Doing School Part 5

5 Comments
1] When students (some) are having fun in school, they temporarily forget about the stress.
2] There is always a change of behavior at the end of each semester.
3] Berto enjoys tutoring and helping others out at school.
4] Some turns to manipulating the school system in order to get their desired grades.
5] There is always a double sided picture of school success.

4 Questions
1] If having fun releases stress, shouldn't the school curriculum make their classes more enjoyable?
2] How do these students cope with their stress?
3] How many parents are actually aware of their kids being under all of the stress?
4] Is there really enjoyment while being in school?

3 Vocabulary
1] Marsh: an area of low-lying waterlogged land, often besides water, that is poorly drained and liable to flood, difficult to cross on foot, and unfit for agriculture or building.
2]Ungrudging: feeling or showing no reluctance or reservations.
3] Ulcer: a slow-healing sore on the surface of a mucous membrane, especially the membrane lining the stomach or other part of the digestive tract.

2 Literary Terms
1] "These students are considered the light of our school." -Metaphor.
2] "Like chameleons who use dramatic color changes to camouflage themselves in order to stay alive, the successful students at Faircrest exhibited vastly different behaviors from class to class in order to meet the diverse expectations of their teachers." -Simile.

1 overview sentence
Even though these students are extremely stressed, they also sometimes enjoy the work.

Doing School Part 4

5 Comments
1] Some students barely have time to do homework because of their work time after school.
2] Ironically, in schools, health classes teaches about stress.
3] There are good students who cheat, but Roberto does not,
4] Some students admit that they do receive help whenever it's offered.
5] Some students have to skip lunch because they have to cram in everything before classes.

4 Questions
1] Why don't these students ever take a break?
2] Why do these students take so many hard classes even if they barely have enough time?
3] Does anxiety really affect grades?
4] Do they do other activities outside of school to not worry about their grades?

3 Vocabulary
1] Unsolicited: Given, sent, or received without being requested.
2] Feat: A remarkable act or achievement involving courage, skill, or strength.
3] Clamoring: Demanding attention loudly and insistently.

2 Literary Terms
1] "Like Kevin destroying the walls in the gymnasium." -Simile.
2] "He felt like he had to violated one of the world rules." -Simile.

1 Overview Sentence
Stress and work often plays a big role in reasons why students are often not finishing their work on time and having to cram in all in last minute.

Doing School Part 3

5 Comments
1] Teresa Gomez stresses herself so much to a point where she develops health problems.
2] Some off the best students actually live very difficult and poor lives.
3] When students have work, they feel obligated to do more than enough enough for each assignment.
4] I can almost relate to these students but they take it to an extreme.
5] In school, sometimes it's more of the teachers doing that makes students stressed because of the pressure they put on students.

4 Questions
1] Are the school systems really preparing students well for the future?
2] Isn't the stress caused from school just negatively affecting the students more?
3] Have these students ever wanted to give up?
4] What goes on in their home lives?

3 Vocabulary
1] Impinges: to affect the limits of something, especially a right or law, often causing some kind of restriction.
2] Inextricably: impossible to get free from.
3] Opt: to choose something or to choose to do something.

2 Literary Terms
1] "you knew students are trapped in there." -Hyperbole.
2] "and who believed the course 'saved their lives'" -Metaphor.

1 Overview sentence
Michele is often misunderstood as a sleazy student but she is just trying to succeed.

Doing School Part 2

5 Comments
1] Most of the advanced students cheat, but in a different way.
2] They cheat by programming equations in their calculators, cutting class to study, and asking friends who took the tests earlier for help.
3] Sharing work is also considered a cheating strategy where students share answers and copy.
4] Some students enjoy being pushed to their limits because it makes them feel ready for the future.
5] These students are being pushed because they’re convinced that the rigorous work will prepare them for a brighter future.

4 Questions
1] What kind of behavior is fostered by the expectations of the school community and by these outside of school?
2] Can students meet these expectations without sacrificing personal and academic goals and beliefs?
3] Can parents encourage their children to strive for future success without pushing too hard?
4] What can school teachers do to help with the stress?

3 Vocabulary
1] Consummate: to bring something such as a business deal to a conclusion.
2] Egregious: conspicuously bad or offensive.
3] Unprecedented: having no earlier parallel or equivalent.

2 Literary Terms
1] The humor was often lost in the translation. –Metaphor.
2] And they view most administrators as disciplinarians. –Simile.

1 Overview Sentence
Students like Teresa, goes to drastic measures to work hard in school despite of their health and outer school life.

Doing School Part 1

5 Comments
1] Faircrest High has 5 of their best students. Eve, Kevin, Michelle, Teresa, and Roberto, who are well known for their outstanding school work and their dedication to school.
2] Although the shining students may have perfect grades, they are often under a constant state of stress.
3] Not all good students are goody two shoes. They sometimes have to do things they’re not proud of.
4] Doing school – is a system where achievement depends more on “doing”- going through the correct motions, than on learning and engaging with the curriculum.
5] Some students feels compelled to cheat in order to get a good grade.

4 Questions
1] If these students cheat, how come they never get caught?
2] What motivates them to maintain high grades even if they’re so stressed?
3] Do they “suck up” to their teachers?
4] How come they try to hide the stress? Shouldn’t they be finding ways to relieve it?

3 Vocabulary
1] Espoused: to adopt or support something as a belief or cause.
2] Frenetic: characterized by feverish activity, confusion, and hurry
3] Prestigious: Play or to be played as fast as possible.

2 Literary Terms
1] “good job, Jerome. You’re a Star.” – Metaphor.
2] “He’s a glass is half-full kind of guy.” – Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
Students nowadays are being put under constant stress and they feel pressured to get good grades.

Monkey Bridge: Chapter 10

5 Comments
1] There was an argument and Mai had awoken to it.
2] Mrs. Bay and Mai's mother was arguing.
3] Uncle Michael is trying to help with the family situation.
4] Mai is worried for her mother because she does not want her to fall back in rehabilitation again.
5] Mai went to the library to learn more about her history : the Viet Nam war.

4 Questions
1] Did Uncle Michael recently immigrated to the U.S.?
2] Will they ever find her grandfather?
3] Is he even still alive?
4] How are they gonna find him now?

3 Vocabulary
1] Vicinity: the area or region near or about a place; surrounding district; neighborhood:
2] Unfettered: to release from fetters.
3] Dissolution: the act or process of resolving or dissolving into parts or elements.

2 Literary Terms
1] "A tender slice of sweet memory." -Metaphor.
2] "We tossed spirit money in the air." -Metaphor.

1 Overview
Although they haven't found her grandfather, Mai still doesn't lose hope and struggles to learn more about her past.

Monkey Bridge: Chapter 9

5 Comments
1] Mai's mother finally got to reunite with her father.
2] Mai;s mother thinks that Mai looses herself in her thinking.
3] In one of her mother's entries, Mai's mother talks about karma and genetics.
4] Mai seems very uncomfortable with her situation in life.
5] Baba Quan seemed to be lost somewhere in Viet Nam.

4 Questions
1] How did they find her (Mai's) grandfather?
2] Did they go to Vietnam to see him?
3] Did they bring him back to the U.S?
4] What was Mai's mothers reaction?

3 Vocabulary
1] Embargo: an order of a government prohibiting the movement of merchant ships into or out of its ports.
2] Nostalgia: a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his college days.
3] Incremental: something added or gained; addition; increase.

2 Literary Terms
1] "I could feel the pulsing of veins that usually precedes entry into a forbidden, private realm." -Metaphor.
2] "I continued my desire to probe for loose memory." -Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
Mai's mother didnt really reunite with her father. It was all in her head.

Monkey Bridge: Chapter 8

5 Comments
1] Mai's mother was finally released from the hospital and is at home again.
2] Mai and Bobbie returned back to their apartment to see her mother burning incenses and preparing a feast.
3] Mai's mother often is confused. One minute shes calm and peaceful, the next she imagines herself in the middle of the streets in Viet Nam.
4] After Mai's mother was released from the rehabilitation center, she hasn't mentioned a word about her grandfather.
5] Mai is lost between what is right for her and what she thinks is right for her mother.

4 Questions
1] Who is Mrs. Bay?
2] Why is she mentioned so many times but yet shes so unknown?
3] What is a hui?
4] Is Contufabulatory a real word?

3 Vocabulary
1] Hodgepodge: a heterogeneous mixture; jumble.
2] Disembodied: to divest (a soul, spirit, etc.) of a body.
3] Neurological: the science of the nerves and the nervous system, esp. of the diseases affecting them.

2 Literary terms
1] "I wanted to break through the membrane that kept us apart and plunge headfirst into a prenatal space where I could reach my mother's true thoughts." -Metaphor.
2] "Our apartment was generating some serious energy." -Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
Mai's mother finally returned from the rehabilitation center and now things are going fine for now.

Monkey Bridge: Chapter 7

5 Comments

1] The Governors army had been massively equipped with the most up-to-date weapons.

2] There is a street in Vietnam where it is named the Street of the Trung Sisters in memory of their courageous bravery.

3] Mai was being interviewed by someone whom she does not trust. Why?

4] Mai wanted desperately to tell Mrs. Macmahon the true story of Vietnam, that its not just about rocket fires and body bags.

5] Mai wanted to further her education, so she wanted to go to a college.

4 Questions

1] Who were the Trung Sisters?

2] What was the Trung Sisters symbolizing?

3] Where was Mai heading?

4] And what is she planning to do?

3 Vocabulary

1] Counter attack: an attack made as an offset or reply to another attack.

2] Venerated: to regard or treat with reverence; revere.

3] Shrines: a building or other shelter, often of a stately or sumptuous character, enclosing the remains or relics of a saint or other holy person and forming an object of religious veneration and pilgrimage.

2 Literary Terms

1] "Americans play catch with one knife, but we've mastered the art of juggling many knives." -Metaphor.

2] "America was just beginning to stare at its bruises." -Personification.

1 Overview Sentence
When Mai went to travel with her friend Bobbie, she ended up being in an interview with Mrs. MacMahon.

Monkey Bridge Chapter 6

5 Comments

1] Mai's mother was a very messy and disorganized person, and often felt like a "fugitive" in her own home.
2] Mai's mother often wrote journal entries about her life, and in one particular entry, she writes about her life in Vietnam and how HER mother was getting married and how she wanted to pass down her wisdom to Mai. Her "Awesome Ears" as she calls it.
3] Mai's grandmothers wedding started off uneventful, and she married at the age of 14? (Book does not describes that part).
4] Mai's mother was born with "heavenly ears". They were so long that they were compared with pictures of Buddha. It was believed that her ears broke the karma and fear of the traditional ears cut off from pigs.
5] Mai didn't feel comfortable with who she was, and as her mother describes her, she doesnt like blemishes and imperfection.

4 Questions
1] Why were the ears of pigs cut off in the ceremony of a marriage?
2] What it bad luck if a girl did not bled three drops of blood on her marriage night?
3] Why didn't Mai accept her Vietnamese culture? Was she ashamed?
4] How old was Mai's mother when she wrote the entry?

3 Vocabulary
1] Peculiar: Strange; odd.
2] Sidled: To move sideways or obliquely.
3] Catacomb: Usually, catacombs. an underground cemetery, esp. one consisting of tunnels and rooms with recesses dug out for coffins and tombs.

2 Literary Terms
1] "My mother's bedroom was dark, emptied her." - Metaphor.
2] "I threw myself on her bed and felt the seemingly infinte silence, the expanse of sadness that was peculiarly hers, dissolve inside my body." -Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
In this chapter of the book, Mai's mother wrote a journal entry about her life in Vietnam and about her mother. It describes her mothers wedding and how she was born and what she wants for her daughter.

Monkey Bridge Chapter 5

5 Comments
1] Mai's mother said that Connecticut is not the safest place in America.
2] Mai tried to convince her mother to let her go to an American college.
3] In Vietnam, there were outdoor markets called "Sky Markets" that were vast and prosperous.
4] Vietnamese people back then were and are now obsessed with karma.
5] The vietnamese word for "please" as in "could you please," literally means "to make good karma."

4 Questions
1] What was the condition of Vietnam at the time that Mai and her mother was in the U.S?
2] How was it like for Mai to help her mother with daily tasks, like grocery shopping?
3] Where was Aunt Mary and Uncle Michael living now?
4] How long did it take Mai to learn English?

3 Vocabulary
1] Prestigious: indicative of or conferring prestige.
2] Meandered: To follow a winding and turning course.
3] Obsolete:
no longer in general use; fallen into disuse.

2 Literary terms
1] "I could see the moon etched against our windowpane, fat and full of milk." -Metaphor.
2] "It was as prestigious as a local scholar being admitted to the mandarin rank at the emporer's court." -Simile.

1 Overview Sentence
Mai recaps on the beginning events that took place when her and her mother first came to the U.S.

Monkey Bridge Chapter 4

5 Comments

1] Mai could sense danger lurking everywhere she go.
2] When Mai and her mother first came to the U.S, they lived in a apartment complex in Falls Church, Virginia. It was a beat up, rundown apartment.
3] Mai's mother believed in omens from antennas and inanimate objects while her father believed in omens from action and inaction, maneurvering and mismaneuvering of political life.
4] Ho Chi Minh city was actually named after a person.
5] For Mai and her mothers first winter, they had to huddle up hear a open oven to keep warm.

4 Questions
1] What is Mai's fathers theory about "one wrong move"?
2] What started World War II? What were the conflicts?
3] What did Mai see omens in?
4] What would happen if they were to be caught crossing the borders?


3 Vocabulary
1] Refrain: to abstain from an impulse to say or do something.
2] Unpropitious: Unfavorable; inauspicious.
3] Ominous: portending evil or harm; foreboding; threatening; inauspicious.

2 Literary Terms
1] "The sun, dull and splattered like a burnt yolk, was hiding low, snagged behind a mass of clouds so thick and dull that even the lush cedar-green looked a sludgy olive." -Simile/Metaphor.
2] "Imprints of trees pressed themselves against the windshield, black silhouettes that hung like bleak skeletons." -Simile.

1 Overview Sentence
Bobbie and Mai are still traveling to Canada but Mai is having a self conflict about crossing the border because she feels that danger is lurking amongst them.

Monkey Bridge Chapter 3

5 Comments
1] Mai and Bobbie are on a roadtrip to a place where they have never been.
2] Mai feels uncomfortable about leaving her mother behind at the hospital.
3] They were headed to Canada, in search of a way to try to contact her grandfather in Vietnam.
4] Mai feels unwanted in the U.S., because of what happened in the war. She feels as though shes a reminder of a war the whole country was trying to forget.
5] Mai felt nervous about crossing the border and she thinks that they'll get caught.

4 Questions
1] Did Canada offer shelter for refuges who sought relief from war? Would they accept Bobbie and Mai?
2] What would happen if they were caught crossing the borders?
3] Why couldn't they call he grandfather in Vietnam from the U.S.?
4] How did her mother get a blood clot in her brain?

3 Vocabulary
1] Cozied: Snug, comfortable and warm.
2] Topography: the detailed mapping or charting of the features of a relatively small area, district, or locality.
3] Permanence: the condition or quality of being permanent; perpetual or continued existence.

2 Literary Terms
1] "Watching a uniformed man tap spekcs of cinder from his cigarette like red warning lights flashed into the dusk of winter." - Simile.
2] "I could only see danger looming in the land, over there." -Personification.

1 Overview Sentence
Mai and Bobbie are driving to Canada so they can find a way to contact her grandfather from Vietnam.

Monkey Bridge Chapter 2

5 Comments
1] Mai's mother was in the hospital being treated.
2] Her mother kept calling out her father's name "Baba Quan" in her sleep.
3] Her mother had always been devoted to her grandfather.
4] Baba Quan was left behind in Vietnam when Mai and her mother escaped.
5] Her mother is partially paralyzed.

4 Questions
1] Why is her mother calling out "Baba Quan" in her sleep?
2] What happened to the rest of her family?
3] Why was she being strapped down?
4] What happened to her grandfather?

3 Vocabulary
1] Insignia: a badge or distinguishing mark of office or honor.
2] Narcotically: any of a class of substances that blunt the senses, as opium, morphine, belladonna, and alcohol, that in large quantities produce euphoria, stupor, or coma, that when used constantly can cause habituation or addiction, and that are used in medicine to relieve pain, cause sedation, and induce sleep.
3] Tourniquet: any device for arresting bleeding by forcibly compressing a blood vessel, as a bandage tightened by twisting.

2 Literary Terms
1] "With the random force ad strength of a trapped and frustrated eel." - Metaphor.
2] "She was squeezing a rubber toy shaped like a bowling pen." -Simile.

1 Overview sentence
Her mother is in the hospital bed being injected with a needle, and strapped down. She is apparently mentally unstable.

Monkey Bridge Chapter 1

5 Comments
1] White is the color of mourning, the standard color for ghosts, bones, and funerals. (In Vietnam)
2] The Character has reoccurring thoughts about the attacks when she was in Saigon, Vietnam.
3] She is in a hospital in the U.S.
4] Bobbie was her best f riend from high school.
5] She was staying at Arlington Hospital.

4 Questions
1] Where was her mother?
2] Does she know why she's in the hospital?
3] Was the events in her memories in Vietnam from the Vietnam War?
4] Where was her father?

3 Vocabulary
1] Percussive: of or pertaining to or characterized by percussion.
2] Languidly: lacking in vigor or vitality.
3] Immense: vast; huge; very great.

2 Literary Terms
1] "The bedsheet white of the hallway was an anxious white I knew by heart." - Personification.
2] "As if the tears were always ppooled in readiness beaneath my eyes." -Simile

1 Overview Sentence
1] In the beginning, Mai Nguyen talks about being in an American Hospital and about her mother who was burned severely on her face years ago while cooking.

Spook: Chapter 10

5 Comments
1] Mediumship is about proving that life after death is a fact.
2] Psychics and mediums prosper not because they're intentionally fraudulent, but because their subjects are uncritical.
3] The people who visit mediums and psychics are often strongly motivated or constitutionally inclined to believe that what is being said is relevant and meaningful with regard to them or a loved one.
4] The National Forest Service has a fine and terrible dark sense of humor.
5] Thousands of Americans and Europeans believe that tape reorders can capture the voices of people whose vocal cords long ago decomposed.

4 Questions
1] Can anyone become a medium?
2] What does trilobite mean?
3] Is it the client that makes the psychic?
4] When did the EVP start?

3 Vocabulary
1] Flummoxed: To confuse; perplex.
2] Obscured: (of meaning) not clear or plain; ambiguous, vague, or uncertain.
3] Evocative: Tending to evoke.

2 Literary Terms
1] "Watson's spiritualist beliefs colors his views of science.." -Metaphor.
2] "Tesla was a special case." -Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
Mediums and Psychics were used to prove if there was a life after death.

Spook: Chapter 9

5 Comments

1] X-Rays today are a humble diagnostic tool.
2] Hommeforce means Man force in French.
3] Schwartz's experimental data have led him to the conclusion that there are people - rare and gifted mediums - who can communicate with people who have died.
4] John Edwards was one of Schwartz's "dream team" of mediums tested in the Afterlife Experiments work.
5] Thouless died in 1984, and the Thouless Project, headed up by emeritus University of Virginia professor Ian Stevenson, was born.

4 Questions
1] What was the Thouless Project?
2] How do you know if you're a medium or not?
3] How do you know if a discarante was really coming through, and not some product of a mediums imagination or subconscious?
4] How do you read a encoded message

3 Vocabulary
1] Succulent: full of juice; juicy.
2] Discarnate: without a physical body; incorporeal.
3] Paranormal: of or pertaining to the claimed occurrence of an event or perception without scientific explanation, as psychokinesis, extrasensory perception, or other purportedly supernatural phenomena.

2 Literary Terms
1] "For a man who takes an extraordinary amount of professional guff, he is resiliently good-natured, a Pooh Bear among the skeptic society Eeyores." -Metaphor.
2] "Spirits walk, but some ride about in chariots.." -Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
Mediums were rare to find and they could communicate with the dead.

Spook: Chapter 8

5 Comments
1] Macdougall said that all substances except "the ether of space" give some refraction of light, the soul was therefore made of ether.
2] It was thought to be the nescessary medium for the transmission of electromagnetic waves.
3] Ether was invisible and undetectable, and it permeated all forms of matter, from man to ottoman.
4] Ether was also assumed to be weightless.
5] Macdougall envisioned a giant "earth-accompanying globe of ether .. above the storm zone."

4 Questions
1] How did Macdougall die?
2] What kind of cancer did he have?
3] Did his wife take on his study after his death?
4] Who was Carrington?

3 Vocabulary
1] Aforementioned: Cited or mentioned previously or earlier.
2] Skepticism: Skeptical attitude or temper; doubt.
3] Requisite: required or necessary for a particular purpose, position, etc.; indispensable.

2 Literary Terms
1] "The book contains a half dozen photographs of the dashing Carrington, his Gregory Peckish hair swept back from his forehead and a scowl of concentration on his face.." -Metaphor.
2] "Carrington never built his monkey box.." -Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
In this chapter, the scientists studided about ether and how it was magical.

Spook: Chapter 7

5 Comments

1] Nahum trolls for funding at physics departments and institutes.
2] Decay heat is not ordered information.
3] Energy is freely malleable in terms of the physical form it might take and it is not necessarily the case that any one of them would be 'preferred'.
4] Macdougall concluded that the soul's index of refraction is zero.
5] In pre-Einstein days, ether was an accepted concept in physics.

4 Questions

1] Why can't souls use doors like the rest of us?
2] Does free-floating consciousness energy exist?
3] What is ether?
4] Was the soul "weightless"?



3 Vocabulary

1] Paramecium: any ciliated freshwater protozoan of the genus Paramencium, having an oval body and a long deep oral groove.
2] Picogram: one trillionth of a gram.
3] Thermodynamics: the science concerned with the relations between heat and mechanical energy or work, and the conversion of one into the other: modern thermodynamics deals with the properties of systems for the description of which temperature is a necessary coordinate.

2 Literary Terms
1] "a fart of energy in some god-knows-where-or-what dimension?" -Metaphor.
2] "It's that minus-all-the-trappins bit that gets me." - Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
In this chapter, scientists like Nahum and Macdougall tries to weigh the soul and experiments with the consciousness of a soul.

Spook: Chapter 6

5 Comments
1] The smallest infant to survive at birth weighted ten ounces and had a volume of three-tenths of a quart.
2] All the sheep Hollander tested showed a temporary weight gain at death.
3] Gerry Nahum is a professor at the Duke University School of Medicine who works in an atmospheric old builing called Baker House.
4] Theorists like Nahum think of the consciousness as information content.
5] Information to a quantum physicist has an acception energy equivalent.

4 Questions
1] How do you measure the volume of a premature baby?
2] How do you weigh a soul?
3] How many bits are there in a consciousness?
4] When we look at a consciousness, what is embodied in it?

3 Vocabulary
1] Homeopathist: a person who practices or favors in homeopathy.
2] Rendered: to submit or present, as for consideration, approval or payment.
3] Chastised: to discipline, especially by corporal punishment.

2 Literary Terms
1] "It's a long book, but lightweight, as light as a soul, for it exists only in cyberspace.." -Simile.
2] "I think that at the moment of death that little window opens up." -Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
Many scientists have tried to figure out how many bits are in a consciousness and how to weigh it.

Spook: Chapter 5

5 Comments
1] In 1996, McGill University professor of neurosurgery Rolando Del Maestro curated an exhibition called "Leonardo da Vinci: The Search for the Soul."
2] Gall was led astray in part by his unconventional methodology.
3] Gall amassed a collection of 221 skulls, which traveled with him on his lecture circuit, exasperating porters and alarming nosy bellhops.
4] For four years of his life, Duncan Macdougall had been hatching a plan to prove the existence of the human soul.
5] Macdougall enlisted the help of two fellow physicians; Drs. Sproull and Grant.

4 Questions
1] What was the Carthaginian War about?
2] What are consumptives?
3] Was it legal to use living humans as experiments?
4] Who is Sanctorius?

3 Vocabulary
1] Amalgam: an alloy of mercury with another metal or metals.
2] Instilled: to introduce by gradual, persistent efforts; implant.
3] Conception: the act of conceiving; the state of being conceived.

2 Literary Terms
1] "Soul Weighing." -Metaphor.
2] "Perhaps some seizure-flung drool escaped the confines of the flask." -Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
Macdougall enlisted the help of two other physicians who helped him do a research on finding the soul in a living being.

Spook: Chapter 4

5 Comments
1] No one-at least on a scientific basis-knows for sure when the soul, the spirit, the self, instilled, or installed, or whatever process it uses to get itself in there.
2] Descartes is one of the few early philosopher/scientists to have physically searched for the soul, actaully opened up bodies and looked for it.
3] Descartes eventually nominated the pea-sized pineal gland.
4] Descartes dreamed up an elaborate model of the nervous system with strings and valves and tiny bellows.
5] The luz is shaped like a chickpea and is located at the top of the spine.

4 Questions
1] When does the soul enter the new body?
2] If the soul had arrived at conception, what would happen then?
3] What is a midrash?
4] Why was Herophilus looking around for a soul in a dead man?

3 Vocabulary
1] Contend: to struggle in opposition.
2] Supplanting: to usurp the place of, especially through intrigue or underhanded tactics.
3] Primitive: being the first or earliest or the kind or in existence, especially in an early age of the world.

2 Literary Terms
1] "The very first person to poke around for a soul in a human cadaver was the third century B.C. physician Herophilus, of Alexandria." -Metaphor.
2] "As such, he bagged a lot of anatomical discoveries." -Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
Scientists were trying to find if they could find a soul, so they opened up dead bodies to look for them.

Spook: Chapter 3

5 Comments
1] Catholics "believe" that they are eating the body of Christ when they take communion.
2] The Ordinances of Manu, is a tome of legal code based on Vedic scripture and dating back to A.D. 500.
3] In Manu's day, reincarnation was treated not as an abstract religious principle but as a concrete legal consequence.
4] For stealing silk, linen, cotton, a cow, or molasses, one is reborn, respectively, as a partridge, a frog, a curlew, an iguana, or a vagguda bird.
5] In India, the rat is the conveyance of Lord Ganesha.

4 Questions
1] Why is it that in India, if a rat falls on your head from the sky, it is a blessing?
2] Where did Aristotle get the idea of coagulation?
3] Did Aristotle believe that a proto-human can morph into what he calls a "sensitive soul"?
4] Who was William Harvey?

3 Vocabulary
1] Appalling: causing dismay or horror.
2] Ample: fully sufficient or more than adequate for the purpose or needs; plentiful; enough.
3] Petulant: moved to or showing sudden, impatient irritation especially over some trifling annoyance.

2 Literary Terms
1] "New relatives are a novelty and a charm." -Metaphor.
2] "I'd been swept up in the excitement of the unraveling, paying attention to the facts and dates that fit, overlooking those that didn't." -Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
The origins of reincarnation dated back to the times when even people like Aristotle and William Harvey studied about it.

Spook: Chapter 2

5 Comments
1] Among Stevenson's cases, only about 20 include any written record.
2] Women in India wear Saris because it is the most elegant dress for women.
3] Among cultures that believe in reincarnation, congenital abnormalities are commonly viewed as clues to a child's past life.
4] The birthmark business has a historical corollary of sorts in the theory of maternal impressions.
5] Ichthyosis is a skin condition where the skin is scale like because of a mothers fear of sea serpents.

4 Questions
1] Is Reincarnation cases more common in places like India?
2] Where is Kamalpur located?
3] Why do skeptics often cite monetary motives for making up claims of rebirth?
4] Who is Mokesh?

3 Vocabulary
1] Precociousness: characterized by unusual eary developemnt of maturity, especially in mental aptitude.
2] Adherents: To stick or hold fast.
3] Induced: To prevail upon; persuade or influence.

2 Literary Terms
1] "The uncle, dressed in a white singlet and a layer of perspiration, looks uncomfortable." -Metaphor.
2] "As we walk by, domestic scenes are on display like shoebox dioramas." -Simile.

1 Overview Sentence
There are many beliefs as to why reincarnation happened. It is believed that the personality of the previous existence brought their personality to the next life, so bits of traits are in the new life.

Spook: Chapter 1

5 Comments
1] Dr. Rawat and Mary Roach is traveling to India to investigate cases of kids who claim they can communicate with their previous lifes.
2] Ninety five percent of the children in Stevensons cases began talking about a previous existence between the ages of 2 and 4 and forgets about it by the age of 5.
3] Delusions of reincarnation typically fir the culture and religion of the deluded.
4] Dr. Rawat wrote "Reincarnation: How strong is the scientific evidence?"
5] Most Indian villagers accept reincarnation as fact.

4 Questions
1] Who is Aishwary?
2] Why do kids at the ages of 2-4 tend to remember their previous personalities?
3] When you die, does part of your personality transfer into a newborn?
4] How long ago was reincarnation first reported?

3 Vocabulary
1] Discrepancies: lack of agreement; difference; inconsistency.
2] Improbable: Not probable; unlikely.
3] Chimerical: Imaginary; unreal.

2 Literary Terms
1] "As though they'd been scooped up in a Yahtzee cup and tossed haphazardly onto the asphalt." - Metaphor.
2] "We enter a lurching kaleidoscopic roundabout." -Metaphor.

1 Overview Sentence
Mary Roach and Dr. Rawat travels to India to investigate a boy named Aishwary, who is supposedly the reincarnation of a dead poor factory work named Rani.