1992: A Year to Remember

Every year around this time, my memories of 1992 become very vibrant. In light conversation, I will say it was the best year of my life. My husband asked formally for my hand in marriage, the wedding was planned for May 2nd, honeymoon in Cancun, perfect weather on the wedding day. How could I honestly complain.

Reality is that the year was full of anxiety and pressure. Even though my husband and I are classified as Hispanic, we come from different countries and follow different traditions. Getting our families to accept calmly that we were not marrying a fellow countryman was not easy, especially since our countries do not have very warm friendly thoughts of each other. Ironic, since we are neighbors. The first day our families met was tense. Thankfully, they all had our happiness in mind. They forgot about their cultural differences and warmly embraced our marriage with all the support they could give. Still sixteen years later, our difference do perk up every once in a while.

And then the week before our big day arrived. We were in shock. On April 30, the Los Angeles riots began after the anouncement of the jury was made; four white policemen were aquitted in the savage beating of Rodney King, an African -American. I cried as I watched on television how quickly the community erupt into a violent frenzy, demonstrating their rage and fustration. I will never forget their pain.

Afterwards, as I reflected on the devastating news, I realized how small our family differences seemed in light of what was happening in Los Angels.

Today, I celebrate my wedding anniversary, but I also say a prayer in memory of all those murdered and hurt during those riots and that we continue to reach across our racial barriers and embrace our fellow human beings with respect.

Vocabulary:
countryman: comming from the same country or place of origin

riots: a disturbance of peace; wild conduct or disturbance; a fight

barrier: something that acts a a wall to separate things

frenzy: feeling of extreme agitation or rage or craziness

jury: a group of 12 people chosened to hear facts about a case and then based on these facts make a verdit of innocence or guilt.

embrace: to hug or hold close

Fill in the blanks:

The fence was the best ________ to stop the deer from entering the garden and eating our vegetables.

The _________could not make a decision without more information about the murder.

There was a _________ at the bar when the it was closed permanently.

We __________for the first time after years of ignoring each other.

She is my ____________.

The horse was __________with fear when he smelled the smoke in his stall.

Grammar Point:
Adverbs are words that modify the verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. There are several categories of adverbs. Some of these are manner ( answers the question, How?), frequency (always, often), quantity (a little, many) and time and place (now, tomorrow).

The most easily recognizable form of an adverb is a word ending with -ly.

Example: The rabbit ran quickly into the forest.

Quickly in this sentence modifies the verb ran. It answers the question how did the rabbit run? Therefore it is an adverb of manner. Be careful, there are words that end in -ly that are not adverbs. Make sure the the word anwers a question related to the predicate (verb), not the subject (noun).

Re-read the passage above and try to find 5 adverbs. I have highlighted some in orange to start you off.

****FYI : For Your Information****

To learn more about what happened at the Rodney King trial or other famous trials visit the University of Missouri-Kansas City wbsite. www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lapd/lapd.html