Language Arts The Core of All Content

Language Arts
The Core of All Content
Michael Clay Thompson

mith@mac.com
http://homepage.mac.com/mith/
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Royal Fireworks Press

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Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

Classics and the Universality of Genius
From Classics in the Classroom
Michael C. Thompson
The great books of the world provide us with one of our best demonstrations of
the universality of genius among human populations. Consider the diversity in this
selection of authors:
Shakespeare, Dante, Melville, Plato, Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Charlotte

Bronte, Malcolm X, Sylvia Plath, Booker T. Washington, Emily Dickinson,
Margaret Mitchell, Homer, Maya Angelou, Lorraine Hansberry, Pearl Buck,
Geronimo, Garcia Marquez, Anne Frank, James Baldwin, Louisa May
Alcott, Mohandas Gandhi, Isak Denisen, Annie Dillard, Confucius, Jomo
Kenyatta, Garcia Lorca, Kate Chopin, Victor Hugo, Carlos Fuentes, Phillis
Wheatley, Rachel Carson, Goethe, Jorge Luis Borges, Ayn Rand, Chinua
Achebe, Ruth Benedict, Claude Brown, Margaret Mead, Emily Bronte, Edith
Wharton, WEB DuBois, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, Walt Whitman,
Pablo Neruda, Barbara Tuchman, Tu Fu, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Wole
Soyinka, Toni Morrison, Miguel Angel Asturias, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings,
Cervantes, Beatrix Potter, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, Marianne Moore,
Dostoevski, Lady Murasaki, Marco Polo, Chairman Mao, Lao Tzu, Guy de
Maupassant, Harper Lee, Mikhail Lermontov, George Eliot, Euclid,
Alexander Dumas, Alexander Pushkin, Frederick Douglass, Richard Wright,
Ralph Ellison, Castiglione, Chekhov, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Machiavelli,
Ibsen, Flaubert, Euripides, Sappho, Wilma Dykeman, Robert Burns,
Calderon de la Barca, Benvenuto Cellini, Constantine Cavafy, Elizabeth
Browning, Elizabeth Bishop, Rabindranath Tagore, Jane Austen.

The Unpopular Iliad?
from Classics in the Classroom, 2nd edition
Michael C. Thompson
In thinking about the nonpopularity of classics, it helps to consider

the accomplishment of The Iliad, gasp. What would it take to duplicate
the literary feat of The Iliad? How popular would a book have to be to
do what The Iliad has done, to survive as oral epic poetry for centuries
before being written down? And to be still revered as one of the world’s
supreme works three thousand years later, at a time when the ancient
language it was finally written in was no longer used as a living language
by anyone? And to be translated into hundreds of other modern
languages, none of which even existed at the time the book was created?
Let’s go as far forward in time as Homer is backwards. What are
your chances of writing a book that will be revered across the galaxy in
4994 A.D., when today’s English is a long-vanished ancient tongue, an
arcane historical footnote like say, the language of Ur of Chaldea,
familiar only to the most dust-ridden scholars on some desert planet
orbiting Betelgeuse?
Think of it: The Iliad was already ancient literature to Alexander the
Great. Taught to him by Aristotle, himself, it was the one book
Alexander took with him on his invasion of Persia. Alexander died in
323 B.C.
B.C.
Are there any volunteers to take on The Iliad?
Every book should be so unpopular.

replete affable portentous
fractious despond subterfuge
dejected dolorous countenance
languor obtuse vouchsafe
amiable immure lurid
sanguine avidity paroxysm
allude wistful asperity
copse sinuous benison
irrevocable plausible gesticulate
unction accouter placid
revile stringent peremptory
artifice repartee querulous
retort assuage sonorous
plaintive noisome athwart
brazen billow repast
imperious listless privation
voluble cudgel comely
victual contrition doleful
rancour habiliment panoply
tedious prostrate turbid
ignominy fallow expatiate
sward errant sinuous
gesticulate
Michael C. Thompson
Classic Words
dh2gww

Classic Words
Michael C. Thompson
What words do students really need to know if they are to read comfortably in the classics of
English and American literature? My own ten-year study of 34,000 examples from 130 different
works indicates that the following words appear with extraordinary frequency. They are the top
100 words in my Classic Words database, in descending order of frequency, and they appear even
in so-called children’s classics, such as Tom Sawyer, Peter Pan, The Wind in the Willows, and The
Call of the Wild. Read left to right and then down.
countenance profound manifest

serene sublime prodigious
singular clamor visage
abate allude grotesque
undulate acute vivid
venerate exquisite melancholy
incredulous traverse repose
lurid languid superfluous
sagacity vulgar placid
tremulous odious pallor
abyss stolid condescend
wistful prostrate remonstrate
palpable vex amiable
perplex portent peremptory
somber importune audible
expostulate subtle tangible
vivacious despond doleful
pervade pensive apprehension
procure abject austere
magnanimous oppress oblique
sallow ignominy eccentric
resolute articulate furtive
fain genial mien
affect billow confound
wan indolent maxim
reproach morose latter
conjure retort antipathy
alacrity animated vestige
verdure adjacent rebuke
zenith inexorable livid
dilate fortnight din
abash profane imperious
conjecture swarthy impute
appellation

The Elitist Curriculum Fallacy
from Classics in the Classroom, 2nd edition
Michael C. Thompson
A note on the elitist curriculum fallacy. I know, I hear it too: the classics are an elitist curriculum,
inappropriate for many students and groups of students, unsuited for the majority of futures that
students in our schools will actually attain. Most students should not or need not be taught
classics; instead, they should be taught things more practical and useful for the lives they will lead.
The first point, of course, is that educating all students to a high standard is not elitist—it is
teaching great books and great ideas only to honors and gifted college-bound students that is elitist.
Let me emphasize a point I mentioned earlier: I have taught all ability levels for nearly twenty years,
and I know that all students love beautiful books and beautiful ideas; all students love challenge; all
students love to have a pride in their own minds; all students love the feeling that they are learning.
Elitist? What’s so democratic about deliberately limiting the education of some students? Making
assumptions about the futures that kids with lower reading levels will attain is an insidious form of
bias—by depriving them of a genuinely strong education, we create a self-fulfilling tragic prophecy.
Classics aren’t practical? What’s so practical about being poorly educated?
Some years ago, I taught two basic classes and two gifted classes in the same semester—this in a
school where the tracking system included four tracks: gifted, honors, standard, and basic. The
basic kids, as you might guess, were not only basic in reading level; they were also alienated and
academically intimidated. Even so, I couldn’t face using basal readers and blue worksheets with
them; it just seemed like putting another nail in their coffin. So I did the obvious thing: I talked to
the kids. “Listen,” I said, “how would you like to read some good stuff? I mean famous books
with original characters and stories? What if we read one or two of these books aloud together as a
trial, and I will make sure that no one is embarrassed? If you get to a word you don’t know, you
can either try to pronounce it, or think for a minute before trying it, or ask me how to pronounce it,
and I will tell you. What do you think?” They thought they’d try it, so long as if it didn’t work,
we’d quit.
Well, that year we read 2,000 pages of classics aloud. My basic class read The Red Badge of
Courage, Journey to the Center of the Earth, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Time Machine, I Am the
Cheese, The Hobbit, The Prince and the Pauper, and I don’t remember what all. We had a
wonderful time, I and the kids who had once said, “Man, Mr. Thompson, I never read a WHOLE
BOOK before!” One day that spring, my Exceptional Children’s Director came to visit and to see
if I needed anything for my gifted classes. As she came in, the basic kids were discussing Scout
Finch and Boo Radley and the importance of standing in someone else’s shoes. The discussion
turned synthetic—to whether Scout Finch was smarter than Henry Fleming or Bilbo Baggins. The
kids got into a vehement comparative argument, pointing out facts and incidents from the stories to
support their claims. Finally, the period ended, and the kids filed out arguing, leaving my
Exceptional Children’s Director sitting in one of the student desks, looking at me with a puzzled
countenance. “Mike,” she asked, “was that one of your gifted classes?” It was another example
of the Pygmalion Effect, in which the class becomes what you envision it to be, like the sculpture of

Galatea that comes to life in the myth of Pygmalion. In this case, I really believed that the “basic”
kids too would have more fun reading good books than bad books.
When I hear people argue that teaching classics is elitist, I wonder what they think. Do they
think that the classics have all been written by aristocrats? Do they think that minority authors have
not been the authors of some of the world’s greatest classics? Do they think that the classics assert
the values of the propertied classes? Do they think that only aristocrats have the intelligence to
understand and appreciate classics? Do they think that the universal themes of the classics are less
relevant than “high interest” stories of motorcycles, drugs, or teenage sexuality, and that it is
therefore an insult to suggest that Macbeth is a better book than a high interest title?
It is not elitist to teach classics; it is elitist to teach them only to college-bound students.
Children of all abilities need lively minds and exposure to good books, and it is elitist to define
things otherwise. What teacher would wish his or her own child, regardless of ability, to never have
the experience of reading a classic, or to slump year after year over tedious workbooks? Thomas
Jefferson once noted that those who want a nation that is both uneducated and governed by a
representative democracy want “what never was and never will be.” There is no reason why the
average citizen should not have a fulfilling intellectual experience and be fully capable of
participating in our splendid democracy.

Four-Level Analysis
Michael C. Thompson
These fragments I have shored against my ruins.
Parts of Speech: adj. n. pron. v. v. prep. pron. n
Parts of Sentence: direct obj. subj. ---predicate---
Phrases: --prepositional phrase--
Clauses: -----------one independent clause, simple, declarative sentence-----------
Fumy, spiritous mists inhabit this place.

Parts of Speech adj adj n v adj n
Parts of Sentence subj pred dir obj
Phrases --no prepositional, appositive, or verbal phrases--
Clauses ---one independent clause, simple declarative sentence----
Traditional Sentence Diagram
th ese are wo ods

w
h
os
I kn ow
e
I th i n k

FOUR-LEVEL ANALYSIS
Did Giotto rescue Aria from the mellifluous Sirens?

Parts
of Speech: v. n. v. n. prep. adj. adj. n.
_________________________________________________________________
Parts
of Sentence: direct
pred. subject predicate object
_________________________________________________________________
Phrases: ------------prepositional phrase------------

_________________________________________________________________
Clauses: one independent clause, simple interrogative sentence

_________________________________________________________________
BINARY DIAGRAM
Giotto did rescue Aria

fro
Sirens
m
the
me
llifl
uo
us

Grammar for Younger Students
Using simple sentences, we can introduce
young students to the four ways of looking at a sentence.
Here are samples from Dr. Seuss.
The sun did not shine.

adj n v adv v
----subj--- ------pred--------
none
independent, simple, declarative
It was too wet to play.

pron v adv adj --adv----
subj pred subj comp
infinitive
independent, simple, declarative

AV DO IO
subj
LV SC
The Logic of Sentence Analysis
Find the subject/predicate set.
Is the verb ACTION or LINKING?
If the verb is action, then

Do not look for a subject complement.
Look for a direct object.
If you find a direct object, then
Look for an indirect object.
If the verb is linking, then

Do not look for a direct object.
Look for a subject complement.
Look for the next subject/predicate set and repeat.

Mystery Sentences
From The Magic Lens, Michael C. Thompson
1. A children’s story contains a famous compound declarative

sentence distinguished by three independent clauses. A
coordinating conjunction is used twice to join the three
clauses together. Each clause contains a contraction of the
first person singular subject pronoun and the helping verb
will. The third clause contains a direct object and an adverb.
The first two clauses contain only subjects and verbs. What is
the sentence?
2. A famous sentence from Shakespeare begins with a

compound infinitive and ends with a clause that contains a
demonstrative pronoun as a subject, a present tense linking
verb, a definite article, and a singular common noun as a
subject complement. What is the sentence?

Magic Lens • Loop Five _____ Punctuating Grammar
1. In the end we capitulated and the Zone Council reduced its holdings.
a. a comma after the prepositional phrase
b. a comma after the dependent clause
c. a comma after the independent clause
d. an apostrophe in the contraction
e. commas before and after the appositive
2. Near New Lima Venus the elders erected Abduls monument.

a. a comma after the city
b. a comma after the planet
c. an apostrophe in the plural noun
d. an apostrophe in the possessive noun
e. a comma after the dependent clause
3. The pilot expostulated when Newton our only navigator jumped out.
a. a comma to separate the adjectives preceding the noun
b. a comma after the dependent clause
c. a comma after the independent clause
d. commas around the appositive
e. commas around the noun of direct address
4. Whitman's novel Digital Self is about a roboship named Meson.

a. italics on the ship title
b. an apostrophe in the possessive noun
c. quotation marks around the book title
d. italics on the book title
e. commas around the appositive
5. The well intended remark and the retort caused twenty one disputes.
a. a comma between the adjectives that precede the noun.
b. a hyphen in the compound adjective that precedes the noun.
c. a comma after the dependent clause
d. a hyphen in the compound number
e. an apostrophe in the possessive noun
6. In the ascetic decor of the cabin the Spartan said At least its gray.
a. a comma after the prepositional phrases
b. an apostrophe in the contraction
c. a comma before the direct quotation
d. quotation marks around the direct quotation
e. a period inside the closing quotation marks
7. As the poet wrote Umbra he imitated Virgils meter.

a. a comma after the independent clause
b. an apostrophe in the possessive noun
c. a comma after the dependent clause
d. italics on the poem title
e. quotation marks around the poem title

______________________________________________________________________________
Loop Five_______________________________________________________Alien Grammar
From The Magic Lens, Vol. 2, Michael C. Thompson
Landlo Floppyla
Your ship crashes and you find yourself in a strange, alien land, with green clouds and
yellow mountains. Navy blue streams traverse the landscape, and pink fish jump from the water. A
crisp, cool wind blows the mauve trees to the west, or is it the east? The three suns shine down
from the crimson sky, casting a triple shadow. Strange, yes, but the strangest part is yet to come:
the grammar.
In this land, the language is just like English, except that certain rules are different. For
example:
1. Singular nouns all end in -lo, and plural nouns all end in -lolo, not -s. The subject
complement suffix is attached after the singular/plural suffix.
2. Adjectives immediately follow nouns, and end in -la.
3. Adverbs immediately follow what they modify, and end in -loo.
4. The first word of every sentence is the verb, unless the sentence is interrogative. Verbs
begin with the hissing sound sss-.
5. There are no object pronouns, only subject pronouns; everything is thought to be alive.
6. All subject pronouns begin with the prefix lee-
7. Direct objects and objects of verbals begin with the prefix lum-.
8. Subject complements begin with lim- and end with -mil.
9. The preposition begins with the prefix ner- is the last word of the prepositional phrase.
10. Interrogative sentences begin with the word hooop.
11. The second person pronoun is never spoken, out of respect. This missing word is
indicated by the humming sound, mmmm.
12. The definite article is rach and the indefinite article is roop.
As you gaze around in mute stupefaction, a creature flops flappily across the ground to you,
peers intensely into your eyes, his nose almost touching yours. He blinks, and says in Floppy:
Hooop sssare what rach hecklo limmmmmmil. Ssssaw neverloo

beforeloo leeI lumanythinglo strangela soloo as mmmm. Hooop sssare
mmmm roop limmonsterlomil. Hooop sssis why mmmm noselo mmmm
eyelolo nirbelow. Ssshave leeI lumscalelolo nicela tummylo myla neron.
Hooop ssswould ssslike mmmm to pat lumheadlo myla.
Translate the alien’s language into ordinary English. Then translate a well known saying in
English into Floppy. You might choose a famous paragraph from a historical document, or a
humorous dialogue in a television commercial.
________
What the heck are you? I never saw anything so strange as you before. Are you a
monster? Why is your nose below your eyes? I have nice scales on my tummy.
Would you like to pat my head?

Someone Dropped Their Banana
A Solecism Play
Michael Thompson, The Magic Lens
Fred and Joe enter. Fred looks down, and picks up a banana.
Fred: Look, someone dropped their banana.

Joe: How did you know many people own that banana?
Fred: Hopefully, they don't!
Joe: It makes those people feel hopeful to not own the banana?
Fred: Are you trying to aggravate me?
Joe: No, I'm not trying to make you worse; you said it was "their banana," I just want to know
who they are, and why they're so hopeful about their banana.
Fred: I ain't never said they were hopeful about no banana.
Joe: Oh, so you admit you said it.
Fred: I ain't never said it.
Joe: Let me get this straight: You said the people don't own a banana hopefully.
Fred: I'll not discuss this farther. I said someone dropped their banana.
Joe: You won't discuss this farther?
Fred: Right.
Joe: Then how close do you want me to stand, so we can talk about it?
Fred: I want you to stand a-ways over there, and leave me alone.
Joe: But you said you didn't want to discuss it farther.
Fred: I ain't gonna discuss it no farther.
Joe: Then why are you sending me farther?
Fred: Your trying to aggravate me, for sure.
Joe: No, I'm just trying to improve you.
Fred: Now, what're you inferring?
Joe: I can't infer anything, you have me confused.
Fred: If you ask me, you are literally a bird.
Joe: I am a mammal.
Fred: I see I can't learn you nothing.
Joe: What do you want to learn about me?
Fred: Your nonsense is making me feel nauseous.
Joe: No, I think you look fine.
Fred: I didn't say nothing about how I look!
Joe: You said you made me sick.
Fred: I didn't never say that.
Joe: That's right, you did.
Fred: See here, even with a lot of dark, rotten places, I'm gonna eat this banana.
Joe: I didn't realize you were sick. What disease do you have?
Fred: I ain't got no disease!
Joe: I'm so sorry to hear it. Where do you have these dark, rotten places, on your stomach? Let
me see.
Fred: I never said I had no dark, rotten place, I said there were rotten places on the banana.
Joe: You mean you got a skin disease from a banana?
Fred: This conversation is literally splitting my head.
Joe: Oh, no! Now I understand why you said you were nauseous.
Fred runs away screaming, and Joe sits down, peels the banana, and eats it.
finis

Latin Stems for Elementary Kids
stem meaning examples
bi (two) bicycle, biped, bilateral

sub (around) submarine, submerge, subtract
de (down) descend, deposit, deduce
pre (before) predict, prepare, prelude
super (over) supervise, superior, superb
un (not) unequal, unable, undone
inter (between) international, interstellar, interject
semi (half) semicircle, semiformal, semiannual
dis (away) dismiss, distract, distort
sym (together) symphony, sympathy, symmetry
circum (around) circumnavigate, circumspect, circumvent
mal (bad) malevolent, malady, malicious
post (after) posthumous, postscript, posterity
equi (equal) equilateral, equivocate, equilibrium
ante (before) antebellum, antecedent, anterior
aqua (water) aquatic, aqueduct, aquarium
audi (hear) auditory, audience, audiophile
scrib (write) scribe, inscribe, describe
cede (go) recede, precede, secede
cise (cut) excise, incisive, incisors
cred (believe) incredulous, credo, credible
miss (send) missive, remiss, emission
cide (kill) regicide, homicide, fratricide
dict (say) edict, malediction, contradict
bell (war) rebellion, bellicose, belligerent

500 Greek and Latin Stems
Michael C. Thompson
Here are most of the Greek and Latin stems found in The Word Within the Word and within that
group, those found in Caesar’s English, which are in boldface.
ab acr acro act ad aden aer ag

agog alb algia alt alter amat ambul amphi
an- andro Anglo anim ann ante antho anthro
anti apo apt aqua archy arthro ase astr
ate atmo atom audi aur austro auto bell
bene bi biblio bio bon brachy brev caco
cad calli calor cant cap capit cardio carn
cata caust cede cent centri cephalo chiro chlor
chrom chron cide circum cirr cise clam clud
co cogn com con contra cosmo counter cracy
cranio cred crypt cul cyan cyclo cyt dactylo
de dec derm dextro di dia dicho dict
digit dign diplo dis dom dorm dors dox
duct dyna dys eco ecto ef ego emia
endo enter epi equi erg err erythro ess
ethno eu ex exo extra fer fe fiss
flect flu foli fore form fort fract frat
fug fus fy gamy gastro gen geo germ
gest glott glyc gno gon grade gram graph
grat grav greg gress gymno gyn gyro hema
hemi hemo here hetero hexa hibern hippo hist
holo homo hyper hypo ichthy ician ideo idio
ign il im in ine infra inter intra
intro ish ism iso ist itis ium ize
ject junct jur jus kilo kin labor lachry
lat leg lent lepsy less let leuko liber
lign lin lingu lite liter lith loco lum
luna lys macro magn mal man mania mar
matri medi mega mel mela mem mens meso
meta meteor meter micro migr milli mir mis
miss mob moll myria nano narco nat nav
necro neo nesia ness neuro nomy nov ocul
oid oligo oma omni oo ophthal opia orb
ornith ortho oscu ose osis oss osteo ous
ovi pac paleo pan par para parl pater
path patho ped pend penta per peri petr
phag phan phasia phen phile phobia phon phor
phos photo phyll phylo phyte pico pithec plu
pneum pod polis poly pond pop port pos
post pot potent pre prim pro protero proto
pseudo psych pter pugn pulse punct put pyro
re rid rogat rub rupt sacro sanct sangui
sapro sat saur schizo sci scope scrib semi
sen sens sequ sess sine sis socio sol
solv som somn son soph soror spec spir
spor sta stell stereo strat string struct sub
super sur surg sym taxis tele tempor terr

Micropoems
Repositories of Human Insight
Michael C. Thompson, selected from The Word Within the Word
Micropoem: Intractable is a wonderfully expressive adjective. It is not made of intra

(within); it is made of in (not) and tract (pull). It suggests a mule-like stubbornness so firm that even
pulling is of no avail. To be intractable is to be resistant to persuasion, logic, coercion, or
compromise. Prejudice and bigotry are two of the most obvious intractable human phenomena, since
they are so resistant to change. Adherence to political dogma is another often intractable behavior.
The word incorrigible can also refer to a kind of stubbornness, but it really refers to misbehavior
which can not be corrected or improved. If you are incorrigible, we find it impossible to teach you
better. Another word which refers to stubbornness is refractory. A refractory person breaks (fract)
the rules and breaks them again (re), regardless of supervision. These three words give an interesting
insight into the nature of synonyms; they are synonyms, and they aren’t. The stems in the words
provide the best guide to the fine connotations which distinguish these words from each other. All
three refer to someone who is stubborn, but the intractable person is not pullable, the incorrigible
person is not correctable, and the refractory person breaks the rules again.
Micropoem: A desultory speech or conversation is one which is not coherent or connected;

it is random and aimless, wandering. It is lacking in structure, sequence, purpose. The word
desultory—pronounced DESultory—comes from de (down) and salire (leap), the idea being that in
speaking so aimlessly and irrelevantly, you are leaping down or jumping off the subject. One
common reason for losing the theme is that one really has no purpose or theme to care about.
Micropoem: Subterfuge is an especially descriptive noun. It refers to the evasions we use to

avoid being pinned down. You can evade a question with a subterfuge, as by distracting the
questioner with an unrelated counter-question. But the word contains a metaphorical image of what
is really happening: to use a subterfuge is to duck, to flee (fug) underneath (sub).
Micropoem: When we say that a beginner is a neophyte, we are comparing the beginner to a
new (neo) plant (phyte) that has just pushed through the surface of the ground. In other words, to call
a person a neophyte is to use a metaphor—only we often become so accustomed to using a word in
its metaphorical sense that we forget that we are even doing so. The word neophyte is also a good
example of the way we borrow words from various fields (in this case botany) for more general
usage.
Micropoem: The intransitive verb tergiversate means to desert, to turn renegade, to

repeatedly change one’s position toward something. The basis for this meaning is found in the
imagery contained in the stems. Tergiversate contains our old friend, vert (turn), and the Latin
tergum (back); to tergiversate is to turn one’s back. Someone who tergiversates could become an
apostate. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens refers to “the utmost tergiversation and treachery.”

Sesquipedalian Neologisms
From The Neologist’s Lexicon, Michael C. Thompson
cosmoplexity (koz mo pléx i tee) n. [cosmo (universe), plex (weave)] 1. chronic befuddlement
over the meaning of life 2. extreme obsession with the size and scale of the
universe resulting in overwhelming feelings of insignificance.
carnorogation (karn oh row gay’ shun) n. [carn (flesh), rogat (ask), tion (act)] 1. the cheeky habit
of asking others how much they weigh 2. the obsessive need to read all of the
dietary information on every item of packaged food in the supermarket before adding
it to the shopping cart.
egomuric (ee go myoor’ ik) adj. [ego (I), mur (wall)] 1. putting up behavioral or psycholgical
barriers which prevent people from knowing you 2. responding with subterfuges or
circumlocutions to all personal questions.
entomonomy (in toe moe’ no me) n. [entomo (insect), nomy (name or law)] 1. the unfortunate
habitual reference to one’s associates as forms of insects, as gadflies, wasps, social
butterflies, busy bees, flies in the ointment, and so forth 2. excessive use of the
phrase, “Stop bugging me.”
exism (ecks’ ism) n. [ex (out), ism (doctrine)] 1. the pathological addiction to the phrase,
“I’m outa here.” 2. chronic and habitual staring at the doors and windows during
conversation.
flagespection (flaj’ uh speck shun) n. [flag (whip), spect (look), tion (act)] 1. taking pleasure in
seeing others punished 2. a form of crowd pathology characterized by gathering to
observe tragedy.
lithovidesis (lith o vid’ e sis) n. [lith (rock), vid (look)] 1. a look which turns one to stone, as
the look of the Gorgon 2. the look of one whose name you have mispronounced.
mendify (men’ dih fy) v. [mend (flaw), fy (make)] 1. to deliberately err in an assignment, so
as to avoid receiving future assignments 2. any deliberate or dissembling
introduction of flaws into one’s work; sabotage.
pecuniopia (peh kyoo nee o’ pia) n. [pecunia (money), opia (sight)] 1. an obsession with
profit or financial concerns 2. seeing potential “dollar signs” in every activity.
resequious (ree seek’ we ous) adj. [re (again), sequ (follow), ous (full of)] 1. following
someone around, even after being asked not to 2. following someone as he or she
performs a duty which requires them to move back and forth.
sarcoposition (sar ko po zish’ un) n. [sarco (flesh), pos (put), tion (act)] 1. sitting in the middle of
a seat for two, so that no one else will sit down, as on a bus 2. sprawling out with
arms and legs in a movie theater seat, so that a stranger will not sit in either seat
next to you.
telependence (tell uh pend’ ence) n. [tele (far), pend (hang)] 1. the supernatural ability to hang
someone from a distance, as in secret revenge 2. (rare) the handicap of being
emotionally dependent upon someone who is far away.

Romero and Juleen
From The Word Within the Word, Volume 2
Michael C. Thompson
Romero enters and sees Juleen leaning against the Classic Coke machine.
She sees him too, whispers to her friend, laughs, and looks away demurely at MTV
on the television. Instantly a star-crossed lover, Romero tremulously whispers,
“Oh, she doth teach the video to glow!” He walks over to Juleen, reaches out, and
touches the tip of his index finger to the tip of her index finger.
Romero: If I profane, with my maladroit hand, this magnum opus, my lips, two
expository emissaries, ready stand to conduct you to the realm of
surrealistic forgiveness.
Juleen: Good Emissary, you do wrong your protagonist’s lips too much in this,
for a scholarly exegesis is how the truly forgiving kiss.
Romero: But have not supercilious scholars lips?
Juleen: Aye, Emissary, lips which they forsooth must use in valediction.
Romero: Oh, brave stoic, then no move make, while my valediction I take.
(kisses her)
Juleen: Until this night, I have not known the true diction of a valediction. If
this be farewell, prithee let me read all your final analects! (kisses
him)
Romero: And yet my mind misgives some moribund end, yet hanging in the
ignominious stars, to my despised life, and methinks I do presage the
vile chill of a cold sarcophagus. (they kiss again)
finis

The Power of Greek and Latin Stems
From The Word Within the Word
Michael C. Thompson
• Efficiency in learning vocabulary

• Preparation for technical subjects
• Concealed meanings: Micropoems
• Spelling with Greek and Latin Stems
circum vent circum spect equi nox

super flu ous post script syn chron ize
post hum ous ex cise matri cide
geo logy biblio phile auto graph
re cede pre cise dis miss
bio morph ic anthropo logy exo bio logy
hydro gen pro duct hydro sphere
omni potent mono mania pseudo pod
pseudo nym neuro logy hypo derm ic
mega lith xeno phobia ortho dox
meso morph matri arch ver dict
acro phobia acro nym hetero dox
magn anim ous gyro scope demo cracy
tetra meter contra dict thermo meter
octa meter re cogn ize pyro mania
pyro phobia trans fer soph ist
se cede osteo cyte ecto derm
metro polis osteo logy dia meter
homo nym meta phor sacro sanct
topo nym mono lith poly graph
theo logy uni son muta gen ic
infra son ic ichthy osis psych osis
epi graph leuco cyte eco nomy
erythro cyte neo log ism holo gram
nihil ism audio phile cosmo logy

Latin Stems: English and Spanish
From Caesar’s English
stem meaning English / Spanish examples
circum (around) circumspect / circunspecto

mal (bad) malevolent / malévolo
post (after) posthumous / póstumo
equi (equal) equilateral / equilátero
ante (before) antecedent / antecedente
In these pairs of cognates, we continue to see the wonderful

similarity between English words and Spanish words. In fact, each of
these words features two stems in a row, and in every case the Spanish
word uses the same two Latin stems that the English word uses:
circum around, spect look

mal bad, vol will
post after, hum earth
equi equal, lat side
ante before, cede go
Clearly, English and Spanish are sibling languages.

Michael Clay Thompson is editor of Our Gifted Children magazine, and a member
of the Board of Directors of NAGC, as well as past president of the Indiana
Association for the Gifted. The author of The Word Within the Word, Caesar’s
English, The Magic Lens, Grammar Island, Thinkers, Classic Words, and The
Heart of the Mind, Michael Thompson is a frequent presenter and consultant to
school systems in the area of language arts. He currently also teaches a distance
vocabulary class to gifted middle school and high school students through
Northwestern University’s Letterlinks program.
787 9770554
mith@mac.com
http://homepage.mac.com/mith/
To order Our Gifted Children or any of the titles above, call Royal Fireworks Press
at 845 726-4444.

Language Arts The Core of All Content

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Language Arts The Core of All Content

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Language Arts

The Core of All Content

Michael Clay Thompson

Royal Fireworks Press

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

Shakespeare, Dante, Melville, Plato, Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Charlotte

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

In thinking about the nonpopularity of classics, it helps to consider

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

countenance profound manifest

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Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

These fragments I have shored against my ruins.

Parts of Speech: adj. n. pron. v. v. prep. pron. n

Parts of Sentence: direct obj. subj. ---predicate---

Phrases: --prepositional phrase--

Clauses: -----------one independent clause, simple, declarative sentence-----------

Fumy, spiritous mists inhabit this place.

Parts of Sentence subj pred dir obj

Phrases --no prepositional, appositive, or verbal phrases--

Clauses ---one independent clause, simple declarative sentence----

Traditional Sentence Diagram

th ese are wo ods

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

Did Giotto rescue Aria from the mellifluous Sirens?

Phrases: ------------prepositional phrase------------

Clauses: one independent clause, simple interrogative sentence

Giotto did rescue Aria

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

The sun did not shine.

It was too wet to play.

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

The Logic of Sentence Analysis

Find the subject/predicate set.

Is the verb ACTION or LINKING?

If the verb is action, then

If the verb is linking, then

Look for the next subject/predicate set and repeat.

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

1. A children’s story contains a famous compound declarative

2. A famous sentence from Shakespeare begins with a

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

2. Near New Lima Venus the elders erected Abduls monument.

4. Whitman's novel Digital Self is about a roboship named Meson.

7. As the poet wrote Umbra he imitated Virgils meter.

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

Hooop sssare what rach hecklo limmmmmmil. Ssssaw neverloo

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Fred: Look, someone dropped their banana.

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bi (two) bicycle, biped, bilateral

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

ab acr acro act ad aden aer ag

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

Micropoem: Intractable is a wonderfully expressive adjective. It is not made of intra

Micropoem: A desultory speech or conversation is one which is not coherent or connected;

Micropoem: Subterfuge is an especially descriptive noun. It refers to the evasions we use to

Micropoem: The intransitive verb tergiversate means to desert, to turn renegade, to

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com

Michael Clay Thompson - http://homepage.mac.com/mith/ - mith@mac.com