Context and Connotation

Part A: Based on context clues in the passage, what is the meaning of the word preclude?

Part B: What evidence from the text supports the answer

It’s not surprising that the novelist most often mentioned in this context is Charles Dickens. Dickens, like Shakespeare, was both a writer of genius and a popular entertainer, proving that seriousness of purpose didn’t preclude accessibility. His novels appeared in serial installments, like episodes of TV shows, and teemed with minor characters, the literary equivalent of character actors. “The Wire,” in particular, has been likened to a Dickens novel, for its attention to the details of poverty and class in America. Bill Moyers was echoing what has become conventional wisdom when he said that what Dickens was “to the smoky mean streets of Victorian London, David Simon is to America today.”

• lead to

  “It’s not surprising that the novelist most often mentioned in this context is Charles Dickens.”

• guarantee

  “…what Dickens was ‘to the smoky mean streets of Victorian London, David Simon is to America today.’”

• presuppose

  “His novels appeared in serial installments, like episodes of TV shows…”

• prevent

  “Dickens, like Shakespeare, was both a writer of genius and a popular entertainer…”

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.4

CCSS.RI.9-10.4

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Based on context clues in the passage, what do you infer the connotative meaning of “formally adventurous” is?

Ironically, the comparison to Dickens, which is meant to suggest that TV has reached a new level of quality, harks back to the very beginning of modern filmmaking. Already in 1944, Sergei Eisenstein suggested in a landmark essay that the film grammar invented by D. W. Griffith was deeply indebted to Dickens’s narrative strategies. Dickens, he wrote, was the real inventor of montage. If today’s best TV feels Dickensian, that may be because the conventions of filmed storytelling themselves derive from Dickens — who in turn, Eisenstein points out, was influenced by the stage melodramas of his day. Indeed, one criticism that could be leveled against quality cable TV is that it is not nearly as formally adventurous as Dickens himself. Its visual idiom tends to be conventional even when its subject matter is ostentatiously provocative.

• “Formally adventurous” means adventurous in a very polite way.

• “Formally adventurous” means taking chances with some artistic form.

• “Formally adventurous” means adventurous in the past.

• “Formally adventurous” means the form of an adventure.

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.4

CCSS.RI.9-10.4

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

Part A: What does the word light mean as it is used in the paragraph.

Part B: Which phrase from the passage provides clues to the answer in Part A?

This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed—whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.

• creativity

  “. . .I have expressed—whether rightly or wrongly God knows.”

• indecision

  “This entire allegory, I said, you may now append . . .”

• enlightenment

  “. . .the universal author of all things beautiful and right . . .”

• misunderstanding

  “But, whether true or false, my opinion is . . .”

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5

CCSS.L.5.5

Determine which words and phrases in paragraph 19 have positive connotations and convey this sense of admiration.

I remember the fierce resolve of a man that I admired greatly, a great leader of a great people, Franklin D. Roosevelt. He fought a pitched battle in 1936 with private interests whose target was private gain. And I shall long remember the words that I believe he echoed at Madison Square Garden, when he declared to the Nation that the forces of selfishness had not only met their match, but these forces had met their master.

Well, I have not asked you to come here today to tell you that I have a desire to master anyone. But until the clock strikes the last hour of the time allotted to me as President by vote of all the people of this country, I will never turn away from the duty that my office demands or the vigilance that my oath of office requires.

• “fierce resolve”

• “pitched”

• “forces of selfishness”

• “met their master”

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.4

CCSS.RI.9-10.4

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

CCSS.L.11-12.5B

CCSS.L.9-10.5B

Using context clues, determine the denotative meaning of the word "vigilance” in the paragraph.

I remember the fierce resolve of a man that I admired greatly, a great leader of a great people, Franklin D. Roosevelt. He fought a pitched battle in 1936 with private interests whose target was private gain. And I shall long remember the words that I believe he echoed at Madison Square Garden, when he declared to the Nation that the forces of selfishness had not only met their match, but these forces had met their master.

Well, I have not asked you to come here today to tell you that I have a desire to master anyone. But until the clock strikes the last hour of the time allotted to me as President by vote of all the people of this country, I will never turn away from the duty that my office demands or the vigilance that my oath of office requires.

• Adjective: soft-spoken, thoughtful

• Verb: watching carefully over someone or something

• Noun: the state of being alert and reliable, especially to avoid danger

• Adjective: aggressive and demanding

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.4

CCSS.RI.9-10.4

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

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

The instrument in question is not the act of our Nation; we are not parties to its covenants; it has not received the sanction of our people. The makers of it sustain no office nor appointment in our Nation, under the designation of Chiefs, Head men, or any other title, by which they hold, or could acquire, authority to assume the reins of Government, and to make bargain and sale of our rights, our possessions, and our common country. And we are constrained solemnly to declare, that we cannot but contemplate the enforcement of the stipulations of this instrument on us, against our consent, as an act of injustice and oppression, which, we are well persuaded, can never knowingly be countenanced by the Government and people of the United States; nor can we believe it to be the design of these honorable and high minded individuals, who stand at the head of the Govt., to bind a whole Nation, by the acts of a few unauthorized individuals. And, therefore, we, the parties to be affected by the result, appeal with confidence to the justice, the magnanimity, the compassion, of your honorable bodies, against the enforcement, on us, of the provisions of a compact, in the formation of which we have had no agency.

• a device used to produce music

• a formal legal document

• a measuring device to determine the value of something

• a tool used in delicate situations

Tags

CCSS.L.5.5C

What is the meaning of the word agency in the context of this letter?

The instrument in question is not the act of our Nation; we are not parties to its covenants; it has not received the sanction of our people. The makers of it sustain no office nor appointment in our Nation, under the designation of Chiefs, Head men, or any other title, by which they hold, or could acquire, authority to assume the reins of Government, and to make bargain and sale of our rights, our possessions, and our common country. And we are constrained solemnly to declare, that we cannot but contemplate the enforcement of the stipulations of this instrument on us, against our consent, as an act of injustice and oppression, which, we are well persuaded, can never knowingly be countenanced by the Government and people of the United States; nor can we believe it to be the design of these honorable and high minded individuals, who stand at the head of the Govt., to bind a whole Nation, by the acts of a few unauthorized individuals. And, therefore, we, the parties to be affected by the result, appeal with confidence to the justice, the magnanimity, the compassion, of your honorable bodies, against the enforcement, on us, of the provisions of a compact, in the formation of which we have had no agency.

• the duty or function of an agent

• the capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own choices

• an organization, company or government office that provides a service for another

• a large vehicle

Tags

CCSS.L.5.5C