"Let's Hear It for the Cheerleaders"

The title sounds like support for cheerleaders, but it headlines a satirical article by David Bouchier. The writer pretends to support the sport while actually making fun of it with detailed descriptions and fake connections to Greek history and mythology.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 11 Unit 3's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Media in a Democracy, Daily Me, The Newspaper Is Dying, Facebook Photos Sting, Abolish high school football, Facing Consequences, Time to raise the bar, New Michigan Graduation Requirements, Why I Hate Cell Phones, Editorial Cartoons, Let's Hear It for the Cheerleaders, Girl Moved to Tears, In Depth, but Shallowly, Advice to Youth, The War Prayer, Gambling in Schools, How to Poison the Earth
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. enthusiasm
    a feeling of excitement
    In less civilized parts of the world, fans express their enthusiasm by running onto the field and beating up the opposing team.
  2. partisan
    an enthusiastic supporter of some person or activity
    Only in America do we have professional partisans to do the jumping and yelling for us.
  3. ardent
    characterized by strong enthusiasm
    Strange as it may seem to foreigners, the cheerleading industry has many ardent supporters.
  4. despise
    look down on with disdain or disgust
    Cheerleading also teaches the value of teamwork, something that women have often despised in the past as a male excuse for mindless violence and idiotic loyalties.
  5. endorse
    give support or one's approval to
    "Be 100 percent behind your team 100 percent of the time" is a slogan that would be heartily endorsed by Slobodan Milosevic, the Orange Order and the Irish Republican Army.
  6. practical
    having or put to an actual purpose or use
    Young cheerleaders also acquire valuable practical skills: impossible balancing tricks, back flips and the brass lungs they will need for child raising or being heard at the departmental meeting.
  7. extravagant
    unrestrained, especially with regard to feelings
    Their task was to encourage the crowds to have a good time, with frenzied rites and extravagant gestures.
  8. decimate
    kill in large numbers
    So many teams were decimated by the Furies or led astray by the Maenads that cheerleading fell into disrepute for 2,000 years, until it was revived in a kinder, gentler form in the United States.
  9. conducive
    tending to bring about; being partly responsible for
    Routines should become more static, and chants should become more grammatical, more literary and more conducive to the kinder, gentler society we all hope for in the next century.
  10. accompany
    perform a supporting musical part
    In a lawyer's office, for example, a spirited cry of "Rule of Law! Rule of Law! Sue! Sue! Sue!" accompanied by some eyepopping dance steps, would give courage and purpose to desk-bound drones.
Created on Sat Nov 15 14:32:56 EST 2014 (updated Sun Nov 16 00:35:56 EST 2014)

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