Neha's Notebook

Nalini was journeying through a forest alongside a cook, a servant, an elf, and a minister from her mother’s palace. Her goal was to find the magical blue gemstone that lay hidden in some corner of the forest. With the help of various compasses and maps, they finally discovered the blue gemstone. The gemstone lay amidst a dense clump of tall grasses. As she bent down to pick up the gem, someone pointed a pistol on her back and demanded that the gem be given to him. When she turned around to take a look, it was the minister. Her mother had entrusted the minister thinking that he would help Nalini find the gemstone. But he turned out to be a betrayer and a “snake in the grass.” The idiom “Snake in the grass” refers to “A treacherous person. A person who cannot be trusted. A secretly faithless friend.” Read more stories related to  Vocabulary !

Macaronic verse refers to a poetic piece or poetry that combines or mixes words or phrases from different languages, often in a humorous or burlesque way. An example of macaronic verse includes Lord Byron’s poem "Maid of Athens, ere we part." Each stanza of this poem ends with the same Greek line, which translates to "My life, I love you!"   Maid of Athens, ere we part, Give, oh, give me back my heart! Or, since that has left my breast, Keep it now, and take the rest! Hear my vow before I go, Ζωή μου, σᾶς ἀγαπῶ [My life, I love you!]   Macaronic comes from the Italian word “macaroni” or “dumplings,” which refers to “the coarse, unrefined nature of a mixture of languages.” Read more stories related to  Vocabulary !

On one midnight, Pongo, the dinosaur, ran away from his home in the jungle. Wandering about in zigzagging trails of dense trees, he got lost. As young as he was, he couldn’t remember his way to home. Lonely and frightened, he kept walking and soon found himself roaming in the city. While he was plodding on a streetside, he bumped into a boy named Brandy who was playing with other kids in a park. They were jumping in a pool, laughing loudly, and having fun. Seeing them enjoy, Pongo approached them. By the time he arrived at the pool, the boys were already walking away towards a lemonade stand. Eager to join their friendly company, Pongo followed them to the lemonade stand. By the time he reached the stand, the boys had already bought their glasses of lemonade and were now walking towards a peanut seller. Sweaty-bodied, Pongo kept following them. Meanwhile, one of the boys in the group realized that this giant green dragon was following them. He whispered this to Brandy and other boys. T...

1.     Polyptoton is a figure of speech that involves the repetition of words of the same root used in the same sentence with a variety of differing contexts, inflection and voice; Derived from the Greek word polúptōtos, meaning “having many cases”. This device is often used to embellish the poetry and poetic sentences with musicality and tone. Ex: "I dreamed a dream in times gone by.", "The bread rolls rolled down the counter.", "They waited impatiently in the waiting room." Read more stories related to  Vocabulary !  

Spanish – Despacito German – langsam Italian – lentamente Japanese – Yukkuri Sanskrit - शनैः शनैः (shanaḥ shanaḥ) Basque – Poliki poliki Polish – powoli Nepali – Bistari bistari Tamil - Metuvaka Cebuano – Hinayhinay Dogri – Aasta Finnish – hitaasti Swahili – Polepole Sesotho – butle butle Filipino – dahan dahan Read more stories related to  Vocabulary !

Once Robby visited a theatre with his family to attend a magic show. During one act, the magician called him on the stage as a volunteer. Robby jumped ahead, not knowing that this magician was an evil one. At first, the magician created an artificial clone that looked just like Robby. While the audience cheered at his incredible trick, he pretended that he was going to place a box over the cloned Robby. But instead, he placed the real Robby inside a box. Unaware and shocked, Robby suddenly found himself in a place where there was nothing but darkness all around, except for a tiny ray of light that reached the box from somewhere. As he noticed, the tiny ray of light revealed a giant spider crawling on the wall opposite to where Robby was slouched on his knees. Since the room was not very large and there wasn’t much distance between the walls, Robby shivered with fright. The giant, gleaming black tentacles of the spider were slowly moving towards him through the wall. At this moment, he ...

By the year 2002, when Mark Zuckerberg joined Harvard University, he was already known as a “programming whizz.” The school from where he graduated had student directories or photo address books that contained the names and photos of students who stayed in the school’s dorms. Drawing his inspiration from these books, he started a coding project and released a communication sharing network website called “TheFacebook.” The website became an instant hit among the students. In 2004, when he launched this website, he was just 19 years old. Therefore, Zuckerberg is a “Golden boy.” The phrase “Golden boy” refers to a man who becomes successful at a very early age and is admired by people.   Read more stories related to  Vocabulary !

One day, Bobby’s boss gave him the task of writing a proposal letter to an advertising company. He asked him to describe their product in detail and request them to create an advertising campaign to promote their product. He also told him to do some research on the company and their ad campaigns so he could better propose their product. Bobby returned to his desk, but spent the entire day researching the company. It was evening and he still had not started writing the letter. He kept on researching and researching, never starting the letter. When his boss called him, he fumed with anger. The next day his boss sent him to have a meeting with a fashion designer. Nervous that he was going to meet a fashion personality, Bobby spent too much time in selecting a dress that he lost track of time and missed the meeting. Due to his persnickety behaviour, his boss fired him. Persnickety means “placing too much attention on trivial, unnecessary or minor details” Read more stories related to  ...

Buffer pony was born with a weird defect in his body. His parents had named him “Buffer” after this defect. While other horses galloped normally, his body would sometimes freeze on the spot and start shaking and buffering. For a few moments, he felt helpless and powerless against his own body. This buffer would trigger in his body at random times, causing him much annoyance and unpleasantness. He desired to be normal like other ponies of his age. But his defect made him withdraw from his friends and remain alone. Even while lounging in his home, watching television, or reading a book, his body would suddenly start trembling and he would have “screaming meemies.” Screaming meemies means “extreme nervousness, anxiety, jitters or shivers.” Read more stories related to  Vocabulary !

Once upon a time, Alexander The Great was treading through Indian mountains with his cavalry. They combed the jungles in these mountains to pluck some herbs and plants they could use for adding flavor to their emperor’s food. What they were looking for in particular was a plant called silphium. But by the time they reached India, the emperor realized that they had mistakenly used another plant in place of silphium. This newly-discovered plant smelled nasty but added a strong, delicious flavor to the food. Soon, the word spread among people. They too started using this plant to add flavour to their daily meals. Over many years, this plant became a quintessential spice in Indian cooking. People gave it names like “Asafoetida,” “Hing,” and even “food of the gods.” Quintessential means “the essence of something,” “the most important part of something” or the “most perfect example or representation of something.” Read more stories related to  Vocabulary !

Living in a secluded hilltop house, Nandini, her husband and her son was a happy family. They had been living here for five years. Over time, Nandini had build her art business wherein she created sketches for people and companies. But as orders and commissions started pouring in large numbers, she had no choice but to hire a housekeeper to relieve herself of the household duties. Her husband too remained busy in his bakery business. So they hired a woman named Dibbuk to do the housework. Dibbuk was a charming lady except that there was an evil twitch in her eyes that sometimes frightened Nandini’s son Ashish. One day, both Nandini and her husband were out of the house, attending meetings. They had left Ashish in the care of Dibbuk. Inside the house, Ashish was slumped on a sofa watching television and eating snacks. Outside, thunder was crackling loudly. As stormy clouds gathered, the orange sunset sky turned into dark grey, something that could creep out even the bravest adult. Meanw...

Since his school days, Sandy had a dream. He wanted to open his own food cart on a hilltop and sell hot burgers to people. He worked for years to plan out details about his cart. He had even thought of a name for his cart – “Sandy’s Snackery.” But as he grew older, his businessman father constantly opposed his desire to run a food cart. He told him it would be embarrassing. Each time Sandy approached his father to plead that he wanted to start his cart and sell burgers, his father would refuse his request right away. Contrary to Sandy’s dream, his father had always wanted him to become a superstar. Let alone allow him to sell burgers, his father didn’t even allow him to eat one, because then the oily burgers would sit in his belly and make him fat. And superstars are not supposed to be fat. He made Sandy toil for hours and hours in the gym without letting him relish any junk food. Over many years, Sandy started looking young and handsome. His father’s training was showing off in his lo...

Appu was seated on the dining table. The servant served him a bowl of salad Appu’s mom had made. Appu lifted a slice of cucumber with the fork and instantly clipped his mouth, dropping the slice down into the bowl. He asked his mom to remove the cucumber as it was too bitter. His mom removed the cucumber slices and sent the servant with a fresh bowl. Again, Appu dug the fork into the bowl and scooped out an apple slice. He put the apple slice into his mouth and again dropped the half-eaten apple into the bowl. He asked his mom to add another fruit as apple tasted too sweet. Annoyed, his mom removed the apple slices from the salad and sent him another bowl. When Appu looked at the bowl, he instantly pushed it away. He didn’t want to eat boiled potatoes. This time, when he called his mom and asked her to change the salad bowl, his mom became furious at his finicky behavior, and instead sent him the basket of vegetables and fruits to select himself. Finicky means "fussy, not easy to ...

Thousands of years ago, there was an enchanted forest. Within the two sections of the forest lived two clans – one water clan and the other fire clan. One day the prince of the fire clan, Angora fell in love with Mimisiki, the princess of the water clan. But both Mimisiki’s and Angora’s fathers were against their marriage. The two fathers carved a boundary line in the forest so Angora and Mimisiki could never meet each other again. Drenched in deep sorrow, Mimisiki stopped eating food and even drinking water. She couldn’t enjoy her life anymore. She sat all day at a foothill watching sunrise and sunrise, refusing to meet anyone. On the other side, Angora too was spending his days in pain and anguish. He would spend his days in the battleground, often exercising his muscles beyond his threshold so that he ended up with bleeding and wounds on his body. Seeing the intense suffering of both lovers, their moms tried to convince their fathers to allow them to marry each other. Finally, Mimis...

In the story “The Bishop’s Candlesticks” by Norman McKinnel, the bishop’s sister named Persome gets angry at her house maiden named Marie, because Marie keeps on responding with “Yes Madam” to whatever she says. In an enraged mood, Persome commands her to stop talking like a parrot and calls her out by the word “nincompoop.” Nincompoop means a “foolish, stupid, or halfwit person.” Read more posts related to  Vocabulary

Once Lola cat visited a shop and asked the shopkeeper for some grapes. The shopkeeper said he only sold oranges and didn’t have any grapes. She walked away only to return to the shop again the next day. This time she again asked him for grapes. The shopkeeper felt puzzled. He repeated that he didn’t have any grapes and he sold only oranges. Lola walked away but reappeared at the shop the next day. This kept on going for several days. Finally, the shopkeeper took Lola to a grapes shop and bought her a box of grapes. As he extended the box towards her, she squirmed her nose and said, she would prefer oranges instead. The shopkeeper clenched his head in frustration at the malcontent cat. Malcontent refers to someone who is not satisfied with the way things are, and who complains a lot and is always unreasonable and difficult to deal with. Read more posts related to  Vocabulary

Ever since she was born, Kiara had a mole on her cheek. This mole often caught the attention of some of her classmates who made fun of her, oftentimes humiliating her in front of the entire classroom. Most of the days, she would come home crying. Over time she started hating school. She would make excuses to avoid going to school. Then one day, her mom sat down beside her, and told her something. She opened a drawer and pulled out a scrapbook that Kiara had crafted during her school’s summer vacation. As she flipped through her scrapbook’s pages, she told Kiara to pay attention to how its pages were decorated with nothing but scraps and waste materials. Dried leaves and flowers, ripped paper pieces, old fabric scraps, buttons, empty refills and other materials. She said the scrapbook wouldn’t have been as beautiful as it was with these scraps. She told Kiara that just like these scraps, the mole on her cheek made her uniquely beautiful. Sometimes, it’s the imperfections of life that ma...

  Epistolary: A piece of writing written in the form of letters. Alliteration: A writing device that involves emphasized repetition of the initial consonant sounds in the words of a sentence or line. Ex: Betty Botter bought a bit of butter. Zeugma: A writing device used to denote a single word/phrase to describe two thoughts or two different contexts. Ex: She lost her necklace and her heart. Palindrome: A word, number, phrase, sentence, writing, or a sequence of characters/symbols, that reads the same backwards as forwards. Ex: Wow, mom, radar, Mr. Owl Ate My Metal Worm Epigram: A short poem, phrase, or witty saying that expresses an idea in a clever, paradoxical, or amusing way. Ex: I can resist everything but temptation. Anthropomorphism: Attributing human traits to non-human objects. Ex: the character of an animal, toy, or object in a story/movie that speaks in the language of humans Anadiplosis: A writing device that involves repetition in which a word of a phrase appears both ...

  Deipnosophist: A person who is skilled in talks at dinners, parties, or other kinds of table talks. Acersecomicke: One whose hair was never cut. Solivagant: Rambling or wandering alone. Filipendulous: Suspended, stringing, or hanging by a thread. Flingee: One at whom something is thrown or flung. Jentacular: Something related to breakfast. Matutinal: Related to morning, or occurring in the morning. Makebate: A person who invites troubles, discord, contention, and quarrels. Betise: An act of foolishness or stupidity. Patrizate: To imitate one's father. Catillate: To lick dishes. Tongue-hero: Self-possessed hero, a braggart, someone who brags. Noctivagant: Wandering in the night. Cachinnate: To laugh loudly, uncontrollably, and immoderately. Peristeronic: Relating to or resembling pigeons. Puffer: A person or a thing that puffs. Breathing heavily. Tootler: To toot softly, gently, and repeatedly. Bellycheer: Gratification of the belly, gluttony. Sarcast: A sarcastic person. Philosto...

Wildly enthusiastic, passionate, frenzied, ecstatic. Read more posts related to  Vocabulary