Monthly Archives: July 2022

Lunette

Posted on July 7, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Lunette: A window or painting of semicircular shape.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Cultural Literacy: Assimilation

Posted on July 7, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on assimilation, used to mean the process by which immigrants internalize and, well, assimilate, the social and cultural mores of the nation to which they have immigrated (without, one hopes, losing the social and cultural mores of the nation from which they have emigrated; for if they do, where we will get the wonderful varieties of ethnic food that have entered the American diet since my childhood?).

Anyway, this is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one compound sentence and two comprehension questions.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Write It Right: Cunning for Amusing

Posted on July 7, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Cunning for Amusing. Usually said of a child, or pet. This is pure Americanese, as is its synonym, ‘cute.’”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.

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Entitle (vt)

Posted on July 7, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb entitle, which is used only transitively. The context clues in the sentences in this document guide students toward inferring a meaning of “to furnish with proper grounds for seeking or claiming something.”

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Bon Mot

Posted on July 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Bon Mot  A clever, well-phrased observation or remark; witticism. Pl. bons mots, bon mots.

‘The literary Jews also sprinkled their prose with Yiddish bon mots in lieu of the Latin that the Southerners favored.’ Richard Kostalanetz, Literary Politics in America”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

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Common English Verbs Followed by Gerunds: Imagine

Posted on July 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

Finally today, here is a worksheet on the verb imagine when a gerund follows it. I imagine retiring in a cool and green place.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Jean-Baptiste Lamarck on the Evolution of the Giraffe

Posted on July 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

“It is interesting to observe the result of habit in the peculiar shape and size of the giraffe (Camelo-pardalis): this animal, the largest of mammals, is known to live in the interior of Africa in places where the soil is nearly always arid and barren, so that it is obliged to browse on the leaves of trees and make a constant effort to reach them. From this habit long maintained in all its race, it has resulted that the animal’s fore-legs have become longer than its hind legs, and that its neck is lengthened to such a degree that the giraffe, without standing on its hind legs, attains a height of six metres.”

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Philosophie Zoologique pt. 1 ch. 7 (1809)

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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The Ozone Layer

Posted on July 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on the ozone layer along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Given that the United States Supreme Court recently handed down a decision, in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency et al, limiting the EPA’s authority to regulate emissions of chemicals that pollute the air and use the atmosphere of this planet for, you know, a toilet, this material may be suddenly quite relevant.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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7 Colours of the Visible Spectrum

Posted on July 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

“These seven colours can be remembered through the mnemonic ‘Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain.’”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Word Root Exercise: Tetra-

Posted on July 6, 2022 | Leave a comment

Phew. I am on track to publish 30 blog posts this morning. So, to reach that number, here is a worksheet on the Greek word root tetra–. It means four. You’ll find this root at the base of words (all present in this document) such as tetragon, tetrahedron, tetrapod, and tetravalent. If you’re teaching math or science or both, this worksheet might be useful (but it might not–those aren’t my subjects, alas).

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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