1. Hubris (n)- excessive pride; arrogance 2. Humility (n)- modesty; understanding one’s importance 3. Requisite (adj)- required, essential, or necessary for a task 4. Contrived (adj)- planned/forced; artificial; strained 5. Equanimity (n)- calmness; composure; serenity 6. Compulsive (adj)- obsessive 7. Copious (adj)- abundant; plentiful 8. Ephemeral (adj)- fleeting; short-lived; transitory; evanescent 9. Penchant (n)- strong liking or talent for something; inclination; propensity 10. Mercurial (adj)- fickle; one who changes his/her beliefs often 11. Nuance (n)- a slight variation or difference; a shade of meaning; something subtle that most people don’t catch 12. Gregarious (adj) – sociable; fond of company, affable 13. Sanctimonious (adj)- pretending to be pious or conservative 14. Extemporaneous (adj)- not planned beforehand; improvised 15. Fatuous (adj)- foolish

 Using all the words on List 8, write sentences that relate to literature from 9 th or 10 th grade English.  Suggestions: Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo & Juliet, Lord of the Flies, Antigone, 12 Angry Men, short stories, anything else you can think of.  Or you can use anything we have read/talked about this year, such as The Crucible, Catcher, Into the Wild, etc.

In the novel Lord of the Flies, which is requisite reading for most 10 th graders, William Golding contrives a very nuanced story in which a group of mostly gregarious young boys are stranded on a deserted island with copious resources; however, equanimity on the island is ephemeral, and the boys quickly exhibit fatuous behavior – in particular, the sanctimonious Jack, who has a penchant for hunting, soon becomes compulsive about it, developing a sense of hubris that causes him and the boys (many of whom are mercurial) to extemporaneously kill the humble Simon when they mistake him for the beast.

1. Hubris (n) 2. Humility (n)  humble (adj); humbly (adv) 3. Requisite (adj)  requisition (n); pre-requisite (adj) 4. Contrived (adj)  contrive (v); contrivance (n) 5. Equanimity (n) 6. Compulsive (adj)  compulsively (adv); compulsion (n) 7. Copious (adj)  copiously (adv); copiousness (n) 8. Ephemeral (adj)  ephemerally (adv) 9. Penchant (n) 10. Mercurial (adj)  mercurially (adv); mercurialness (n) 11. Nuance (n)  nuanced (adj) 12. Gregarious (adj)  gregariously (adv); gregariousness (n) 13. Sanctimonious (adj)  sanctimoniously (adv); sanctimony (n) 14. Extemporaneous (adj)  extemporaneously (adv); extemporaneousness (n) 15. Fatuous (adj)  fatuously (adv); fatuousness (n)

Using all the words from List 8, write a story about a holiday. (real or fictional) Suggestions: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Valentine’s Day, April Fool’s Day, Easter, Passover, Earth Day

Every Thanksgiving, my fatuous extended family gathers together, making me thankful that Thanksgiving Day is ephemeral. The afternoon usually begins with my uncle drinking his requisite four beers before breaking into the hard stuff. Once he has drank enough, all his humility disappears, replaced by extreme hubris. He then walks around, drunk off his a**, compulsively pointing out the flaws of others. He makes fun of his brother Greg, who seems gregarious, but is actually quite mercurial and gossips about others behind their backs. Greg’s real name is Anthony. Next, he targets his cousin Honey Boo Boo, who claims to have a strong penchant for reading the Bible, but my uncle tells us that this affinity for religion on her part is in fact contrived and she is actually sanctimonious. He then extemporaneously bursts into song, rapping to “Baby Got Back” and somehow actually remembering all the lyrics despite being in an alcoholic stupor. I try to maintain equanimity throughout all this, and remind myself that there is copious food to be eaten in a matter of minutes – turkey, ham, pot roast, vegetable pie, sweet potato pie, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, pumpkin choc chip bread (made by me), strawberry cream pie, and chocolate cream pie. And when dinner is over, we get to play The Walking Dead board game, which, in spite of being a pretty simple game, displays many nuances of the characters from the TV show.

 Using all the words from List 8, write sentences that relate to Into the Wild and/or The Great Gatsby.