MEANS
| idiom: to keep something straight | to keep something organized or clear |
| idiom: to get hooked on | to really like something |
| irritating | to make angry or annoy |
| critical | important; can mean negative (criticism, feedback) |
| apelle | name in French |
| philippe | a French name |
| brakes | ហ្វ្រាំង, press on it to stop a vehicle |
| idiom: to get physical | having to do with the body; fighting |
| to unfold | happen |
| civil manner | behaving politely and appropriately |
| pre-school | a school for very young students (ex. age 3-4) |
| ashamed | feeling bad about yourself, shy.. |
| sophomore | students studying in the second year of high school |
| furnace | the machine used to heat a whole house or business |
| miniature | very small |
| poking around (to poke around) | walk around and look for/at things |
| grunting (to grunt) | making a low sound made by an animal or a person |
| accident prone | get into trouble and have accidents a lot; klutzy |
| klutzy | gets in lots of accidents, not smooth |
| to get the hang of something | you can do; figure out how it works, etc. |
| amusement park | a fun place to go with lots of rides and roller coasters |
| decoy | something that is used to resemble something else, or take the place of |
| cruise | to travel on a boat or ship to different places on vacation |
| freckles | a small brown spot on someone’s skin, put there by the sun |
| idiom: to cram something down someone’s throat | you talk so much about one topic, that people get sick of hearing about it |
| fad | trend, or what is cool in that moment |
| to crack the code | to understand something that was secret |
SAYS
| Word | How to Say |
| furnace | fer-niss |
| klutzy | klut-zee |
| amusement | uh.mewz.ment |
| Philippe | fee-leap |
| sophomore | sof-more |
Comprehension Check
- Did Greg get to spend time with his best friend over the summer? Why or why not? How does Greg feel about Rowley’s holidays? What are some reasons he gives?
Greg didn’t get to spend time with his best friend over the summer at all because his best friend, Rowley, was on a vacation to South America. Greg feels that he is not really interested in other people’s holidays. Another reason is whenever Rowley comes back from his holiday, he always talks a lot about one thing that can make Greg sick. Good.
- What happens between Greg and Rodrick after Rodrick drives Greg home from school?
Greg called Rodrick a big jerk and so it got physical and they used energy from their bodies to fight.
- How does Greg’s mom try and fix the problem? Does it work? Why or why not? What do you think she should have done instead?
Greg’s mom tries to fix the problem by telling Greg and Rodrick to write down what they did wrong, and then draw a picture to go along with it. It didn’t work because they both wrote and drew things that they didn’t do wrong. They just said I will not do this, or do that.
For my idea, I probably would want Greg’s mom to tell them “stop fighting each other, you two are brothers.” Maybe let them say sorry to each other in front of Greg’s mom and tell them to say what did they did wrong in front of each other. Good ideas.
- On page 24 there are two idioms. First, Greg says that Rodrick is “holding something over” his “head.” What do you think that means? Then, he says that he wants to get “some dirt” on Rodrick. What do you think that means?
I think the idioms mean:
There is an embarrassing moment of Greg’s over the summer, and Rodrick knows about it! So he will put the moment on Greg’s head, so if ever Greg wants to say something about Rodrick he will spill that secret out. Excellent!
Example: Rodrick: If you tell about my secret I will spill your embarrassing moment to the world.
Greg: (Grunting) Great example!
When Greg said get “some dirt” on Rodrick he means: he wants Rodrick to get the embarrassing moment too, so Greg can talk about that (to scare Rodrick). Another reason is he wants the dirt to be on Rodrick, he wants to fight him, he wants to throw dirt on Rodrick.
- What are grunting noises? What is something that might make grunting noises? Why does Greg’s dad tell Manny that he heard some of them coming from the furnace room?
Grunting noises are the low noises made by animals or people. (In The Princess Bride movie, a man always said the word inconceivable and makes grunting noises). Greg’s dad told Manny that he heard some of them coming from the furnace room because he doesn’t want Manny to break anything in that room. Good.
- How is Greg’s and Rowley’s secret language the same as the one from the movie? How is it different? Tell me your opinion of their language. Was it successful?
How those two languages are the same:
- Those sentences are nonsense. Example: YOUR-PA DAD-PA
- SMELLS-PA LIKE-PA A WOMAN-PA!
- BEEGLE BODDLE BRUP BOP!
It was not successful because Rowley’s dad cracked the code. My opinion of their language is it was quite ridiculous and funny and sometimes I can use this language to talk to other students in Liger, but if they are smart enough, they might crack the code.
How it was different is:
- Greg’s and Rowley’s secret language is easy to crack the code but the language in the movie is really hard because the words are nonsense.
- What was Greg’s dad’s strategy for not watching the movie and working on his battlefield instead? Have you ever tricked someone? Tell me about it.
- He stuffed a bunch of pillows under the blanket on his side of the bed to make it look like he was asleep. Great grammar!
- Sometimes when I don’t want that person to know what I or others talking about, I just whisper to another person about something secret. I just talk about another topic, so that person will think I talked about something normal, not secret.