Mr.Artis WOW WORD Challenge!

Have you ever wondered who writes the Nancy Drew mysteries? Many fans of the series may be surprised to learn that there is no Carolyn Keene. Carolyn Keene is a pseudonym created by the series' father, Ed Stratemeyer, and it is shared by an unknown number of ghost writers. The first "Keene" was Mildred Wirt Benson, who fleshed out the outline Stratemeyer had developed for the titian-haired detective. Writing one book about every six weeks, Benson is credited with a majority of the first 30 Nancy Drew mysteries.

What is the definition of pseudonym as it is used in this paragraph?

• a character in a book

• a made-up name

• a mystery novel

• a female author

  The cowbird is the bird that bird-lovers hate. The male, with its chocolate hood and glossy green-black plumage, is rather handsome, even if its "song" offends the human ear. What is the meaning of the word plumage in the selection above?

• green-black leaves

• noisy songs

• a nest

• the covering of feathers on a bird

Nature uses air, water and land again and again. This is called recycling. Energy in the form of sunlight provides the power for nature to recycle.

What does recycling mean in the passage above?

• using again

• naturally occurring

• energetic

• returning

 With his feature-length Straight Out of Brooklyn, Matty Rich stepped forward as the youngest of the new wave of African-American filmmakers. He proved wrong the local naysayers who didn't think a poor kid of seventeen could make a movie.What is the meaning of the word naysayers in the selection above?

• someone who stops you from doing what you want

• someone with an aggressively positive attitude

• someone who helps you along the way

• someone with an aggressively negative attitude

Paul Ancel, an important poet of the twentieth century, was born in Bukovina, Romania. He wrote under the pseudonym Paul Celan, an anagram of his last name. Unlike his parents, who were deported and killed in Nazi labor camps, Celan was interned by the Nazi for 18 months before he could escape and join the Red Army. Following World War II, Celan wandered between borders when Bukovina was erased from the world map. He was an immigrant in Paris for a while. Although he was freed from the Nazi labor camps in 1944, his spirit never recuperated from the horrendous experiences. Celan's most noted poem Death Fugueexposes his need of healing.

As used in the paragraph above, interned means?

• clamored

• imprisoned

• affirmed

• dictated

The riverboat Columbia Queen takes passengers on an almost-1,000-mile journey along the route taken by explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in the early 1800s. Along the way, the boat makes stops where passengers can disembark and see wildlife and artifacts onshore.What is the meaning of disembark as it is used in this paragraph?

• to buy a ticket

• o go ashore from a ship

• to meet new people

• to take photographs

 The conceited actress wanted to talk only about herself. She knew she was more interesting than everyone else. She didn’t want to waste time hearing other people talk about their boring lives.

What does conceited mean in the passage above?

• talented

• vain

• friendly

• shy

Asian grass carp, strong swimming fish with an urge to travel, grow up to 3 1/2 feet long and 70 pounds in Texas lakes and rivers. They are known for a voracious vegetarian appetite, eating up to three times their body weight in water plants in one day. What is the meaning of the word voracious?

• small

• fatty

• large

• diet

When Punxsutawney Phil, the celebrated weather-predicting groundhog, comes out of his underground home this February 2 to predict whether there will be six more weeks of winter weather, onlookers will expect an additional prediction from him. They want him to predict the winner of this year's Super Bowl. The State College-based AccuWeather Inc. believes that science trumpssuperstition; however, the employees there are also making their predictions on the weather and the Super Bowl.

In this passage, the word trumps means

• ranks higher than.

• agrees with.

• disproves of.

• relies on.

  American scientist Benjamin Franklin invented the glass harmonica, also known as the Franklin harmonica, in the early 1760s. It is a mechanical version of the much simpler musical glasses that were popular at that time. These were a set of glass bowls of different sizes that were arranged from smallest to largest to produce distinct pitches. The bowls were fine-tuned by filling them partially with water. In the Franklin model, shallow glass basins are attached to a horizontal spindle that is revolved by a crank attached to a pedal. The spindle is placed in a trough of water so that the glasses are kept wet. The shimmering, bell-like sound is produced by touching the fingers to the wet edges. This instrument was popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

What is the meaning of the word pitches as it is used in this passage?

• short, lofted shots in golf

• the distance between adjacent threads on a screw

• frequencies of sound waves reaching the ear (musical)

• baseball tosses