Grade 11-12: Vocabulary Lesson for Wednesday, 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

Wednesday Activities

1. Make Mind Maps - Link your vocabulary words to words that you already know. >Here is an example of a mind map. On a piece of paper, or on the computer in Word, draw a circle and write/type the vocabulary word inside the circle. Think of words that mean the same thing and put those in circles around the outside of the word drawing a line to connect the synonyms.
2. Mind Games - Create a mind map with words that mean the opposite or antonyms. Use the thesaurus built into your word program to find more words that are antonyms. Or you can go to this on-line thesaurus. Click on the button in front of Thesaurus at the top of the page, then type your word into the white area.
3. Mind Mapping Tool - Go to the website and click on play for instructions. Create a mind map with your vocabulary words. Print it out and put it in your vocabulary 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.

 
 

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