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A Modern Western is Born: When A Vocabulary Exercise Blossoms Into a Compelling Saga
Mr. Marzoni's 11th-grade English class was assigned to create sentences from a set of vocabulary words. Namkha Toner ran with this assignment and created an amusing narrative about a fictional character, Texas-Red. Read on to see how Namkha put a creative spin on this English assignment.
notorious
- quote/sentence: "Texas-Red was a notorious killer, legend has it he once stapled a farmer's infant son to a tree because he didn't like the look of him."
- definition: famous for bad reasons. basically infamous.
chartreuse
- quote/sentence: "Texas-Red downed a bottle of chartreuse that he had taken from the dying body of a Frenchman."
- definition: an alcoholic French beverage.
corrugated
- quote/sentence: "Texas-Red hated the riveted, corrugated roof of the cheaply made Church."
- definition: Basically means riveted, grooved, fluted, or rifled.
epidemic
- quote/sentence: "As the epidemic spread, Texas-Red began to find fewer and fewer people to rob."
- definition: Basically a virulent plague.
tubular
- quote/sentence: "The tubular barrel of Texas-Red's gun was pressed to the Ranger's forehead."
- definition: Tube-like
sassafras
- quote/sentence: "The man who put sassafras in the fire soon met his end staring down the barrel of Texas-Red's gun."
- definition: a type of plant, it's related to rhododendron which gives you diarrhea if you breathe in its smoke.
status
- quote/sentence: "Texas-Red's status as a notorious outlaw cemented his place in local legend."
- definition: the standing of someone or something.
shellacked
- quote/sentence: "Texas-Red was disappointed when he realized the building he was trying to burn was shellacked in some sort of fire resistant varnish."
- definition: past tense of shellack which means to coat something in shellac in varnish.
patriotism
- quote/sentence: "Texas-Red was no patriot. The only thing he valued was his desires, and of course, his pet llama."
- definition: The idea of being devoted to one's country.
claustrophobic
- quote/sentence: "Texas-Red would never admit to feeling fear, but in his heart he knew he was just a claustrophobic outlaw, afraid of the tight prison cell that awaits all men like him."
- definition: Used to describe someone having an intense fear of enclosed places. can also be used to describe extremely enclosed places.
