expand your vocabulary

Speaking is a major part of improving vocabulary. ‘I just wanted to, you know…’ and you start gesticulating to get your point across. Sometimes, words elude us. They just don’t pop up in our minds without a conscious effort. It happens when we don’t know or don’t use a word regularly. This is called having a limited vocabulary.

In order to buil your  vocabularyary, you need to listen to and say new words. Think about it – you never forgeo say ‘you’. This is because it’s such a common word that you say it at least a hundred times every day. That is why you don’t forget it. Using new words in your everyday speech is important to improve your vocabulary. The first step to learning how to say new words is to listen to their correct pronunciation. Vocabulary building software tools can assist you. Our favorite tool vocabulary has a “Listen” feature.

indetify people from description

One example of the animalist tendencies of human beings that can be seen in the story would be the landscape of war that the Lieutenant walks through as he searches for help.  There is a savagery in what he sees that resembles the world of animals.  The death and destruction that is all around him, the conditions that reduce his horrific injury to a mere "episode of war," help to illuminate how humans resemble the animalistic condition of the natural world.  This detail also helps to underscore the Naturalist idea about people's helplessness in the face of nature and circumstances.  The Lieutenant is unable to change this landscape, unable to help to alleviate anyone else's suffering and unable to minimize his own.  There is a helplessness intrinsic to the human condition that the condition of war evokes.

Another example of a human being's actions that could also describe the actions of animals would be the futility that surrounds the Lieutenant.  The quest to find help causes the Lieutenant to encounter people who really cannot do much to help him.  The soldier who scolds him for not taking care of his wound, and yet cannot take care of it himself is one such example.  In such an interaction, human beings are no different than animals who flail at one another in the face of conditions that overwhelm their own sense of being in the world.  This helps to illuminate how the Naturalist believes that placing individuals in particular conditions can reveal their true nature.  Akin to a scientist who seeks to mix circumstances in order to bring out a true essence of a compound or element, human beings placed in conditions larger than their own can reduce the complexity of the human being to an animal, unable to effect their world or their place in it.

Meet Alex and his friends

Meet Alex the Bear

Going to child carenfor the first time or entering a new child care setting can be a daunting experience for both children and parents.

Alex the Bear, the newest friend ofchild caren Aware®, seeks to make the transsistion exciting, enjoyable and a lot more fun! Join Alex as he prepares for his first adventure in a child caren center.

For a transcript of Alex the Bear Goes to Child Care, click here.

For more information on how you can use the Alex the Bear Goes to Child Care video, select one of the PDFs below: