READING LOG 1
Book name: Return of the Native (Thomas Hardy) Pages read: 3 - 37 Summary:
The first chapter describes the setting, which is the isolated, desolate, wild land called Egdon Heath on a cold November evening. Nighttime brings the heath to life, awakens possibilities for its inhabitants. The people of the heath live and work comfortably here, even though it is overgrown and obscure, untouched for ages except by the wide road that now travels its length. In the next chapter, an old man who always walks through town happens to meet a reddleman (a person who sells artificial coloring to mark sheep), and discovers other than his usual load, he has a young woman in his van who seems high-class but is in poor health and is traversing to a nearby town. The following chapter tells of a group of men and boys carrying a large amount of flares and gunpowder; 'furze-faggots' and assembling a bonfire for an Anglo-Saxon festival. There were also similar conflagrations from town to town. Within Egdon Heath, a group of people are talking/gossiping about some marriage between two high-class individuals: Damon Wildeve and Thomasin Yeobright (groom and bride respectively). The villagers are upset that Thomasin and Damon have not gotten married in town and plan to serenade them. They also remark that Damon Wildeve wasted his chance of having a good job by taking the ownership of the Quiet Woman Inn instead of using his engineering skills. The villagers then dance and sing wildly. The reddleman interrupts the villagers festivities, asking them for directions to Mrs. Yeobright's home on Blooms-End, and then setting off in that direction. No sooner does the reddleman leave when Mrs. Yeobright arrives and tells them that she is heading toward her niece's new home and that she would like Olly Dowden to accompany her. Fifteen vocabulary words: Torpor - sluggish inactivity. Most small animals that hibernate enter a state of torpor to survive the winter. Acclivities - upward slopes. A neat well-built mansion, suitably fitted on a gentle acclivity. Barrow - a wheelbarrow. A barrow cemetery formed an integral part of the layout. Fixity - stability, permanence. The apparent fixity of scientific laws is an essential support to such people. Sedulously - persistently or carefully maintained. Unsurprisingly, given sedulous clerical attention over a period of weeks, many prisoners proved responsive to the call for repentance. Hamlets - a small village. Far below them lay the hamlet, a cluster of black dots on a field of pure snow. Ephemeral - short-lived, transitory. Possibly the greatest risk however lies in the ephemeral nature of the public's interest. Pallid - lacking in vitality, interest, or color. Large patches of her pallid skin were exposed to the sunlight. Somber - gloomy, depressing, or dismal. Yes, like the forest, one's life is dappled with somber shades and sunlit patches of great happiness. Anomalous - irregular, abnormal. What it would do is remove this rather anomalous exemption. Minuet - a slow, stately pattern dance in 3/4 time for groups of couples. The song finishes with a delicate little minuet with the two keyboards. Mirthfulness - joyous. The effect of mirthful laughter on stress and natural killer cell activity. Maphrotight - *definition does not exist but the word is used in the book* 'Get out of my sight, you slack-twisted, slim-looking maphrotight fool!' Perspicacity - enthusiastic discernment. One had to have intense perspicacity to analyze this particular painting. Reticence - reluctant or restrained. I never believed such reticence would last for long. Tumulus - an artificial mound. The results produced a series of low readings around the location of the know tumulus.
All definitions were taken and adapted from: http://dictionary.reference.com/ http://www.yourdictionary.com
Book name: Return of the Native (Thomas Hardy)
Pages read: 3 - 37
Summary:
The first chapter describes the setting, which is the isolated, desolate, wild land called Egdon Heath on a cold November evening. Nighttime brings the heath to life, awakens possibilities for its inhabitants. The people of the heath live and work comfortably here, even though it is overgrown and obscure, untouched for ages except by the wide road that now travels its length. In the next chapter, an old man who always walks through town happens to meet a reddleman (a person who sells artificial coloring to mark sheep), and discovers other than his usual load, he has a young woman in his van who seems high-class but is in poor health and is traversing to a nearby town. The following chapter tells of a group of men and boys carrying a large amount of flares and gunpowder; 'furze-faggots' and assembling a bonfire for an Anglo-Saxon festival. There were also similar conflagrations from town to town. Within Egdon Heath, a group of people are talking/gossiping about some marriage between two high-class individuals: Damon Wildeve and Thomasin Yeobright (groom and bride respectively). The villagers are upset that Thomasin and Damon have not gotten married in town and plan to serenade them. They also remark that Damon Wildeve wasted his chance of having a good job by taking the ownership of the Quiet Woman Inn instead of using his engineering skills. The villagers then dance and sing wildly. The reddleman interrupts the villagers festivities, asking them for directions to Mrs. Yeobright's home on Blooms-End, and then setting off in that direction. No sooner does the reddleman leave when Mrs. Yeobright arrives and tells them that she is heading toward her niece's new home and that she would like Olly Dowden to accompany her.
Fifteen vocabulary words:
Torpor - sluggish inactivity.
Most small animals that hibernate enter a state of torpor to survive the winter.
Acclivities - upward slopes.
A neat well-built mansion, suitably fitted on a gentle acclivity.
Barrow - a wheelbarrow.
A barrow cemetery formed an integral part of the layout.
Fixity - stability, permanence.
The apparent fixity of scientific laws is an essential support to such people.
Sedulously - persistently or carefully maintained.
Unsurprisingly, given sedulous clerical attention over a period of weeks, many prisoners proved responsive to the call for repentance.
Hamlets - a small village.
Far below them lay the hamlet, a cluster of black dots on a field of pure snow.
Ephemeral - short-lived, transitory.
Possibly the greatest risk however lies in the ephemeral nature of the public's interest.
Pallid - lacking in vitality, interest, or color.
Large patches of her pallid skin were exposed to the sunlight.
Somber - gloomy, depressing, or dismal.
Yes, like the forest, one's life is dappled with somber shades and sunlit patches of great happiness.
Anomalous - irregular, abnormal.
What it would do is remove this rather anomalous exemption.
Minuet - a slow, stately pattern dance in 3/4 time for groups of couples.
The song finishes with a delicate little minuet with the two keyboards.
Mirthfulness - joyous.
The effect of mirthful laughter on stress and natural killer cell activity.
Maphrotight - *definition does not exist but the word is used in the book*
'Get out of my sight, you slack-twisted, slim-looking maphrotight fool!'
Perspicacity - enthusiastic discernment.
One had to have intense perspicacity to analyze this particular painting.
Reticence - reluctant or restrained.
I never believed such reticence would last for long.
Tumulus - an artificial mound.
The results produced a series of low readings around the location of the know tumulus.
All definitions were taken and adapted from:
http://dictionary.reference.com/
http://www.yourdictionary.com