McKinley Junior High School - Purple and Gold Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

Page 63 text:

v1v1fvvY1fQQrv1vvvvvz-1,2 Memorizing It is always nice to know some poem, for you may be called on at some gathering to recite one. A poem delivered well is enjoyed. Therefore, the learning is an important part of the address. lt is a pleasure when alone and unoccupied to think over the beautiful thoughts conveyed to us in poems. 'There are many queer places and ways, which to some are ideal for learning verses. Some pupils study on the way to school. A few girls when washing dishes have the book on the table before them. One girl can memorize best while sewing. Another finds it easy to learn if read before going to bed at night. A boy likes to play with his dog between learning stanzas. Some people insist on quietness and seek remote places for their memorizing. Diiferent ways are used, for instance, some read the whole poem over and proceed to learn it line by line. Others take two lines and still others learn stanzas at a time. The rhythm of a poem often helps people to learn it. Memorizing is like many other nice things, for the more a person meinorizes the easier it is, and the more you know.--Compiled by Bradley Spencer. A Vocabulary A person's vocabulary means the number of words that he knows and can use correctly. Some people are familiar with only a few hundred words. Shakespeare used more than any other writer, for he had 15,000 words in his vocabulary. One object in studying English is to increase our vocabulary, then we will be able to ex- press ourselves better. There are many ways in which to increase one's vocabulary. A very common way is to look in the dictionary a-nd learn a new word every day. Other ways are by reading and listening to older people talk. One may also keep a note book in which to write definitions and sentences. Sentences with the longest word possible may be practiced Solving cross-word puzzles is another method of learning words. , A B7 was busily getting her lessons. When she came across the word gormandize her face took on a puzzled look. As she had to tell the item orally, she expected to be asked the menaing of the word. She got a dictionary and found that gormanclize meant eating greedily. Her face seemed to have a relieved expression. She had added a word to her vocabulary. She seemed to want to show off with the word. so she said to her sister at supper-time, You certainly are gormarndizingf' Her sister asker? her what she meant. She told her, and thus added a word to her sister's vocabulary.-Lenora Carson, Home Room '10, A8. LllllL1lLllLLLLL1,LL 1

Page 62 text:

Y F. TYTTTYYWWQFTYYYYYY read our language. We also have night schools for such people who can-not read, even for the people of our own nation who cannot read. A person who can read well can make the most dry and un- interesting book seem interesting. We can gain through reading the knowledge which men have worked and studied years to obtain. People cannot keep all the knowledge that they attain in their minds, so we have books to keep the knowledge for them. For people who have little time, magazines on every conceivable subject are pub- lished. Then too, there are those who prefer to gain their informa- tion in easier ways. For them the motion picture with illuminating titles serves the purpose. Reading is the chief communication between the civilized coun- tries. It is influential toward everything. A person who cannot read is shut off from the world and is blind to the walks of life and all its pleasures. Russians, French, Jewish, Irish, and all the other civilized people have their own language, and reading and writing is, of course, used. Foreigners who come over to the United States seem uneducated just because they have no knowledge of our language, while over in their country they know much more than many of us. This shows that in one part of the world a person seems uneducated while in another part of the world a person smart and wise. All this comes from knowing only the language of one's own country and no others. It pays to know more than one language. Many people of this country and of other cou-ntries know more than one language. Some even know as many as twen- ty to twenty-Eve different languages or at least most of the languages. Reading is the door leading into the room of knowledge. It is the foundation of all knowledge, and is a help to everybody from the richest to the poorest of people. We go to reading continually to look up things we do not know. Reading is the only way of keeping the language correct through all the generations. Looking back several generations shows that most, if not all, of the great men, were fond of reading. Abraham Lincoln is a good example. And also John O. Adams is another example, for he kept quite a large library in his borne at Mount Vernon. Whether in a fire-lighted cabin or a luxurious mansion a book benedts the reader. Correct reading broadens our view, strengthens our mind, enlarges our im- maginative powers and helps our ability to understand things which we did not understand before the time of reading. A person's suc- cess in life is due to his ability in reading, because it has helped him to understand his position or occupation. Reading is essential to the greater progress in every known manner.-A9 CLASSES OF ROOM 30. - E A iii W. I Lllllllllllkllllil Ll?

Page 64 text:

L 1 YTYTYIYYWWVYYVYVY Punctuation Punctuation is very necessary, but many .people do not think so. You can tell that by listening to them read, or by reading their let- ters or themes. A sentence can have more than one meaningg all you -need to change is the punctuation. Probably the story of Mrs. Fiske and Miss Anglin ftwo of America's greatest actressesl can show you this. Mrs. Fiske went to call upon Miss Anglin, but found her out. So she left a note, which read, Mrs, Fiske says Miss Anglin is America's greatest actress. When Miss Anglin came back, she found the note, read it, then changed the punctuation, and sent it back to Mrs. Fiske as a com- pliment. This is how she changed it: Mrs Fiske, says Miss Anglin, is America's greatest actress. There is another story about two men who had a quarrel. One man called the other a liar. The insulted man said the offender ought to apologize for calling him that in public. After thinking it over, the man asked, How shall I apologize? Put it in the paper like this, said the so-called liar, I called you a liar, it is true, and I am sorry for it. The man agreed tol put it in just those words, but he punctuated it differently, so that it read thus: I called you a liar. It is true, and I am sorry for it. In all themes and letters you should be very careful in your punctu- ation, because punctuation comes next in importance to the correct spelling of words.--Compiled by Elma Hedberg, A8. The Story of My Life I fBy Math E. Maticsj When I was very little and started in the kindergatren, I was in the shape of colored papers and blocks that were placed on strings. Then I was promoted to the first grade in the form of One and One are Two, and things' of that sort. I tell you I was very puzzling to the little children. I-n the subtracting, multiplying, and dividing age, I was terrible, according to some peopIe's idea. As a fraction, the chil- dren wished I never lived. As a decimal I grew rich and poor by one turn of a pencil. In the Junior High School I was a trifle easier in the seventh grade, but I made up for it i-n the eighth. Then they. turned me into an alphabet-and of all the tests they made over me! But' I have led a useful life, as the following testimonials will tell: I ' ARI'I'l-IMETIC AS A HELPER IN PLAY Arithmetic helps me in my ball playing by finding the percentage of games we have won and lost, and my batting averages. It helps +11 lLLlz.LJ.lL..LlLLLLLLLL J J