Deep Reading
If "ease" and "acquaintances" are meant to rhyme, what is the rhyme scheme of this Emily Dickinson poem? (think: As, Bs, and Cs)
"A face devoid of love or grace,
A hateful, hard, successful face,
A face with which a stone
Would feel as thoroughly at ease
As were they old acquaintances --
First time together thrown."
AABCCB
The phrase "busy as a bee" is an example of what kind of figurative language?
simile
The chefs decided to finally feed the emaciated homeless dog in the alley behind the restaurant.
Based on this sentence alone, what does the word emaciated mean? (bonus points if you can name the part of speech)
abnormally thin or weak, especially because of illness or a lack of food (adjective = +100)
After reading this excerpt of Joyce Carol Oates' short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" together, come up with two words to describe Connie and her mom respectively.
"Her name was Connie. She was fifteen and she had a quick, nervous giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right. Her mother, who noticed everything and knew everything and who hadn't much reason any longer to look at her own face, always scolded Connie about it. "Stop gawking at yourself. Who are you? You think you're so pretty?" she would say. Connie would raise her eyebrows at these familiar old complaints and look right through her mother, into a shadowy vision of herself as she was right at that moment: she knew she was pretty and that was everything. Her mother had been pretty once too, if you could believe those old snapshots in the album, but now her looks were gone and that was why she was always after Connie."
CONNIE: vain (glance into mirrors), confident (knew she was pretty), apathetic (look right through her mother), etc.
MOM: observant (noticed... knew everything), judgemental (scolded Connie), unattractive (pretty once), etc.
hyperbole
I moved my plants to the windowsill so they could get all the sunlight they needed to flourish.
Based on this sentence alone, what does the word "flourish" mean? (bonus points if you can name the part of speech)
grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly favorable environment (verb = +100)
In this excerpt from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven," the narrator mourns the loss of his girlfriend Lenore.
What are three words that have connotations that evoke death?
"Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore."
bleak, December, dying, ghost, sorrow, lost, angels (surcease +100 points)
A word that is meant to replicate a sound (i.e. zoom, crash, pop)
onamonapia
The opposite team's impressive stats meant they would be formidable opponents in tonight's game.
Based on this sentence alone, what does the word "formidable" mean? (bonus points if you can name the part of speech)
extremely impressive in strength or excellence (adjective = +100)