REVISED LIST OF VOCABULARY FOR HONORS EXAM 2010
1. Diligent 16. Reined 31. soughing
2. Adversity 17. Reprisal 32. obsequious
3. Obstinate 18. Purge 33. lineage
4. Frugal 19. Taut 34. nether
5. Prowess 20. Vile 35. wary
6. Surmised 21. Sluggishly 36. dispatch
7. Entreat 22. Averted 37. void
8. Dauntless 23. Roused 38. repented
9. Impedes 24. Chasm 39. forlorn
10. Rapt 25. supplicant
11. Plight 26. petulant
12. Verity 27. intimation
13. Temperate 28. ominous
14. Prate 29. obscure
15. Spawned 30. Irascible
There will be ONE set of matching and approximately 15 fill in the blank sentence completions.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
The Things They Carried short summaries
The Things They Carried
Brief Story Summaries
The Things They Carried
Men carried whatever they need for survival, both physical and emotional.
Jimmy: pictures of girl; Ted: extra ammo;
Most carried emotions on the inside. “It was sad…the things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do.”
Love
Jimmy tells Tim about Martha. He saw her again. They never got together. He still loves her.
Story is significant to show that soldiers needed something to hold on to. He may have loved her or he may have loved the idea of her.
Spin
Tim says, “On occasions the war was like a ping-pong ball. You could put a fancy spin on it, you could make it dance.”
Soldiers are remembered: Mitchell mails lice to USO; Norman and Henry play checkers every night; following a man to get through land mines; Ted adopting a puppy that Azar straps to a mine; worrying about medals and death
Tim, even after the fact at 43, wishes he didn’t feel so guilty and that there were also some peace stories.
“On the Rainy River”
Tim goes to Minnesota to the Rainy River that borders Canada. He nearly goes AWOL, and meets and old man named Elroy at the Tip Top Lodge who silently helps Tim work through it. Tim had received a draft notice on June 17, 1968 right after graduating from Macallister College. He did not want to go to war.
He struggles with the idea of war, and then ends with, “I would go to the war--I would kill and maybe die---because I was embarrassed not to.”
“Enemies”
Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk get into a fight because Lee stole Dave’s jackknife.
The story shows the violence between these two who are supposed to be friends.
“Friends”
Dave and Lee make a pact to kill each if one receives a “wheelchair” wound.
Lee stepped on a mortar. He freaks out when Dave comes, thinking he’ll kill him because of the pact, and now he doesn’t want to die. Dave comes over and swears not to kill him. The story ends with, “Later we heard that Strunk had died somewhere over Chu Lai, which seemed to relieve Dave Jensen of an enormous weight.”
“How to Tell a True War Story”
Rat has to write a letter to Kurt Lemon’s family regarding his death; he struggles. In between Tim explains to the reader what a war story is and is not: never moral, no virtue; it embarrasses you; if you are bothered by it or the obscenity, then you don’t care for truth…
They talk about listening while on patrol…how they hear things, like music, that can’t be there.Alone and in a foxhole can freak you out.
Rat tortures a baby water buffalo in a way to take out his frustration regarding Kurt’s death.
Cont…………>>>>>>
“War Story” cont.
Tim says those who pay attention to the animal instead of Rat’s loss or Kurt’s death, haven’t been listening. He uses some old lady as an example who tells Tim to “put it all behind me.” To her, and those who don’t get it, he says, “Because she wasn’t listening. It wasn’t a war story. It was a love story.”
“The Dentist”
Curt Lemon is terrified of the dentist. He refuses to go. Shows that even a macho soldier is afraid of every day things.
Finally, so he won’t be seen as unmanly, he has the dentist take out a perfectly good tooth.
“Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”
Rat is the narrator.He tells the story he heard while on RR.
Mark Fossie brings his cute, blonde girlfriend ,just out of high school, to his platoon in Vietnam. She gets weird and starts going on patrol with the “Greenies” (special forces)…quits wearing makeup, bathing, wears face paint, a necklace of tongues even.
The story is unbelievable; that’s the point. War changes everyone. “You come over clean and you get dirty and then afterward it’s never the same.” ---Rat
“Stockings”
Henry Dobbins has a girlfriend. He wears her pantyhose around his neck as a good luck charm. She dumps him in October; he’s devastated, but wears them still saying, “ The magic doesn’t go away.”
“Church”
Alpha Company digs foxholes with some Buddhist monks watching. Kiowa says that they can’t set up IN the church. “It’s bad news…You don’t mess with churches.”
Religion is discussed a bit with Kiowa who says he grew up with it.
Henry gives the two monks some peaches and tells them to leave. Henry ends with, “All you can do is be nice. Treat them decent, you know.”
“The Man I Killed”
Story begins with a matter of fact description of a dead body.
Tim, the author, imagines the dead man’s life story and makes the guy real.
Tim shot him and can’t deal with the guilt. He says he’d surely have walked by, and he didn’t have to do it.
Kiowa says he had to do it; if HE didn’t, then someone else would have. He advises Tim to “Talk.”
“Ambush”
Tim’s daughter Kathleen, at 9, asks him if he’s ever killed anyone. He says that he wants to tell her what he remembers, but he wants her to stay a little girl, too.
He describes the event of killing the man again, but this time adds in his personal reflection and more guilt.
“Style”
A Vietnamese girl is found dancing after a village has been destroyed. Her family is gone.
Azar says he doesn’t “get it” and makes fun of her. Henry tells him to stop and have respect. Henry says, “all right then,…dance right.”
The point: You’ve got to have respect for death, even if it was your enemy and even if it was necessary; death is still a loss for someone.
“Speaking of Courage”
There’s little difference between courage and fear.
Norman goes to a lake and can’t believe that the rest of the US has gone on living normal life. He questions the value of his fighting; he thinks he will disappoint his father.
He feels guilt over Kiowa’s death.
He wants Tim to tell the story.
“Notes”
The previous story didn’t sit right with Norman, so Tim writes this version. He explains that he needed to rewrite and retell the story of Kiowa’s death. (see next story)
Norman kills himself at the YMCA in 1978.
“In the Field”
The platoon is on patrol and must settle for the night. The inexperienced Lt. Cross has them break near a sewage pit. We learn that Cross didn’t want this responsibility and feels unprepared as well.
Someone takes out a light and the enemy pounds them. Kiowa is hit and goes down under the sewage pit.
Everyone, especially Cross and Mitchell Sanders, feel guilty for not saving him, for letting the sewage get in the way of going after him.
“Good Form”
Tim says he’s 43 and an author and that “almost everything else is invented.” He wants the reader to focus on the story rather than is the story true.
Guilt takes over. Stories are told from different points of view. A story can have more than one truth.
“Field Trip”
Tim takes Kathleen to Vietnam. He visits the field where Kiowa died and places his moccasins in the mud pit. He tries to put the story to rest.
A Vietnamese man raises a shovel in a gesture of greeting and peace.
Tim says, “I felt something go shut in my heart while something else swung open.”
“The Ghost Soldiers”
In this story Tim tells the reader he was shot twice. The first time is in the side and Rat takes good care of him. He’s out for over three weeks; when he returns Rat is gone and Bobby Jorgensen is the new medic. Tim is shot in the butt and Jorgensen nearly kills him by not taking care of the wound properly.
As punishment, Tim and Azar scare Bobby with gunfire, flares, sandbags, etc.
“Night Life”
The night life is night patrol. They sleep during the day, move at night. Some had to use drugs to make it. The event bothers Rat. He can’t take the dark and quiet. He confesses to the others that he’s losing it, and the next morning he has shot himself in the foot. It’s so he can leave, but not die.
“The Lives of the Dead”
Stories preserve the lives of those who died in the war.War “wasn’t guts; I was scared”, which is probably the sentiment of many soldiers.
He recalls Linda in elementary school. She had cancer, lost her hair and wore a hat.First loss he recalls and the first funeral. He says, “We keep the dead alive with stories.”
His final words are, “…when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story.”
Brief Story Summaries
The Things They Carried
Men carried whatever they need for survival, both physical and emotional.
Jimmy: pictures of girl; Ted: extra ammo;
Most carried emotions on the inside. “It was sad…the things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to do.”
Love
Jimmy tells Tim about Martha. He saw her again. They never got together. He still loves her.
Story is significant to show that soldiers needed something to hold on to. He may have loved her or he may have loved the idea of her.
Spin
Tim says, “On occasions the war was like a ping-pong ball. You could put a fancy spin on it, you could make it dance.”
Soldiers are remembered: Mitchell mails lice to USO; Norman and Henry play checkers every night; following a man to get through land mines; Ted adopting a puppy that Azar straps to a mine; worrying about medals and death
Tim, even after the fact at 43, wishes he didn’t feel so guilty and that there were also some peace stories.
“On the Rainy River”
Tim goes to Minnesota to the Rainy River that borders Canada. He nearly goes AWOL, and meets and old man named Elroy at the Tip Top Lodge who silently helps Tim work through it. Tim had received a draft notice on June 17, 1968 right after graduating from Macallister College. He did not want to go to war.
He struggles with the idea of war, and then ends with, “I would go to the war--I would kill and maybe die---because I was embarrassed not to.”
“Enemies”
Dave Jensen and Lee Strunk get into a fight because Lee stole Dave’s jackknife.
The story shows the violence between these two who are supposed to be friends.
“Friends”
Dave and Lee make a pact to kill each if one receives a “wheelchair” wound.
Lee stepped on a mortar. He freaks out when Dave comes, thinking he’ll kill him because of the pact, and now he doesn’t want to die. Dave comes over and swears not to kill him. The story ends with, “Later we heard that Strunk had died somewhere over Chu Lai, which seemed to relieve Dave Jensen of an enormous weight.”
“How to Tell a True War Story”
Rat has to write a letter to Kurt Lemon’s family regarding his death; he struggles. In between Tim explains to the reader what a war story is and is not: never moral, no virtue; it embarrasses you; if you are bothered by it or the obscenity, then you don’t care for truth…
They talk about listening while on patrol…how they hear things, like music, that can’t be there.Alone and in a foxhole can freak you out.
Rat tortures a baby water buffalo in a way to take out his frustration regarding Kurt’s death.
Cont…………>>>>>>
“War Story” cont.
Tim says those who pay attention to the animal instead of Rat’s loss or Kurt’s death, haven’t been listening. He uses some old lady as an example who tells Tim to “put it all behind me.” To her, and those who don’t get it, he says, “Because she wasn’t listening. It wasn’t a war story. It was a love story.”
“The Dentist”
Curt Lemon is terrified of the dentist. He refuses to go. Shows that even a macho soldier is afraid of every day things.
Finally, so he won’t be seen as unmanly, he has the dentist take out a perfectly good tooth.
“Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”
Rat is the narrator.He tells the story he heard while on RR.
Mark Fossie brings his cute, blonde girlfriend ,just out of high school, to his platoon in Vietnam. She gets weird and starts going on patrol with the “Greenies” (special forces)…quits wearing makeup, bathing, wears face paint, a necklace of tongues even.
The story is unbelievable; that’s the point. War changes everyone. “You come over clean and you get dirty and then afterward it’s never the same.” ---Rat
“Stockings”
Henry Dobbins has a girlfriend. He wears her pantyhose around his neck as a good luck charm. She dumps him in October; he’s devastated, but wears them still saying, “ The magic doesn’t go away.”
“Church”
Alpha Company digs foxholes with some Buddhist monks watching. Kiowa says that they can’t set up IN the church. “It’s bad news…You don’t mess with churches.”
Religion is discussed a bit with Kiowa who says he grew up with it.
Henry gives the two monks some peaches and tells them to leave. Henry ends with, “All you can do is be nice. Treat them decent, you know.”
“The Man I Killed”
Story begins with a matter of fact description of a dead body.
Tim, the author, imagines the dead man’s life story and makes the guy real.
Tim shot him and can’t deal with the guilt. He says he’d surely have walked by, and he didn’t have to do it.
Kiowa says he had to do it; if HE didn’t, then someone else would have. He advises Tim to “Talk.”
“Ambush”
Tim’s daughter Kathleen, at 9, asks him if he’s ever killed anyone. He says that he wants to tell her what he remembers, but he wants her to stay a little girl, too.
He describes the event of killing the man again, but this time adds in his personal reflection and more guilt.
“Style”
A Vietnamese girl is found dancing after a village has been destroyed. Her family is gone.
Azar says he doesn’t “get it” and makes fun of her. Henry tells him to stop and have respect. Henry says, “all right then,…dance right.”
The point: You’ve got to have respect for death, even if it was your enemy and even if it was necessary; death is still a loss for someone.
“Speaking of Courage”
There’s little difference between courage and fear.
Norman goes to a lake and can’t believe that the rest of the US has gone on living normal life. He questions the value of his fighting; he thinks he will disappoint his father.
He feels guilt over Kiowa’s death.
He wants Tim to tell the story.
“Notes”
The previous story didn’t sit right with Norman, so Tim writes this version. He explains that he needed to rewrite and retell the story of Kiowa’s death. (see next story)
Norman kills himself at the YMCA in 1978.
“In the Field”
The platoon is on patrol and must settle for the night. The inexperienced Lt. Cross has them break near a sewage pit. We learn that Cross didn’t want this responsibility and feels unprepared as well.
Someone takes out a light and the enemy pounds them. Kiowa is hit and goes down under the sewage pit.
Everyone, especially Cross and Mitchell Sanders, feel guilty for not saving him, for letting the sewage get in the way of going after him.
“Good Form”
Tim says he’s 43 and an author and that “almost everything else is invented.” He wants the reader to focus on the story rather than is the story true.
Guilt takes over. Stories are told from different points of view. A story can have more than one truth.
“Field Trip”
Tim takes Kathleen to Vietnam. He visits the field where Kiowa died and places his moccasins in the mud pit. He tries to put the story to rest.
A Vietnamese man raises a shovel in a gesture of greeting and peace.
Tim says, “I felt something go shut in my heart while something else swung open.”
“The Ghost Soldiers”
In this story Tim tells the reader he was shot twice. The first time is in the side and Rat takes good care of him. He’s out for over three weeks; when he returns Rat is gone and Bobby Jorgensen is the new medic. Tim is shot in the butt and Jorgensen nearly kills him by not taking care of the wound properly.
As punishment, Tim and Azar scare Bobby with gunfire, flares, sandbags, etc.
“Night Life”
The night life is night patrol. They sleep during the day, move at night. Some had to use drugs to make it. The event bothers Rat. He can’t take the dark and quiet. He confesses to the others that he’s losing it, and the next morning he has shot himself in the foot. It’s so he can leave, but not die.
“The Lives of the Dead”
Stories preserve the lives of those who died in the war.War “wasn’t guts; I was scared”, which is probably the sentiment of many soldiers.
He recalls Linda in elementary school. She had cancer, lost her hair and wore a hat.First loss he recalls and the first funeral. He says, “We keep the dead alive with stories.”
His final words are, “…when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)