Page 188 - SpringBoard_ELD_Grade8_Flipbook

Interact in Meaningful Ways: Analyze Vivid Verbs and Adjectives
Learning Target
• Analyze and explain in conversation and writing how vivid verbs and adjectives produce effects on the reader.
Vivid Verbs and adjectives
Dave Barry, the author of the comedic essay, uses vivid verbs and adjectives. These colorful words help the reader see the action and events not just clearly, but often in an unusual way. As a result, the vivid word choices add to the humorous effect.
“Fortunately, we have a beetle-intensive patio ...”
The vivid adjective beetle-intensive helps us see the patio in a humorous way.
“But it gets to be tedious, going out early every morning to wrangle patio beetles.”
The vivid verb wrangle is usually used to describe cow herding, so it creates a colorful picture when used to describe the action of catching beetles.
Read these sentences from “I’ve got a few pet peeves about sea creatures.” Circle any adjectives or verbs in each sentence that create a vivid image in your mind.
1. “But my excitement was not shared by Scooter, who, despite residing in a tropical paradise, never did anything except mope around.”
2. “She put Marvin into a Tupperware container, where, under Sophie’s loving care and feeding, he thrived for maybe nine seconds before expiring like a little six- legged parking meter.”
3. “When everything was ready I went to the aquarium store to buy fish, my only criteria being that they should be 1) hardy digital fish; and 2) fish that looked a LOT like other fish, in case God forbid we had to Marvinize them.”
4. “After much thought, the aquarium guy was able to find me three totally pacifist fish—Barney Fife fish, fish so nonviolent that, in the wild, worms routinely beat them up and steal their lunch money.”
Choose one word from each sentence to add to the chart. List the word, its meaning, and its connotations. Finally tell why you think the word is humorous.
ACTIVITY 2.6
Verb or adjective
Meaning of Word
connotations
Why It Is Funny
1.
2.
3.
4.
Unit 4 • The Challenge of Comedy • Part 2: I’ve Got a Few Pet Peeves about Sea Creatures 165
Language
Resources
Literary Terms
Verb: a word that expresses action or a state of being adjective: a word that modifies a noun or pronoun Vivid: forming or giving a clear picture in the mind
Language
Resources Connotation
Denotation is a word’s dictionary meaning. Connotation is a word’s emotional overtones, the effects it has on you. The words thrifty and stingy,
for example, have similar denotations—“tending
to save money.” Thrifty, however, has a positive connotation while stingy has negative emotional overtones.
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