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The slums in New York were a matrix of crime.

Mr. T, the family friend, was avuncular. He moved in when Martha’s mother died, and tended to Martha’s needs as well as he could.

Peter roved the forest, only stopping to listen to wild birdcalls.

Phillip was excited for his first day of school. Only after he had walked 4 miles to get to school, he realized he was sansculotte.

The group’s callowness made it impossible for them to survive on the Klondike Gold Stampede.

Vocabulary activity

Truncated:
1. Shortened by or as if by having a part cut off; cut short: an unnecessarily truncated essay.
Parliamentary Democracy: A democracy having a parliament
Bicameral:
having two branches, chambers, or houses, as a legislative body.
Parity:
1.
equality, as in amount, status, or character.
2.
equivalence; correspondence; similarity; analogy.
3.
Finance.
a.
equivalence in value in the currency of another country.
b.
equivalence in value at a fixed ratio between moneys of different metals.
4.
Physics.
a.
a property of a wave function, expressed as +1 or −1 and noting the relation of the given function to the function formed when each variable is replaced by its negative, +1 indicating that the functions are identical and −1 that the second function is the negative of the first.
b.
Also called intrinsic parity. a number +1 or −1 assigned to each kind of elementary particle in such a way that the product of the parities of the particles in a system of particles multiplied by the parity of the wave function describing the system is unchanged when particles are created or annihilated.
5.
a system of regulating prices of farm commodities, usually by government price supports, to provide farmers with the same purchasing power they had in a selected base period.
6.
Computers. the condition of the number of items in a set, particularly the number of bits per byte or word, being either even or odd: used as a means for detecting certain errors.

I read one of Adora's many blog entries today. It was a very long menu from her made-up country, Voledads. Her restauraunt was called "The Promenade" and it had very pricy foods. Most of the foods were what you would regularly find in America, but some foods were a bit strange, like the salad that was topped with grass. I found the menu quite entertaining and interesting to read.

Half full, not half empty: Be optimistic.
Origin: Mozna, mid 1900s. Gluglenacec Dublinee came up with the saying. Dublinee was the leader of the growing "Optimizzy Optimistic" group during the 1900s.

A dull tool collects dust: If you don't have an education, you will not have any interesting experiences and you will lead a boring life.
Origin: An old schoolmaster used this saying for the first time when he was talking with a student who despised school.

Entertaining as a doorknob: Boring as heck.
Origin: A well used saying all over Mozna. This saying originated in downtown Mozna, when a man watching a show told his friend, "This show is entertaining as a doorknob. Let's go!" The saying was spread around until it reached the whole country.

A slug's nosehairs: Non-existent
Origin: Southern Mozna.

Class assignment: Woody Guthrie as a boy

Woody sat at a raggedy, scratched up wooden bench. He held a cold, metal harmonica to his lips, playing a jolly tune. He had also been practicing making a railroad sound...He hadn't quite mastered that one, yet. People passed by Woody, glancing at him as they hustled by. Woody smiled at all the different people walking by. He leaned forward and stood up, stowing his harmonica in his dirty pocket, full of crumbs, dirt, and small pebbles. Woody started walking around town, looking at all the different shops and different people. As he passed by the barber shop, he felt his raggedy hair. It did need quite a bit of cutting, but he thought his ma could do that for him. If Woody asked Ma if he could get a haircut from the barber, Ma would say: "Barbers are expensive, we don't have that kind of money. I'll do it." And besides, Woody didn't care too much about his hair. Woody pulled his harmonica out of his pocket again, and started playing, as he walked. He tried to do the railroad sound...He could almost do it.

Minnie and Sherlock: Two adoptees

I could feel butterflies in my stomach. I was so excited, and also a bit nervous. My Dad stopped the car in front of a semi-ramshackle building called "The Best Little Rabbit Rodent Ferrret House". We stepped out of the car, and I quickly walked over to the door of the building. It was a crooked door, with some white paint peeling off of it. I liked the way it looked. As we entered, I looked around at all the different supplies and all the animals in cages. It was a warm, cozy place that I felt at home in. We went right over to the humongous cage where the guinea pigs were. They made adorable little chattering sounds, and noises that sounded like little bubbles. They looked hopefully up at us. There were a few white crested ones, a Tri-colored one, and many others. THere were 19 guinea pigs in all. So many to choose from! They were all so amicable. I was enamoured with all the charming guinea pigs. Every one of the guinea pigs had the opposite of a stentorian voice...they were so quiet, and had such a high voice, making their little bubble sounds.
The sweet smell of hay was everywhere in the adoption center. I loved the smell. I loved everything about the adoption center...the smell, the sounds, the animals there....
The hard part about getting a guinea pig was choosing between all 19 of them. I got to sit in a enclosed pen to play with them, and to see whose personality I liked the most. First, I got to sit with a big girl guinea pig...I believe her name was Jasmine. She was so entertaining, and I just loved her personality. She was just so hard to pick up, because she was really fast, running around. The texture of her fur was kind of rough near the front, and near the back, pretty soft. She had hair growing both ways. In the front, it grew towards her head, and in the near back, it grew backwards. She had really long hair that would need to be brushed daily, and cut sometimes.
I got to play with another, smaller guinea pig named Minnie, next. We had Jasmine and Minnie in the same pen. I thought that they would be the perfect pair, but then they got aggressive a couple of times. I was really dissapointed about that. I couldn't take both Jasmine and Minnie and home. So I chose another guinea pig to play with; his name was Sherlock. All three of them were in the cage together. Minnie and Sherlock seemed to make really good pair, although I really, really wanted to take Jasmine home. It just couldn't work out that way, and my sister Adora really wanted me to adopt Sherlock. I really wanted to adopt Minnie. I really, really wanted to adopt Jasmine, too, but there was no choice except to adopt Minnie and Sherlock. Minnie and Sherlock really liked eachother, so I thought that would be the best choice for them. Now I know that I was right. Minnie and Sherlock lead very happy lives together today.

Mirror Images: Opposite paragraphs

I'm really irritated when I mess up practicing piano. The slightest mistake will make me awfully frustrated and I'll get really angry. I hate hearing noise other than the piano when I'm practicing. I'm quite sensitive to noise when I'm playing the piano. Sometimes my Dad will whistle or snap his fingers when I'm playing piano and I'll get really mad. Usually, when I'm practicing, the outside noises are pretty quiet, but sometimes a door slams and really surprises me. It's funny when that happens, because all of a sudden there's this humongous noise that shocks my ear-drums. I usually stop playing for a few seconds because I'm so surprised.
When I get frustrated at something, I bang on the keys quite loudly.

Each time I make a mistake playing the piano, I learn something from the mistake I made. Every time I mess up, practicing the piano, I can pinpoint the places I need to learn better. Making mistakes is a learning experience for me. I like hearing loud noises when I'm playing the piano, because it makes me less prone to distraction when I'm playing at a concert or recital. It also builds up my tolerance of loud noises. Every time a door slams, I am less prone to distraction than I was a minute ago. So when I'm playing at recitals and concerts, I can focus on the music instead of the noises from the audience.