"A View from Mount Ritter"

Both climbed a mountain and lived to write about it. Compare the reflections of college-bound high school senior Joseph T. O'Connor to those of professional writer Jon Krakauer.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 11 Unit 4's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Self-Reliance, Where I Lived, poems about transcendental thinking, All I Really Need to Know, Into the Wild (excerpts), Into the Wild, A View from Mount Ritter, multi-genre research project sample, Sparky, Charles M. Schulz
10 words 21 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. torrent
    a violently fast stream of water or other liquid
    But on this particular day the rain fell in torrents.
  2. expedition
    an organized group of people undertaking a journey
    It was the second week of my mountain expedition in California.
  3. subside
    wear off or die down
    While we prayed for the rain to subside, I watched the stream we stood beside grow into a raging, white-water river.
  4. stumble
    walk unsteadily
    The unforgiving downpour lasted all day and into the night as we stumbled down the rocky cliffs seeking the driest place to set up camp.
  5. fumble
    feel about uncertainly or blindly
    We constructed our tents in the dark, fumbling with the ropes with our frozen hands and finishing just as a stiffness like rigor mortis set in.
  6. invigorating
    imparting strength and vitality
    The experience was the most invigorating, fulfilling, stimulating two weeks of my life.
  7. entrance
    attract; cause to be enamored
    On top of Mount Ritter, 13,000 feet above sea level, I was entranced at the sight of the orange-red sun as it peeked over the glistening peaks far off in the east.
  8. defy
    resist or confront with resistance
    I was so caught up in defying the advice of my parents and teachers to study and play by the rules that I hadn't considered the effects my actions would have on me.
  9. fateful
    having momentous consequences; of decisive importance
    A day before my awakening on that fateful July sunrise, I would have disagreed with this quotation from Oscar Wilde.
  10. folly
    foolish or senseless behavior
    But after recognizing the results of my own follies for the first time, I thoroughly agree.
Created on Sun Nov 16 01:41:55 EST 2014 (updated Mon Nov 17 02:57:51 EST 2014)

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