Monday, December 2, 2013

ENGLISH - 1st Quarter



ENGLISH Long Test - 1st Quarter
Spelling #1
1.       laconic (adj) – using or involving the use of minimal words; concise to the point of seeming mysterious or rude
2.       euphony (n) – pleasing or sweet sound; harmonious succession of words having pleasing sound
3.       anathema (n) – someone or something intensely disliked or loathed
4.       diaphanous (adj) – characterized by such fineness of texture as to permit seeing through; extreme delicacy
5.       panoply (n) – a full suit of armor; ceremonial suit; something forming a protective cover
6.       dysphoria (n) – state of feeling unwell or unhappy
7.       hypochondria (n) – extreme depression of mind or spirits often centered on imaginary physical ailments
8.       heuristic (adj) – involving or serving as an aid to  learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error methods.
9.       sycophancy (n) – obsequious flattery (exhibiting exaggerated attention)
10.   panacea (n) – remedy for all ills or difficulties
Spelling #2
1.       condign (adj) – deserved, appropriate
2.       pulchritude (n) – physical comeliness
3.       debilitate (v) – to impair the strength of
4.       garrulous (n) – given to prosy, rambling on tedious, loquacity, pointless on an annoyingly talkative
5.       stultify (v) – to cause to appear or to be stupid, foolish or illogical
6.       dirigible (adj) – capable of being steered
7.       puerile (adj) – childish, silly, juvenile
8.       recalcitrant (adj) – obstinately, defiant of authority or restraint
9.       avarice (n) – excessive or instable desire for wealth or gain greediness, cupidity
10.   moribund (adj) – being in the state of dying


Ancient Greece

*Ancient Greece is often noted as the beginning of Western Civilization
* One of the earliest civilizations


Greek Gods and Goddesses
·         The Greeks believed that gods and goddesses watched over them. The gods were like humans, but immortal and much more powerful.
·         A family of gods and goddesses lived in a cloud-palace above Mt. Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece. The gods looked down to watch what people were doing and from time to time, interfered with what went on.
·         The gods did not always behave very well. Their king, Zeus, was always being unfaithful to his wife Hera. It appeared on Earth as a human or an animal to rick women he had fallen in love with.
1.       Zeus (Jupiter)
-Lord of the Sky
-thunderbolt
-eagle & oak tree
2.       Hera (Juno)
-Goddess of Marriage
-peacock & cow
3.       Poseidon (Neptune)
-wife: Amphitrite
-Lord of Seas & Earthquakes
-master of horses
-three-pronged trident
4.       Hades (Pluto)
-wife: Persephone
-Lord of the Underworld
-helmet that makes him invisible
-not evil, just, unpitying
5.       Demeter (Ceres)
-Goddess of Harvest
-mother of Persephone
-wheat & torch
-seasons
6.       Hestia (Vesta)
-Goddess of Hearth
-home
-virgin goddess
7.       Athena (Minerva)
-Goddess of Wisdom
-battle-goddess
-sprung from head of Zeus – full grown
-olive & owl
-pet city: Athens
8.       Artemis (Diana)
-Goddess of the Hunt
-Moon-goddess
-cypress & deer
-twin sister of Apollo
-daughter of Zeus and Leto
9.       Apollo (Apollo)
-God of Light, Music & Poetry
-most Greek of all Greeks
-sun-god; archer-god
-lyre
10.   Aphrodite (Venus)
-Goddess of Love & Beauty
-laughter-loving
-magical girdle
-vain, ill-tempered, easily offended
-married to Hephaestus but had many affairs
-myrtle & dove
11.   Ares (Mars)
-God of War
-spear & shield
-son of Zeus and Hera
-coward, murderous
12.   Dionysus (Bacchus)
-God of Wine
-thyrsos (pine-coned tipped staff)
-drinking cup
13.   Hephaestus (Vulcan)
-God of Fire & Forge
-makes armors and weapons
-ugliest of them all


The Land and its People
·         The area’s challenging landscape was matched by its history. Early centuries were marked by waves of destructive invasions. Later, the Greeks were always conscious of their mighty and often hostile neighbour, the vast Persian Empire.
·         History and geography combined to form Greek character. More than the earlier civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia was interested in the individual human being. Their art, history, and philosophy focused on the human body and mind.

How People Lived
In Athens
·         Athens grew from a small city-state into the center of one of the most successful, sophisticated, and cultured societies in the history of the world.
·         5th Century BC – History’s first democratic government had taken hold there,
·         Known for its democratic government and flourishing culture
In Sparta
·         Known for its military strength

Family of Deities
·         Greek city-states all believed in the same family of deities – gods and goddesses in human form who behaved like people with superhuman powers.

Human Philosophy
·         The Greek emphasis on the human experience gave rise to the systematic questioning and observation of the world
·         Greeks made great advances in science, philosophy and medicine.
·         Greek thinkers: Hippocrates, Aristotle, Socrates, Herodotus

Sculpture
·         Greek sculptors usually chose the human figure as their subject. They used symmetry, harmony and proportion to create new kind of beauty in a search for the ideal.

Painting and Architecture
·         Vases and vessels are decorated with paintings that showed scenes from mythology.

Written Language
·         They adapted an alphabet from Phoenicians, seafaring merchants who lived in Israel & Lebanon
-carving inscriptions on stone
-writing ink on papyrus on parchment

START OF TROJAN WAR
1.       Wedding of Peleus (mortal) and Thetys (sea-nymph) (Mother of Achilles)
2.       Eris (Goddess of Discord) was not invited. She got mad
3.       She placed a golden apple with an inscription of “To the Fairest”
4.       Everyone wants to claim the apple but it was narrowed down to Hera, Athena and Aphrodite.
5.       The 3 approached Zeus for the decision because they cant decide among themselves. Zeus doesn’t want to get involved.
6.       He asked Paris (youngest son of King Priam, overthrown to the wild, works as a shepherd in Mt. Ida)
7.       Hera: “I will give you all the wealth in the world”
Athena: “I will give you knowledge, wisdom and I will make sure that Greece will be yours.”
Aphrodite: “I will give you the most beautiful woman in the world. – Helen.”
8.       Paris chose Aphrodite.
9.       Helen (wife of Menelaus-King of Sparta) was abducted by Paris as instructed by Aphrodite.
10.   The Trojans got mad. This is the Start of the Trojan War

ILIAD by Homer

1.       The Greeks sacks Chryse (town allied with Troy) – 9 yrs after the start of the Trojan War.
-Agamemnon (leader) abducted Chryseis
-Achilles (greatest warrior) abducted Briseis
2.       Chryses (Chryseis’ dad , priest of Apollo) offers a ransom in return for his daughter but they refused to give her back. He prays to Apollo for him to send a plague to the Greeks’camp
3.       Calchas (prophet) told Agamemnon about the cause of the plague.
4.       Agamemnon gave Chryseis up but demands Briseis from Achilles as compensation. Achilles got mad so he refused to join the battles.
5.       Thetis asked Zeus to enlist his services.
6.       Cease-fire
7.       Zeus supports the Trojans. He sent a false dream to Agamemnon.
8.       Greeks suffered great losses
9.       Paris challenges one of the Greeks in a simgel combat. Hector (brother of Paris and Helen, one of King Priam’s son) persuades him to challenge Menelaus. Menelause defeats Paris.
10.   Hector vs. Ajax (one of the best warriors of Greeks). Hector defeats Ajax.
11.   Truce (burning of the dead)
12.   Agamemnon persuades Achilles to return to the field.
13.   Nestor proposed a plan to Achilles. Patroclus will take his place in the battle wearing his armor. He agreed.
14.   Hector killed Patroclus (friend of Achilles). Achilles got mad. He decided to reconcile with Agamemnon & rejoin the army.
15.   Thetis (mother of Achilles) went to Mt. Olympus and asked Hephaestus to forge the Achilles a new set of armor.
16.   Achilles joined the battle and killed Hector.
17.   Achilles drags Hector’s body around Patroclus’ funeral for 9 days.
18.   King Priam (ruler of Troy, Hector’s father) was escorted by Hermes as said by Zeus. He pleads Achilles to return Hector’s body.
19.   Achilles gave Hector’s body back and Hector receives a hero’s funeral.
20.   Troy receives new allies so it continues its resistance
-          The Fall of Troy
21.   The Trojan / Wooden Horse
-where Greeks hid to enter Troy
- led by Odysseus
- Cassandra (Priam’s daughter, prophetess) told the Trojans that the Greeks were in the Wooden Horse but they did not believe her (curse of Apollo because she refused his love)
22.   Greeks sacks Troy and killed Cassandra. Athena got mad at the Greeks so she asked Poseidon to give them a bitter homecoming.
23.   Odysseus was included in this plague but he did not die. He wandered for 10 years before he came home.
24.   The Departure from Troy
-          The Adventures of Odysseus

Ancient Rome

8th Century BC – grew from a small town on central Italy’s Tiber River into an empire that at its peak encompassed most of continental Europe, Britain, much of western Asia, northern Africa and the Mediterranean islands

*Widespread use of the Roman Languages:
1. Italian
2. French
3. Spanish
4. Portugese
5. Romanian
- derived from Latin, modern western alphabet & calendar

*After 450 years as a Republic, Rome became an empire in the wake of Julius Caesar’s rise and fall in the first century BC

Romulus & Remus
-          Sons of Mars and Rhea
-          She-wolf was regarded as a symbol of Rome from ancient times
-          The twins fought for power
-          Romulus hit his brother with a stone on his head – he won

Roman Literature
-          Written in the Latin language, remains as enduring legacy of the culture of ancient Rome
-          Some works are historical epics telling of the early military history of Rome, followed (as the Republic expanded) by poetry, comedies, histories and tragedies
-          Latin literature drew heavily more on the matured literary tradition of Greece and the strong influence of earlier Greek authors is readily apparent
-          Plays: Plautus and Terrence
-          “Golden Age of Roman Literature”

THE AENIED by Virgil
-Latin epic poem (29-19 BC)
-greatest contribution of Virgil
-legendary story of Aeneas
-9,896 lines; dactylic hexameter
(3 syllables accented, 2 is not)(3 beats)

Aeneas  - Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans

Book II : The Fall of Troy

-Aeneas relates the story of the destruction of Troy
-He witnessed the murder of King Priam and the Greeks’ destruction of the city. Fleeting the city with his family, he lost his wife, when he found that she died, he left with no hope of return.
-He became the leader of other Trojans to be exiled, including his father and his son

PYRAMUS & THISBE by Ovid

Ovid
-“The heavens and all below them, earth and her creatures / All change, and we, part of creation, also / Must suffer change.”
-everyone must go through transformation / change
-came from a well-off family in Sulmo
-sent to Rome by his Father to be educated (expects him to become a public official)
-Love – favourite theme
- also wrote about myth and Roman Society
-“Books of Transformation” – Latin narrative poem by Ovid
            - magnum opus (masterpiece)
-15 books + 250 myths, poem chronicles the history of the world
-“Metamorphoses” – portrays passions of people & gods in many stories brilliantly woven together
            - tells stories about the transformation of humans and nymphs into animals, plants, etc
            -12,000 lines
            -links together stories adopted from Greek and Roman mythology
            -arranged in chronological order (creation to founding of Roman Empire)
            -usually a person turns into an animal / plant
            - uses playful tone (lively, moving)
            -focused on characters’ emotions which portrays with compassion and insight

Lyric Poetry – speaker expresses his personal thoughts and feelings
-          Usually brief and songlike & can take the form of an ode, elegy or a sonnet

Story:
Setting: Babylon (brick-walled city)
-          Where civilization took place
-          Iran / Persia, ruled by King Ninus and Queen Semiramis (Sammu-ramat)

1.       A wall divided Pyramus and Thisbe
-There was a chink/hole – they were able to communicate
2.       They decided to run away
-They went to the Tomb of Ninus, Mulberry Tree
-Fruits in Mulberry Tree are still white
3.       Thisbe came first
-A lioness came – filled with blood in the mouth
-She ran away, accidentally dropped the veil
-The veil was played by the lioness
4.       Pyramus came
-He thought Thisbe is dead when he saw the bloody veil
-He felt guilty so he stabbed himself
5.       Thisbe came back
-She was heartbroken so she stabbed herself also
6.       Reconciliation of the 2 families

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