Answer Key – Word Selection Activity


Tier two words are highlighted
Tier three words are in red.
Selection #1
A Tale of Two Cities Book the First -- Recalled to Life
Chapter I
The Period
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was
the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it
was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it
was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short,
the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities
insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of
comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of
England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the
throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the
State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.
It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual
revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs.
Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a
prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by
announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and
Westminster.
Tier 2 Words:



Incredulity
Spiritual
Favoured (you may want to explain British spelling conventions)
Student-friendly definitions that could be used are as follows:
 Incredulity: If you have a feeling of incredulity, you are unable to believe that
something has happened.
 Spiritual: A spiritual person is concerned with goodness and kindness rather
than money or possessions.
 Favoured: means someone or something is liked more than someone or
something else
Strong and Weak Acids
Although hydrochloric acid and acetic acid are both acids according to the Arrhenius
definition, the solutions created by dissolving the same numbers of HCl and
HC2H3O2 molecules in water have very different acid properties. You wouldn’t
hesitate to put a solution of the weak acid HC2H3O2 (vinegar) on your salad, but
putting a solution of the strong acid HCl on your salad would have a very different
effect on the lettuce. With hydrochloric acid, you are more likely to get a brown,
fuming mess rather than a crisp, green salad. Strong acids form nearly one H3O+
ion in solution for each acid molecule dissolved in water, whereas weak acids yield
significantly less than one H3O+ ion in solution for each acid molecule dissolved in
water.
When an acetic acid molecule, HC2H3O2, collides with an H2O molecule, an H+ can
be transferred to the water to form a hydronium ion, H3O+, and an acetate ion,
C2H3O2-. The acetate ion, however, is less stable in solution than the chloride ion
formed when the strong acid HCl dissolves in water. Because of this instability, the
C2H3O2- reacts with the hydronium ion, pulling the H+ ion back to reform HC2H3O2
and H2O. A reaction in which the reactants are constantly forming products and, at
the same time, the products are re‑forming the reactants is called a reversible
reaction. The chemical equations for reactions that are significantly reversible are
written with double arrows as illustrated in Figure 5.5.
If you were small enough to be riding on one of the carbon atoms in HC2H3O2 or
C2H3O2-, you would find that your atom was usually in the HC2H3O2 form but often
in the C2H3O2- form and continually changing back and forth. The forward and
reverse reactions would be taking place simultaneously all around you. When acetic
acid is added to water, the relative amounts of the different products and reactants
soon reach levels at which the opposing reactions proceed at equal rates. (We will
see why in Chapter 16.) This means that the forward reaction is producing C2H3O2as quickly as the reverse reaction is producing HC2H3O2(aq). At this point, there is
no more net change in the amounts of HC2H3O2, H2O, C2H3O2-, or H3O+ in the
solution. For example, for each 1000 molecules of acetic acid added to water, the
solution will eventually contain about 996 acetic acid molecules (HC2H3O2), four
hydronium ions (H3O+), and four acetate ions (C2H3O2-). Acetic acid is therefore a
weak acid, a substance that is incompletely ionized in water because of the
reversibility of its reaction with water that forms hydronium ion, H3O+. Figure 5.6
shows a simple model that will help you to picture this solution.
The products formed from the reaction of a strong acid and water do not recombine
at a significant rate to re‑form the uncharged acid molecules and water. For
example, when HCl molecules react with water, the H3O+ and Cl- ions that form do
not react to a significant degree to reform HCl and H2O. (Look again at Figure 5.2 to
see the behavior of a strong acid in solution.) Reactions like this that are not
significantly reversible are often called completion reactions. The chemical equations
for completion reactions are written with single arrows to indicate that the reaction
proceeds to form almost 100% products.
Therefore, a strong acid is a substance that undergoes a completion reaction with
water such that each acid particle reacts to form a hydronium ion, H3O+. The strong
monoprotic acids that you will be expected to recognize are nitric acid, HNO3, and
hydrochloric acid, HCl(aq). (There are others that you might be expected to
recognize later in your chemical education.) If we were to examine equal volumes of
two aqueous solutions, one made with a certain number of molecules of a strong acid
and one made with the same number of molecules of a weak acid, we would find
fewer hydronium ions in the solution of weak acid than in the solution of strong acid
(Figure 5.7).
Tier 2 Words and Student-friendly definitions that could be used are as
follows:
Fuming – enraged, bubbling
Reactants – products involved in a reaction
Recombine – to combine again
Selection #3 – Social Studies
Columbus led his three ships - the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria - out of the
Spanish port of Palos on August 3, 1492. His objective was to sail west until he
reached Asia (the Indies) where the riches of gold, pearls and spice awaited. His first
stop was the Canary Islands where the lack of wind left his expedition becalmed until
September 6.
Once underway, Columbus benefited from calm seas and steady winds that pushed
him steadily westward (Columbus had discovered the southern "Trades" that in the
future would fuel the sailing ships carrying goods to the New World). However, the
trip was long, longer than anticipated by either Columbus or his crew. In order to
mollify his crew's apprehensions, Columbus kept two sets of logs: one showing the
true distance traveled each day and one showing a lesser distance. The first log was
kept secret. The latter log quieted the crew's anxiety by under-reporting the true
distance they had traveled from their homeland.
This deception had only a temporary effect; by October 10 the crew's apprehension
had increased to the point of near mutiny. Columbus headed off disaster by
promising his crew that if land was not sighted in two days, they would return home.
The next day land was discovered.
A New World is Revealed
Columbus's journal of his first voyage to America has been lost. However, we do
have an accurate abstract of the journal written by Bartolome de las Casas in the
1530s. Las Casas was an historian and Columbus's biographer who had access to the
original journal of the voyage. We join Columbus's account as his expedition
approaches the islands of the Bahamas. Throughout the account, Columbus refers to
himself in the third person as the "Admiral":
"Thursday October 11
The course was W.S.W., and there was more sea than there had been during the
whole of the voyage. They saw sand-pipers, and a green reed near the ship. Those of
the caravel Pinta saw a cane and a pole, and they took up another small pole which
appeared to have been worked with iron; also another bit of cane, a land-plant, and
a small board. The crew of the caravel Niña also saw signs of land, and a small
branch covered with berries. Everyone breathed afresh and rejoiced at these signs.
The run until sunset was 27 leagues.
Tier 2 Words and Student-friendly definitions that could be used are as
follows:
Expedition – a group of people who go on a trip together for a specific reason,
usually to a somewhere far away
Apprehension: a fear that something bad will happen
Deception: doing something to trick people into believing things that are not true