MY OPINION ISN'T (A) RIGHT

Notes for Pages 2-14 in Textbook

From Legend to History (A.D. 449-1485)

The Conquest of Britain

• There were two groups of Celts: the one group called themselves the Brythons, or Britons; other group was known as Gaels who settled on Ireland.
• The celts were farmers and hunters.
• Both of these groups, the Britons and the Gaels strongly hated each other.

The Coming of Christianity

• By  the 4th century, the Romans accepted to Christianity and had introduced it to Britain.
• Although Rome fell to Barbarian tribes in A.D. 476, the Celtic Christian church continued to thrive. In the late sixteenth century, a soldier and abbot named Columba along with some monks, gained converts to Christianity and established monasteries in the north.

Danish Invasion

• In the nine century, the Norse and the Danes were pressured by rising pop. and took to the seas.
• In the late tenth century Danes from europe tried to recapture Danelaw.

The Norman conquest

• The normans were descendants of Vikings who had invaded the coast of FR.
• After the dispute over whether or not the throne belonged to William, he confiscated the lands of the Anglo-Saxon.
• Feudalism had come about on the European continent at a time when no central government was strong enough to keep to order.

The Magna Carta

• The king promised not to tax land without first meeting with the barons in the Magna Carta.
• Although the document had caused no changes in government, some historians believe its restriction on royal power marked the start of constitutional government in england.  

Decline of the Feudal System

• The social structure of England was changing while royal families struggled for supremacy.
• After the Black Death, a massive labor shortage increased the value of a peasant’s work
• Landowners gave the workers a sense of freedom when they paid in cash.

Anglo-Saxon Literature

• Spoken verse and incantations were the structure of anglo-saxon literature.
• This early verse falls mainly into two categories: heroic poetry, and elegiac poetry.
• All important prose written in the British Isles was composed in Latin. The monks who transcribed these works knew the language of the people as “vulgar tongue”. The greatest of England’s Latin scholars was Venerable Bede. He wrote History of the English Church and People Gives.
• Beowulf was this epic, or long heroic poem. It is the story of a great warrior praised for his courage, strength and dignity.

Literature of the English Middle Ages

• During this time the first true dramas were started.
• One section was medieval drama. During the Norman times, the Church often sponsored the plays as part of religious services.
• In 1454, a german silversmith, Johann Gutenberg, perfected a process of printing from movable type. One of Caxton’s first projects included the printing of Geoffrey Chaurcer’s work.
• Poet Geoffrey Chaucer was born into the merchant class that was adding to the wealth of London and the nation.

Reflections on Week 1

1. There won’t be too many factors that affect my participation and experience in class. One thing that could affect it is that Matthew and sometimes have to use the same computer, but that is not that big of a problem. The other thing that could affect it is my schedule. Along, with basketball and the other things I do, it possibly could affect my participation of this class. Most likely, both of these examples will not affect it at all though.

2. The best ever learning experience that changed me was when I heard about this man that is somewhat close to my family. He was ran over by a vehicle and wasn’t supposed to live, let alone walk again. Recently, he has been working very hard to get on his feet and is making progress. This changed my outlook on things and in life. If this man could do this and not give up, think of all the things i could do and not give up. It was truly inspiring.

3. To be honest I don’t know exactly what I am excited to learn about. Although,I am excited to use open source learning more. I do think learning more can help my life tremendously. Half the game is not just learning the material, but wanting to learn the material, and I am getting a lot better at that.

Vocabulary #1

adumbrate - verb give to understand; describe roughly or briefly or give the main points or summary of

Ex: The ending of the novel is already adumbrated in the first chapter.

apotheosis - noun the elevation of a person (as to the status of a god); model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no equal

Ex: Celine Dion singing love songs is the apotheosis of romantic music.

ascetic - adj. practicing great self-denial; pertaining to or characteristic of an ascetic or the practice of rigorous self-discipline; noun someone who practices self denial as a spiritual discipline

Ex: Monks live an ascetic life, denying themselves of earthly pleasures and involvement.

bauble - noun a mock scepter carried by a court jester; cheap showy jewelry or ornament on clothing

Ex: The Christmas tree was covered with baubles.

beguile - verb attract; cause to be enamored; influence by slyness

Ex: Thats a beguiling argument, but I am not convinced by it.

burgeon - verb grow and flourish

Ex: The town burgeoned into a city.

complement - noun something added to complete or make perfect; either of two parts that mutually complete each other; a word or phrase used to complete a grammatical construction; number needed to make up a whole force; a complete number or quantity; one of a series of enzymes in the blood serum that are part of the immune response; verb make complete or perfect; supply what is wanting or form the complement to

Ex: The shirt complemented her eyes wonderfully.

contumacious - adj. wilfully obstinate; stubbornly disobedient

Ex: Your repeated violations of the rules was contumacious.

curmudgeon - noun a crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas

Ex: Clearly, I only play a curmudgeon in the newspaper.

didactic - adj. instructive (especially excessively)

Ex: My parents was being didactic about doing the right thing.

disingenuous - adj. not straightforward or candid; giving a false appearance of frankness

Ex: He always gives a quick, disingenuous response; you never get a straight answer.

exculpate - verb pronounce not guilty of criminal charges

Ex: The jury exculpated the verdict.

faux pas - a behavioral gaffe or some type of social mistake that you make.

Ex: I realized I'd committed a serious faux pas by joking about his wife's family.

fulminate - noun a salt or ester of fulminic acid; verb cause to explode violently and with loud noise; come on suddenly and intensely; criticize severely

Ex: Public officials fulminated against the perceived security threat.

fustian - noun a strong cotton and linen fabric with a slight nap; pompous or pretentious talk or writing

Ex: The man was wearing a fustian jacket.

hauteur - noun overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner toward inferiors

Ex: His manner was hauteur

inhibit - verb limit the range or extent of; to put down by force or authority

Ex: The use of bleach will inhibit the growth of bacteria on surfaces.

jeremiad - noun a long and mournful complaint

Ex: But the jeremiad will always have its place in such a course.

opportunist - adj. taking immediate advantage, often unethically, of any circumstance of possible benefit; noun a person who places expediency above principle

Ex: She was an opportunist, and thus never turned down any chance to get ahead.

unconscionable - adj. greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation; lacking a conscience

Ex: Most scientists agree that it is unconscionable to clone humans when tests in animals have not been perfected.

Montaigne/Austen Essay

    If someone was to write down every thought that came to their mind it would be impossible to do it.. Our brains processes  information so fast that expressing or explaining what we mean will barely scratch the surface of one tiny thought. David Foster Wallace attested to this statement in his 2001 story “Good old Neon” Montaigne's Essays demonstrate this as he wrote 107 essays characterized under 3 different books. Personal experiences and stream of consciousness are the two areas that Montaigne develops his style from. In opposition to David Foster Wallace and Montaigne, Jane Austen takes a different standpoint with a more traditional and organized approach to writing her novel, Pride and Prejudice.

    Montaigne and Wallace have similar views on the fact that its almost impossible to write down your feelings in exact detail. In Montaigne’s Essays he demonstrates this by writing 107 essays out of stream of consciousness that don’t exactly point to a clear theme.. Each essay is interconnected and leads to another. He writes the essays in a way like a thinking process. After every thought he has an essay that resembles it, but he only scratches the surface of each thought and then moves on to the next. In a way Montaigne does have some organization when writing the essays. For example, each essay is drawn from personal experiences and is categorized into 3 different books.

    Jane Austen contradicts David Foster Wallace’s thinking with her romantic novel, Pride and Prejudice. The organization and and traditional narrative style suggests that things can be explained directly through writing. The fact that her writing of Pride and Prejudice is satirical also opposes the style and rhetoric of David Foster Wallace. In Montaigne's style he focuses on understanding the human condition in general. Austen's purpose is to reflect the ignorance of the people during her time period. To do this she would utilize her characters such as Mrs. Bennet.

    With Montaigne's stream of thought and conventional writing and Austen’s organized, satirical narrative, they both are confrontational in their styles. Even though both Montaigne and Austen contradict each other, they still come to the same conclusion. No matter what they write about they can barely sketch out a guideline for what they really are thinking. This concept relates to much more than just Montaigne and Austen it relates to all other pieces of literature as well. Through every form of writing there hasn’t been a time and will probably never will be a time where thoughts will be explained exactly how they are thought.

I CAN READ!

Here is the url for my video of Fox in Socks. I had 19 errors. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHi4ORScQcA

1987 AP Exam

1.c

2.a

3.e

4.e

5.a

6.a

7.e

8.c

9.e

10.c

11.b

12.b

13.a

14.d

15.a

16.c

17.a

18.b

19.a

20.e

21.e

22.c

23.b

24.a

25.c

26.c

27.a

28.b

29.b

30.b

31.d

32.a

33.d

34.b

35.e

36.e

37.a

38.d

39.b

40.c

41.c

42.a

43.b

44.e

45.a

46.c

47.b

48.a

49.a

50.d

51.d

52.b

53.e

54.b

55.a

56.a

57.b

58.d

59.e

60.b

61.e