Strewn

Part of speech: verb

Source Sent. & Page #:
“To my delight, I found that the lawn had been strewn with miniature Iranian flags.” Funny in Farsi 113

Context clues: Used logic with miniature Iranian flags and the lawn.

Definition: to cover or overspread with something scattered or sprinkled.

Your Original Sentence: When I finished trick-or-treating, i dumped all my candy and had strewn my bed full of goodies.

Frugal

Part of speech: adj

Source Sent. & Page #:
After having baby-sat for every frugal family in town, I eventually hit the mother lode. (Funny in Farsi, 123)

Context clues: logic, the sentence before shows that frugal means to be scanty or little expense

Definiton: costing little; inexpensive

Your Original Sentence: my mom tends to do her shopping at the 99cent store because of its frugal products.

Baklava

Part of speech: noun

Source Sent. & Page #:
In Berkeley, and only in Berkeley, my name drew people like flies to baklava. Funny in Farsi, 64

Context clues: logic, “drew people like flies”, flies are drawn to food

Definition: A Near Easter pastry made of many layers of paper-thin dough with filling of nuts, baked dough and honey

Your Original Sentence: Ms. Henderson brought baklava to class today to try.

Reflection

An event that shaped the person I am today, strong and independent, is when my mom was taken by immigration. My mom, who I depended on the most for everything and I loved so much, was in one quick instant taken away from me. It was one morning when I woke up and heard people talking in the room. I pretended to be asleep while I quietly listened in. I could hear my mom searching through papers as some other voices were telling her to hurry up. I was so scared but I tried to remain calm. Minutes later, my mom had left the room and out the apartment door. Soon enough I was told she was taken to be deported for failing to show up for court. Everything inside me had been crushed and broken to pieces. Even though I was heartbroken, I still had my younger brother and sister to take care of and tell them what had happened and for this I had to be strong about it. I tried to stay strong and not cry, tell them everything was going to be alright.

Hours later, my aunt had told me it was official she was being deported. It was very hard for me and it sucked that I couldn’t do anything to help her. My mom had called me the next morning telling me to stay strong and not to worry, to take care of my brother and sister and soon she’d see us again. The first week I was so devastated I felt weak. But as time passed, I grew to be more independent of myself now that my mom wasn’t around. I tried to be a mom to my brother and sister and helped them anyway I could. Since that day, I’ve learned to do things on my own and not depend on people to get things done for me anymore. I’ve grown to be a stronger woman and I’m soon going to bring my mother back especially now that I’m 18. When she sees me, she’s going to see how successful and well grown I’ve become and make her proud.

Reflection

In elementary school, I loved reading. Books fascinated me a lot that I would check out at least 5 books every two weeks. I developed to read faster and I finished reading books really quick. Then one day I told myself that before I graduated elementary school I would read all the books in the library, but of course that never happened. As I entered junior high I was introduced to sports so that was another thing that came to fascinated me a lot too. Eventually, sports took a lot of my time and I had less time too read books I wanted because I already had assigned books from teachers to read which sucked tremendously. As time went by, I lingered away from reading because I developed enjoying more time playing sports or hanging out with my friends. I knew I was distancing myself from a hobby I use to love but at that time I didn’t care. I knew how to read fast so I thought that was a strength being a reader and that’s all that really mattered in being a reader. Also, I never had problems reading or understanding text from books so it was even more reason for me to not read anymore. Then came high school and I finally came to the point where I just hated reading. It was very boring to me and while everyone else was reading I was either drawing on paper or passing notes or playing tic-tac-toe with my friend next to me. In my junior year of high school, we read this book called the Fountainhead, a very complex and interesting book. However, as we read through it, I had a hard time analyzing the author’s text sometimes. That’s when it hit me that I was missing as a reader more understanding and methods of analyzing text. All of those years of not reading had immensely dropped my reading skills. Now, I’m stuck in a reading class in college. Nonetheless, I’m trying to bring back up my reading skills I had as a young kid and hopefully stay and continue reading more like I use to back in the young days.

apathetic

Part of Speech: adjective

The Source Sent. & Page #:
"...that perhaps included in the freedoms in this country is the freedom to be apathetic."
Funny in Farsi pg. 118

Context Clues: From my logic, i know that apathetic means when you don't feel anything. You just feel empty inside.

Definiton: having or showing little or no emotion

Your Original Sentence: Lately I've been feeling very apathetic towards everyone.

Extricate

Part of Speech: verb

The Source Sent. & Page #:
"The more I tried to extricate myself, the harder she clung. "
Funny in Farsi pg. 123

Context Clues: From my logic, I know that extricate means to set free or let go of something or someone.

Definition: to free or release from entanglement; disengage

Your Original Sentence: My dream is to someday be a cop and extricate individuals from dangerous situations.

Staunch

Part of Speech: adjective

The Source Sent. & Page #:
"In 1980, however, despite my father's staunch devotion to freedom and fairness, he was still a foreigner with an accent, an accent that after the Iranian Revolution was associated with all things bad."
Funny in Farsi pg. 119

Context Clues: In the source sentence, the word after staunch, "devotion", means to have a certain form of loyalty so then maybe staunch has to be a synonym of devotion.

Definition: firm or steadfast in principle, adherence, loyalty, etc., as a person

Your Original Sentence: Im grateful for having such staunch friends that I can talk to about anything.

Reflection

Since we began studying the vocabulary words, i have honestly been actually learning the words. Before when i would study for vocabulary test, i would just memorize the meaning of words just so i could do good on a a test. Nevertheless, this time im actually taking my time in learning and understanding the words. I want to improve my vocabulary because i've noticed that it's not so great. I feel that if i write more essays and papers with high vocabulary, i will feel good about myself because it will show me that my writing skills and vocabulary have improved tremendously. I really like how we get too pick words that we don't understand of the book Funny in Farsi and then they get put on the test. I really am learing a lot and i even still remember the vocabulary words from the first test suprisingly. I hope i don't forget them but im gonna study them still. Also i like how the test is not matching the words with their definitions because i feel like that never really works. It's better putting the words onto sentences because that way we learn how we can use them in sentences correctly as well as their meaning. Surprisingly, I've been using a couple of vocabulary words already in conversations and i feel really cool when i say them now because my friends ask what it means and I just laugh. There were also some words that we studied and i finally learned their meaning and I had seen the word before and was always curious to know what it meant. Nevertheless, I hope that as we continue to have new vocabulary words each week that i really learn them good and my goal is to not forget them this time. I really am striving to learn and improve my vocabulary !

Capacity

Part of Speech: noun

Source Sent. & Page #:
"As he found within himself the capacity to rise above his humiliating circumstances, he became an observer as well as a participant in the experience. "
Connect pg. 152

Context Clues: from my logic, capacity is a term used when there is a large amount of space in an area to contain

Definition: the ability to receive or contain

Your Original Sentence: The hotel has a large capacity.

Dote

Part of Speech: Verb

Source Sent. & Page # :
"Now, whenever we visit my relatives, all whom dote on my husband, i realize that he didn't marry me despite my tribe, he married me because of them. "
Funny in Farsi pg. 103

Context Clues: in the text, "all whom dote on my husband", dote must mean either they hate him or love him because "whom" refers to a group.

Definiton: to bestow or express excessive love or fondness habitually

Your Original Sentence : There are many parents who dote on their only child.

Impelling

Part of Speech: verb

Source Sent. & Page #:
"the impelling conviction of those who were to survive that they had a mission to perform, some important work left to do."
Connect pg. 152

Context Clues: from my own logic, impel means when something has a big impact or move on an individual or object.

Definition: to drive or cause to move onward; propel; impart motion to.

Your Original Sentence : During class i had to read the last few paragraphs of Macbeth, which suprisingly had an impelling ending.

Proverbial

Part of Speech: Adjective

Source Sent. & Page #:
"But, like all buffalo, he eventually grew big and turned into the proverbial bull in the China shop."
Funny in Farsi pg. 57

Context Clues: Bull = Strong

Definiton: Object of common mention or reference

Your Original Sentence: All Bibles have proverbial phrases.

Elite

Part of Speech: Noun

Source Sent. & Page #:
"Popular culture is distinct from elite culture, whis is shared by only a select few but is highly valued."
Text-Connect Pg. 40

Context Clues: From my logic, i know that elite means an individual or group that is of high class and quality.

Definition: best or most skilled members of a group

Your Original Sentence: In my opinion, Kobe Bryant is the elite basketball player in today's generation.

Clandestine

Part of Speech: Adjective

Source Sent. & Page #:
"This clandestine operation, however, required a handshake with a five-dollar bill enclosed." Pg. 51

Context Clues: From my logic, operation is a type of mission so the word must mean a detailed meaning of the mission. Since it requires a handshake, some antonyms for clandestine could be secrecy or unrevealing.

Definition: kept or done in secret, often in order to conceal an illicit or improper purpose.

Your Original Sentence: My brothers and I made a tough clandestine deal to not tell our parents what had happened last night.

Consumed

Part of Speech: Verb


Source Sentence & Page Number:
"Unlike elite culture (sometimes referred to as "high culture"), popular culture is mass-roduced and mass-consumed and has enourmous significance in the fromation of public attitudes and values"
Text-Connect pg. 40


Context Clues:
Antonym = mass-produced is an anotnym because to produce is the opposite of taking up something.



Definition: to do with away completely; to take up


Your Original Sentence:
Earlier today I went with my family to the Chinese buffet and I was so hungry I consumed 5 plates of food.