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Wednesday, March 1, 2017 |
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Tuesday, April 24, 2018 4:46:12 PM |
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Using Superlative Adverbs
We usually use superlative adverbs when describing an action of someone or something among a group of several others, either in a collective group or among several individuals.
Superlative adverbs come after the verb in a sentence, and they are almost always preceded by the word the. For example:
“Cars and motorcycles can go fast, but an airplane moves the fastest.”
“I eat the most neatly among my siblings.”
“She works the least carefully in her class.”
Omitting the group of comparison
When we use superlatives, it is very common to omit the group that something or someone is being compared to because that group is implied by a previous sentence. For example:
“My brothers are all fast swimmers. John swims the fastest, though.”
We can also identify a superlative attribute of a subject’s action compared to itself in other contexts or points in time. In this case, we do not have another group to identify, and we generally do not use the word the. For example:
“I work best by myself.” (compared to when other people are involved)
“The engine runs most smoothly after it has warmed up for a while.” (compared to when the engine is cold)
“Flowers bloom most beautifully in the spring.” (compared to the other seasons)
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ORIGINS
The Moors, who were Muslims from Northern Africa, conquered Spain in the eighth century, but by the late 1200s they had lost most of the territory they'd gained to the Christians, with whom they were constantly doing battle. By the end of the fifteenth century Spain was a Christian country under the Catholic rule of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Dozens of Moors and Christians fiestas are held throughout Spain at varying times of the year to commemorate the Christians' victory, and traces of them can even be seen in the celebrations of other countries where the Spanish influence remains strong. But none is more elaborate or colorful than the Moors and Christians Fiesta held in Alcoy, in the southeastern province of Alicante, Spain, on April 22-24.
The date of the festival has less to do with the day on which, in 1276, the Christians defeated the Moorish leader, Al-Azraq, than with the fact that April 23 is ST. GEORGE'S DAY. According to legend, the Moors seized the castle of Alcoy in the morning and were on the verge of winning the battle. But then the Christians made a fervent appeal to ST . GEORGE and were able to reverse their fortunes in the afternoon.
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Proclitics
When we form contractions, we almost always omit one or more letters from the second (or occasionally third) word, as we’ve seen in the examples above. There are a few instances, though, in which the first word used in a contraction has one or more letters replaced by an apostrophe. The shortened form of the first word is known as a proclitic.
The most common contraction that uses a proclitic in everyday speech and writing is the very informal y’all, which is used primarily in Southern dialects of American English:
y’all = you + all (“ou” from you is replaced by the apostrophe)
(While common in colloquial speech and writing, this contraction should not be used in formal, academic, or professional writing.)
The word it can also be contracted as a proclitic (usually when followed by “w” words), but this is generally used in more poetic or old-fashioned writing and is not common today. For instance:
’twas = it + was (“i” from it is replaced by the apostrophe)
’twere = it + were (“i” from it is replaced by the apostrophe)
’twill = it + will (“i” from it is replaced by the apostrophe)
Be careful, though: When using an apostrophe at the beginning of a word, remember not to use a single opening quotation mark ( ‘ ) by mistake.
‘Twas a night we would not soon forget. (incorrect)
’Twas a night we would not soon forget. (correct)
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Thay Pagoda Festival
This Vietnamese festival is held in honor of Buddhist monk Dao Hanh, who lived during the Lý Dynasty (1009-1225 CE). Dao Hanh was said to have invented what is known as mua roi can, "water puppetry," an activity that plays an important part in the festival. In addition to water puppet performances, the festival features firecracker competitions, folk singing, rowing contests, and mountain-climbing events. It is held in the village of Thay (or Thuy Khe village) in the Quoc Oai District of Ha Tay Province.
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a morning person
Someone who is more active and alert in the early hours of the morning than later in the day; an early riser. I tried dating a morning person once, but since I like to sleep in late, it didn't really work out. I suppose it's more out of necessity than anything, but I turned into a morning person as soon as I had kids.
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The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison.
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Edward L. Beach, Jr. (1918)
A highly decorated American naval officer and WWII veteran, Beach became the naval aide to the US president following the war. In his free time, he wrote. Drawing on his wartime experiences, Beach penned 13 books. His first and best-known published work, 1955's Run Silent, Run Deep, was made into a film of the same name in 1958. In 1960, Beach commanded the first submerged circumnavigation aboard the USS Triton, an American nuclear-powered submarine unique for having two what?
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The Ludlow Massacre (1914)
In the spring of 1914, the Colorado National Guard machine-gunned and torched a tent colony in Ludlow, where striking coal miners and their families had been living after being evicted from their company-owned homes some months earlier. Nineteen people, most of them women and children, were killed. For the next 10 days, the strikers attacked nearby mines and battled mine guards and militia. Federal troops were needed to put an end to the violence. Which side eventually prevailed in the strike?
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Raw foodism is a lifestyle involving the consumption of uncooked, unprocessed, and often organic foods as a large percentage or the entirety of one's diet. Raw foodists vary in the extent to which they eat raw foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, eggs, fish, meat, and even unpasteurized dairy products, such as milk, cheese, and yogurt. Proponents claim that raw foods encourage weight loss, promote digestion, and prevent illness and toxicity. What have studies shown about raw food diets?
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Reflexive verbs with implied objects
Certain reflexive verbs can also have reflexive pronouns as direct objects that are implied and therefore omitted from the sentence. For example:
“My father is shaving in the bathroom.” (with the reflexive pronoun himself implied)
“She always stretches before doing yoga.” (with the reflexive pronoun herself implied)
“Children, please keep quiet!” (with the reflexive the pronoun yourselves implied)
Intransitive verbs in the “middle” voice
While the majority of reflexive verbs are transitive, with reflexive pronouns as their objects, certain intransitive verbs can be used to modify a subject (usually an inanimate object) that is also the receiver of the action. In the middle voice, this type of verb does not take a reflexive pronoun (or any direct object). For example:
“My sister’s lunch is cooking on the stove.” (Cook is an intransitive verb indicating what is being cooked.)
“This car doesn’t drive smoothly anymore.” (Drive is an intransitive verb indicating what is being driven.)
“Her engagement ring broke in half.” (Break is an intransitive verb indicating what is being broken.)
We can see that the subjects of these examples (my sister’s lunch, this car, and her engagement ring) are also the recipients of the action in each sentence, even though the verbs are intransitive and do not take direct objects.
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