Name__________________________
Date_______
English 12
Vocabulary Lesson 9
CONTEXT-- Literary Figures Should Women Write?
Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), Alice Walker (b. 1944), Jane Austen (1775-1817)-the list of
great women writers of the past and present could go on and on. In today's literary
world there certainly is no debate about women's capability to be writers. However,
there was such a debate in the eighteenth century. English writer Maria Edgeworth
(1767-1849), who herself would become a famous and respected novelist, presented
both sides of the debate in Letters to literary Ladies (1795). In the following exercises,
you will have the opportunity to expand your vocabulary by reading about Maria
Edgeworth and the debate over 'literary ladies."
abnegation
copious
eulogy
extraneous
poignant
sonorous
euphony
mundane
progeny
tenure
Exercise 1: Directions. Use a dictionary to look up each word. Highlight the context
clues in each sentence. Then go to Exercise 2 and complete by adding the words to the
correct blanks and adding the forms.
1. In Letters to Literary Ladies, a liberal father and his conservative friend debate the
subject of women authors. The friend-if he recognized women's rights to write at allwould favor an abnegation of those rights, urging women to give them up.
2. The father, modeled after Edgeworth's own father, provides copious reasons why
women should be respected as authors. Among the extensive evidence he cites is the
fact that women have produced significant works on natural history, education, and
other subjects.
3. In reading the friend's 'An Attack on Literary Ladies,' one gathers that he thinks
women should never lift their pens, not even to write a eulogy honoring a deceased
friend or relative.
4. Edgeworth certainly was capable of good writing and of using words in pleasantsounding combinations. Don't you like the euphony of her title Letters to Literary
Ladies.
5. From what I've read of the book so far, the two men in Letters to Literary Ladies
keep to the topic-whether women should be writers-and avoid extraneous subjects.
They do not stray from their main topic.
6. The friend implies that women should confine their interests to the mundane
pursuits of domestic life. When women venture away from these ordinary activities, he
says, they may harm themselves and others.
7. The father has several poignant comments. Particularly pointed is his argument
that women should be given the same educational and cultural advantages that men
are given. Considering women's disadvantages, he marvels 'that so much has been
affected' by women.
8. Both men agree that women are meant to be wives and mothers and to care for
their progeny, but the father thinks women are capable of much more than simply
rearing children.
9. One can imagine the friend actually telling women his theories in a deep, rich,
sonorous voice: We [men] usually consider a certain degree of weakness, both of mind
and body, as friendly to female grace."
10. If the friend were alive today and working as a supervisor in a company, his
tenure probably would not last very long. He would quickly lose his position and
would likely be replaced with someone whose views more closely mirror the father's.
Exercise 2--Directions. Use the dictionary to write the correct word above the part of
speech and meaning. Then, find forms of the word, along with part of speech for each
form.
1. ______________________________: adj. ordinary; commonplace; of this world (rather
than the world beyond)
Forms:
Synonyms:
2. . ______________________________: n. a speech or piece of writing in praise of a person
or thing, especially to honor one who has recently died; a tribute; praise
Forms:
Synonyms:
3. ______________________________: n. children; offspring; descendants
Forms:
Synonyms:
4. ______________________________: adj. abundant; plentiful; full of information; wordy
Forms:
Synonyms:
5. . ______________________________: n. the holding of an office; the length of time for
which a position is held; the permanence of position granted to teachers, civil service
employees, and others
Forms:
Synonyms:
6. ______________________________: n. agreeableness of sound; pleasant combination of
sounds in spoken words
Forms:
Synonyms:
7.______________________________: adj. giving out, capable of producing, or having a
deep, rich sound
Forms:
Synonyms:
8. ______________________________: n. self-denial; a giving up or a renunciation of
rights
Forms:
Synonyms:
9. ______________________________: adj. painfully felt; emotionally touching or moving;
pointed; sharp
Forms:
Synonyms:
10. ______________________________: adj. coming from outside; foreign; not necessary;
irrelevant
Forms:
Synonyms:
Exercise 3--Complete each sentence with a list word (or a form of the word).
1. The story of Maria Edgeworth's life would make a ________________ novel. I am
always emotionally touched by true success stories.
2. Edgeworth's father was an inventor and educator who had twenty-one
______________________________. Maria was his second child.
3. Maria's childhood was not __________________; in fact, it was far from ordinary. Most
children do not have the opportunity to grow up on an estate and be taught by their
fathers.
4. On the family estate in Ireland, Richard Edgeworth's lessons to his daughter were
__________________. She quickly absorbed the abundance of information.
5. I imagine that a __________________ bell rang at the start of the Edgeworth children's
lessons, its deep, rich sound filling the estate.
6. Richard Edgeworth apparently believed in strength through the expansion of
individual rights rather than the __________________ of rights. He did not believe that
people should be made to renounce their rights.
7. He exposed Maria to essential ideas from England as well as __________________
ideas from foreign lands, such as those of French philosophy.
8. Although Richard Edgeworth was not a university professor with__________________,
his lack of a professional position did not diminish the fact that he was an excellent
teacher.
9. Don't you think he has a nice-sounding name? I really like the _________________ of
his full name, Richard Lovell Edgeworth.
10. I wonder if Maria wrote a . ______________________________about her father after his
death. Even if she didn't, her career itself was a tribute to him and his inspiration.
Exercise 4: Directions : Highlight the correct choice to complete the sentences
AND WRITE THE CHOICE IN THE BLANK AT LEFT.
____1. Our English teacher, Ms. Carbone, gave us _____________ information about
Maria Edgeworth's life and works. I'd never taken so many notes!
(A) sonorous (B) mundane (C) extraneous (D) copious (E) eulogistic
____2. Most of the information was necessary and relevant, but I thought much of the
material about Ireland's early history was________________.
(A) euphonious (B) extraneous (C) sonorous (D) eulogistic (E) copious
____3. I didn't question her judgment, however. Our teacher's ________________ here
has lasted for thirty years; she must know her job very well in order to have kept it for
so long.
(A) eulogy (B) progeny (C) tenure (D) abnegation (E) euphony
____4. Ms. Carbone told us about the ________________, ordinary lives of the Irish
people portrayed in Edgeworth's novel Castle Rackrent (1800).
(A) copious (B) sonorous (C) tenured (D) extraneous (E) mundane
____5.Rackrent is a great name for a castle, I think, because the sound is so
_____________. Others may not agree, but I think the sound of the name is pleasing.
(A) euphonious (B) copious (C) poignant (D) mundane (E) extraneous
____6. Personally, I can't imagine having twenty-one ________________, as Edgeworth's
father did. I hope there were __________________ amounts of food around to feed so
many children!
(A) tenures...poignant (B) eulogies...mundane (C) euphonies...sonorous (D)
progeny...copious (E) abnegations ... extraneous
____7. Any _________________ written following Edgeworth's death should have
mentioned her work during the Irish potato famine of 1847. The _______________ story
of the Irish people's suffering moved me deeply.
(A) euphony...copious
(B) abnegation ...sonorous (C) eulogy ...poignant
(D) progeny...extraneous (E) tenure...mundane
____8. Later I was similarly moved by Edgeworth's__________ comments about her
father, who had taught her to defend her rights as a woman rather than to accept
________________ of them.
(A) sonorous...a tenure
(B) extraneous ...a eulogy (C) mundane... a progeny
(D) sonorous...a euphony (E) poignant ...an abnegation
_9. The school bell, its tone flat rather than deep and ____________, put an end to my
note taking. I wished I could hear Edgeworth's tributes to her father as well as the
________________ to her.
(A) copious...progenies (B) sonorous...eulogies (C) poignant.. . euphonies
(D) mundane...abnegations (E) extraneous ...euphonies
____10. Edgeworth did not have any ____________ of her own. She wrote
_______________________, however, and her many books could be called her offspring.
(A) tenure ... eulogistically (B) eulogies... sonorously (C) abnegations ... poignantly
(D) progeny... copiously (E) euphonies ... euphoniously
Exercise 5. Create ten sentences, each sentence containing a vocabulary word. Each
sentence is worth three points: one for spelling, one for the appropriate part of speech,
and one for sufficient context clues. Be careful not to create run-on sentences!