Reviewing Your Favorite Character Description
2022-10-07
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1Last week, we asked our readers and listeners to write about their favorite character from a book they had read.
2One reader, Arunabh wrote to us about their favorite character, Matilda, from the children's book with the same name, Matilda by Roald Dahl.
3In this week's Everyday Grammar, we will review parts of Arunabh's description of Matilda.
4Matilda is brilliant, resilient, creative and kind, despite growing up in difficult circumstances.
5Her parents treat her poorly, but she manages to read books, thus she gets ahead of other children in her class.
6She also develops magical powers to defeat Miss Trunchbull.
7Matilda said, "...Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable..."
8When Miss Trunchbull refuses to take Matilda to a higher form, Miss Honey continues to nurture her...
9She allows Matilda to read high-level textbooks while the rest of her class learns simple reading and math...
10Review of Arunabh's description of Matilda
11Let us look at how Arunabh first describes Matilda.
12Matilda is brilliant, resilient, creative and kind, despite growing up in difficult circumstances.
13Arunabh uses four adjectives to describe Matilda.
14"Brilliant" means very bright, and in this case refers to Matilda's mind.
15She is very smart.
16"Resilient" is a good choice for describing Matilda. Because of her family, she has become very mentally strong.
17Arunabh uses the preposition "despite" to contrast the surprising information that Matilda had a hard childhood.
18"Growing up" is a gerund meaning to change from a child into an adult.
19We use the "ing" form of the verb to make a gerund, but unlike verbs, gerunds are nouns.
20Arunabh describes Matilda as creative.
21Another word for this is "imaginative."
22Children use their imaginations all the time.
23And lastly, he describes her as "kind" or caring and nice.
24Matilda is always looking out for her classmates and friends.
25Let's continue to the next part of the description
26Her parents treat her poorly, but she manages to read books, thus she gets ahead of other children in her class.
27She also develops magical powers to defeat Miss Trunchbull.
28Arunabh describes how other characters act towards Matilda.
29We find out how Matilda's parents "treat" her or behave towards her.
30He uses the adverb "poorly" to describe her parents' mistreatment of her.
31Another adverb "thus" is used in this paragraph.
32"Thus" is used to refer to a result of something that you just said.
33So because Matilda reads books she was able to be at the top of her class.
34Arunabh also uses descriptive verbs like "develops" and the infinitive form "to defeat" which means to beat or win a victory over.
35In the next part of the description, we see Matilda's speech within quotation marks.
36Matilda said, "...Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable..."
37Here, Matilda is talking about Miss Trunchbull's actions against her students.
38No one, not even the parents, believe how Miss Trunchbull is hurting her students.
39"Go the whole hog" is an idiom meaning to do something completely or thoroughly.
40Lastly, let's look at the last group of sentences, and here we have some suggestions.
41When Miss Trunchbull refuses to take Matilda to a higher form, Miss Honey continues to nurture her...
42She allows Matilda to read high-level textbooks while the rest of her class learns simple reading and math...
43In this paragraph, Miss Trunchbull does not want Matilda to move onto higher-level classes.
44We suggest replacing "higher form" and "high-level" with the adjective "advanced."
45We also see Miss Honey's reaction to Matilda's problem.
46Miss Honey then helps Matilda.
47"Nurture" is a good word choice for how Miss Honey is helping Matilda.
48"Nurture" means to encourage and care for, especially in growing, learning and life.
49In today's report, we looked at Arunabh's favorite character Matilda.
50He described her with adjectives such as "brilliant," "resilient," and "creative."
51He used descriptive verbs and adverbs to show how other characters behave towards Matilda.
52We learned new words like "thus," an adverb and "despite," a preposition.
53We also learned a new idiom with the expression "go the whole hog," which means to do something completely.
54We hope that over the last few weeks, you have enjoyed learning about ways to describe your favorite character.
55We thank Arunabh for writing to us about Matilda! Great job!
56I'm Faith Pirlo.
57And I'm Jill Robbins.
1Last week, we asked our readers and listeners to write about their favorite character from a book they had read. One reader, Arunabh wrote to us about their favorite character, Matilda, from the children's book with the same name, Matilda by Roald Dahl. 2In this week's Everyday Grammar, we will review parts of Arunabh's description of Matilda. 3Arunabh's description of Matilda 4Matilda is brilliant, resilient, creative and kind, despite growing up in difficult circumstances. 5Her parents treat her poorly, but she manages to read books, thus she gets ahead of other children in her class. She also develops magical powers to defeat Miss Trunchbull. 6Matilda said, "...Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable..." 7When Miss Trunchbull refuses to take Matilda to a higher form, Miss Honey continues to nurture her...She allows Matilda to read high-level textbooks while the rest of her class learns simple reading and math... 8Review of Arunabh's description of Matilda 9Let us look at how Arunabh first describes Matilda. 10Matilda is brilliant, resilient, creative and kind, despite growing up in difficult circumstances. 11Arunabh uses four adjectives to describe Matilda. "Brilliant" means very bright, and in this case refers to Matilda's mind. She is very smart. "Resilient" is a good choice for describing Matilda. Because of her family, she has become very mentally strong. 12Arunabh uses the preposition "despite" to contrast the surprising information that Matilda had a hard childhood. "Growing up" is a gerund meaning to change from a child into an adult. We use the "ing" form of the verb to make a gerund, but unlike verbs, gerunds are nouns. 13Arunabh describes Matilda as creative. Another word for this is "imaginative." Children use their imaginations all the time. And lastly, he describes her as "kind" or caring and nice. Matilda is always looking out for her classmates and friends. 14Let's continue to the next part of the description 15Her parents treat her poorly, but she manages to read books, thus she gets ahead of other children in her class. She also develops magical powers to defeat Miss Trunchbull. 16Arunabh describes how other characters act towards Matilda. We find out how Matilda's parents "treat" her or behave towards her. He uses the adverb "poorly" to describe her parents' mistreatment of her. 17Another adverb "thus" is used in this paragraph. "Thus" is used to refer to a result of something that you just said. So because Matilda reads books she was able to be at the top of her class. 18Arunabh also uses descriptive verbs like "develops" and the infinitive form "to defeat" which means to beat or win a victory over. 19In the next part of the description, we see Matilda's speech within quotation marks. 20Matilda said, "...Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable..." 21Here, Matilda is talking about Miss Trunchbull's actions against her students. No one, not even the parents, believe how Miss Trunchbull is hurting her students. 22"Go the whole hog" is an idiom meaning to do something completely or thoroughly. 23Lastly, let's look at the last group of sentences, and here we have some suggestions. 24When Miss Trunchbull refuses to take Matilda to a higher form, Miss Honey continues to nurture her...She allows Matilda to read high-level textbooks while the rest of her class learns simple reading and math... 25In this paragraph, Miss Trunchbull does not want Matilda to move onto higher-level classes. We suggest replacing "higher form" and "high-level" with the adjective "advanced." 26We also see Miss Honey's reaction to Matilda's problem. Miss Honey then helps Matilda. "Nurture" is a good word choice for how Miss Honey is helping Matilda. "Nurture" means to encourage and care for, especially in growing, learning and life. 27Closing thoughts 28In today's report, we looked at Arunabh's favorite character Matilda. He described her with adjectives such as "brilliant," "resilient," and "creative." He used descriptive verbs and adverbs to show how other characters behave towards Matilda. We learned new words like "thus," an adverb and "despite," a preposition. We also learned a new idiom with the expression "go the whole hog," which means to do something completely. 29We hope that over the last few weeks, you have enjoyed learning about ways to describe your favorite character. We thank Arunabh for writing to us about Matilda! Great job! 30I'm Faith Pirlo. 31And I'm Jill Robbins. 32Faith Pirlo wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English. 33____________________________________________________________________ 34Words in This Story 35character - n. a person (or animal) who appears in a story, book, play, movie, or television show 36brilliant - adj. extremely intelligent or impressive 37resilient - adj. able to become healthy or strong again after something bad has happened 38magical - adj. very pleasant or exciting 39hog - n. another word for pig 40nurture - v. to further the development of 41allow - v. to permit 42gerund - n. (grammar). the -ing form of a verb that acts like a noun 43quotation - n. a group of words taken from a written work or speech and repeated by someone other than the writer or speaker 44idiom - n. an expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements (such as up in the air for "undecided") or in its grammatically atypical use of words (such as give way) 45advanced - adj. far along in a course of progress or development 46_______________________________________________________________________ 47What do you think about this story? Write to us at learningenglish@voanews.com or by leaving a comment. 48We want to hear from you. We have a new comment system. Here is how it works: 49Each time you return to comment on the Learning English site, you can use your account and see your comments and replies to them. Our comment policy is here.