That's the setting!
The Climax of a story is the MOST intense, MOST DRAMATIC, MOST exciting point in the story! It is where the story may answer the major dramatic question, or resolve the Conflict. Will it end well, or will everything go badly?!
Does this sentence contain the CORRECT amount of commas?
"I washed my bright, blue elephant named Maurice."
Nay nay!
Sometimes two adjectives are used together to express a single idea made up of two closely related thoughts. Adjectives used this way are not usually separated by a comma.
AND, remember also that:
Colors and numbers do not need to be separated by a comma.
Is this vocabulary word used CORRECTLY in this sentence?
"They were a very alleviated and tenacious writer, and they were going to finish their book full of Dad jokes if it was the last thing they did".
No, though I'd buy a copy of their book!
Alleviate: v.
to make something (suffering, deficiency, or a problem) less severe.
The mood of "Nethergrave" and "A Sound of Thunder" could be described as cautionary, intense, and suspenseful.
TRUE or FALSE?
Yeah, I'd say that's pretty true!
Remember, MOOD is the emotions that a text gives the reader. There's some lessons to be learned from Eckels and Jeremy, I think, and the way they learn them is pretty dark and unfortunate. Bad for them, good for us so we don't repeat their mistakes!
What does Eckels destroy on his trip to the Past?
A single, lone butterfly.
This butterfly triggers a series of events and happenings that screw up the Future that Eckels and the crew left from, turning the whole world upside down and causing Eckels to be annihilated at the end of the story. Woof, talk about "the butterfly effect", LITERALLY!
The Denoument is the same as Falling Action of a story.
TRUE or FALSE?
False! Falsity-false-false!
Falling action is the part in the story that comes right after the Climax, which means we are resolving the tension of the CRAZY happenings of the Climax, clarifyng the events of story, and starting to wrap things up.
The Denoument, or the "Conclusion" or "Resolution" is where we leave the story, its characters, and the book closes. Wait, it's ending?! I wasn't ready!!
Is this a SIMPLE, COMPOUND, or COMPLEX SENTENCE?
"While I would never say mean things about a real person, sometimes I say mean things about fictional characters."
This is a COMPLEX sentence!
A complex sentence is made up of one dependent clause and one independent clause.
(...We all know we want to say mean things about Hal and Mercedes.)
Is this vocabulary word used CORRECTLY in this sentence?
"The crescendo of the orchestra thundered and wavered in the air like a thousand streamers let loose from cannons facing in every direction."
Oh yeah, baby! I bet the band was playing something fierce!
Crescendo, n.
the loudest or highest point reached in a progressive increase of intensity.
Read the following quote from "Nethergrave" by Gloria Skurzynski and consider what we can infer about Jeremy's character.
"It wasn't that they'd deserted him, he told himself. He'd been late - they'd probably chatted for quite a while before he got there." (Skurzynski, 316)
A. Jeremy is in danger
B. Jeremy worries about friendships
C. Jeremy is rational
D. Jeremy is in denial
It's B! Jeremy worries about friendships.
We can INFER that because Jeremy is having to calm himself down after a less than positive interaction between his online friends. Because of this ONE incident, he thinks he's being abandoned and that they don't like him anymore.
Poor Jeremy!
The following quote from "Nethergrave" could be evidence to discuss the THEME of TECHNOLOGY BEING A DANGEROUS ESCAPE in the short story?
"But when Jeremy ran, his head and neck, arms and hands, legs and feet looked like a bunch of paper clips that had been shaken up in a bag: Hooked together haphazardly, they stuck out at all kinds of weird angles ".
TRUE or FALSE?
Nope, that's False. This is evidence for something,maybe, but it doesn't relate to that theme at all! A quote that may work better may be something like this:
"You’ll be all alone, Jeremy, abandoned by each of your online friends.” Jeremy swallowed, but his throat made an animal sound like a whimper. “What’ll I do?” The red smile on the face, or mask, grew even wider, as though it had been sliced by the samurai warrior’s sword. “Stay with us, Jeremy. Live forever in Nethergrave. Here no one will ever abandon you, I promise.”
“How do I get to Nethergrave?”
“You’re already there!”
The "Rising Action" where we introduce the plot twist of a story and moments of clarity about our use of symbolism?
TRUE or FALSE?
Nah, False again! Did I trick you?
Rising Action is where we introduce "The Problem" in the story, or the Conflict. What is going to be present for this character as they rise and rise and rise to The Climax of the story, where we potentially solve this?! Rising Action in a story is usually where we kick things off, and start to get into the juicy details and problems.