Vocabulary Words #3 (Honors Option)

bourgeoisie- In general, the middle class. Applied to the Middle Ages, it refers to townspeople, who were neither nobles nor peasants. In Marxism it refers to those who control the means of production and do not live directly by the sale of their labor. Karl Marx distinguished between the “haute” (high) bourgeoisie (industrialists and financiers) and the “petite” (small or “petty”) bourgeoisie (shopkeepers, self-employed artisans, lawyers). Marxism postulates a fundamental conflict between the interests of the bourgeoisie and those of the propertyless workers, the proletariat.


proletariat- the class of wage earners, esp. those who earn their living by manual labor or who are dependent for support on daily or casual employment; the working class.

stop-loss- designed or planned to prevent continued loss, as a customer's order to a broker to sell a stock if its price declines to a specific amount.

elucidate- to provide clarification; explain.


elusive- eluding clear perception or complete mental grasp; hard to express or define: an elusive concept.

profligate- utterly and shamelessly immoral or dissipated; thoroughly dissolute.

chasm- a deep opening in the earth's surface


fulminate- to explode with a loud noise; detonate


ostentatious- characterized by or given to pretentious or conspicuous show in an attempt to impress others: an ostentatious dresser.

obfuscate- to confuse, bewilder, or stupefy.

Vocabulary Words #2 (Honors Option)

ego- the “I” or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought.


subjectivity- of, relating to, or constituting a subject

metacognition- awareness and understanding one's thinking and cognitive processes; thinking about thinking


epistemology- a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.

mollify- to soften in feeling or temper, as a person; pacify; appease

abrogate- to abolish by formal or official means; annul by an authoritative act; repeal: to abrogate a law.


bureaucracy- the body of officials and administrators, esp. of a government or government department.


viscosity- the property of a fluid that resists the force tending to cause the fluid to flow.

filibuster- the use of irregular or obstructive tactics by a member of a legislative assembly to prevent the adoption of a measure generally favored or to force a decision against the will of the majority.

reconcile- to bring into agreement or harmony


vilify- to speak ill of; defame; slander.

aggregate- formed by the conjunction or collection of particulars into a whole mass or sum; total; combined: the aggregate amount of indebtedness.

Something to think about..

Right now for the Honors Option, I am reading "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho and I came across this excerpt that caught my eye and really made me think--

"...When someone sees the same people every day, as had happened with him at the seminary, they wind up becoming a part of that person's life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own."

I like this passage because this reminds me that each person has their own goals and dreams. As the days leading up to college are coming near,I feel kind of scared because I am still undecided about what I want to do after college. I haven't really found an area of study that I feel really passionate about, YET. This passage made me realize that I don't always have to listen to people when they tell me that I should study this, or I should study that.

But anyways..So far, I really like this book!!

Book Talk: America Is In The Heart

This book brought me a lot of emotions, especially because the author came from the same place my parents did. I feel like I personally know the author because I can totally relate to what he’s been through in a way. I’ve visited the Philippines before, and I know exactly how the American’s treat the Filipinos, and vice versa. American’s look at the peasants with sympathy, and they look at American’s with envy. There was a part in the book where a middle-class ignorant lady purposefully knocked down a huge bowl of beans just because Carlos’s mother was staring at her with envy. Then his mother got on her hands and knees and started picking up all the beans and was saying “It’s okay, it’s okay...” It made me very sad because that shows how much even people of your own race really care about one another. This book also made me realize how corrupt third world countries may be. The governments take so much money from the peasants, and can’t even provide education for even half the population. They take money from the poor, only to make the wealthy even wealthier. In Carlos’s family, it was only his older brother who succeeded past through high school that’s what the family could only afford.

Growing up, Carlos’s family was getting smaller and smaller because either his siblings were dying, or moving away. When it was time for Carlos to realize that he needs to go, he leaves his two younger sisters with his parents, his father already getting very sick. Although they are very poor, and his father was very sick, Carlos needed to leave his family for a better life for himself. He didn’t want to leave them, but he had to. Through the long process, he made it to America only to find a more difficult life. He hopped on trains and went from city to city in search of labor jobs. Sometimes he worked the whole day, only to make fifty cents.

This book makes me appreciate the fact that I live in America, because here everything is basically given to us. I have the resources I need to help me in everything I try to accomplish, and best of all, I have the freedom to do what I want. Because of this book, I learned that many poor people do everything they can to survive. They don’t even have any mode of transportation, so if they want to go somewhere, they’ll either have to walk or pay a few pesos to ride on the back of a bike. They make their money through hard work of cultivating their land so that they can grow food. It seems like we all take for granted what we have, compared to other countries where living may be a difficulty. Not only in the Asian countries, but many others as well.