Comedy and Tragedy
Ms. Touchette
Spring 2009
Vocabulary and Grammar Practice:
Grow Smarter as You Assist the World’s Hungry
Log on to http://www.freerice.com/ and read about how your
vocabulary and grammar practice can help feed the hungry.
Weekly vocabulary assignment:
Each week, spend 30+ minutes practicing vocabulary and
grammar. Every Friday, bring verification of your
contributions by printing out the page with your rice bowl,
level achieved and the date. You may work ahead and bank
weeks’ of points, if you so desire.
1000+ points per week equal A
900-999 points per week equal B
800-899 points per week equal C
500-799 points per week equal D
1-499 points per week equal F
No submission for points equals 0
Have fun! Learn something! Do good for the world!
FAQs and answers from www.freerice.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I really make a difference by playing FreeRice?
The rice you donate makes a huge difference to the person who receives it. According to the
United Nations, about 25,000 people die each day from hunger or hunger-related causes,
most of them children. Though 20 grains of rice may seem like a small amount, it is important
to remember that while you are playing, so are thousands of other people at the same time. It
is everyone together that makes the difference. Thanks to you, FreeRice has generated
enough rice to feed more than two million people since it started in October 2007.
How does playing the vocabulary game at FreeRice help me?
Learning new vocabulary has tremendous benefits. It can help you:

Formulate your ideas better

Write better papers, emails and business letters

Speak more precisely and persuasively

Comprehend more of what you read

Read faster because you comprehend better

Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school

Score higher on tests like the SAT, GRE, LSAT and GMAT

Perform better at job interviews and conferences

Sell yourself, your services, and your products better

Be more effective and successful at your job
After you have done FreeRice for a while, you may notice an odd phenomenon. Words that
you have never consciously used before will begin to pop into your head while you are
speaking or writing. You will feel yourself using and knowing more words.
How do I do other subjects besides vocabulary at FreeRice?
Click on the Subjects link near the top right of the page to see a list of all subjects available at
FreeRice. There is math, science, geography, art history, other languages and more. FreeRice
is working to add more subjects and more material within each subject. Our goal is to provide
knowledge that is useful and interesting for you.
Why do I see some questions repeated?
Whenever you get a question wrong, FreeRice will repeat it a few turns later to give you a
second chance at it.
Who pays for the donated rice?
The rice is paid for by the sponsors whose names you see on the bottom of your screen when
you enter a correct answer. These sponsors support both learning (free education for
everyone) and reducing hunger (free rice for the hungry). We thank these sponsors for their
generous participation at FreeRice. For information about how you or your company can
sponsor FreeRice, please email freerice.rep@wfp.org.
How do I start playing FreeRice?
In the middle of the FreeRice Home page you will see something like:
small means:
little
old
big
yellow
To play the game, click on one of the four definitions (“little,” “old,” “big,” or “yellow”) that
you think is correct. If you get it right, FreeRice donates 20 grains of rice to help end hunger.
In the example above, you would want to click on “little,” which means “small.” You will then
get a chance to do another word the same way. You can play as long as you like and donate
as much rice as you like. When you are finished, you do not have to do anything―your
donation is already counted.
How does the FreeRice program work?
FreeRice has a custom database containing knowledge questions at varying levels of difficulty.
There are levels appropriate for beginners and levels that will challenge the most scholarly
professors. In between are levels suitable for students of all ages, business people,
homemakers, doctors, truck drivers, retired people… everyone!
FreeRice automatically adjusts to your level. It starts by giving you questions of increasing
difficulty and then, based on how you do, assigns you an approximate starting level. You then
determine a more exact level for yourself as you play. When you get a question wrong, you go
to an easier level. When you get three questions in a row right, you go to a harder level. This
one-to-three ratio is best for keeping you at the “outer fringe” of your skills, where learning
can take place.
How is the difficulty level determined?
The program keeps track of how many people get each question right or wrong, and then
adjusts each question’s difficulty level accordingly. So the questions at the easiest levels are
the ones that people most often get right. The questions at the hardest levels are the ones
that people most often get wrong. As more and more people have played the game, these
levels have become increasingly more accurate.
What is the Options page?
On the Options page you can set FreeRice to remember how much total rice you have donated
for the next time you play. Instructions are given at the bottom of that page.
What happens if my computer suddenly loses power while I am in the
middle of playing? Does my donation still count?
Yes, once your screen says that you have donated a certain amount of rice, that means our
servers have registered it. For example, suppose your screen says that you have donated 120
grains of rice. If your computer then suddenly loses power, or you close your browser, or you
click to go somewhere else, your donation has already been counted.
How do I hear a word pronounced?
To hear one of the vocabulary words pronounced out loud, click on the speaker symbol to the
right of the word. Speech over the Internet is not an exact science and there are a number of
things you can check if you do not hear the word pronounced. Check that your computer has
speakers, that the volume is turned up and not on mute, and that you have Flash installed
(most computers do). Also, some recently added words may not have their pronunciations
done yet. The pronunciations are very kindly provided by eSpindle.org, a non-profit
organization that tutors vocabulary and spelling online.
Where does FreeRice get the word definitions from?
The word definitions for English vocabulary come from a wide variety of sources including
dictionaries, thesauruses and books of synonyms. Each definition is double-checked and edited
for accuracy. There are 60 levels of vocabulary with over 12,000 words in all, but it is rare for
people to get above level 50.
How do you track the answers and rice donated for each person?
When you click on your choice for the answer, this information is sent to one of our servers via
a regular HTML form. This form is then processed by the server using the PHP programming
language, which then figures out if you got the answer correct and, if so, adds to both your
personal rice total and the overall rice total. It then sends back an HTML page with new words
and your new total as part of the next form.
If FreeRice has the rice to give, why not give it all away right now?
FreeRice is not sitting on a pile of rice―you are earning it 20 grains at a time. Here is how it
works. When you play the game, sponsor banners appear on the bottom of your screen. The
money generated by these banners is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate
the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people.
Couldn’t I just write a computer program to play all day and give a lot of
rice that way?
There are two problems with this. First, it overloads our servers so that real people can’t play
and learn. Second, without real people playing and the resulting company sponsorship, no
money would be generated and we could not give any rice at all.
Does FreeRice make any money from doing this? Is FreeRice a non-profit
organization?
FreeRice does not make any money from this. FreeRice is simply a website committed to the
cause of ending hunger around the world. While it is not a registered non-profit organization,
FreeRice is run entirely for free and at no profit. All money (100%) raised by the site goes to
the UN World Food Program to help feed the hungry. Sponsors make all payments to the UN
World Food Program directly.
Can you tell me more about the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at
Harvard University?
FreeRice is pleased to have the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
as our partner. Founded over ten years ago, the Berkman Center is a network of faculty,
students, fellows and members of an extended community. In their own words, “We envision a
growing opportunity to use Internet technologies to improve the ways that we teach, learn,
and make information accessible to citizens around the world.” Besides helping FreeRice to
provide you with the best possible educational content, the Berkman Center has the talent and
resources to help FreeRice develop in other areas as well. Please visit the Berkman Center for
Internet & Society at Harvard University here.
Can you tell me more about the UN World Food Program (WFP)?
FreeRice is also pleased to have the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) as our partner.
WFP distributes all of the rice that you donate to help fight hunger. As the world’s largest food
aid agency, WFP works closely with many other organizations in over 75 countries. In addition
to providing food, WFP helps hungry people to become self-reliant so that they escape hunger
for good. Wherever possible, WFP buys food locally to support local farmers and the local
community. Please visit the WFP website to learn more at www.wfp.org.
In what countries does the UN World Food Program (WFP) distribute the
rice?
The UN World Food Program (WFP) works around the globe and FreeRice donations are made
with no restrictions. This freedom of use allows WFP to apply the donations to countries that
need it most, often those that don’t make the headlines in the news, yet where chronic hunger
continues unchecked. Often WFP is able to purchase the rice in the very countries where the
beneficiaries are located, cutting down on the transport time to reach the hungry and helping
to stimulate local economies at the same time.
Here are some examples of where FreeRice rice has been distributed:

In Bangladesh, to feed 27,000 refugees from Myanmar for two weeks. Please click
here to watch FreeRice being distributed in Bangladesh.

In Cambodia, to provide take-home rations of four kilograms of rice for two months to
13,500 pregnant and nursing women.

In Uganda, to feed 66,000 school children for a week.

In Nepal, to feed over 108,000 Bhutanese refugees for three days.

In Bhutan, to feed 41,000 children for 8 days.

In Myanmar, to feed 750,000 cyclone affected people for 3 days.
How much rice does it take to feed a person for a day? How many grains of
rice in a gram?
The composition of UN World Food Program (WFP) food baskets varies from country to country
and region to region, depending upon the eating habits of the people WFP feeds. In countries
where rice is a staple part of the diet, WFP provides, on average, about 400 grams of rice per
person, per day (for families, including children and adults). That is intended for two meals
that include other ingredients to ensure a minimum of 2,100 kilocalories per day. There are
about 48 grains of rice in a gram.
How does the food prices crisis affect FreeRice?
The cost of rice per metric ton has more than doubled since the website’s inception. Given that
FreeRice players raise grains of rice, not dollars, this increase does not change the overall
number of people fed. However, FreeRice donates the cash equivalent of the grains raised
through sponsorships and donations, so rising rice prices means that FreeRice has to raise
significantly more money to pay for the grains generated by every correct click.
Are there any banners or high-resolution logos I can use for FreeRice?
FreeRice offers banners and logos you can use to create links on your web pages to easily
refer your friends to the site. Banners and logos are available here. Since FreeRice’s strength
is in the number of people using it, you can also help to make a big difference simply by
spreading the word through blogs or communities where FreeRice exist like Facebook,
MySpace and Think MTV.
How can I make a donation to buy more rice for hungry people?
If you like, you can make a donation to the UN World Food Program to help FreeRice buy more
rice to feed hungry people. If you are located in the United States please click here.
Otherwise, please click here. If you would like to become a sponsor for FreeRice, please email
freerice.rep@wfp.org.
What is being done to end world hunger?
There is great progress being made to end world hunger. Many organizations across the globe
are involved in this struggle. Each day, hundreds of thousands of ordinary men and women
work for these organizations. Through their efforts, millions of impoverished people have food
to eat, learn skills and find hope for the future.
Where can I learn more about hunger?
One last important thing you can do to help end hunger is to become knowledgeable about it.
A good way to do this is to visit WFP, our sister site Poverty.com, or one of the many excellent
sites listed here. We believe that when enough people around the world become
knowledgeable about hunger, it will no longer be tolerated.