"Girl Moved to Tears by Of Mice and Men Cliffs Notes"

The article is from The Onion, so you must peel off the first layer of each sentence to get to the stinging satire. Here's a taste of how words can move you to tears of laughter.

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
10 words 129 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. seminal
    influential and providing a basis for later development
    In what she described as "the most emotional moment" of her academic life, University of Virginia sophomore communications major Grace Weaver sobbed openly upon concluding Steinbeck's seminal work of American fiction Of Mice and Men's Cliffs Notes early last week.
  2. summary
    a brief statement that presents the main points
    "This book has changed me in a way that only great literature summaries can," said Weaver, who was so shaken by the experience that she requested an extension on her English 229 essay.
  3. suspect
    imagine to be the case or true or probable
    Weaver, who formed an "instant connection" with Lennie's character-description paragraph, said she began to suspect the novel might end tragically after reading the fourth sentence which suggested the gentle giant's strength and fascination with soft things would "lead to his untimely demise."
  4. ephemeral
    lasting a very short time
    "When I got to the last sentence--'George shoots Lennie in the head'--it seemed so abrupt. But I found out later that the 'ephemeral nature of life' is a major theme of the novel."
  5. austere
    severely simple
    Weaver was assigned Of Mice and Men--a novel scholars have called "a masterpiece of austere prose" and "the most skillful example of American naturalism under 110 pages"--as part of her early twentieth-century fiction course, and purchased the Cliffs Notes from a cardboard rack at her local Barnes & Noble.
  6. synopsis
    a sketchy summary of the main points of an argument
    Though she completed the two-page brief synopsis in one sitting, Weaver said she felt strangely drawn into the plot overview and continued on, exploring the more fleshed-out chapter summaries.
  7. allusion
    passing reference or indirect mention
    I'm also going to try to find that book about rabbits that George was always reading to Lennie, so that I can really understand that important allusion.
  8. select
    chosen for special qualifications
    Within an hour of completing the Cliffs Notes, Weaver was already telling friends and classmates that Steinbeck was her favorite author, as well as reciting select quotations from the "Important Quotations" section for their benefit.
  9. infer
    conclude by reasoning
    "When I read those quotes, found out which characters they were attributed to, and inferred their context from the chapter outlines to piece together their significance, I was just blown away," said a teary-eyed Weaver.
  10. saga
    a narrative telling the adventures of a hero or a family
    Weaver's roommate, Giulia Crenshaw, has already borrowed the dog-eared, highlighted summary of the classic Depression-era saga, and is expecting to enjoy reading what Weaver described as "a really sad story about two brothers who love to farm."
Created on Sat Nov 15 15:03:09 EST 2014 (updated Sun Nov 16 00:35:38 EST 2014)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.