Honors Vocabulary- Week 3

For this week's honors vocabulary, we are supposed to define the words and then write them in a sentence; 5 of the words must be described with "photo vocabulary".

1) subtle - something mysterious, subdued, indistinct: Her smile was subtle, he couldn't say he had seen it for certain.

2) vehement- passionate, vigorous, emotional: She vehemently exclaimed she hadn't stolen the watch, her intense emotion led the security guard to release her.

3) adverse- to hamper success or contrast one's desires, unfavorable: The adverse winds forced them to take a different course, the sails were pushing the boat in the wrong direction.

4) averse- to feel strongly against or opposed to something: She was averse to her sister's pleas to take her to the mall, she felt disinclined to leave the comfort of her warm bed.

5) alleged- to be declared/claimed of doing something something, it is supposed: The alleged murderer confirmed the judge's suspicions by accidentally revealing unknown information about the victim's death.

6) aggravate- to worsen, to annoy or irritate: The neighbor became increasingly aggravated by the screaming children in the pool next door, the next day she told their mother how annoying they had been.

7) discreet- careful, showing prudence: The robber tried to be discreet as he broke into the house; he wasn't very successful as the homeowners noticed the disturbance immediately and phoned the police.

8) factoid- a trivial or insignificant fact: The essay was just a long list of factoids; the teacher told the student to try to focus on the main idea and use relevant information.

Photo Vocabulary:

1) blatant- obvious, undisguised, shameless. The word blatant comes from the word babble, to talk foolishly. This picture shows a collar of a man with a bright red lipstick mark on it. It is the typical, blatant sign suggesting that a man is cheating on his wife (if the lipstick mark is not from her). The mark stands out, almost proud in its betrayal.

2) zealous- devoted, eager. When someone is zealous, they are fanatical and passionate about what they do; it can be characterized as an obsessive trait. This picture shows Michael Scott from the popular show The Office. Michael is the manager of the Dunder Mifflin paper company, and is known by the show's viewers to be zealous and eager about everything he does, and tries enthusiastically to excite office life for his employees.



3) flout- to refuse to obey. To flout something is to treat it with scorn or disdain, to blatantly ignore. A common use of the word is "to flout the rules", that is, to break or go against. In this picture, a man is flouting the no-smoking rule. You can see that he shows disrespect and contempt for the rule by lighting up.



4) forte- talent or strength. This word originates from Italian, forte meaning strong. A forte is the strong point at which someone excels. This photo depicts the professional soccer player Francesco Totti. He is the captain of the team and is considered world famous. He treats the ball delicately, his particular forte in soccer is hitting the ball with his heel in strange, awkard positions.



5) disinterested- not interested. This word means exactly what you think it means. To not be influenced or attracted by anything, to be impartial or neutral. The photo I selected is one of a boy on a train. He presents the stereotypical teenager: disinterested in everything but his own affairs. By listening to his ipod, and looking away from the photographer, he suggests he is off in his own world, not caring about the rest.

Civic Duty

For this assignment we were given a reading about "the meaning of citizenship" and asked to answer the following question: What is civic duty and why is it important?

The reading presented an interesting idea of "New Citizenship." It advocates for people to take their citizenship seriously, to work towards actively helping the country and governmental system. It suggests that people are depending too much on the government and aren't taking adequate responsibilities to actually contribute. People are complaining rather than helping to alleviate the work of politicians, who can't possibly be expected to address everything and make so many improvements on their own.

Civic duty is learning to work together to solve problems and understand each other in our differences; to cultivate our different backgrounds as the driving power to restore the true sense of democracy. Citizens must collaborate to "adapt our natural institutions to the new realities we face" and unite against our nation's problems. Civic duty encourages us return to our American pride and national bond.

Honors Vocabulary- Week 2

For this week we only had to choose five words and do "photo vocabulary entries," where we describe a picture depicting the word and expand with our thoughts about it.

1) incognito: The meaning of incognito is to hide one's true identity. Sometimes this means creating a fake name or image to deter people from discovering it. This photo shows the "big nose and heavy eyebrows" glasses that represent the typical disguise. By wearing these, one is "incognito." For example, batman must go incognito in public, and become is "normal" self, so people can't discover his real identity as a superhero. On the other hand, you could say batman is the incognito character, hiding Bob Kane's true face from harm as he fights crime.

2) empathy: The word empathy means in simple terms: "to understand and share the feelings" of others. This word goes hand in hand with sympathy (to feel pity) and apathy (not to feel) for other people. They are derived from the Greek word "pathos" to feel, suffer, pity, praise (or whatever has happened). This picture shows a pregnant woman next to a man in a pregnant suit. This indicates that he is trying to empathize with the woman, to try to feel and understand her burden of carrying a child (even though the woman is actually wearing a suit as well).

3) deduct: The word deduct means to deduct or take away from, to solve. A common form of the word you may have heard is deductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning is a from of critical thinking or scientific thinking used to reason from a general topic to a specific one, to take away from the broad discourse to reach a more precise idea. This picture shows an abacus, which is a kind of counting frame used to make mathematical calculations and deductions, originating in 2700 B.C.E. in Asia.

4) precipitous: The meaning of precipitous is "dangerously high or steep." There is an actual mountain range called The Precipitous Mountains, which are especially steep and found in Canada. This picture is a warning sign informing hikers of the danger of the mountains they are hiking and of the harmful consequence that awaits them if they get too close to the edge. Precipitous can also mean sudden or quick, as in the phrase: The constant hunting of the villagers led to a precipitous decline of moose.

5) plagiarize: Plagiarism is the act of taking someone's work or ideas and displaying them as one's own. Plagiarism is a constant problem at schools, and is always addressed at the beginning of the year to discourage kids from "cutting and pasting" as the photo shows. It used to be looked down upon and punished, but is now actually considered a federal crime! Students can earn an immediate expulsion hearing with only one offense. With so many people in the world, it is important to distinguish our ideas from one another and make them original.