Let’s see what happens when I try to use 25 target vocabulary words in one short composition in an attempt to solidify the terms into my long-term memory.
Jack, our redoubtable leader
It was the accolade that Jack had been aiming for; the reason he had been so meticulous in maintaining his magnanimity. A fortuitous sequence of events had led to his ascension to the throne as the nation’s new redoubtable leader.
His first order of business was to amalgamate all of the outlying empires into a single power, and his extemporaneous yet erudite speeches inspired the council to meet his plans with approbation. Jack had no idea, though, that it was all about to go sour.
Jack and the council grew disparate, and the council became indifferent to his vision; some members were even querulous. Jack compensated for the dissension through grandiloquence. His pedantic management of his cabinet, along with his tendency to disparage the members, brought about the incipient stages of social unrest throughout the nation. The cacophony of demands and pungent rhetoric, intended to vilify him, proved too much for him to endure.
He sought escape in aesthetic pleasure, far away from the masses, and he began to distribute his own personal writings criticizing the canon of famous authors. But this was interpreted as ostentatious. Citizens had no need for their leader to tout his opinions on art.
Jack was assassinated just one year after his ascension to power. The only suspect was exculpated.
10 Comments
May 29, 2008 at 10:37 am
I would love to see this automatically translated into Japanese and back using one of the poorly performing web sites. Just imagine the weirdness that would spill forth.
May 29, 2008 at 11:01 am
So, ironically, you made an error that has nothing to do with the big words. But I’m not telling where; I have to review a couple words right now.
May 29, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Wait - Alex, or me?
May 29, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Me, I think. But I’m not seeing it.
June 1, 2008 at 6:41 pm
In the very first clause you leave a preposition hanging.
The penultimate sentence of the penultimate paragraph starts with “But”.
Both of these are bad form but whether either of them is the aforementioned error I don’t know.
June 9, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Daeguowl - “This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.” - possibly Winston Churchill
Alex - have you hit the word “pantechnicon” yet? It’s one of my favorites so far. Ha ha.
June 9, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Not yet, Deas. I found a “hit list” of 300 vocab terms that appear most often on GRE tests, and I made those my priority.
When I get around to moving houses again, I’ll need to look into renting a pantechnicon.
June 10, 2008 at 11:58 am
I think I’ll stick with my Germanic words; they’re easier. Indubitably.
July 1, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Grandiloquence is very fun to say.
July 1, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Yeah, it has a nice ring to it. As the Japanese would say, “響きがいい”.
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