10/6/09 Words

Mantra: noun; a word or formula, as from the Veda, chanted or sung as an incantation or prayer.



Sentence from "Funny in Farsi" (pg. 129): " I should've sold everything and brought the money to America a long time ago" became his mantra."



Context Clues: A. repeatedly told me



My Sentence: Welcome to the family is my families mantra, and are the only words I hear everytime I bring home a guy.



Backdrop: noun
1.
Also called, especially British, back-cloth Theater. the rear curtain of a stage setting.
2.
the background of an event; setting.
3.
Gymnastics. a maneuver in which a trampolinist jumps in the air, lands on the back with the arms and legs pointed upward, and then springs up to a standing position.



Sentence from "Funny in Farsi" (pg. 140): " Against this backdrop of teenage angst, there would have to be a symbol, a representation of the confidence that comes with eventual intellectual and spiritual growth."



Context Clues: A. topless models in the background



My Sentence: The backdrop went from blue and purple shades to pink and red.

Frugal:–adjective
1.
economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful: a frugal manager.
2.
entailing little expense; requiring few resources; meager; scanty: a frugal meal.

Sentence from "Funny in Farsi" (pg. 123): " After having baby-sat for every frugal family in town, I eventually hit the mother lode."

Context Clues: " ...five dollars and...twelve divided by sixty..."

My Sentence: My family can be real frugal sometimes, even though we are very well off.

Vocab 9/24

Exempt: verb (used with object)
1.
to free from an obligation or liability to which others are subject; release: to exempt a student from an examination.
–adjective
2.
released from, or not subject to, an obligation, liability, etc.: organizations exempt from taxes.
–noun
3.
a person who is exempt from an obligation, duty, etc.
4.
(in Britain) exon

Context Clues: Respect all religions

Sentence from: "Funny in Farsi"(pg 105) "The christian and Jewish students at my school were exempt from religious studies, a fact that caused much envy among the rest of us"

My sentence: I was exempt from class today.

Lucrative:–adjective
profitable; moneymaking; remunerative

Context Clues: N/A

Sentence from "Funny in Farsi"(pg 123) " I didn't want to get on her bad side early on in this lucrative job so I smiled as I tried to untangle her arms."

My Sentence: My up and coming job is very lucrative.

Gendarmes: noun, plural -darmes
1.
a police officer in any of several European countries, esp. a French police officer.
2.
a soldier, esp. in France, serving in an army group acting as armed police with authority over civilians.
3.
(formerly) a cavalryman in charge of a French cavalry squad

Context Clues: sifting through my suitcase

Sentence from "Funny in Farsi"(pg 133) " The gendarmes started sifting through the clothes and the myriad of gifts I had brought for my host family."

My Sentence: When my friends and I went to France, we saw lots of gendarmes.

9/17/09 Words of the Day!!!!

Dote: verb (used without object) Also, doat.
1.
to bestow or express excessive love or fondness habitually (usually fol. by on or upon)
2.
to show a decline of mental faculties, esp. associated with old age.

Sentence from "Funny in Farsi" (pg.103): "Now whenever we visit my relatives, all of whom dote on my husband, I realize that he didn't marry me despite my tribe, he married me because of them."

Context Clues: N/A
My Sentence: They dote on their youngest daughter.

Enviable:–adjective
worthy of envy; very desirable: an enviable position.

Sentence from "Funny in Farsi" (pg 98): "Even though their condominium has only a tiny garden, they managed to cultivate an enviable cornucopia of figs, pomegranates, sweet lemons, and herbs."

Context clues: A. Cultivate
B. wonderful

My Sentence: I have an enviable outlook on my goal in life.

Strewn:verb (used with object), strewed, strewn
1.to let fall in separate pieces or particles over a surface; scatter or sprinkle: to strew seed in a garden bed.
2.
to cover or overspread (a surface, place, etc.) with something scattered or sprinkled: to strew a floor with sawdust.
3.
to be scattered or sprinkled over (a surface): Sawdust strewed the floor.
4.
to spread widely; disseminate: to strew rumors among the troops.

Sentence from "Funny in Farsi"(pg. 113): " To my delight, I found that the lawn had been strewn with miniture Iranian flags."

Context Clues: A. miniture Iranian flags

My Sentence: My neighbor has a strewn of flowers in her front yard.

Vocab week 9/8

Bucolic: Adj. Pastrol, ruralistic 1. of or characteristic of the countryside or its people

Syn. rural

Sentence from "Funny in Farsi" pg. 31: "Or we'd try to become more bucolic, mentioning being south of the beautiful Caspian Sea, 'where the famous caviar comes from.'



Context clues: A. try to be

B. Is a simple form to live expressing rural contry and life to be

Our Sentence: A. We went through a bucolic neighborhood.

B. I was very surprised that we saw children in such bucolic streets.

Dubious: Adj. Uncertain or questionable

Sentence from "Funny in Farsi" pg. 10: "My brother Farshid, with his schedule full of soccer, wrestling and karate, was too busy to be recruited for his dubious honor."

Context clues: The young women that got pregnant two times and had two children in each pregancy was uncertain.

Our Sentence: A. I was dubious on what to get for lunch.

B. I was dubious on which movie to rent tonight.

Ubiquitous: Adj; Excisting or being everywhere at the same time; at the same time[omnipresent]

Sentence from "Funny in Farsi"pg.42: " The media is also ubiquitous present in airports, elevators, classrooms, bars and restraurants, and hospital waiting rooms."

Context clues: A. Present

B. Its an adjective that is always present in anytime.

Our Sentence: A. The ubiquitous swarm of mosquitoes blanketed the sky.

B. We were offered the ubiquitous hamburger.

All words were found on:http://www.dictionary.com/

Atrocious[Adj] Extremely savage or evil, cruel. 2. Exceptionally bad abominable atrocious decor, disgraceful, grossly offensive.

[Adv] atrociousness N.



Context Clues: N/A but my logic is that it is disgussing or gross, my Mom used it in describing my room, stuffed birds are gross and dirty; like taxidermy



(44, in Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh DuMas) " The items he has picked up on clearance tables range from merely useless, like his portable siren, to truly atrocious, like birds made of felt"



My use of the word: A. What an atrocious hat!

B. The service in the restraunt was atrocious.



Hyperlink: http://www.dictionary.com/