Grade 11-12: Vocabulary Lesson for Thursday, Week 4

Word List 4

1. auspicious: attended by favorable circumstances; marked by success; prosperous
2. epiphany: a sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something; a sudden intuitive realization
3. usurp: to seize and hold by force without legal authority; to take over or occupy without right
4. reciprocal: performed, experienced, or felt by both sides; interchanged, given or owed to each other
5. vortex: a spiral motion of fluid within a limited area; a place or situation drawing into its center all that surrounds it
6. tempestuous: relating to, or resembling a tempest; tumultuous; stormy
7. bellicose: warlike or hostile in manner or temperament

Thursday Activities

1. Test yourself with this link, Easy TestMaker You will have to create an account to save your tests. Read the directions and create your own test. You can choose from many formats. We suggest you try "Fill in the blank" and make up a sentence using your vocabulary word. You can download it into Word if you wish. Print out the test you created and complete it. Insert it into your notebook.
2. Word Scrambler - Click on the link and create your own word scrambler with your vocabulary words. Type in the number of words you wish to scramble and press the "next" buton. You will see a sheet that has the answers for you. Press next again and print out the page. Complete it and put it in your notebook.
3. Go to the Spelling City website. Type in your list of vocabulary words. Click on the button that says Play A Game. Select Which Word. Play the game and write down the fill-in-the-blank sentences in your notebook.

Other Help

If you need more information on your words, click on the link to use a on-line dictionary.

Use the daily activities to help you remember words that you learn each week. It is much easier to remember what the words mean if you do something with them and use them frequently in talking with your parents, family and friends.

Sample sentences:

On Friday the thirteenth I was born into a poor family; hardly an auspicious beginning to life.
Hoping to provide an auspicious beginning to life, my uncle named his son Rich Man.

Seconds before the buzzer on Jeopardy the answer popped into my mind like an epiphany.
A chance encounter with a homeless man provided an epiphany that guided the founder of Meals on Wheels.

The dictator executed anyone who attempted to usurp his power.
The gang leader's greatest fear was that one of his assistants would usurp his position.

In reciprocal link agreements web sites provide links to each other on their sites.
As a change of pace the local pizza restaurant has a reciprocal agreement with a fried chicken restaurant; each providing lunch for the other's employees.

The tornado's vortex became a swirling mass filled with many loose objects.
The whirlpool's vortex pulled the tiny boat in ever tightening spirals.

The diva's tempestuous behavior kept everyone on the set on edge.
I was glad to be safely on land after flying through the swirling, tempestuous sky above Tampa.

The bellicose nature of General Hamid made diplomacy extremely difficult.
Although he was an excellent skater, the bellicose nature of the hockey player kept him in the penalty box for much of the last period.

 
 

For more vocabulary, reading and other language arts resources, please visit our interactive skillbuilders.