In class, we recently started doing these literature circles with a twist, where we dicuss and share a our ideas about a certian chapter of the book we are reading with a few other people in our class, so we can undersand what it going on in the chapter. Also with these lit. circles, each member has a role to learn more about the story, and it's background. So I chose to be the Lexicographer, which basically means I will read the chapter assigned to us, and define the words that were hard to understand.
This week, we were to read the chapter "White Tigers", in The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston. In this chapter, the main character - the girl/ Maxine Hong Kingston - tells the Ledgen of Fa Mu Lan (which is the story that the disney movie "Mulan", was based off of), as if she were Fa Mu Lan. The first part of the reading for my group was from page 19-33, and I am finding my definitions from http://answers.com/ and http://www.google.com/ ...
Page 19
Confucius Church: this site can explain to you what Confucianism is
http://www.religion-cults.com/Eastern/Confucianism/confuci.htm
White Crane Boxing: I found this site that has a brief description of what white crane boxing is http://www.usadojo.com/styles/about-white-crane-boxing.htm
Page 20
Brambles: A prickly shrub of the genus Rubus, including the blackberry and the raspberry.
Fa Mu Lan: This site tells the ballad/ ledged of Fa Mu Lan http://www2.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/elejeune/mulan.htm
Page 21
Thatch: a material, as straw, rushes, leaves, or the like, used to cover roofs, grain stacks, etc.; the leaves of various palms that are used for thatching.
Page 22
Encircled: to form a circle around; surround; encompass
Page 23
Ideograph: a written symbol that represents an idea or object directly rather than a particular word or speech sound, as a Chinese character
Dilations: an abnormal enlargement of an aperture or a canal of the body.
Homonyms: One of two or more words that have the same sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning, such as bank (embankment) and bank (place where money is kept).
Page 24
Peony: any of various plants or shrubs of the genus Paeonia, having large, showy flowers, as the widely cultivated species P. lactiflora: the state flower of Indiana.
Page 26
Acutely: sharp or severe in effect; intense; extremely great or serious; crucial; (of disease) brief and severe (opposed to chronic); sharp or penetrating in intellect, insight, or perception.
Page 27
Javanese: of or pertaining to the island of Java, its people, or their language; a member of the native Malayan people of Java, esp. of that branch of it in the central part of the island; the Austronesian language of central Java
Page 28
Self-immolation: voluntary sacrifice or denial of oneself, as for an ideal or another person.
Transmigration: the passage of a soul after death into another body; metempsychosis; To migrate
Juniper: Any of various evergreen trees or shrubs of the genus Juniperus, having needlelike or scalelike, often pointed leaves and aromatic, bluish-gray, berrylike, seed-bearing cones
Page 29
Strata: a layer of material, naturally or artificially formed, often one of a number of parallel layers, one upon another; one of a number of portions or divisions likened to layers or levels
Quarries: an excavation or pit, usually open to the air, from which building stone, slate, or the like, is obtained by cutting, blasting, etc.
Mallard: a common, almost cosmopolitan, wild duck, Anas platyrhynchos, from which the domestic ducks are descended
Resin: any of a class of nonvolatile, solid or semisolid organic substances, as copal or mastic, that consist of amorphous mixtures of carboxylic acids and are obtained directly from certain plants as exudations or prepared by polymerization of simple molecules: used in medicine and in the making of varnishes and plastics
Paradoxes: A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true
Page 30
Scythes: An implement consisting of a long, curved single-edged blade with a long bent handle, used for mowing or reaping
Page 32
Conscription: compulsory enrollment of persons for military or naval service; draft; a compulsory contribution of money to a government during a time of war.
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