English Lesson 21

English 5
Lesson 21

SPELLING AND VOCABULARY
Spelling

There are no spelling words this week.

Vocabulary: More on Understanding Words in Context

Last week you learned about how to identify words you don't know from the clues provided by surrounding words. This week you will be practicing this skill some more, but with a twist: we will ask you to demonstrate your knowledge of a word by definition, restatement, and example.
Definition means to define the word directly in the context of the sentence.

Restatement means to restate the meaning of the sentence in another way. You might say, "In other words..." and then restate the sentence using different words.
Example means to reveal what the new word means by giving concrete examples.
Don't worry, this exercise is pretty easy to do. Let's take one of the sentences that you learned last week:
Jodie breathed hard from all the exertion, but she managed to carry the heavy box up the stairs.
You may remember that exertion means hard work, effort, or struggle. With this understanding in mind, you can accomplish the exercise like this:
Definition. Substitute your definition for the original word in the sentence, and see if the sentence still makes sense. Jodie breathed hard from all the hard work, but she managed to carry the heavy box up the stairs. Does this make sense?
Yes, it does.

Restatement. Say it in another way: In other words, Jodie really had to make a physical effort to get the box upstairs, that's why she was out of breath. Notice this is saying the same thing as the original sentence, but in a different way.

Example. Give an example that helps to reveal the meaning of the word. For example, riding a bicycle uphill would also be an exertion that would make Jodie breathe hard and sweat. The example shows the original word being used correctly in a different sentence. Notice the contextual clues added to this sentence: breathe hard and sweat. This shows your teacher that you understand the connection between the original word and the logical consequences or conditions of that word — in this case, that exertion takes a lot of energy.

Let's consider a second example, again from a sentence you learned last week, and run it through the same definition-restatement-example routine:
Because Felipe's grouchy mood incited an argument with his sister, their mother had to separate them.

Remember from last week that incited means caused.

Definition. Substitute your definition for the original word in the sentence, and see if the sentence still makes sense. Because Felipe's grouchy mood caused an argument with his sister, their mother had to separate them. Make sense?
Sure it does.

Restatement. Say it in another way: Felipe had a chip on his shoulder so he went and started an argument with his sister, and their mom broke it up. Same basic meaning, different words.
Example. Give an example that helps to reveal the meaning of the word. All the yelling and screaming also incited the dog to bark. Yes, this is a correct usage of the word.

Assignment
1. Now, it's your turn to apply the definition-restatement-example routine to the following sentences. First, determine the most likely meaning of the underlined word based on the context - the clues you find in the other words and descriptions in the sentence. Give your reasoning for choosing that meaning. Then follow the recipe given above to create the three sentences for definition, restatement, and example.

The new boy scout tried to emulate the older boy's skillful manipulation of the rope, but try as he might, he could not tie the strange knot. RUN ON ALERT!

The new boy scout tried to copy the older boy’s skillful manipulation of the rope, but try as he might, he could not tie the strange knot.

The new boy scout could not tie the knot that the older boy had.

“That was good dog emulation!” commented Derrick.

For the third day in a row, the summer camp instructor told us to memorize the dialogue to our play; since I already knew my lines after the first day, I thought I would die of ennui if I was made to spend one more minute on the thankless task.

I COMPREHEND THIS, OKAY? IS IT ALL RIGHT IF I JUST COMPREHEND AND BE DONE?! I DON’T WRITE THREE SENTENCES EVERY TIME I FIND A WORD I DON’T KNOW! Because if I did, I would’ve written 600 sentences by now.

Mr. Sheldon's absentmindedness is only one of his foibles, but his strange ways and little failings don't really bother me.

English 5
Lesson 21

GRAMMAR
Punctuation Rules

A period should always follow an abbreviation.
Examples: Mr., Mrs., Dr.
Separate the day from the year by a comma when writing dates.
Example: March 24, 2002
Use commas to separate the words or groups of words used in a series.
Example: apples, pears, bananas, etc.
Separate the name of the person spoken to from the rest of the sentence by a comma or commas.
Example: John, are you going to school today?
Separate yes or no with a comma when it is used as part of an answer.
Example: No, I am not going to school today.
Use a comma after the greeting of a friendly letter.
Example: Dear Gwen,
Use a comma after the closing of a letter.
Example: Yours truly,
Use a colon after the greeting of a business letter.
Example: Dear Sir:
Underline (or italicize) the title of a book, magazine, or play when it is used in a sentence.
Examples: I love the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.Have you read the Chronicles of Narnia?
Use quotation marks to enclose the title of a song, a poem, a movie or a story if the title is used in a sentence.
Example: We learned to sing “America the Beautiful.”
Use quotation marks around any part of the sentence that is a direct quote. (See Lesson 4 for a review of dialogue punctuation.)
Example: Jennifer said, “I am so happy!”
Assignment
1. Write eleven sentences in which you use each of the above punctuation rules.

Prof. Douglas is a genetics scientist that works for GeneCorp.

He discovered the secret for finding Intelligent Aliens in April 28th, 2018.

He has made even more major discoveries in 2025, like the time machine, reversible death, and a man-made neurotoxin.

One day, Prof. Douglas was greeted by an urgent message in an E-mail by his boss. “Remus, there has been a mistake, you have told the aliens where to find us! They’re , oh no, landing! They’re coming in to the office… AHHHH!”

Remus R. Douglas knew, he knew that his boss was in trouble.

So, he typed shakily, ‘Dear Lupin,
I do not know if you are still alive, but if you are, I have recently made an artificial neurotoxin that destroys everything smaller than Pluto. Hopefully this will work on creatures from another solar system.
Yours truly,
Remus Douglas’

He needed it back from the lab, so he wrote: ‘Dear Sir, or Ma’am:
I need the results and sample of the neurotoxin back. It is an emergency. Please.
Cordially,
Professor R. R. Douglas’

He read The Natural Selection Phenomenon, and watched “Alien 3.”

Once the movie was done, he went for a snack. When he reached the kitchen, he saw… a purple alien!? There was a flash of green light. “AAAAAH! NOOO!”

Plural Possessive Noun Practice
2. Write the possessive form of these singular nouns.
Chris' cat is orange.
The dog's bone is tasty.
His car's fender is bent.
Where is it's owner?

3. Write the possessive form of these plural nouns.
a. The children's shoes are too small.
b. The girls' mother will pick them up soon.
c. Most white mice's tails are pink.
d. The men's suits were black.

Practice with Helping Verbs

4. Recall that in Lesson 10 you learned about helping verbs: has, have, had, is, am, are, was, and were. These words are used with the past participle verb tense and the -ing verb form (again, see Lesson 10 for review). Use each of these words in a sentence with either the past participle or -ing verb form.

I have reviewed this enough times. It is fixed in my memory. Can I stop reviewing the easy things and start reviewing the hard things?!


English 5
Lesson 21

LITERATURE

Creating Drama

Let's review some of the basic elements of drama.

True drama is played by live actors in front of a live audience, giving drama a living, real, and dynamic impact. (Movies and TV dramas are similar, but not usually "live.")
In drama, the plot develops through action and dialogue, not through the perspective of an all-knowing narrator (except in rare cases where the drama includes a narrator).

Dialogue includes an actor's tone of voice.
Action includes an actor's gestures and facial expressions.
Drama includes spectacle — what we see and hear — which involves the actors and action of course, but for our purposes, we will limit the definition of spectacle to:
the set — the overall layout of the stage for the play or any individual scene
the scenery — individual portions of the set that show things such as buildings, trees, the interior of a house
lighting — may include lighting from the front or back of the characters
costumes
makeup
props — including furnishings (such as tables or chairs), large or small items on the set or those handled by actors (such as a broom, a brush, a glass, a gun)
music
sound effects

Now, we're going to look at how to turn a story into a play. It's actually very easy to do. Basically, to turn a story into a play, you will assign scene description (anything that cannot be acted out or spoken by characters) to a narrator, and block out the dialogue by character as you have already seen. We will start with a folktale.
"The Pot of Gold and Silver" from Oak Meadow Folktales offers a good example for this exercise. First, take a look at the original passage:


The Pot of Gold and Silver (excerpt) Adapted from an old tale


Once upon a time an old man and his wife lived together in a little village. When they were young they were very happy together, and they might still have been happy in old age if only the old man had the sense to hold his tongue at certain times. But truth to tell, he was a gossip. Any bit of news he might hear from his wife or her neighbor, or anything that happened within their home or without, he had to tell immediately to the whole village. Of course his tales were told again and again, by one person to another, and soon they were changed completely. And by the time the old wife heard the news again after going the rounds of the village, who could even guess at what the real story had been?

One day, the old woman drove her cart to the forest to gather kindling for the fire. When she reached the edge of the woods she got out of the cart and walked beside it. Suddenly she stepped on such a soft spot that her foot sank in the earth.
“What can this be?” she wondered. “Let me dig a little and see what is here.” So she dug and dug, and before long she dug up a little pot full of gold and silver.
“Oh, what luck!” she cried, “Now, if only I knew how I could take this treasure home with me and keep it safe. But I’d never be able to hide it from my husband, and if he knows about it he’ll tell all the rest of the world. Then I shall get into trouble for sure.” The old woman sat down to think the situation over. She sat for a long time, and at last she figured out a plan.
She covered up the pot again with earth and twigs and leaves, making the area look untouched, and drove back into the town. There she bought a fish and a hare at the market. The fish wiggled about in its pot of water as the cart bounced around during the drive back to the forest, and the hare stretched its long back legs against the net bag.

When she arrived in the forest near the spot where she had found the pot full of treasure, the wife hung the fish up at the very top of a tree. She tied the hare into a fishing net and fastened it at the edge of a little stream that flowed nearby.
Then she got into her cart and trotted merrily home. “Husband!” cried she, the moment she got indoors. “You can’t think what a piece of good luck has come our way!”
“What, what, dear wife? Do tell me all about it at once.”
“No, no, you’ll just go off and tell everyone. I will keep it a secret,” said the wife.
“No, indeed you will not!” cried the husband, “How can you think such things! For shame! If you like I will swear never to...”

“Oh, well! If you are really in earnest then, listen.” And she whispered in his ear, “I’ve found a pot full of gold and silver in the forest! Hush now, and don’t tell a soul.”
The husband’s eyes grew large and he asked in great excitement, “And why didn’t you bring it back?”



In order to turn the above passage into a play that can be performed by actors, we have rewritten some of the paragraphs. Let's take a look:

Narrator: Once upon a time, an old man and his wife lived together in a little village. When they were young they were very happy together, and they might still have been happy in old age if only the old man had sense to hold his tongue at certain times. But truth to tell, he was a gossip. Any bit of news he might hear from his wife or her neighbor, or anything that happened within their home or without, he had to tell immediately to the whole village. Of course his tales were told again and again, by one person to another, and soon, they were changed completely. And by the time the old wife heard the news again after going the rounds of the village, who could even guess what the real story had been?

One day, the old woman drove her cart to the forest to gather kindling for the fire. When she reached the edge of the woods, she got out of the cart and walked beside it. Suddenly she stepped on such a soft spot that her foot sank in the earth.
(The woman does as the narrator suggests.)

Woman: What can this be? Let me dig and see what is here. (She digs for a while and then digs up a pot full of silver and gold.) Oh what good luck! (She gives a short cheer at her good luck.) But I'd never be able to hide it from my husband, and if he knows about it, he'll tell all the rest of the world. Then I shall get into trouble for sure.
(She sits down to think. Finally, she hides the pot with earth, twigs and leaves).

Narrator: After she makes the area look untouched, she drives into town where she buys a fish and a hare at the market. She put these in the back of her cart and drove back into the forest. When she reached the spot where she hid the treasure, she hung the fish at the top of a tree, then she tied the hare into a fishing net and fastened it at the edge of a little stream that flowed nearby. Then, she got in her cart and headed home to find her husband.

Woman: Husband! (She sounds excited.) You can't think what a piece of good luck has come our way!
Man: What, dear wife? Do tell all about it at once.
Woman: No, no, you'll just go off and tell everyone. I will keep it a secret.
Man: No, indeed you will not. (he's getting agitated) How can you think such things! For shame! If you like, I will swear never to..."
Woman: Oh well! If you are really in earnest, then listen. (She whispers in his ear.) I've found a pot full of gold and silver in the forest! Hush now, and don't tell a soul.
Man: (His eyes grow large as he gets flustered.) And why didn't you bring it back?

Take a few minutes now to compare the portion of original story with the drama that we created from it. Notice that the dialogue in the play is very closely related to what you find in the folktale. Where the narrator in the story describes the story background and physical scenery, we give those lines to a stage narrator. Where the narrator tells us what the characters do, we assign those actions to the character, in parentheses. That's because a live actor will do the action (often, but not always, while speaking lines of dialogue), and therefore a narrator will not be necessary. The remainder of the play is composed of character dialogue.
You will notice only slight changes to that the story, mostly in order to show the action that is taking place.

Let's look at another story. Below are a few lines from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," transformed from story to theatrical form:

(The children are sitting in a garden with a box of roses nearby. Birdsong is heard in the distance.)
Narrator: Kay and Greta were looking at a picture book of birds and animals one day. It had just struck five by the church clock. (5 chimes are heard)
Kay: Oh! Something struck my heart (He puts his hand to his heart) and I have got something in my eye. (He rubs his eye, as Greta puts her arms around him to comfort him. He blinks his eyes.) I believe it is gone.

Narrator: But it was not gone. It was one of those very grains of glass from the mirror, the magic mirror. You remember that horrid mirror in which all good and great things reflected in it became small and mean, while the bad things were magnified and every flaw became very apparent. Poor Kay! A grain of it had gone straight to his heart and would soon turn it to a lump of ice. He did not feel it any more, but it was still there.

Kay: (turns to Greta) Why do you cry? It makes you look ugly. There's nothing the matter with me. How horrid! (He cries out as he looks at roses in a nearby box.) There's a worm in that rose, and that one is quite crooked. After all, they are nasty roses and so are the boxes they are growing in. (He kicks the box and breaks off two of the roses.)
Greta: (crying as she looks at Kay not understanding what has happened) What are you doing, Kay? (Kay breaks off another rose and runs off.)

Even in the short passage above, an audience might hear birds in the garden and definite changes in the sound of the children's voices. They would see the garden, and a change come over Kay. The audience might feel a bit unsettled after seeing this - not knowing what is happening or why (of course, these doubts will be cleared up as the story resolves).

When writing your theatrical adaptation of a story, be sure to include some of these elements of spectacle, character gestures and tone of voice, and use of props (such as the box in the above scene).

Now, we're going to revisit a story that we've read before. "The Simple Heart of Wali Dâd" has been retold by Aaron Shepard as "The Gifts of Wali Dâd." This time, the story is in dramatic (play) form. Go now to this web page: http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/RTE07.html and read the play.

After you read the play, return to Lesson 5 and re-read the Oak Meadow folktale, and notice how they are alike and how they are different. Then return to this lesson.

As you read the play, keep in mind the three basic elements of drama: 1) it is made for live actors to play in front of a live audience — in other words, it is a living experience; 2) The plot moves forward primarily through dialogue (including narration and tone of voice) and action (including a character's gestures and facial expressions); and 3) spectacle (features of the set, scenery, props, constumes, lighting, music, and sound). In very simple plays like the one you just read, there is no description of the set at all, except for what the narrator tells us (for example, in the beginning of the play we hear some general descriptions, including a mud hut far from town, tall grass, and the marketplace.

Obviously, if you were going to actually produce this play, you would probably want to create a set to match the nature of the story and the culture from which it came (in this case, India and Pakistan). You might create a small mud hut, and your scenery might include tall grass. If you were writing this play for someone else to produce, you might want to include instructions for creating the set and perhaps even the costumes, and any music or sound effects. Or you might want to leave those details up to the designers!


Adding Details for Actors and Set Designers

Because a play is a live action production, there is a lot more to it than just the spoken words. Actors must move on the stage, making gestures and using facial expressions and tones of voice that match their words.
If we were to visualize a scene from this play the way we see it happening in our minds, and add instructions for the actors and set designers, it might look something like this (new material added is in blue):

NARRATOR 4: Wali Dâd wandered through countless rooms, gaping at riches beyond his imagining. (Wali Dâd looks up and down walls at the beautiful tapestries, on tables covered with gold vases and candleholders and other assorted treasures. He is in awe, disbelieving, and a little afraid. His eyes keep shifting, his eyebrows raise in surprise, and he often brings his hand to his mouth in surprise, gasping.)
NARRATOR 2: Suddenly, three servants ran up. (Three servants run quickly into the room where Wali Dâd is standing, one behind the other. The first servant stops all of a sudden and the two behind run into him and they all almost fall over).
SERVANT 1: (announcing with excitement, pointing in the easterly direction) A caravan from the east!
SERVANT 2: (stepping in front of the first servant, pointing in the opposite direction) No, a caravan from the west!
SERVANT 3: (Stepping in front of the other servants, pointing in both directions) No, caravans from both east and west!
NARRATOR 3: (Wali Dâd looks from one servant to the next, with wide, startled eyes, then quickly runs) The bewildered Wali Dâd rushed outside to see two caravans halt before the palace. Coming from the east was a queen in a jeweled litter. Coming from the west was a king on a fine horse.
NARRATOR 1: Wali Dâd hurried to the queen. (Wali Dad runs to the queen and bows low on one knee, head down)
QUEEN: (she steps down from her carriage and lifts Wali Dâd to his feet) My dear Wali Dâd, we meet at last. (looks at king and leans towards Wali Dâd and whispers to him) But who is that magnificent king?
WALI DAD: (stuttering a little bit) I believe it is the king of Nekabad, Your Majesty. Please excuse me for a moment.
NARRATOR 4: He rushed over to the king. (Wali Dâd bows on one knee before the king, who comes down from his horse and lifts him up)
KING: (shaking Wali Dâd's hand and slapping him on the back) My dear Wali Dâd, I had to meet the giver of such fine gifts. (looks at queen, leans towards Wali Dâd, and whispers) But who is that splendid queen?
WALI DAD: (beginning to walk toward queen holding king's arm, smiling broadly) The queen of Khaistan, Your Majesty. Please come and meet her. (The King and Queen approach each other shyly, shake hands, smile and flirt with each other.)
NARRATOR 2: And so the king of Nekabad met the queen of Khaistan, and the two fell instantly in love.

Assignment
1. What directions for facial expressions or body gestures might you add to a play for each of the following lines?

Alessandra was bored. Mabye staring out of a rainy window, eyelids drooping, scowling.
Chandra was excited. Jumping up and down, smiling crazily.
David was angry. Narrowed eyes, clenched fists.
Diana was hesitant. Grimacing, staring a bit to the left.
Carolina was shy. Hiding behind a wall.

2. Choose one of the following assignments.
a. Watch a movie or television drama, then complete one of the following:
-Write a report to show how spectacle (set, scenery, props, constumes, lighting, music, sound effects) was used in at least 2 different scenes, and what that did to your experience of watching the show.
-Describe how the dialogue and music at the end of the movie was used to bring about the conclusion of the story.
I'll do a
b. Select a story from a favorite book of fairy tales that appeals to you and begin to write your own dramatic version of it. (In the time allowed, you may not finish the story. That's okay. Go as far as you can.) As you write, keep in mind the importance of the dialogue (including tone of voice), action (including gestures and facial expressions), and spectacle. When you come to spectacle, you will need to be clear and mention how these elements can be brought into the story. You can write what the characters might look like, what objects they may be carrying, and what the set (or background) might look like.