Love's Vocabulary

Does the author answer the question "What is love?" Select the description you think is best and support your choice with evidence from the text.

I believe that the author did not really answer the question "What is love" since love is interpreted in different ways to other people.

Lines 155-156: Which sentence in the final paragraph repeats the idea expressed in lines 126-127? How does the second statement expand on the first statement?

Line 155 To 156 echoes the one in lines 126 through 127 custom culture and tastes my very but not love itself not the essence of the emotion the second statement suggests that although many things change throughout history the essence of love never changes.

Lines 85-122: A) How does the example of the ancient Egyptian woman in the Detroit automobile factory create a bridge between ideas? B) What are those ideas? In what way is their order significant?

First idea in lines 85 through 93 is that our vocabulary for speaking about love is so limited that we have difficulty talking about it the second idea in lines 111-122 is that people do not really need language to recognize and understand love the Egyptian woman is in a strange environment that she does not understand yet the sight of Two Lovers kissing is immediately understandable to her the order of the ideas suggest that the author's views are becoming more positive both ideas show that love is intangible but in the second case love is Pleasant rather than a source of anxiety.

Lines 2-4: A) What is being compared in these lines? B) What connotations do the words have? C) What is their cumulative effect?

Hate is being compared to a vicious predator, fear to a bat in a confined space, and jealousy to a spider. The words stalks, dripping fangs, leather wings, all these words have NEGATIVE connotations. The effect is to conjure up images of the nightmarish beast that Ackerman describes.

Lines 28-40: What is the simile in the paragraph? Explain whether it has a positive or negative connotation.

The simile here is heavy as a heartbeat, (lines 37-38) the word heavy suggest both the feeling of grief and a physical condition of weariness. The connotation is negative.

Why does Ackerman say we are embarrassed by love or inhibited about it? What evidence does she cite?

Ackerman says that we are embarrassed by love because society have caused others to be embarrassed and since most people follow society it causes us to be embarrassed about it as well.

Lines 74-77: How does Ackerman's description of Elizabeth Barrett Browning relate to the earlier statement in lines 15-18 that begins with "Love is the white light of emotion" and ends with "Art is the prism that sets them free"?

Ackerman suggest that Browning's poems are an attempt to get at the meaning of love.

Lines 41-52: What are some facts, reasons, and examples that Ackerman uses to support her idea that love "can mean almost nothing or absolutely everything"?

Love is the first word conjugated by students of Latin, it is a universally understood motive for crime. It seeps into the machinery of life to keep generation after generation in motion and it is a positive force that ennobles the one feeling it.

Lines 66-73: What is the author's tone in this passage? Explain how the author's choice of words creates this tone?

The author creates a light, engaging, and affectionate tone by choosing words and connotations such as arms wide, welcoming the sun and sky, and encompass.

Lines 1-11: What is the central idea Ackerman presents at the very beginning of the essay? How does she support this idea?

The idea is that love is the great intangible. She called love a dream state and in lines 7 through 8 uses contradictory adjectives to describe loves mood showing that it is not easily defined examples of this these contradictory adjectives are frantic and Serene, Vigilant and calm, wrung out and fortified, and explosive and sedate.

Lines 138-145: A) Explain the simile in these lines. B) What comparison is made? C) What does it say about love?

The simile compares love to being pierced in the chest by an arrow, it is saying that love can cause people to feel intense emotional pain heartbreak, sorrow, sadness, loss.

Lines 143-145: Explain the tone of the description in these lines. What word choices create that tone?

The tone is expansive, romantic, and mysterious, in the text examples of this is s a city loss, pleasure, brocade cushions, and sun never sets have positive connotation and creates images of an appealing lush place.