Here is a worksheet on distinguishing the adjectives envious and jealous. The distinction is thin, but as usual, Paul Brians does a nice job in making the distinction clear: you are envious of what others have, but you become jealous when you are trying to hold on to what you have.
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.
Here is a worksheet on the Latin word roots voc and vok. They mean, as you might see or hear, “to call,” “voice.” This is a very productive root in English which you’ll find these roots at the base of words like vocal, advocate, invoke, and, of course, vocabulary. In other words, some high-frequency and relatively high-frequency words in English.
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.
“Abstraction (noun) The mental separating of common attributes or qualities from distinct, individual objects or beings, or of concepts from particular exemplars; word denoting an idea or intangible quality as opposed to something concrete. Adjective: abstract; Adverb: Abstractly.”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
Here is a context clues worksheet on the transitive verb defraud. It’s used only transitively, so don’t forget your direct object: you must defraud someone or something, a customer, a mortgage holder, a credit card company, or a bank.
And if your want context clues worksheets on the noun fraud and the adjective fraudulent to accompany this one, you’ll find those here.
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.
“Money, n. A blessing that is of no advantage to us excepting when we part with it. An evidence of culture and a passport to polite society. Supportable property.”
Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged humor, literary oddities, united states history
This week’s Text is two sets of two documents, the first a reading on the Panic of 1837 and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet; the second, a reading on the Panic of 1873 along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Nota bene, please, that in the context of these materials, the word panic refers to “a sudden widespread fright concerning financial affairs that results in a depression of values caused by extreme measures for protection of property (as securities).” More recently, we American English speakers have replaced panic with crisis, as in the Financial crisis of 2007-2008.
I’ve always been fascinated by the obvious symmetry of these dates. Somewhere along the way in my undergraduate years, I wrote a paper that dealt with the Panic of 1896 in the context of something else–possibly the Spanish-American War. Then again, it might have had something to do with a paper on the Panic of 1893; although that said, I wrote a paper about the Supreme Court Justice Joseph Bradley that may well have included an excursus on the Panic of 1884. Somewhere along the way, I also got onto the Panic of 1857, which was a prelude to but not necessarily a precipitant of the American Civil War. One thing I can say with confidence: I only became familiar with the Panic of 1819 in researching the background of this blog post.
As you can see, the nineteenth century, like the twentieth, was an age of instability in financial markets. Am I imagining things, or is there a unit in all of this on the function and dysfunction of markets? All of these panics were the consequence of volatile commodities prices, especially precious metals, or excessive and overly leveraged speculation. The question is, can we ever learn from this? I’m no economist, but when I look at economic history, I see the same things happening over and over again with no one learning anything from them.
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.
“Voting Rights Act: Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1965 to ensure the voting rights of African-Americans. While the Constitution’s 15th Amendment had guaranteed the right to vote regardless of race since 1870, blacks in the south faced efforts disenfranchise them (including poll taxes and literacy tests) as late as the 1960s, when the civil rights movement focused national attention on the need to protect Blacks’ voting rights; Congress responded with the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited many Southern states from using literacy tests to determine eligibility to vote. Later laws prohibited literacy tests in all states and made poll taxes illegal in state and local elections.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Here is a learning support on the use of parentheses. I’ve published quite a few of these recently; they have all been excerpted from Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage, which he has posted at the Washington State University website.
This document is really only a paragraph of text, so there is a big blank field on the page. In other words, plenty of room to write some exercises for students to practice using parentheses correctly. Because it is a Microsoft Word document, you have plenty of ways to convert it to your favorite word processor and adapt it for the needs of your classroom.
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.
“Loggia: A porch open on one or more sides.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Carnegie Hall–useful to my erstwhile New York City colleagues if nobody else.
You probably know the old joke: a tourist in Midtown Manhattan approaches a man who is obviously a seasoned New Yorker and asks “How do I get to Carnegie Hall.” “Practice, Practice, Practice,” the New Yorker replies. Seriously, though, if you’re in the city and planning to attend an event at Carnegie Hall, it is at the corner of 57th Street and 7th Avenue. Take the N, Q, R, or W trains (they’re the yellow ones) to the 57th Street and 7th Avenue station, go upstairs, and enter this grand venue.
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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