Transcript Smart Starts 11/29 - 12/2

1. Verbal: a verb form that functions in a sentence as a noun or a modifier rather
than as a verb. The three types of verbals are gerunds, participles, and
infinitives.
2. Gerund: are verbs that are used as nouns. Every gerund, without exception,
ends in “ing.” Ex: Running is my favorite hobby.
3. Participle: a verb form that can be used as an adjective. It modifies a noun or
a pronoun. Present participles usually end in –ing. Past participles usually end
in –ed. Ex: The barking dog woke the entire neighborhood. Andrew calmed his excited sister.
Do not confuse the participle used as an adjective with the participle used as a main verb in a verb
phrase (helping verb + main verb).
-The waiting pedestrian watched the traffic signals change.
-The pedestrian was waiting for the traffic signals to change.
4. Infinitive: a verb form made with the word ‘to’ plus the regular form of the
verb. Infinitives can be used as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. Infinitives are
NOT prepositional phrases. Ex: The sight to see is the Washington Monument. (adjective); The
woman stopped to eat. (adverb)
Life Lesson #9:
“If you want to change the world,
start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.”
"Hell Week" is the ninth week of SEAL training. It involves six days of almost no sleep and
constant physical challenges. Part of this takes place at a swampy area between San Diego and
Tijuana known as the Mud Flats.
At one point in McRaven's Hell Week, the instructors ordered the class into the freezing mud
for hours, which "consumed each man till there was nothing visible but our heads. The instructors
told us we could leave the mud if ... five men would quit."
Instead, one man in the group started singing. Another joined in, and then another. The
instructors threatened them, but they kept singing--which made the whole exercise just bearable
enough to finish.
Construct a thoughtful, well-written paragraph about a time when you
(or someone else) made a difficult situation better. Explain 1. the situation
2. who made it better 3. how did you/he/she make it better?
Participles and gerunds both often end in –ing, so they’re easy to
confuse. But a participle is a verbal (a word that has
characteristics of both a verb and a noun or an adjective, as in
the screaming child or the fretting mother.
In the following sentence, shouting is a participle, because it
modifies the man: Shouting, the man raced across the room.
Smart Start 12-1-2016
The water cycle is the journey water takes as it circulates from the land to the sky and back again. First, the Sun’s
heat evaporates water from the Earth’s surface. Next, the water vapor eventually condenses, forming tiny droplets
in clouds. Finally, when the clouds meet cool air over land, precipitation is triggered, and water returns to the land.
1. What type of organizational structure does the author use in the paragraph above?
a. Spatial order
b. Chronological order
c. Compare & contrast
d. Question & answer
2. How should these sentences be ordered to create a logical paragraph?
1) I told him I was, and we discussed what cards we wanted to trade.
2) He said he collected cards, too, and wanted to know if I was interested in trading any of mine.
3) One of my classmates noticed some baseball cards that I brought into school one day.
4) The next day, he brought in his cards, and we did some trading at lunch.
a. 1,4,3,2
c. 3,2,1,4
b. 2,3,1,4
d. 4,2,1,3
3. TRUE OR FALSE? When writing a story, the plot and point of view should be ambiguous.
4. Circle the words that are synonyms for somber:
subdued
5. Which of the following can be used as a transition word?
gloomy
began
then
serious
forward
cheerful
opened
1.
What is the difference between a story’s tone
and a story’s mood?
2.
What is the difference between a story’s theme
and a story’s topic? (define)
3.
What does it mean when you are asked about a
character’s motivation?