Monday, January 31, 2011

logic puzzles

So you like logic?  Try these:

The Puzzle of the Hyena's Alias

The Agency for Counter-Terrorism (ACT) has received information that a European terrorist known as "the Hyena" has entered the United States under an assumed name. Unfortunately, ACT has also received conflicting reports of the Hyena's alias, making it hard to track him down, especially since each of the names is a common one. Four informants were questioned and gave the following information about the alias:
  1. John Wilson
  2. James Moore
  3. Denied that the first name was "John". Last name: "Taylor".
  4. Stated that the previous three informants were each right about one name and wrong about the other.
According to the ACT, the fourth informant is the most reliable. Assuming that the fourth informant is correct, what is the Hyena's alias?

The Puzzle of the Masked Men

During a bank robbery, one of the masked robbers shot a bank guard. The police caught all four robbers and interrogated them in an attempt to determine which was the shooter. Each was questioned while attached to a lie detector machine and testified as follows:
  • Alfie: I'm innocent.
  • Benjy: Charlie is guilty.
  • Charlie: Either Alfie or Benjy was the shooter, I'm not sure which.
  • Denny: Benjy didn't tell the truth when he said that Charlie did it.
According to the lie detector operator, either all but one of the robbers lied or all but one told the truth―he couldn't tell which―and this was confirmed by subsequent evidence. The police are confused and come to you as a logician for help. Can you determine who shot the bank guard?

The Puzzle of the Dead Presidents

After your first success in helping the police crack a bank robbery (see the Resource below), they turn to you for help with another case: A gang of five men wearing masks of five former presidents have committed a series of armored car robberies.
During one of the crimes, the driver of the armored car was shot and killed by a robber. There are no witnesses to the shooting other than the five criminals involved. The gang was caught while still wearing their masks and have refused to reveal their identities, so the police know them only by the name of the president each impersonated. The police determine that each member of the gang had a specific job: the mastermind, the lookout, the wheelman, the safecracker, and the triggerman. Unfortunately, the police aren't able to figure out which role each "president" played. The police are especially interested in who killed the armored car driver, namely, the triggerman.
The members of the gang were questioned individually while attached to a lie detector, and each criminal made only two statements. Assuming that the lie detector is accurate, each criminal made one true statement and one false statement, but the operator of the detector couldn't tell which was which. As usual, the police are baffled.
  • Kennedy:
    1. Johnson is the mastermind.
    2. Neither Reagan nor Johnson is the lookout.
  • Johnson:
    1. If Nixon is not the safecracker, then I am.
    2. Ford is not the wheelman.
  • Nixon:
    1. I am not the lookout.
    2. Kennedy is not the mastermind.
  • Ford:
    1. If Johnson is the wheelman, then Nixon is the lookout.
    2. Kennedy's second statement is false.
  • Reagan:
    1. Nixon's first statement is true.
    2. Ford's first statement is false.
Can you determine who the triggerman was?

I will post answers next week. Feel free to post your solutions in the comments.

Declarations

 Declaration of Independence.  When you go to this site, feel free to play around, learn some things about one of the most important documents in our nation's history, and then click on "read transcript" in order to get a legible version to work from.  If for some reason, the link I've provided does not work, you must still do the assignment. this is a popular enough text, that you should be able to find it without trouble.

The Declaration of Sentiments,
Seneca Falls Conference, 1848


Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, two American activists in the movement to abolish slavery called together the first conference to address Women's rights and issues in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Part of the reason for doing so had been that Mott had been refused permission to speak at the world anti-slavery convention in London, even though she had been an official delegate. Applying the analysis of human freedom developed in the Abolitionist movement, Stanton and others began the public career of modern feminist analysis
The Declaration of the Seneca Falls Convention, using the model of the US Declaration of Independence, forthrightly demanded that the rights of women as right-bearing individuals be acknowledged and respectd by society. It was signed by sixty-eight women and thirty-two men.


The Declaration of Sentiments

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer. while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled. The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyrranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.
He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.
He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men--both natives and foreigners.
Having deprived her of this first right of a citizedn, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.
He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.
He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.
He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master--the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement.
He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardles of the happiness of women--the law, in all cases, going upon a flase supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands.
After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it.
He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction which he considers most homorable to himself. As a teacher of theoloy, medicine, or law, she is not known.
He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her.
He allows her in church, as well as state, but a suborinate position, claiming apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and, with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the church.
He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated, but deemed of little account in man.
He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and to her God.
He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her conficence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.
Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation--in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Self-Reliance (1841) excerpt


Emerson is the seminal intellectual, philosophical voice of the nineteenth century in America. Although readers today may find his thought slightly facile, even unrealistic--times do change--his influence among his contemporaries and those who followed immediately after him was enormous. Emerson was the spokesman for the American Transcendentalists, a group of New England romantic writers, which included Thoreau, who believed that intuition was the means to truth, that god is revealed through intuition to each individual. They celebrated the independent individual and strongly supported democracy. The essay "Self-Reliance," from which an excerpt is presented here, is the clearest, most memorable example of Emerson's philosophy of individualism, an idea that is deeply embedded in American culture. His variety of individualism grows of the self's intuitive connection with the Over-Soul and is not simply a matter of self-centered assertion or immature narcissism

Consider what Emerson says about the importance of non-conformity and independent beliefs and contrast this with the prevailing attitude in contemporary America.


"Ne te quasiveris extra."

"Man is his own star; and the soul that can

Render an honest and a perfect man
Commands all light, all influence, all fate;
Nothing to him falls early or too late.
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still."
--Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher's Honest Man's Fortune

Cast the bantling on the rocks,

Suckle him with the she-wolf's teat,
Wintered with the hawk and fox,
Power and speed be hands and feet.

I read the other day some verses written by an eminent painter which were original and not conventional. The soul always hears an admonition in such lines, let the subject be what it may. The sentiment they instil is of more value than any thought they may contain. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,--that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost,--and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato, and Milton is that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men, but what they thought. A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for US than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole Cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.


There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without preƩstablishcd harmony. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give hint no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for your the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark. (Chaos and the Dark is a reference to Milton's Paradise Lost.  Feel free to look it up online.  Post your discoveries as comments.)
....
These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not he hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it he goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
....
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. 

If you recall which author we've studied was friends with Emerson, please post in comments. What was the nature of their relationship?  Is there anything interesting we should know about Emerson?  If so, post in comments.

Ben Franklin

from The Autobiography
Benjamin Franklin
I have been the more particular in this description of my journey, and shall be so of my first entry into that city, that you may in your mind compare such unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since made there. I was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come round by sea. I was dirty from my journey; my pockets were stuffed out with shirts and stockings, and I knew no soul nor where to look for lodging. I was fatigued with traveling, rowing, and want of rest, I was very hungry; and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar, and about a shilling in copper. The latter I gave the people of the boat for my passage, who at first refused it, on account of my rowing; but I insisted on their taking it. A man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.
Then I walked up the street, gazing about till near the market house I met a boy with bread. I had made many a meal on bread, and, inquiring where he got it, I went immediately to the baker’s he directed me to, in Second Street, and asked for biscuit, intending such as we had in Boston; but they, it seems, were not made in Philadelphia. Then I asked for a three-penny loaf, and was told they had none such. So not considering or knowing the difference of money, and the greater cheapness nor the names of his bread, I bade him give me three-penny worth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly, three great puffy rolls. I was surprised at the quantity, but took it, and, having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm, and eating the other. Thus I went up Market Street as far as Fourth Street, passing by the door of Mr. Read, my future wife’s father; when she, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance. Then I turned and went down Chestnut Street and part of Walnut Street, eating my roll all the way, and, coming round, found myself again at Market Street wharf, near the boat I came in, to which I went for a draft of the river water; and, being filled with one of my rolls, gave the other two to a woman and her child that came down the river in the boat with us, and were waiting to go farther.
Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which by this time had many clean-dressed people in it, who were all walking the same way. I joined them, and thereby was led into the great meetinghouse of the Quakers near the market. I sat down among them, and, after looking round awhile and hearing nothing said, being very drowsy through labor and want of rest the preceding night, I fell fast asleep, and continued so till the meeting broke up, when one was kind enough to rouse me. This was, therefore, the first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia. . . .

Arriving at Moral Perfection
It was about this time I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employed in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method.
In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with in my reading, I found the catalog more or less numerous, as different writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating and drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion, bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition. I proposed to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annexed to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurred to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully expressed the extent I gave to its meaning.
These names of virtues, with their precepts, were:
1. Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. Industry. Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
11. Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judged it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should have gone through the thirteen; and, as the previous acquisition of some might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I arranged them with that view, as they stand above. Temperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so necessary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, and guard maintained against the unremitting attraction of ancient habits, and the force of perpetual temptations. This being acquired and established, silence would be more easy; and my desire being to gain knowledge at the same time that I improved in virtue, and considering that in conversation it was obtained rather by the use of the ears than of the tongue, and therefore wishing to break a habit I was getting into of prattling, punning, and joking, which only made me acceptable to trifling company, I gave silence the second place. This and the next, order, I expected would allow me more time for attending to my project and my studies. Resolution, once become habitual, would keep me firm in my endeavors to obtain all the subsequent virtues; frugality and industry freeing me from my remaining debt, and producing affluence and independence, would make more easy the practice of sincerity and justice, etc., etc. Conceiving then, that, agreeably to the advice of Pythagoras in his Golden Verses, daily examination would be necessary, I contrived the following method for conducting that examination.
I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day.
I determined to give a week’s strict attention to each of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every the least offense against temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I supposed the habit of that virtue so much strengthened, and its opposite weakened, that I might venture extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could go through a course complete in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year. And like him who, having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time, and, having accomplished the first, proceeds to a second, so I should have, I hoped, the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages the progress I made in virtue, by clearing successively my lines of their spots, till in the end, by a number of courses, I should be happy in viewing a clean book, after a thirteen weeks’ daily examination. . . .

I encourage you to learn a bit about the man, as well.Ben Franklin Biography
Feel free to post anything interesting you learn about him in the comments... for example, what was his position on the national language?  How "moral" was his life? Besides flying a kite in a thunder storm, what makes him important? (ah... wouldn't it be cool to start the new semester with extra credit for extra blog participation)

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Are you serious? You already want to start thinking about second semester!?

Because people are already asking, your next SSR book will be a non-fiction (true), non-narrative (not a story) book.  Don't groan.  There are some really interesting books out there.  Here's how to find them:

Ms. Smith in the library has a list of ideas for you guys.

Talk to each other.  Post recommendations here.  If you've read anything good that fits the bill, let us know.  In the past books like "Reefer Madness", "Reviving Ophelia" and "Botany of Desire" have been popular.   

Earlier this year I posted some math and science related books.  If you're a "math and science person" you might look back at that list. It's in the archive from Sept 2010.

Talk to your teachers or the other adults in your life.  Ask what they're reading or what they would recommend, especially if you share their interests.  For example, AP US History student might read something that Ms. Gaimes recommends.  (You may not read a textbook for another class.) 

Follow your interests.  If you are an ambitious person, you might read "Outliers."   If you love forensic science, you might read "Diagnosis From the Dead."  If you enjoy politics, you might read a book by any number of political figures.  If you enjoy cross country, you might read about how to train for a marathon. 

Still stuck for ideas?  Check out the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list, but please note that some of these are narrative (biography or autobiography) and so would not work for the assignment.

Jon Stewart talks about Huck Finn

Check out a bit of satire about one of the greatest satires!

Friday, January 14, 2011

vocab for the final

FISRT SEMESTER H.A.L. VOCABULARY
Good/ Bad Words
Malefactor: culprit; evildoer
Beneficent: beneficial; characterized by performing acts of kindness or charity
Depraved: morally debased; wretched
Noxious: harmful to living things; injurious to health
Mercenary: motivated only by greed
Slothful: lazy
Altruistic: concerned unselfishly for others’ welfare
Magnanimous: generous, noble in spirit
Virulent: extremely infectious; irritating, harsh or hateful
Malevolent: ill-willed; causing evil or harm to others
Diabolical: fiendish; wicked
Demagogue: leader, rabble-rouser, usually appealing to emotion or prejudice
Reprobate: morally undisciplined person
Profligate: corrupt, wasteful, extravagant
Invidious: likely to provoke ill-will, offensive
Infamy: reputation for bad deeds
Boon: blessing, something to be thankful for
Amenity: the quality of being pleasant or attractive; agreeableness
Munificent: generous
Malignant: disposed to do evil; injurious
Nefarious: vicious, evil
Odious: hateful, contemptible
Indolent: habitually lazy, idle
Benign: of a kind and gentle disposition; favorable
Philanthropic: humanitarian; charitable

Friendly/Unfriendly Words
Provocative: tending to provoke a response, e.g., anger or disagreement
Compromise: to settle a dispute by terms agreeable to both sides
Mitigate: to soften or make milder
Collaborate: to cooperate, work together
Camaraderie: trust, sociability amongst friends
Calm: peaceful
Tactful: considerate, skillful in acting to avoid offense to others
Reclusive: preferring to live in isolation
Misanthropic: characterized by a hatred or scorn for humankind
Affable: friendly, easy to approach
Placid: undisturbed; calm quiet
Empathy: identification with the feelings of others
Winsome: charming, happily engaging
Querulous: complaining, irritable
Rancorous: bitter, hateful
Deleterious: harmful, destructive, detrimental
Convergence: the state of separate elements joining or coming together
Benevolent: friendly and helpful
Compassion: sympathy, helpfulness or mercy
Congregation: a crowd of people, an assembly
Suppress: to end an activity, e.g., to prevent the dissemination of information
Antagonist: foe, opponent, adversary
Incompatible: opposed in nature, not able to live or work together
Amicable: friendly, agreeable
Reconciliation: the act of agreement after a quarrel, the resolution of a dispute

True/ False Words
Exorbitant: extravagant, greater than reasonable
Prevaricate: to quibble, evade the truth
Probity: complete and confirmed integrity; uprightness, honesty
Rectitude: moral uprightness; honesty
Hypothesis: assumption, theory requiring proof
Candor: honesty, openness
Furtive: secret, stealthy
Hyperbolic: purposefully exaggerated language
Feign: to pretend, give false impression; to invent falsely
Fawn: to flatter excessively, seek the favor of
Vindicate: to clear from blame r suspicion
Covert: hidden, secret
Toady: flatter, yes-man, hanger on
Dupe: to deceive, trick
Enshroud: to cover, enclose with a dark cover
Sycophant: self-serving flatterer; yes-man
Beguile: to deceive, delude, cheat
Abscond: to depart secretly
Substantiate: to verify, confirm, provide supporting evidence
Surreptitious: secret, stealthy
Spurious: lacking authenticity, false
Illicit: illegal, improper
Mendacious: dishonest
Perfidious: faithless, disloyal, untrustworthy
Pretentious: pretending to be important intelligent or cultured

Respect/Disrespect Words
Defame: to slander, speak evil of, to libel
Disdain: to regard with scorn or contempt
Denounce: to accuse, blame
Deride: to mock, ridicule, make fun of
Supercilious: arrogant, haughty, overbearing, condescending
Lionize: to treat as celebrity
Castigate: to punish, chastise, criticize severely
Discredit: to harm the reputation of, dishonor or disgrace
Haughty: arrogant and condescending
Irreverent: disrespectful
Rebuke: to reprimand, scold
Depreciate: to lessen in value, belittle
Decry: to belittle, openly condemn
Denigrate: to slur someone’s reputation; attack one’s character
Condescending: possessing an attitude of superiority, patronizing
Revile: to criticize with harsh language, verbally abuse
Censure: to find fault with and condemn as wrong; blame
Sardonic: cynical, scornfully mocking
Adulation: high praise
Disparage: to belittle, speak disrespectfully about
Diatribe: bitter verbal attack
Absolve: to forgive. Free from blame
Venerable: respected because of age
Ignominious: disgraceful and dishonorable
Berate: to scold harshly

Words relating to literature and language
Aphorism- old saying or pity statement
Apocryphal-not genuine, fictional
Allusion-indirect reference
Banal-trite, overly common
Banter-playful conversation
Articulate-well spoken
Cogent-logically forceful, compelling, convincing
Coherent-intelligible, lucid, understandable
Colloquial-characteristic of informal speech
Construe-to explain or interpret
Dictum- authoritative statement, popular saying
Dissonant- harsh and unpleasant sounding
Elegy- mournful poem, usually about the dead
Equivocate-to intentionally use vague or ambiguous language
Importune-to beg, ask repeatedly
Implicit-implied, not directly expressed
Invective-verbal abuse
Lampoon- to attack with satire, mock harshly
Lexicon- dictionary, list of words
Cajole- to flatter, coax, persuade
Malapropism-humorous misuse of words
Opine- to express an opinion
Pastiche-piece of literature or music imitating or made up of other works
Platitude-stale, overused expression
Raconteur- witty, skillful storyteller

Economy+ Money
Avarice- greed
Benefactor-someone giving aid or money
Covet-to desire strongly something possessed by another
Cupidity-greed
Fallow-uncultivated, unused
Fecund-fertile, fruitful, productive
Gross-total before deductions
Husband-to manage thriftily
Impecunious- poor, having no money
Indigent- very poor
Scintilla- trace amounts
Dearth- lack, scarcity, insufficiency
Jaded- tired by excess, cynical
Paucity-scarcity, lack
Ponderous- weighty, heavy, large
Accretion- growth in size or amount
Lassitude-lethargy, sluggishness
Manual-hand operated, physical
Mendicant-beggar
Opulence- wealth
Ostentatious-showy
Palatial- magnificent, like a palace
Parsimony- stinginess
Quiescence-inactivity, silliness
Remuneration- payment or reward for work

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

New York Times invites student opinions on the new edition of Huck Finn

 

You can go to link to NY times or read the article here (if you follow the link, you can comment on the site) 

Should the Racial Epithets Be Removed From ‘Huck Finn’?

Student Opinion - The Learning NetworkStudent Opinion - The Learning Network
Questions about issues in the news for students 13 and older.
A new edition of “Huckleberry Finn” removes the 219 uses of the word “nigger” in the novel and replaces them with “slave.” The professor who proposed the idea said he did it because he was hesitant to pronounce the word when he was teaching the book, and because he wanted an edition “not for scholars, but for younger people and general readers.” What do you think about tinkering with a literary classic like this? Have you studied “Huck” in school? How did your teacher handle the language?

In “Publisher Tinkers With Twain,” Julie Bosman writes:
A new edition of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is missing something.
Throughout the book — 219 times in all — the word “nigger” is replaced by “slave,” a substitution that was made by NewSouth Books, a publisher based in Alabama, which plans to release the edition in February.
Alan Gribben, a professor of English at Auburn University at Montgomery, approached the publisher with the idea in July. Mr. Gribben said Tuesday that he had been teaching Mark Twain for decades and always hesitated before reading aloud the common racial epithet, which is used liberally in the book, a reflection of social attitudes in the mid-19th century.
“I found myself right out of graduate school at Berkeley not wanting to pronounce that word when I was teaching either ‘Huckleberry Finn’ or ‘Tom Sawyer,’ ” he said. “And I don’t think I’m alone.”
Mr. Gribben, who combined “Huckleberry Finn” with “Tom Sawyer” in a single volume and also supplied an introduction, said he worried that “Huckleberry Finn” had fallen off reading lists, and wanted to offer an edition that is not for scholars, but for younger people and general readers.
“I’m by no means sanitizing Mark Twain,” Mr. Gribben said. “The sharp social critiques are in there. The humor is intact. I just had the idea to get us away from obsessing about this one word, and just let the stories stand alone.” (The book also substitutes “Indian” for “injun.”)
Students: Tell us how you feel about removing this word from “Huckleberry Finn.” Do you agree with those who say it is “censorship” and that the words of a literary icon like Twain should not be altered, or do you think this new edition is a good idea? Do you find the word offensive in the context of “Huck Finn”? Do you agree or disagree with the English teacher in the article who said, “If it’s too offensive, it doesn’t belong in school, but if it expresses the way people felt about race or slavery in the context of their time, that’s something I’d talk about in teaching it.”
Is the use of this racial epithet in the classroom different from its use outside the classroom? How?

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

New Eddition of Huck Finn coming out 2/15/11

The New Edition of Huckleberry Finn will not use the N word.  Check out what people have to say about it! article about new Huck Finn