Saturday, March 28, 2020

The Unforgettable April Fools Day Essays - Animation, Angry Kid

Diana Meares Elizabeth Mckinley Fall11-eng-111-81 September 2, 2011 The Unforgettable April Fool?s Day Life is packed with some really amazing and unforgettable events. This event that I am going to relate to you is one fantastic happening, which I?ll never forget. It was a beautiful spring morning in Greenfield Lake Park, in the year of 1972. The ancient cypress trees around the lake were awesome, and the smell of Azaleas permeated my nostrils. The lake was gorgeous, shimmering in the sunlight. It was one of those really special family outings. My Mom, Dad, two sisters and I were there for a great time in the park. We had been looking forward to this trip for such a long time. We were having a fun time looking at all of the animals, and being able to ride the little train. Parked on the edge of the lake were these colorful little paddle boats. I just knew my family would take a trip around the lake in the red and yellow boats. My Mom and Dad were off by themselves enjoying some quality time. My sisters, Robin and Cathie, and I were doing our own things too. We were teenagers and our parents trusted us to be out of their sight and still have fun. Our safety was not a major concern of theirs. Of course, that had a lot to do with the discipline of our parents and the period of time we had been raised in. That period being the late 50?s to the early 70?s, violence didn?t seem as prevalent. I remember the next few moments of the event as if it were just yesterday. We were walking around the cage of the bear. I had seen bears close up while growing up in the mountains, at the Grandfather Mountain Resort. So, I wasn?t nervous at all, as we got closer to the cage. While munching on some sunflower seeds, I had a brilliant idea. ?I could be just like Ellie Mae Clampett,?I thought to myself. I could feed this bear! The bear was very large and brown, sitting quietly in the corner of the cage. The bear didn?t look dangerous at all. I walked around to the top part of the cage, where the bear was a little lower than me, and I was standing at the corner just above the bears? head. Things were going just fine for the first ten or fifteen minutes. I would drop the seeds right above the bear?s mouth and it would open up for a lovely snack. All of a sudden, something terrible happened! The bear decided that it wasn?t getting its food fast enough. It all happened so fast; -it was like a dream--unreal! The very large, brown, now scary bear turned around far enough to reach my hand, opened its humongous mouth and chomped down. I did first thing that came into my mind, ?jerk your hand out?! I can tell you right now, all jokes aside, was not the brightest thing to do. When I jerked my hand out the bears? teeth closed on my fingers at the same time, not a very pleasant feeling. I was in shock by that time, holding my hand, looking at it and saying ?Oh, my Lord, Oh, my Lord?. My sisters Robin and Cathie had ran over by that time, took one look at my fingers, and started screaming for our Mom and Dad. I was really scared. I just could not take my eyes off my fingers; the flesh was all torn back and feeling all tingly. I just could not believe what had just happened. We finally found Mom and Dad and they rushed me to the hospital. On the trip to the hospital, my Dad said, ?Calm down, it?s just a finger?! Right I thought, ?Just a finger, huh One good thing about the whole deal was the finger did not bleed very much. I myself believed the bear ate all of my blood out of my fingers! I just sat in the back seat and cried all the way over to the hospital. I just knew I had seen my finger for the very last time, attached to my hand. The comment my Dad had

Saturday, March 7, 2020

Examples of Diacritical Marks

Examples of Diacritical Marks In phonetics, a diacritical mark is a  glyph- or symbol- added to a letter that alters its sense, function, or pronunciation. It is also known as a diacritic or an accent mark. A  diacritical mark is a point, sign, or squiggle added or attached to a letter or character to indicate appropriate stress, special pronunciation, or unusual sounds not common in the Roman alphabet, according to  L. Kip  Wheeler, a professor at Carson-Newman University in Tennessee. Purpose While diacritical marks are more common in foreign languages, you do encounter them quite often in English. For example, diacritics are often used with  certain French loanwords,  words  that are imported into one  language  from another language. Cafà © and clichà ©Ã‚  are loanwords  from French that contain a diacritical mark called an acute accent, which helps indicate how the  final  e  is pronounced. Diacritical marks are used in dozens of other foreign languages, including  Afrikaans, Arabic, Hebrew,  Filipino, Finnish, Greek, Galician, Irish, Italian, Spanish, and Welsh. These marks can change not only the pronunciation but also the meaning of a word. One example in English is rà ©sumà © or resumà © versus resume. The first two terms are nouns that mean  curriculum vitae, while the second is a verb meaning to return to or begin again.   Diacritical Marks in English There are literally dozens of diacritical marks, but it is helpful to learn the basic diacritics in English, as well as their functions. Some of the marks and explanations are adapted from a  list of diacritical marks  created by Professor Wheeler. Diacritical Mark Purpose Examples Acute accent Used with certain French loanwords cafà ©, clichà © Apostrophe * Indicates possession or the omission of a letter children's, don't Cedilla Attached to the bottom of the letter c in French loanwords, indicating a soft c faà §ade Circumflex accent Indicates reduced primary stress à ©levtor à ´pertor Diaeresis or Umlaut Used with certain names and words as a guide to pronunciation Chloà «, Brontà «, coà ¶perate, naà ¯ve Grave accent Occasionally used in poetry to indicate that a normally silent vowel should be pronounced learnà ¨d Macron or Stress Mark A dictionary notation to signify "long" vowel sounds pÄ dÄ  for payday Tilde In Spanish loan words, the tilde indicates a /y/ sound added to a consonant. caà ±on or pià ±a colada Tilde In Portuguese loanwords, the tilde indicates nasalized vowels. So Paulo *Because marks of punctuation arent added to letters, theyre generally not regarded as diacritics. However, an exception is sometimes made for apostrophes. Examples of Diacritics Diacritical marks are plentiful in English-language articles and books. Writers and  lexicographers  have used the marks to great advantage over the years as these examples show: Acute accent:  Feluda handed over the blue  attachà © case  before he sat down.- Satyajit Ray, The Complete Adventures of Feluda Apostrophe: Lets go down to my house and have some more fun,  Nancy said. Mother wont let us, I said. Its too late now. Dont bother her, Nancy said.- William Faulkner, That Evening Sun Go Down. The American Mercury, 1931 Diaeresis  or Umlaut:  Five young activists were voted into office, bringing political validation to a youth-driven movement dismissed by establishment elders as naà ¯ve, unschooled, and untenable.- Youthquake. Time,   Oct. 6, 2016 Grave accent:  Margret stood in her chamber;Shed sewn a silken seam.She lookà ¨d east an she lookà ¨d west,An  she saw those woods grow green.Tam Lin, The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads Macron: neighbornoun  Ã‚  neigh ·bor   \ˈnÄ -bÉ™r\- Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed., 2009 Diacritics in Foreign Languages As noted, there are literally dozens of diacritical marks in foreign languages. Wheeler gives these examples: Swedish and Norse words may also use the circle marking above certain vowels (à ¥), and Czechoslovakian words may use the hacek  (ˆ), a wedge-shaped symbol to indicate a ch sound as in English chill. But unless you learn- or at least develop a proficiency- in those languages, you wont know how to read the words and letters altered by diacritical marks. You should, however, learn where these marks have become common in English- and where they have been dropped, notes  Shelley Townsend-Hudson in The Christian Writers Manual of Style. It can be tricky to know when to retain the diacritical marks, she says: The language is in flux. It is becoming more common, for example, to see the acute accent and diacritics being dropped from the words  clichà ©, cafà ©, and  naà ¯ve- thus,  cliche, cafe, and  naive. But dropping diacritical marks can change the meaning of a word. Townsend-Hudson argues that in many cases you should retain these crucial marks, particularly various accents, to ensure you are referring to the correct word, such as  pà ¢tà ©Ã‚  instead of  pate: The first use means  a spread of finely chopped or pureed seasoned meat, while the second refers the crown of the head- certainly a great difference in meaning. Diacritical marks are also important when you are referring to foreign place names, such as  So Paulo, Gà ¶ttingen, and  Cà ³rdoba  and personal names such as  Salvador Dalà ­, Molià ¨re, and  Karel ÄÅ'apek, she notes. Understanding diacritical marks is the key, then, to correctly identifying and even using many of the foreign words that have migrated into the English language.