Meanings Signs and Symbols Part 1

Biologists have discovered that we share many physical and behavioral characteristics as other mammals. Meanings are a reason for why people do things and what they are meant for. A sign needs to be able to be interpreted before it can become a sign. If you see smoke, that is a sign that a fire is probably occuring. Symbols stand for something and represent something in particular.

Vocab Words

1. Approbation: The expression of favorable opinion.

2. Innuendo: A hint; indirect suggestion or reference

3. Coalition: A combination, union, or merger for some specific purpose

4. Elicit: To draw forth, bring out from some source

5. Hiatus: A gap, opening or break.

6. Assuage: To make easier or milder, relieve, satisfy

7. Decadence: Decline, decay, or deterioration.

8. Expostulate: To attempt to dissuade someone from some course or decision by earnest reasoning.

9. Jaded: Wearied, worn out, dulled.

10. Simulate: To make a pretense of, imitate, to show the outer signs of emotions they might never have felt in life

11. Umbrage: Shadow cast by trees; offense resentment

12. Prerogative: A special right or privilege

13. Lurid: Causing shock, horror or revulsion.

14. Transcend: To rise above or beyond, exceed

15. Provincial: Pertaining to an outlying area; local

16. Petulant: Peevish, annoyed by trifles, easily irritated.

17. Unctuous: Excessively smooth or smug; trying too hard to give an impression

18. Meritorious:Worthy, deserving recognition and praise

19. Hackneyed: Used so often as to lack originality

20. Intercede: To plead on behalf of someone else; to serve as a third party

Answers to Goodman Brown Questions

1) I think Hawthornes purpose for writing this story was to show us how some people's dreams could sometimes become a reality. Maybe Hawthorne wants us to know that we can make our own dreams happen.

2) I agree that in the story, Brown's wife was aptly named faith because throughout the story, she stayed faithful. Brown didn't really have faith in her because she didnt know what path to choose.

3) I think the pink ribbons symbolize happiness and innocence. Pink ribbons make me think of a little girl with them in her hair like a bow. Little girls are innocent... Throughout the story, faith seemed innocent and fairly happy.

4) Everything that  happened was a dream for Goodman Brown because it mentions it in the story.  "A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream."

5)  I think the old man was some sort of dark omen or monster. His staff was described kind of  like a snake. He also called him a serpent and all he did was put evil thoughts in Brown's head and told him not to turn back. :(

6) The staff represents a snake and snakes our very clever and sly. I think the staff was leading Brown further and further into the forest.

7) If Brown didnt go into the forest, I think his life would be very different. He wouldnt have doubtet faith and her love for him, the townspeople, or better yet, himself... The dream he had was a big life change.

Questions on Goodman Brown

 1) Do you think it's kind of ironic that his name is Goodman, but throughout the book bad things happen to him and he is mean to people at the end?

2) Do you think Goodman was dreaming? Or do you think it was real?

3) Who was the traveler Goodman met at the beginning of his journey?


Tone/ Mood: The story has a gloomy and dark feeling to it while I was reading it. It made me never want to go into dark forests by myself at night...

Tone and mood on Earth on Turtle's Back

In the story, "Earth on Turtles Back", it has a set tone and mood. The tone, or authors attitude torward characters, is somewhat encouraging towards the muskrat who tried his hardest out of all the animals in the story. As for the mood, the story made me feel happy that the muskrat was successful in retrieving the "Earth." The king's wife can now live happily ever after on the Earth on land that the brave muskrat found.

Socratic seminar notes

4 Threads:
1) Do you agree or disagree to the right to your opinion?
2) Literature: Life on Turtles back
3) Rhetoric
4) Technology and the ways we communicate

Notes:

You can never be right our wrong about your opinion because its just your opinion. We can always have our own opinion, but you should have good facts or arguements to back up your opinion.
I agree that everyone has their own unique opinion that is'nt really right or wrong.

Reflections on Week 1

          I think my lack of sleep will affect me just a little bit in this course. I swim five hours a day and will be lifeguarding tuesday and thursday nights until 10:00. Other than my sleepiness, I think I will do fine in this course. I will always have my recourses if I absolutely need them.

          I think my swim team is a great learning experience for me. It teaches me social skills, determination, goal settings, nutrition, and working hard. Santa Maria Swim Club has taught me important life skills that I will carry on into the future.

           For this class, I am most concerned with the amount of work required for this class. It feels to me like its going to be like Honors English all over again, but this class so far is going pretty well. I might just struggle a bit with vocabulary tests. I was never very good at those last year.


-Ethan

extra credit...

It is exactly 26 minutes since the extra credit was suppose to be written, but i wasnt home so I am doing it now.... I would very much like to improve on writting my essays and not procrastinating that much. This course seems to give a lot of work that its pretty much impossible to procrastinate on so i guess thats a start. I can better my essays by analyzing the literature not summarizing it! Plus, Dr. Preston seems like a good teacher so my essays will get better anyways.

Dear fellow bloggers,
            I have completed my first week in English 3 and now its time for me to reflect. I feel like I felt pretty strong in my poem memorization, but not so strong......i dont know where i didnt feel strong. I have been feeling strong all week because I am trying my best to excel above everyone. (no offense)
           One thing Dr. Preston can help us with is maybe extending the time period in which we have to memorize something. Most people didnt memorize Richard Cory probably because  they only had two days to do it. Mrs. Byrne gave us a week last year.....Okay, now I'm done with that topic, but seriously, most people probably needed more time to memorize that poem. Well, thats all I have to say about that topic. Talk to you guys later!

Assignment #1

         I am taking English 3 because it is needed in my curriculum for school. It is only the second day and I already like my English class. I think its so cool that I have my own blog now! Maybe it will give us students a chance to help one another through blogs.

         I am completely nervous about speaking in front of people. Today, Dr. Preston asked us if anyone was ready to recite "Richard Cory" and I was actually ready to recite it. I memorized it last year and found it easy to memorize again.  In this class, am excited to see what different types of literature we will be studying this school year.

       My goals for this course will be to write better essays. Last year when I wrote essays I mostly summarized books I didn't quite analyze the book like I was suppose to. This is a new school year to start fresh and maybe this year I can excel in my writing. I hope this will be a great year!