Theme
Alan had very few responsibilities, but one of them was to clean his room. It did not take long, but Alan still didn't like doing it. One day Alan thought of a way to save some time. Rather than putting everything neatly back in its place, he decided to just throw all the stuff on the floor into his closet. His mom would think that he had cleaned his room, and it would only take a fraction of the time. Alan was pleased with himself for thinking of this brilliant idea. He figured that this would save a lot of time and energy. The next time his room got messy, he piled everything up in the closet and the pile grew. It grew and grew. Then Alan's friend Steve called. "Alan, everyone is playing baseball at the park. Do you want to play too?" Alan loved baseball. "That sounds great, Steve. I'll be right there." Alan went to grab his baseball mitt when he realized that it wasn't in its usual place. Alan thought to himself, I guess it's in the closet. When he opened up the closet door, he was faced with a huge, unnavigable mess, some of which poured out as he opened the door. Alan began digging through the pile in a frantic attempt to find his mitt. He dug and dug, and as he dug his room got messier and messier. Soon his room was the messiest that it had ever been, and he still hadn't found his mitt. Alan sighed in despair. By the time he found his mitt, the boys had long concluded their game and Alan had hours of cleaning ahead of him before he'd be allowed to leave.
Anything worth doing, is worth doing correctly;
Cutting cornets come at a cost;
Do something right the first time
For I knew his eyes
Like an old, old song.
Simile
While walking home from work, Lake Park Mall security guard Scott Thornton thought about his day. A shoplifter had outrun him, he had lost the keys to his golf cart, and a group of skateboarders had made fun of his weight. Things had not gone so well. Scott was so deep in thought that he did not even notice that he had stumbled on a movie set. Lost in thought, he passed by trailers, cameras, and stagehands, yet he was unaware of the scene around him. When he came out of his daze, he looked up and saw a ski mask wearing man waving a knife at an old lady. Figuring that the masked man was robbing the old woman, Scott bolted into action. His adrenaline was flowing. He didn't even notice the cameraman filming him as he jump kicked the actor wearing the ski mask.
Dramatic
Uses the pronouns I, me, we, us, ours, and my
First person
I have to take what I know plus ________________________ to make an inference.
What the text says
Dan and Doug led the journalism club. While Dan was generally regarded as a better writer than Doug, Doug was invaluable to the publication for his investigative skills. Together, they had uncovered a scandal in the cafeteria that had been dubbed "Horsemeat-Gate." Due to Dan and Doug's compelling story, interest in the high school paper grew. Dan was even interviewed by the local paper. During the interview Dan spoke at length about all he had done to write the story. He failed to mention Doug's involvement. Doug felt slighted and confronted Dan, but Dan asserted that he was the main writer of the story and therefore deserved the credit. Shortly after the blowout, Doug left the journalism club. The people of the town were interested in the high school paper, but without Doug's knack for finding good stories, the quality of the paper diminished and so did interest in the paper. Now that his popularity surge had ended, Dan had more time to think. He reasoned that they'd still be on top of the world if Doug hadn't been so stubborn and selfish.
Give credit where credit is due;
A good relationship has to have some give and take
Your voice was a web to bind.
Metaphor
When something happens that shocks or is unexpected to everyone.
Situational Irony
Uses the pronouns he, she, they, theirs, or names and knows the thoughts and feelings of all the characters.
Third person omniscient
Mr. Thomas sat on the front porch of his house in a bathrobe and bunny slippers with his head in his hands. He was holding the daily newspaper. The sun shined brightly in the sky. His neighbors were coming out of their houses and getting in their cars. Mr. Thomas sighed. His neighbor Mr. Rosencrantz stepped out on his porch and saw Mr. Thomas. "Did it again, huh?" said Mr. Rosencrantz. Mr. Thomas replied, "Yep." Mr. Rosencrantz chuckled and said, "Here, Mr. Thomas, you can use my cell phone. I could even keep a key over here if you wanted." Tom thankfully grabbed the cell phone and called his wife. "Honey, I did it again." Mr. Rosencrantz heard Mrs. Thomas yelling at Mr. Thomas in a distorted high-pitched squeal. "Yes, dear. I'm so sorry. I'll see you soon," Mr. Thomas returned the phone, sighed deeply, and ran his fingers through his hair.
Why will Mr. Thomas see Mrs. Thomas soon?
Mrs. Thomas is coming home to let him in the house.
. Frank and Joseph were super excited that the teacher assigned them to the same group. Unfortunately, she also assigned George to their group. George never did any work, so Frank and Joseph knew that they were going to have to pull his weight. Over the next week the two boys worked extensively to create and rehearse their presentation while George annoyed the girls who sat near him and played with his phone under his desk. Frank asked Joseph whether they should tell the teacher about George's failure to contribute to the project, but Joseph advised him against it because he didn't want them to be known as snitches. So George continued to play as the other boys worked. On the last workday, Frank and Joseph debated whether or not they should even write George's name on the project, but they decided to do it just to avoid conflict. Soon it was time to deliver the presentation. Frank and Joseph bounced back and forth in a lively conversational way, delivering facts to the audience and demonstrating their knowledge of the subject. Unfortunately, when it was George's turn to present, he just turned his back to the audience and read from the visual aid in a dry monotone voice. He mispronounced several words and didn't seem to understand what he was reading. Shortly after the presentation, the boys received a score sheet from their teacher. They had each received a B and the comment, "Frank and Joseph: nice presentation but I would like to see George get more involved next time. Please try and include him."
Don allow yourself to take responsibility for other people´s failures;
Don´t bury your head in the sand;
Address your problems before they affect you negatively.
Having prepared their buds against a sure winter, The wise trees stand sleeping in the cold.
Personifcation
When someone uses sarcasm or means the opposite of what they say.
Verbal Irony
Uses the pronouns he, she, they, them, and names and knows the thoughts and feelings of one character.
Third person limited
"I'm home!" Earl shouted as he walked in the door. His wife Gail came bounding down the stairs. She hadn't seen him since he had left to go on his silly fishing trip two weeks ago. "I missed you, Husband. Did you catch anything?" Gail reluctantly asked, knowing that Earl was not a very good fisherman. Earl scratched his head and responded, "You're not going to believe what I'm bringing home." Earl unzipped a cooler and pulled out several perfectly filleted salmon steaks. "Wow, Earl, I didn't know that you could fillet a fish like that." Earl looked around the room a little bit and scratched his head, "Uh, yeah, Jeff taught me how." Gail looked at him suspiciously. "Well, let me help you unpack." As Gail was helping Earl unpack his truck, she found a receipt from the grocery store. It was dated from that morning. What she saw was both disappointing and unsurprising.
What did Gail find on the receipt?
Gail finds that Earl had purchased fish fillets at the store.
Katie exhaled calmly. After several long nights of studying, she finally felt ready for the exam. Walking into her English class the next morning, Katie coolly focused on the task before her. As the teacher walked up and down the rows distributing the test, Katie heard a noise, "Psst…" Katie turned to see Shannon staring at her desperately. Shannon whispered, "I forgot to study. Please let me copy off of you. I'll do anything." Katie refused, "I can't risk it Shannon." Each knew that if the teacher caught them, they would both fail, but Shannon persisted, "Come on, Katie. Help me out. I'll give you fifty bucks." The teacher turned toward them from across the room, "Ladies, please, it's test time." Katie didn't want to jeopardize her future, but fifty dollars was a lot of money to her, so she silently nodded at Shannon. During the exam Katie kept her test document on the corner of her desk near Shannon, giving Shannon a clear view of all of her hard work. Shannon copied Katie's test exactly, even the writing portion word for word. After the test Katie approached Shannon in the hallway. "When am I going to get the fifty dollars?" Shannon sneered at her. "Ha, never. What are you going to tell someone that you let me copy? Please..." Shannon snapped at Katie. Katie ran away crying, upset that she had been deceived and worried that she would get caught cheating
Do not trust a dishonest person;
Do not be surprised if a cheater cheats you;
You can´t cheat an honest person;
Don´t compromise your beliefs for greed;
A desperate person will grasp at straws
Life is a frail moth flying,
Caught in the web of the years that pass,
Metaphor
When we, the audience, knows something, but the character does not
Dramatic Irony
Uses pronouns he, she, they, them, and names and doesn´t know any of the characters thoughts and feelings.
Third Person Objective
"I'm home!" Earl shouted as he walked in the door. His wife Gail came bounding down the stairs. She hadn't seen him since he had left to go on his silly fishing trip two weeks ago. "I missed you, Husband. Did you catch anything?" Gail reluctantly asked, knowing that Earl was not a very good fisherman. Earl scratched his head and responded, "You're not going to believe what I'm bringing home." Earl unzipped a cooler and pulled out several perfectly filleted salmon steaks. "Wow, Earl, I didn't know that you could fillet a fish like that." Earl looked around the room a little bit and scratched his head, "Uh, yeah, Jeff taught me how." Gail looked at him suspiciously. "Well, let me help you unpack." As Gail was helping Earl unpack his truck, she found a receipt from the grocery store. It was dated from that morning. What she saw was both disappointing and unsurprising
Why was Gail disappointed and unsurprised with what she saw?
She is disappointed because he lied and she is not surprised because Earl is not a good fisherman.
Twin brothers Jack and Willie had more differences than commonalities. Willie was tall and Jack was short. Willie was always joking around while Jack was a very serious person. Perhaps their greatest difference was that Willie learned things quickly and easily in school while Jack had to study long and hard. Willie had the time of his life during high school. He played around a lot, did very little work, and managed to get Cs in most of his classes. On the other hand, Jack had a difficult time during high school. He played around very little, worked really hard, and, like Willie, managed to get Cs in most of his classes. When the twins went away to college, they acted in much the same way even though things had changed. Willie went right to his usual tricks of skating by and doing as little as possible, while Jack continued to work hard in all of his classes. Since he had worked hard his whole life, Jack noticed that the work in college was much more difficult, but he was prepared for it. Willie did not really notice that the difficulty had changed until the semester was over. Jack managed to get Bs and Cs in all of his courses while Willie earned mainly Ds and Fs and was placed on academic probatioWhat is the theme of the story? _________________________________________________
Ability alone is not enough;
Persistence pays off
I can scarcely breathe,
The darkness is so thick.
It stifles me,
And weighs so heavily upon me,
Hyperbole
As soon as Bobby heard that the math test was going to be worth 30% of his grade, he began studying. He studied in class. He studied on the bus ride home. He even tried to study while walking home from the bus but stopped after bumping into a lamppost. When he got home, he didn't watch any TV because he was studying so intensely. He completed the study guide that Mr. Morris gave him and then he completed one that he had made himself. Bobby refused to quit. He stayed awake all night finding and completing extra problems on the Internet. By the time the sun rose, Bobby had mastered the content. As he entered the classroom, he felt prepared. He sharpened his pencil, sat at his desk, put his head down, fell asleep, and failed his test.
Situational Irony
Walter crumpled the business section of the newspaper. He couldn't believe the headline: "Zanogram Sold for 4 Billions Smackaroos!" He could recall starting that company with his partner Zap just a few years earlier. Now Walter had nothing and was riding the bus while Zap took champagne bubble baths. The bus driver noticed that Walter looked distressed. He was genuinely concerned about Walter, but he had learned a long time ago not to pry into the fare's affairs.
Third person omniscient
Miya came out of the bathroom with tears in her eyes. She ran down to the cafeteria and asked the staff if they had any rice. Fortunately for Miya, Ms. Lucille did. Ms. Lucille filled a red plastic cup about half way with white rice grains and handed it to Miya. Miya pulled a damp phone from out of her back pocket and pushed it into the dry rice grains inside of the plastic cup. She sincerely thanked Ms. Lucille and then went back to class. She felt relieved, but she was still a little worried.
Miya has gotten her phone wet, maybe at the sink or toilet.