Letter from Cristopher Columbus, by him; non-fiction, pgs.1-4

This is a historical letter of the so called "New World", which is South America that he rediscovered from previous discoverers such as Amerigo Vespucci (the first one to explore South America), and Vasco Da Gama... The letter begins like this; "As I know, you will be rejoiced at the success that our Lord has given me in my voyage." Then it goes on to explain how many islands are uninhabited, and that he says that he discovered the "Indies", but he is actually at South America, he was off by 9,000 miles. Then he finds these people that are on the land, and calls them Indians, which they now call "Native Americans", It's what they really were. Later he finds 5 islands, and names them all, and once he came to what he thought was the mainland, he explored it, and found a settlement, where the people only fled, so he sent two men to find a city, but after searching for three days, they returned without finding anything. Then the letter leads into the sights of the land. the wonderful trees, mysterious plants, and most of all the gold! The letter said that there was tons of gold, when really there was not as much as he said, he mentioned how they wore it around their wrists, and that the land was just filled with gold. Really there was not much gold, but when the men found this, they traded, and they found that they were easily pleased with very small things like broken pieces of glass, and destroyed shoes. So, Columbus forbade this and said that they would have to do fair trade. Later they returned, and made three more trips there, which made four total. The reason he is so remembered now is that he thought he landed on the Indies, but found a huge, new chunk of land. Before he came, no body in Europe knew about America.

I think the weirdest part of this letter/ the most interesting part is how the Natives were so easily pleased, and would trade these ridiculous items for gold. I have however, seen people like this, and it was pretty unusual to me. People like this are usually tooken unfair advantage of. Eventually it led to slavery though... Now days people are a lot more picky, and expect a lot more. I don't really understand why the Natives would trade gold for such small things, maybe they were trying to avoid war or something, but that's just what I think. If I was a Native in that time, I probably would be like the rest, because that's just how they were. You can't really control how people are.

rejoiced: To feel joyful or delighted.

Gladiator, by David Franzoni; fiction, pgs. 206- 209

(continued) As I said before, in my opinion paragraph I thought war was going to start, and as predicted, it did (of course). First, Proximo walked serenely on and walked upstairs to his chamber, the keys that Proximo gave Maximus, he gave some to Juba, and they were out, freeing the others immediately, then after freeing Haken, Maximus turned and ran through the outside door! Juba and Haken(gladiators) threw themselves between the guards, and Maximus as he attempted to make his way either to escape, or to the emperor. Even without weapons, the gladiators still attacked the guards, enduring slashes, and attacks from the Preatorian guards, covering Maximus, until he made it all the way to the end of the compound tunnel. And at the end of the tunnel, And stairway, he found his sword, and armor, meanwhile, Haken took a sword from the guard, and threw him into the horde of gladiators, and Juba cracked one of the guards skulls, and another's arm with his hammer-like fists, and knocked another unconscious, once they all made it to the training yard, the captain yelled out to the archers to fire from the roof tops, and then,... they hsot Haken at farly close range, with four shots hitting him from torso front to back. He looked down in disbelief, and then tumbled down, and blocked a narrow pathway. During this, Preatorians bounded the winding stairway to Proximo's chamber. They burst through the doors, and had swords ready to instantly kill him, but found the warrior at his desk, with his back turned, knowing that his time has come. They mercilessly stabbed him three times in the back, and neck. that's where he died. Now; Maximus took the tunnel below Proximo's gladiator school, hearing the sound of war behind him. All suited up, he climbed cautiously up the stairs, and into a low archway between Proximo's compound, and the high city walls. He waited for a little, and suddenly he heard the sound of pursuing footsteps, they had broken through the gladiators.

Well, as expected, the guards finally came to execute Maximus, everything I thought would happen, and more did. But what I didn't expect was that Haken dies, I thought that if all these people made it this far, that they would be able to survive the guards attacking them, especially Haken and Juba. I understand that a man can only take so many arrows, and one through the neck is enough, but it was still very unexpected, atleast for me. A lot is happening in this chapter. I'm still waiting to see 1. who dies next (mian character), and 2. will Maximus die, which for some reason I think he will. I don't know why. Any ways, I'm almost positive that the emperor will die, because Maximus kind of Made a promise to himself, and just the fact that he's a really good fighter.

manipulate: To take full control of something, under your decisional actions, you take freedom away from object or person, do what you want with it.

Gladiator, by David Franzoni; fiction, pgs. 200-206

It starts out with Lucius playing with a wooden sword in the lighted palace courtyard with his two grooms, until his dad came, and the two grooms bowed, and his dad asked why he was playing legionary so late, but he said he was playing gladiator, then Lucius said,"I am Maximus, savior of Rome" which made his father feel like throwing up, which he almost did. Then Lucilla showed up, and almost vomited too, because Lucius was sitting on Commodus's lap, and talking to her about some things going on like a queen killing herself with a snake. And some things about other ancestors of them. So she left. She knew that the second emperor knew that they were up to something. (Maximus, and others)One day they sat down, with Lucius, and Lucilla. The emperor threatened her to tell them what their planning. Lucilla's heart twisted in torture. The emperor must have been using hypnotism. Then it skips to Proximo;During his packing he heard and saw that Down the streets there were people who were walking in boots, in unison, which Proximo knew exactly what that meant, someone was going to die. (Proximo thinks it's him they're after)Then they were at his doors, they called to open up, and Proximo paused, then approached. Maximus hears the same thing from his cell, they entered, and Proximo opened the doors, saying," It looks like you've won your freedom. Then Proximo says to the guards,"tonight, all enemies of the emperor must die!


I thought it was pretty surprising at the end of this, how the guards showed up, although I did kind of suspect it a little. I think from here it's just going to go into complete chaos, and somebody important is going to die. The next thing that's going to happen is that Maximus will go free, and go kill the emperor, and in the mean time, it's guards vs. gladiators! Agian, I think someone important is going to die, it's the only practical thing, I don't thing it will end happy, maybe even Maximus will die in this book, which would be surprising because he's been through a lot of battles, even with very powerful leaders and won. You'd think he wouldn't be likely to die by the emperor. Because of what Proximo said, though, there will be a war.


cloaked: To be disguised, something that covers or conceals.

Gladiator, by David Franzoni; fiction, pgs. 190-200

In this chapter, Lucilla, Maximus, Cicero (Maximus's friend), Gracchus(one of the senators), all teamed up to kill the emperor, because Maximus, and friends convinced Gracchus, and he agreed to all they said. He was going to talk to the emperor, and try to convince him do certain things. After the meeting, Maximus went back to his quarters, and rested for the next day, in the arena... After a rest, he went to arm up, and go to the arena. When he entered the arena, a blast of chanting came on as usual. "maximus, Maximus, Maximus!". It doesn't tell about the battle, it goes straight to another scene. Maximus goes to Proximo, and Proximo tells Maximus what happened with the emperor, and he told him that he talked to the emperor, and he already knew too much, Maximus tells him that he will kill the emperor, and gives his word that if he survives, he will pay Proximo.


I think it's kind of weird how one of the emperors senators is betraying him, and going with Maximus. You usually don't see that in books or movies. Any ways, the last thing that happened was Proximo, Lucilla, and Maximus were talking in the cell room, and Maximus had everything fall into place that night. His horses, and everything were set up, and then Lucilla and Maximus kissed, it was there first kiss in a very, very long time. I thought it was pretty unexpected. Ten she turned to leave, and he went back to sleep, knowing that if he slept un-alert, he may be slew.

invariably: not changing, consistent.

At Her Father's and Her Mother's Place, by Natalya Baranskaya; fiction, pgs. 20-32

In this story, there is a girl named Talya starts out living at her dad's house, which was a care-free, happy, good life, but one day she found a letter that was for her dad, and it was a love letter,. She got mad and tore off some of the paper, written that she was leaving, and tried to remove the watch, all the sudden, the door opens, she hides the paper, curls up on the couch, and she tells her dad she wants to go home(which is her mom's), so they do. When they get there the dad leaves, and Talya waits for her mom to get home, until 10:00, then she writes a note, makes some sugar-less tea, and goes to bed. When her mom gets home she reads the note, drinks some tea, thinks it's horrible, and wakes up Talya late. she said that she had to go to school, but she has the day off. Then the mom gets all mad because Talya mentions her dad, and the mom yelled," You should love your father, he's a great man! Love him!" and then she leaves to school. After trying to calm her down.


I thought this story was... different from the others, because it wasn't totally random, and it gave you more detail about the setting, I could picture it a lot more, and actually relate to it in a way, but I don't want to talk about that. Another thing that I thought was good was that I could tell more about it, which now, I'm going to talk about; I thought the dad was really nice, and was very intelligent, and true, well, he was, but it turns out that he was interested in someone else, and maybe agreed with a few negative thoughts of some things from a love letter. But when Talya went to her mom's I found out how she was. She didn't appreciate the tea the Talya made for her, of course, and she even made her own daughter go to school, when she had the day off. She would seem to get really mad with Talya for stupid reasons. That's why I wasn't as fond of her than her dad.


mournfully: Felling grief, which causes sadness. (To be mournful)

Gladiator, by David Franzoni; fiction, pgs. 182-190

The emperor was in his palace, trying to find a way to kill Maximus, he couldn't just assassinate him, and here's why: In his meeting with senator Falco, they were talking about that subject, and commodus says,"An emperor can't rule if he is not loved!" They were talking back and fourth about how Maximus was defying him, and that if they just assassinate him, the people would rebel, then he couldn't rule, Maximus shows compassion, and mercy, the emperor wouldn't make a martyr out of him.Every time he survives, the crowd would get bolder. then Falco mentioned a snake that lives underwater. It would let their enemies come closer, and closer, and even let it nibble on it. So that was the plan; to just wait.

There wasn't much to talk about in these pages, all that happened was Maximus thinking about his past, his battles, misfortunes, family, and his friend Cicero, how good he was at getting info. Also the emperor and Falco talked. that's it. I thought this part was boring. I have nothing more to talk about.The end.

martyr: someone who is killed for their beliefs, or purposes.

I just kept on smiling, by Simon Burt; fiction, pgs. 10-19

This book takes place around 1900's, I'm pretty sure, anyways.
It is school time, and the narrator was in Latin class with Nicky Carver, and the other students. Nicky Carver is supposedly the narrators friend. What happens is that the narrator steals 3 out of 27 literacy books on the teachers desk, after writing a sentence down for the class, then that's when it all went down. before the teacher knew it, the books were in the chapel, the narrator was not like the other kids, instead of spending his time in the day room, he went to the chapel, and that's where he hid the books. Later, when the teacher found out what had happened the next day, he came into the classroom, and the thief would have a chance to return them. The next day, they weren't there, and everybody was whipped as their punishment. Then, just before the day ended, Nicky Carver tried to take the narrators place, and said he did it, the narrator was furious, and he went right up, and admitted it was him! The room was cleared, and he was whipped. The end.


I thought it was weird how he was furious at the end, and took the blame for himself. Also, the reason I thought Nicky Carver was the narrators friend, was because he talked to him occasionally, at least more than others, and he played chess with him. This story kind of reminded me of the Harrison Burgeron, because the story had a weird set of time, story line, and characters, even though they were two totally different stories.


Latin: the Indo- European language of the ancient Romans, or relating to their culture