The House on Mango Street - PowerPoint Presentation

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The House on Mango StreetVocabulary

Unit 1 Slide2

1. Accolade (n)

1. An expression of approval.

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. A special acknowledgement, such as an award“There’s also a funny thing when an actor retires and reaches his sixties. Awards and accolades start chasing you around. Sometimes they give them to you just so that you’ll attend the dinner and they can sell tickets, but usually they are on the up-and-up.” Maureen O’Hara, ‘Tis Herself, 2004

Colin Firth receiving an Oscar.Slide3

2. Angst (n)

A feeling of anxiety or

apprehension

“I was… miserable in the very tributaries of my soul; I cried to myself, feeling an angst of such intense sorrow that to this day the remembered pain comes back to me as a beastly predator.” Willie Morris, Taps, 2001Slide4

3. Anomaly (n)

Someone or something that deviates from the normal or common form, order, or rule; a peculiarly or

abnormality

“The two nuns on either side of me sang the plaintive Arabic hymns off-key, which made the beautiful songs sound even sadder. The nuns were all short and olive-skinned, with heavy, dark brows. I was an anomaly, yet no one looked curiously at me. In fact, nobody seemed to notice me at all, which pleased me.” Rosemary Mahoney, The Singular Pilgrim: Travels on Sacred Ground, 2003Slide5

4. Bravado (n)

A show of bravery or defiance, often intended to make an impression or mislead

someone

“NARRATOR: [upon hearing the War of the Worlds radio address] Despite his bravado all evening, Mr. Manulis panicked and bolted out of the car. He was so frightened by the reports of interplanetary invasion that he ran off, leaving Aunt Bea to contend with the slimy green monsters he expected to drop from the sky at any moment.” - from the film Radio Days, 1987Slide6

5. Camaraderie (n)

Goodwill and lighthearted rapport between or among friends;

comradeship

“Small talk is crucial to maintain a sense of camaraderie when there is nothing special to say. Women friends and relatives keep the conversational mechanisms in working order by talking about small things as well as large.” - Deborah Tannen, You Just Don’t Understand, 1990Slide7

6. Capricious (adj)

Characterized by or subject to whim; impulsive and

unpredictable

“Many of the empire’s failures lay in the man himself. Half-educated – able to read, but not to write – Charlemagne was vulgar and easily flattered. He was also capricious, at times pardoning his enemies, but on one occasion decapitating 4,500 surrendering Saxons.” – “Castles of Sand: The Holy Roman Emperor,” The Economist, September 16, 2004Slide8

7. Caustic (adj)

Incisively critical or sarcastic;

cutting

“The satirist who writes nothing but satire should write but little – or it will seem that his satire springsrather from his own caustic nature than from the sins of the world in which he lives.” - Anthony Trollope, Autobiography of Anthony Trollope, 1883Slide9

8. Charisma (n)

Exceptional personal magnetism or

charm

“Though neither a brilliant scholar nor a talented athlete, the young man had a certain charisma about him – a classmate later described him as ‘gray-eyed, cool, self-possessed, intelligent [with] the warmest, most friendly, and understanding smile.’” – “It Wasn’t So Easy for Roosevelt, Either,” New York Times, July 31, 2005Slide10

9. Ennui (n)

Listless and dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest;

boredom

“If we were always indeed getting our living, and regulating our lives according to the last and best mode we had learned, we should never be troubled with ennui. Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour…” - Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854Slide11

10. Epitome (n)

The best or most representative example of a class or type