College Prep English for Homeschoolers — notes and assignments for the October 30, 2014 class
Dear Homescholars,
Notes and assignments for the October 30, 2014 class.
(Note: most of the referenced material below can easily be found with a simple search.)
This week’s class feed:
Class event on Google Plus
https://plus.google.com/events/caueeb9o2cul1dckde2t0pur4n8
Youtube page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTzDREahh5Q
The playlist for our 2014-2015 classes is here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLExCxI6q5_Xnpxfr0yI8ATzOnU6SmkO2x
To learn more about the class, please visit: http://abacus-es.com/eie/advancedwriting.html, see the links and watch the video.
The playlist of 2013-2014 classes is also on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLExCxI6q5_XmwbFdBDNpSar91svWKDe9Y
Updated Assignments
As requested and discussed:
Hamlet
Please watch one or more videos of the play. The David Tennant version is on our Hamlet page. We will be going through the excerpts and quotes as well.
Please choose selections for recitation next week.
Lewis Carroll wrote a logic text which included an extended syllogism call a sorite. These are delightful. Can you draw the most complete valid conclusion in each case?
These are sorites from Lewis Carroll. Sorites are categorical arguments of more than two premises. Provide a (strongest possible) valid conclusion.
(1) Babies are illogical;
(2) Nobody is despised who can manage a crocodile;
(3) Illogical persons are despised.
(1)My saucepans are the only thing I have that are made of tin;
(2) I find all your presents very useful;
(3) None of my saucepans are of the slightest use.
(1) No experienced person is incompetent;
(2) Jenkins is always blundering;
(3) No competent person is always blundering.
(1) No terriers wander among the signs of the zodiac;
(2) Nothing, that does not wander among the signs of the zodiac, is a comet;
(3) Nothing but a terrier has a curly tail.
(1) No one takes in the Times, unless he is well-educated;
(2) No hedge-hogs can read;
(3) Those who cannot read are not well-educated.
(1) All puddings are nice;
(2) This dish is a pudding;
(3) No nice things are wholesome.
Univ. ”
(1) My gardener is well worth listening to on military subjects;
(2) No one can remember the battle of Waterloo, unless he is very old;
(3) Nobody is really worth listening to on military subjects, unless he can remember the battle of Waterloo.
(1) All humming-birds are richly coloured;
(2) No large birds live on honey;
(3) Birds that do not live on honey are dull in colour.
(1)) All ducks in this village, that are branded B, belong to Mrs. Bond;
(2) Ducks in this village never wear lace collars, unless they are branded B;
(3) Mrs. Bond has no gray ducks in this village.
(1) All the old articles in this cupboard are cracked;
(2) No jug in this cupboard is new;
(3) Nothing in this cupboard, that is cracked, will hold water.
(1) All unripe fruit is unwholesome;
(2) All these apples are wholesome;
(3) No fruit, grown in the shade, is ripe.
(1) No birds, except ostriches, are 9 feet high;
(2) There are no birds in this aviary that belong to any one but me;
(3) No ostrich lives on mince-pies;
(4) 1 have no birds less than 9 feet high.
(1) A plum-pudding, that is not really solid, is mere porridge;
(2) Every plum-pudding, served at my table, has been boiled in a cloth;
(3) A plum-pudding that is mere porridge is indistinguishable from soup;
(4) No plum-puddings are really solid, except what are served at my table.
(1) No interesting poems are unpopular among people of real taste;
(2) No modern poetry is free from affectation;
(3) All your poems are on the subject of soap-bubbles;
(4) No affected poetry is popular among people of real taste;
(5) No ancient poem is on the subject of soap-bubbles.
(1) All the fruit at this Show, that fails to get a prize, is the property of the Committee;
(2) None of my peaches have got prizes;
(3) None of the fruit, sold off in the evening, is unripe;
(4.) None of the ripe fruit has been grown in a hot-house;
(5) All fruit, that belongs to the Committee, is sold off in the evening.
Language immersion 
Please start watching the Jonathan Miller documentary: The Body in Question
Class Notes
Discussion of submitted projects
Recitations
Jaberwocky
Discussion of Assignments
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
We discussed using the comedic devices discussed in your writing.
We discussed the development and dangers of artificial intelligence.
Language Immersion
We discussed the unscripted TED talk by Glenn Greenwald on the importance of privacy and the excerpt: Christopher Hitchens on History and Fascism.
We have finished Born Talking by Jonathan Miller http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3372937D4DE2E849
and more Miller was requested.
We discussed: The Machine That Made Us, documentary on the Gutenberg press by Stephen Fry.
We looked at Chapter 4 in the text: Confused Verbs.
Commonly Confused Verb Pairs
Circle the errors in the following and correct them.
1. Could you lie those Etruscan water skis over there next to where the experimental begonias and the enigmatic Siberian banana sculpture are laying?
2. I couldn’t rise the somnolent tortoise high enough to be seen above the rising flood of enthusiastic insipient herpetologists.
3. I couldn’t figure out whether to fall or fell the tree before it falls on its own, so I just cut it down.
4. Tiberius couldn’t sit the elaborate but somewhat aging eggplant centerpiece so that it would set reliably upright on the table, so he lay it down next to the infuriated Rabbi.
5. The imaginary emu lay in the corner of the room blithely laying eggs and knitting thneeds.
6. Set it on the couch beside the tureen where the querulous scabiosa is laying and the truculent eschscholtzia is setting.
7. I couldn’t lie down where the peacock had laid yesterday.
8. I couldn’t lie down where the peahen had laid yesterday.
We didn’t get to look at The 42 Best lines from the Hitchhiker’s Guide. Perhaps next week.
We discussed further the
Taxonomy of comedic devices
Nobody got to these. Consider going to them if you run out of things to do:
Lower Priority Assignments
Terry Eagleton on the war on terror. Prof. Eagleton is one of the great speakers.
Robert Fisk on writing and journalism. Fisk is one of the most highly honored journalists in the world.