1. Typhoid Fever
By Frank McCourt

2. Diphtheria (noun)
Diphtheria is a serious disease that spreads between people through sneezes and coughs. Luckily, diphtheria is easily prevented with a vaccine that's commonly given to babies.
Syn: NONE
Ant: NONE
Forms: NONE
Ex: The girl was diagnosed with diphtheria after her parents failed to vaccinate her.

3. 2. Rosary (noun)
For Catholics, the rosary is a series of prayers or the name of the prayer beads used while praying. The word rosary can also refer to a set of beads for counting prayers in other religions.
Syn:prayer beads, prayer
Ant: NONE
Forms: rosaries
Example: She clutched her rosary to her chest as she prayed over her ailing child.

4. 3. Layperson (noun)
Someone who is not a clergyman or a professional person.
SYN: nonprofessional, novice
ANT: professional, minister, priest
FORMS: layman
EX: I couldn’t understand what the doctor was saying, so I asked him to speak in layman's terms.

5. 4. Stern (adj)
Serious and unrelenting, especially in the assertion of authority and exercise of discipline.
Syn: harsh, strict, tough, severe
Ant: flexible, gentle, nice, lenient
Forms: Sternness
Ex: The stern teacher was so sick of all the talking in class that she assigned a huge amount of homework to the whole class.

6. 5. Apparatus (noun)
A complex structure within an organization or system.
Syn: contraption, implement, mechanism
Ant: NONE
Forms: apparatuses
Example: I had to climb up this giant apparatus in order to get to the bungee jump platform.

7. 6.Relapse (verb/noun)
(v)(of someone suffering from a disease) suffer deterioration after a period of improvement. Return to (a less active or a worse state)
(n) a deterioration in someone's state of health after a temporary improvement.
Syn: recurrence, worsening, lapse, setback
Ant: healing, progress, strengthening
Forms: Relapsed, relapsing,
Ex: After beating the flu, he celebrated by going for a midnight swim, and quickly relapsed.

8. Do now #16: Poetry
In the excerpt we will be reading there is a poem that two children share. What is your feeling about poetry? Do you enjoy writing or reading poems? Do you remember any particular poem that meant something to you? Did you enjoy poems as a child, maybe the collections by Shel Silverstein? What do you think makes a poem good? Discuss poetry in AT LEAST FIVE COMPLETE SENTENCES.

9. 7. Parcel (noun) A package or a collection of things wrapped together.
Syn: package, bundle, load
Ant: whole
Forms: parcels
Ex: Shipping a parcel to America from Japan was very expensive, so I gave most of my stuff away when I moved back.

10. 8. Induce (verb) To induce is to move or lead someone to action.
A promise of a lollipop can induce a toddler to do just about anything, even sit down and be polite to Aunt Edna. Older kids need something more substantial.
Syn: activate, motivate, cajole
Ant: discourage, dissuade, prevent
Forms: induced, induction, inducing
Ex: Most doctors want to induce labor but it is unnatural and pregnant women shouldn’t do it!

11. 9. Potent (adj) Having or wielding force or authority.
Potent means really strong, but not like a bodybuilder. Use potent instead to describe things like intense smells, powerful magic potions, and very influential people.
From the Latin potentum, meaning “powerful,” potent is just that: having tremendous strength or influence in either a moral or physical sense. A potent question gets to the heart of the matter and sparks serious discussion. Really stiff drinks can be potent, as can your breath after a garlicky meal.

12. Potent (cont) Syn: Effective, powerful, forceful
Ant: Inactive, ineffective, weak
Forms:Potency
Example: The magic spell was so potent that instead of making the students take cat naps, it turned them all into cats!

13. 10. Huffy (adj) Quick to take offence; easily upset.
Don’t get all huffy, or offended or irritated, just because you didn’t know this definition. Like the wolf who huffed and puffed, anyone who’s huffy is easily upset.
Syn: irritable, moody, crabby, annoyed
Ant: Cheerful, happy, joyful
Forms: Huffines, Huffily, huffed, huff, huffiest
Example: Teenagers are the huffiest creatures, and feel the like world is going to end over every little thing.

14. 11. Blather (verb) To talk foolishly, nonstop.
To blather is to talk on and on without saying anything very important or wise. If you blather all afternoon, it might be annoying to your friend who's trying to do their school work.
Syn: babble, chatter, prattle
Ant: NONE
Forms: blathering, bathered, blathers
Ex: The class that blathers all through the
period is the class that never gets to do anything fun.

15. 12. Perfidy (noun) An act of deliberate betrayal.
If you shared your most embarrassing secrets with a friend who then told them to everyone he knows, his betrayal could be described as perfidy.In order for perfidy to happen, there has to have first been a sense of faith in place, which was then broken or betrayed.
Syn: treason, treacherousness, stab in the back
Ant: Faithfulness, fidelity, loyalty
Forms: perfidious
Ex: Cheating on your school work is nothing less than an act of perfidy.

16. Words from the Poem
Torrent- a heavy rain, or an overwhelming amount of something
Galleon- a large square-rigged sailing ship
Moor- open land usually with peaty soil covered with heather and bracken and moss
Claret- a dark purplish red color (as the wine)
Breeches- old-fashioned kind of short pants that end at the knee
Doeskin- soft leather from sheepskin or lambskin

17. The Highwayman by alfred noyes
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding— Riding— riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door.

18. The highwayman
He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

19. The Highwayman
Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord’s daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

20. The Highwayman
And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord’s daughter,
The landlord’s red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—

21. The highwayman
“One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I’m after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.”

22. The highwayman
He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i’ the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the West.

23. The highwayman
He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;
And out o’ the tawny sunset, before the rise o’ the moon,
When the road was a gypsy’s ribbon, looping the purple moor,
A red-coat troop came marching—
Marching—marching—
King George’s men came marching, up to the old inn-door.

24. The highwayman
They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!
There was death at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.

25. The highwayman
They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
“Now keep good watch!” and they kissed her.
She heard the doomed man say—
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!

26. The highwayman
She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

27. The Highwayman
The tip of one finger touched it; She strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love’s refrain.

28. The Highwayman
Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear;
Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still!

29. The highwayman
Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.

30. The highwayman
He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head o’er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew gray to hear
How Bess, the landlord’s daughter,
The landlord’s black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

31. The highwayman
Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were his spurs i’ the golden noon; wine- red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.

32. The highwayman
And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A highwayman comes riding—
Riding—riding—
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn- door.

33. The highwayman
Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard;
He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord’s daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

34. Typhoid fever comprehension questions
Diction is the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing. Describe the diction and sentence structure in the opening section. Why do you think the author used this style?
What are the names of the two children in the story? How old are they? What else do you know about them at this point? (4 points)
Think about the word choice for Patricia’s line in her conversation with Frankie. How would you describe the way she speaks, and what it says about her personality?
McCourt uses very short, simple sentences and informal words. He does this to make it seem like a child is writing it, since he is ten years old at this time. It helps the reader imagine his mindset.
Frankie McCourt and Patricia Madigan. He’s ten and she’s thirteen. They are both in the hospital. She has a disease from Africa. He has hazel eyes, dark hair, and a scar where they put the blood. She’s a bit bossy and thinks she’s better than him because she’s older.
She seems to be sassy and very quick. She’s making a joke, and has a good sense of humor despite her situation.

35. Typhoid fever comprehension questions
4. In this sentence, “apparatus” means group of organs. Knowing this, what do you think “internal” means? (1)
5. Why do you think the author used this particular sentence structure here (D)? What does it tell us about the tone of the passage? (2 points)
6. Look at Seamus’ word choice compared to that of the other characters. What does this tell us about him? (1)
4. Inside group of organs
5. The sentence includes dialogue from his mother to show that he is thinking about what she said, as it worries both of them. The tone seems desperate.
6. He seems uneducated. He changes the subject a lot and talks about alcohol a bit too much.

36. Typhoid fever comprehension questions
7.What might the phrase “It’s like having jewels in my mouth” mean? (1 point)
8.Why does Frankie have to leave his room? (1 point)
9. What does Sister Rita’s attitude toward the poem about the highwayman reveal about her character? (1 point)
10. Based on the tone of this paragraph, what do you think is the author’s opinion about how children are treated by nurses and nuns? (1)
7. It could mean the words feel precious. He feels rich saying it.
8. He has been talking to Patricia even though he was told not to. The nurses probably don’t want him to get attached to Patricia, since they know she’s not going to make it.
9. She is very holy and chaste. She does not approve of the “heathen” poem and doesn’t think the children should be exposed to it. She is overprotective.
10. He thinks the nuns and nurses are too strict and treats children unfairly. They are keeping him from his only distraction from his illness, and the only other child nearby.

37. Typhoid fever comprehension questions
11. How does Seamus feel about Patricia’s death? How do you know? (2)
12. Why do you think Frankie wants to know what happens in the poem about the highwayman? (2)
13.The author begins several sentences with the words “I don’t want.” How does the author’s diction in this paragraph help you understand how much Frankie wants to get out of the ward? (2)
14. Clamoring means “crying out” or “asking.” Use the word in a sentence of your own. (1)
15. Why do you think that it is particularly painful for Seamus and Frankie to know the end of the story of the highwayman? (2)
11. Semus is devastated. He cries and wants to tell the papers how the children were unfairly separated.
12. He probably needs some form of closure, both from the poem itself and from the death of Patricia. He also may feel a connection to the highwayman, since he and Bess were separated just as Frankie and Patricia were.
13. The repetition shows how much he wants to end this situation. He sounds a bit like a pouty child having a fit.
14. Answers will vary.
15. The poem is connected to their memory of Patricia. The death of the highwayman and Bess echo Patricia’s death. Also, now that the poem is over, there’s nothing to connect them to Patricia.