The Door

As I approach the door, my mind goes blank. My fingers turn numb and blue while perspiration starts to seep through my skin making me damp and wet. The air around me begins to thin out at a rapid pace making it difficult to take a deep breath. My arms feel heavy and clumsy. They loose their strength as I struggle to open the door. I brace my shaking legs to give myself more leverage. I ignore the noise, the laughter, the cars and lights that swirl around me. They tell me to run. I want to obey. I want to run and never return.

My hand drops heavily to my side. I can leave but a powerful force has glued my unsteady feet on the ground. I raise my stiff and freezing hand to the door and once again, I feel the panic. My heart rate increases. My chest starts to heave. My vision is cloudy and blurry. Why am I here? I cannot remember. My name is gone, so please do not ask for it.

My focus is on the door.

Again my shaking fingers reach to grasp the cold metal handle. There is no escaping the cold. Still I pull at the door and I fail. The door is powerful and it will not open towards me. The battle continues. My strength returns as I struggle with the stubborn door. The cold perspiration is gone and now I feel heat racing up from the center of my body, up to my shoulders and through my arms into my fingers. Gone are the cold and the shaky fingers; now I welcome the heat that leaves a mark in my cheeks.

As the flames flicker all around, I battle the nasty door. The noise around us continues to grow until it reaches a crescendo. Silence reigns. I did not notice it as I made terrible battle cries and made fabulous judo movements to pull the door open. This was one battle that I was not giving up. I will get this door open!

A cool, steady hand touches my shoulder. In my crazed state, I almost push this savior away with a dangerous judo move. I stop a moment, and felt the painful strain of having pulled savagely at the door shoot through my arms, legs and back. Clarity arrived with this pain, as well as embarrassment, when my savior showed me that the door needed to be pushed.

Oops!

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Vocabulary:

leverage: the act of balancing, giving support

powerful: having a great and strong force.

crescendo: a slow increase in force or noise.

clarity: to see clearly

Judo: a method of fighting without using weapons; your body is the weapon

approach : to come near

fabulous: wonderful or more than great

embarrassment: act of feeling confude, shameful, chagrin.

Complete the sentences using the above vocabulary:

We were excited to learn a new _____________movement.

I need a moment of silence to think with ___________.

The dogs ___________the old man with suspicion.

The ___________we felt when our ice cream cake fell off the table was terrible.

We need something to act as _____________and help us open the collapsed door.

There was a _______________storm approaching, so we hurried inside to hide.

The wind reached its ____________, and all the trees were uprooted.

We saw this _______________purple prom dress.

Grammar Point:

The above passage describes a feeling. Notice the variety of sentence structures. Most are simple and compound sentences. Theses types of sentences were used to make the reader feel the panic through the construction of the sentences as well as the context of the story.

A simple sentence has one independent clause. It stands by itself and needs no help from other clauses. Ex: The battle continues.

Compound sentences have two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction. Ex: The door is heavy and she could not open it.

Re-read the story and find 2 simple sentences and 2 compound sentences. Think about a time when you had a very strong emotion: saddness, anxiety, happiness. Write about this feeling and try to use simple and compound sentence to add to the story's feelings. Be creative.

Smile!

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

It comes in three's ....

Most of my life, I have heard that events, good or bad, arrive in three's. But what does this really mean? I really do not believe in this old wive's tale, yet there are times my resolve is shaken.

Since January, my family has been going through mostly negative incidents. First my husband loses his job. Several week later, my daughter has an accident that nearly makes my hair turn white. And now when we were all trying to re-establish our familiar routine, catch up on schoolwork and try to welcome in the springtime, another shock to our system. My mother trips and falls. She has a severely sprained ankle and a lot of contusions and abrasions but no fractures. She is an elderly woman with lots of medical problems which are now so aggravated that she is in constant pain. She is going to need a lot of help with cooking, washing, taking care of my Dad and her dog.

As I sat in the emergency room waiting for her x-ray results and making a mental list of how I was going to rearrange my schedule to come and cook her evening meals, I realized that this was incident number three. So this is it! According to the wive's tale, bad luck comes in three's and then good luck will follow. As I was rejoicing in this fantasy-made- reality moment of hope, my cell phone rings. I happily answer with a cheerful hello, just to hear that my daughter, yet again, has been injured. So much for that wive's tale's, bad incident number four, just arrived.

Vocabulary
resolve: when used as a noun means a determination a firmness.
wive's tale: stories full of superstitions or proverbs that are orally handed down generation to generation.
rejoicing: to feel extreme joy, happiness
routine: to repeat an action or series of actions by habit
shock: a sudden surprise
aggravated: to make worse

Please complete the following sentences using the new vocabulary.
1. The child's constant crying _____________ the baby sitter headache.
2. The ____________of seeing his wife's ghost made his hair turn white.
3. He was _____________when they faund his stolen antique violin.
4. There are many _______ __________that are not true.
5. We started a new _________ of getting up earlier to watch the sunrise.
6. His ________was unshaken as the police presented more proof of his daughter's presumed crime.

Grammar Point:

Sentnces are composed of many phrases that when put together give a context and meaning. A sentence must always have a subject and a predicate. The predicate of the sentence carries the action, the movement of the sentence. It includes the verb (action/ movement ).

Example:
The lovely young lady / was shocked when she saw the man kick the little dog.

-was shocked is the verb
-was shocked when she saw the man kick the little dog is the predicate.

Re-read the highlighted sentences and choose 5 sentences and underline the predicate and circle the verb. Examples are highlighted in blue.

Enjoy!

Playing a joke on Mom

Sorry Harry Potter, but you have been replaced by Edward Cullen and his family, the mysterious, vegetarian vampires of the Twilight series.

I jumped for joy when I first discovered the Harry Potter series. I thought my girls would enjoy the adventures of a young magician as he battles evil and tries to be a normal kid at the same time. That did not happen. I was more excited than them. I guess this was one time I would not be able to live vicariously through my kids reactions. I was disappointed. The movie version of the book stirred them up a bit, but they were more scared than impressed. Still, I read every single book of the series hoping they would follow my footsteps. Alas, the books are now covered with dust as they wait patiently for some attention.

And they will continue to wait. Now, Twilight is in the air. When my daughter first was introduced to the series she did not understand the storyline. Vampires and romance were new subjects so she asked me to read it so we could talk about it. Before I could get to it, rumors spread that a movie was being made. This made my daughter race to finish the book and ask her friends about the book. When she finally finished it and understood it, she insisted I read it. What an entertaining book. I really enjoyed it and I can see why young girls are so fascinated with the main character, Edward Cullen. As usual, the theme of a forbidden love is a powerful pull, especially for impressionable teenagers. The twist of the Romeo and Juliet story is very compelling and it makes you want to continue reading.

We have seen the movie and we were very disappointed with its quality. This did not stop us from continuing to read the series. Usually, I am the one that is hounding my girls to finish reading a book. This time , my daughters pulled a fast one on me. They made this charade of whining that they wanted the second book of the series. It had to be an original, especially since the library did not have a copy of book number two or three. I said sure as long as I got to read it first since I read faster than them. My husband joined their play and told me that he was buying the book, only to find it sold out at the bookstores. I believed him and forgot about the book, until one morning that my daughter hands me the second book, New Moon. I was very surprised and said that I would read it right away and give it to her by the next day. Their reaction astounded me. They all were laughing. It took me a moment to realize that my daughter had already read the book. What a good joke they played on me. She had read, not just New Moon, but Eclipse also. I have a lot of catching up to do now.

New Vocabulary: (highlighted in blue)

• charade: a game; a deception


• forbidden: something that is not allowed; prohibited


• rumor: gossip; a story that is not true.


• vicarious: experience emotion indirectly through someone else's experience.


• vegetarian: someone who eats only vegetable, no meat.


• pull a fast one: expression meaning to play a joke.

Complete the sentences using a new vocabulary word:

• Ali is a ____________. She will not eat a hamburger.


• The ____________says that John stole Peter's girlfriend.


• Ella lived ___________all of her twin sister's achievements.


• The fruit of the apple tree was ______________ to all that lived in the garden.


• The boys ______________on their mother when they convinced her school was closed.


• Stefan continued to act like the president of the company even though her knew the __________was almost over.

Grammar Point:
Subject-Verb Agreement. When writing a story or an essay at times it is easy to lose focus on the subject - verb agreement of a sentence. The verb, or action of the sentence must correspond with the subject of the sentence. Therefore if the subject is plural, the verb must be plural. If the subject is singular the verb must be so also.
ex: The cat jumps. subject : a cat (singular) verb: singular present
The rabbits win the race . subject: the rabbits (plural) verb: simple present

In the above text, I have highlighted in red 4 examples of subject - verb agreement. Re-read the story and find 3 more examples of subject -verb agreement.

Enjoy!

Endless Saturday

Saturday seemed endless. It started with my routine trip to Queens to teach religion at the Church of the Holy Child Jesus. My assistant for the day was my daughter, Angelica. She was very enthusiastic and more than willing to help in the classroom. She knew that after class we were going to retrieve her new glasses, visit grandparents, and then get to the highlight of her day, the appointment with the beautician for her new hair style. She was exceptionally happy, and very talkative. She was also helping me to organize a little impromptu dinner with my cousins in the evening. As we raced down the boulevard to all our stops, we made mental lists of housework to be done and calls to make. Since my husband is the family chef, he was in charge of the cuisine for the night. He was planning a surprise. It was very exciting not to know what was on the menu for dinner.

I treasure these moments of bonding. Angelica is a young teenager and she is blossoming in a very mature way. She is still a child-like fourteen year old that wants to be twenty, yet enjoys visiting grandparents, helping children and spending a day out with her mother. Her patience is limitless. I realized this as we sat on a lumpy sofa, reading magazines, guessing if dad was using our tomatoes and avocados for his secret recipe and eating stale pretzels, as we waited almost two hours for her turn at the beauty shop. Her biggest complaint of the day was why did we have so many family reunions. I tried to emphasize that as much as we enjoy friends, family is our faithful support group in good and bad times. And that I did not want to wait for an incident, good or bad, to happen for us to speak, so we get together when we can and enjoy ourselves.

We returned home with just enough time to dust the piano, to sweep the floors, to light the fragrance candles and to dim the lights, so any cobwebs we missed could not be seen. My youngest, Diana had done her part and as a team, we accomplished a great feat. The house looked warm and inviting. My husband's talent was evident as the aroma of dinner danced in the air. Our cousins arrived and our evening was wonderful. As we all were talking at the dinner table, I observed Angelica as she listened and participated in the conversation with all the other adults. I felt very blessed to have such a bright, young lady for a daughter. I turned and saw my youngest being a witness to her sister's behavior and realized that her turn to blossom is just around the corner.
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NEW VOCABULARY :

• boulevard: a large street with three to four lanes.
• endless: having no end, no limit
• to treasure: to cherise , hold in high regard
• impromptu: something that is done suddenly
• stale: not fresh, old
• cobwebs: web spun by spider.
• feat: extraordinary accomplishment
• around the corner: an expression meaning: happening very soon

Complete the sentences. Use the words above:

1. We attempted to cross the large_________, but the cars did not slow down for pedestrians.
2. When we returned two days later, we found that the bread was ______ and the roast beef was hard.
3. She __________that old porce;lain doll because it had belonged to her grandmother.
4. There was dirt and ___________all over the abandoned cottage.
5. The village held an____________meeting to discuss how to trap the wolves.
6. Luck was just _____________when I found the four leaf clover.
7. We accomplished a great __________when we located the lost boy.
8. The tunnel seemed ___________ as we walked accross it the first time.

Foreign Word Borrowing:
As our culture becomes more diversifiesd, words from other languages come in contact with English and stay to become part of the English language. Examples of this phenomena are cookie (Dutch), yogurt (Turkish), gorilla (Africa), menu (French) and piano (Italy). Some words remain with their original spelling as in the French word, chauffeur. While others change, like stampede which comes from the Spainsh word: estampida. Re-read the above story carefully. There are 12 borrowed foreign words used. Can you find at least 10 foreign words? Write them down and see if you can guess what language they come from.

Have Fun!

Snowy night

Tonight as I sat by the window, I saw the snowflakes fall, slowly, almost gingerly as if they did not want to disturb me. Their slow, yet steady movement, made me want to fly again. This time I wondered if I could I fly to the future? Could I go to a world where hunger is a scarcity? A world that has found a way to control violence. A world where abuse, whether domestic or international has been eliminated from society and diversity is embraced. I would fly to a world where our younger generation does not learn about hate from their environment but rather compassion by example. I would enjoy living in a world that would embrace positive change.

I shudder from a chill as I noticed that I am sitting by my window again. The snow is still coming down worse than before because I can barely distinguish the street lamp outside. I realize when I look out from my window, that my world is changing. The snow changes everything from shadow to light just as rain brings life to grass, trees and flowers. Change even so subtle is positive. Positive attitude will make the world change. So I smile and promise to keep smiling as I try to make others smile. A smile is not hurtful but it can change a person's day from gloom to happy. When I look out the window again, I see my neighbor trudging through the snow. He stops and I get his attention. I smile as I wave my hand in greeting.

New Vocabulary:

• distinguish : not able to recognize or see


• subtle: slight; small; barely able to perceive.


• realize: to understand


• control: to be able to restraint or limit ability of others


• compassion: the awareness and deep feeling for the feelings good or bad of others.


• diversity: being different


• trudge: to walk with difficulty
  

Fill in the blanks with above vocabulary:

1. The __________of cultures found in the school increased the awareness of other languages and traditions.

2. As he was driving , the rain suddenly come down hard and he could not _________the road up ahead.

3. The turtle made a _________movement when he saw the boy approach.

4. They ___________that the red bird was alive when he flapped his wing.

5. He could not ___________the angry mob with his passive words.

6. Diana is a very kind and __________ young girl. She always is ready to help.

7. At the end of a difficult day, the bus driver _______ up the path to his house.

Subordinate conjunction:
Specific conjunctions that unite two independent clauses or an independent clause and a dependent one are called subordinate conjunctions.
An example: Jake arrived on time to pick up his girlfriend. (independent )
They were late for the opera. (independent)
Conjunction: Even though.

Even though Jake arrived on time to pick up his girlfriend, they were late for the opera.

Other conjunction that follow this pattern are: if, after, when, as, until, unless, because , when and others.

See if you can pick out a three subordinate conjunctions in the paragraphs above. Notice how they are uniting two independent clauses that are related to the idea of the story. Following these examples and create 3 sentences using the subordinate conjunctions you have found.

Warning: Do not be fooled by the coordinating conjunctions: but, and, so.
Enjoy and Smile!

Dreamer

Have you ever sat on the beach, looked out at the horizon and let your imagination wander? Where did you go?
If I could fly over the sea, then I would soar through the clouds. I would travel until I arrive in my aunt's backyard. She has been in mourning and she needs company. If she were home then I would visit with her and I would convince her to take a trip with me. If she accompanied me, then I would take her to visit every family member around the world. This is the only way I can show her that she is not alone. If I could fly, she would appreciate my visit very much.

Have you ever dreamed of touching the sky?
Have you felt the tender touch of the clouds as they danced around your body?

Many years ago I was able to make this dream a reality. I, along with my husband and cousins, climbed one of the highest snow covered mountain called Cotopaxi in Ecuador. It was a very difficult and dangerous walk but it was worth the effort. At one point, I felt unable to breathe and we rested for a moment. As I sat on a rock, I realized that I was surrounded by clouds.Their touch was light and cool. I reached out into the air but I could not grasp anything. I felt it on my cheeks. Suddenly, the clouds parted and the the view was spectacular. I saw the valley and the land beyond it. I watched as wild horses galloped across it, while others grazed and others played. It was a pristine scene that no one else had seen. It was so peaceful and quiet, that I felt like I was disturbing nature just by watching it.

Have you ever asked who lives among the clouds?
I have always thought of the sky as a very peaceful place. It was the place where souls lived. As a child I would look up at the blue sky and imagined my guardian angel playing peek-a-boo from behind the clouds. When my children were younger, they would look up at the sky and they would imagine seeing animal shapes in the clouds. I guess we all have different visions. ******************************************************
New Vocabulary:

1. different visions: expression meaning not seeing things the same way

2 tender touch: expression meaning soft feeling on one's skin

3 peek-a-boo: A game played with babies where you hide from their view and then suddenly

appear. This causes the baby to laugh.

4 soar: to fly high

5 guardian angel: spirit or angel that protect children from harm (christian view).

6 mourning: period of grief or sorrow after the death of a loved one.

7 pristine: untouched, like new

****************************************************
Complete the sentences using the new vocabulary:

1. The plane _________above the mountains.

2. The children pray every night to their _______ _________.

3. The little girl laughed when we played _________________ with her.

4. The baby stopped crying when she felt her mother's __________ ___________.

5. The lady was in ___________for many years after the husband died.

6. The new car had arrived in ____________condition.

7. They never agree on anything because they have ________ _________.

*****************************************************
Grammar Point: Conditional clause

Conditional clauses are usually used to express an idea that may or may not real, in the present, past or future mode. Conditional clauses have two parts; the main clause has the auxillay verb, 'would' or 'will', and the subordinate clause has 'if'. Usually the main clause is the consequence of the "if" clause.

Examples:
If I study hard, I will learn English . (present conditional : an event that implies what may happen now)

If she had worn her sneakers, she would not have fallen. (past conditional: an event that could have happened in the past. )

I would go shopping with her, if she arrived on time. (future conditional: en event that may happen in the future.)

In the above readings, conditional clauses and simple past tense are used to answer the highlighted questions. Read the stories over again and find the conditional clauses. See how they give the unrealistic answers an imaginary quality. Then compare it with the story expressed in the simple past tense.

Use one of the highlighted questions and write a story using one or two conditional clauses.

Have Fun!