READING+08



Wacky words || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || ||
 * abacinate || To blind by putting a hot copper basin near someone's eyes ||
 * abderian || Given to incessant or idiotic laughter ||
 * abecedarian || A person who is learning the alphabet ||
 * abligurition || Excessive spending on food and drink ||
 * accubation || The practice of eating or drinking while lying down ||
 * adelphepothia || An incestuous desire for one's sister ||
 * adelphirexia || An incestuous desire for one's nephew ||
 * adelphithymia || An incestuous desire for one's niece ||
 * adoxography || Skilled writing on an unimportant subject ||
 * aeolist || A pompous windy bore who pretends to have inspiration ||
 * agelast || A person who never laughs ||
 * agerasia || The state of looking younger than one actually is ||
 * agraffe || The wire that holds the cork in a champagne bottle ||
 * algerining || Prowling around with the intent to commit burglary ||
 * alphamegamia || The marriage between a young woman and an older man ||
 * anopisthography || The practice of writing on one side of the paper ||
 * apodyopsis || The act of mentally undressing someone ||
 * autohagiographer || One who speaks or writes in a smug fashion about their own life and accomplishments ||
 * autolatry || The worship of one's self ||
 * autotonsorialist || One who cuts their own hair ||
 * basorexia || An overwhelming desire to neck or kiss ||
 * bathykolpian || Deep-bosomed ||
 * batrachophagous || One who eats frogs ||
 * blandiloquent || Speaking in a flattering or ingratiating manner ||
 * bletcherous || Pertaining to something poorly or disgustingly designed ||
 * bombilate || To loudly hum or buzz continuously ||
 * borborygmus || The rumbling sound of gas passing through the intestine ||
 * brevirostrate || Having a short nose ||
 * bromidrosis || Strongly smelling perspiration ||
 * brontide || The low rumbling of distant thunder ||
 * cachinnation || Loud or hysterical laughter ||
 * cacoethes || A bad habit or insatiable urge ||
 * cagamosis || An unhappy marriage ||
 * callipygean || Having well-shaped buttocks ||
 * cancatervate || To heap up into a pile ||
 * capernoited || Slightly intoxicated or tipsy ||
 * cataglottism || Kissing using the tongue, French kissing ||
 * causeuse || A sofa built for two people ||
 * charientism || An artfully veiled insult ||
 * cheiloproclitic || Being attracted to a person's lips ||
 * chirotonsor || An alternate title for a barber ||
 * cleptobiosis || The act of plundering food ||
 * clithridiate || Key-hole-shaped ||
 * colposinquanonia || Estimating a woman's beauty based on her chest ||
 * concilliabule || A secret meeting of people who are hatching a plot ||
 * cruciverbalist || One who loves doing crossword puzzles ||
 * dactylion || The tip of the middle finger ||
 * dactylonomy || Counting using one's fingers ||
 * decubitis || The act or attitude of lying down ||
 * defenestrate || To throw out of a window ||
 * dehisce || To burst open, as the pod of a plant ||
 * dentiloquent || Pertaining to one who talks through their teeth ||
 * dephlogisticate || To make something fireproof ||
 * digamy || A second marriage after the death or divorce of a previous spouse ||
 * dippoldism || The act of beating or whipping school children ||
 * dompteuse || A woman who trains animals ||
 * eccedentesiast || One who fakes a smile, as on television ||
 * emunction || The act of removing obstructions from or cleaning bodily passages ||
 * estrapade || A horses's attempt to remove its rider ||
 * exsibilation || The collective hisses of a disapproving audience ||
 * farctate || The state of being stuffed with food (overeating) ||
 * filipendulous || Suspended by a single thread ||
 * floccinaucinihilipilification || The categorising of something that is useless or trivial ||
 * fuscoferuginous || Having a dark rusty colour ||
 * gambrinous || Being full of beer ||
 * gargalesis || Heavy tickling ||
 * gargalesthesia || The sensation caused by tickling ||
 * ginglyform || Hinge-shaped ||
 * gongoozler || An idle spectator ||
 * gossypiboma || A surgical sponge accidently left inside a patient's body ||
 * gowpen || A double handful ||
 * grapholagnia || The urge to stare at obscene pictures ||
 * gymnophoria || The sensation that someone is mentally undressing you ||
 * hadeharia || The practice of constantly using the word "Hell" in speaking ||
 * hamartithia || Being likely to make a mistake ||
 * hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian || Pertaining to extremely long words ||
 * honorificabilitudinitatibus || With honour ||
 * inaniloquent || Speaking foolishly or saying silly things ||
 * interfenestration || The space between two windows ||
 * jentacular || Pertaining to breakfast ||
 * jumentous || Smelling like horse urine ||
 * knismesis || Light tickling ||
 * krukolibidinous || The act of staring at someone's crotch ||
 * kyphorrhinos || Having a nose with a bump in it ||
 * lalochezia || The use of foul or abusive language to relieve stress or ease pain ||
 * lethologica || The inability to recall a precise word for something ||
 * liripip || The long tail of a hood in medieval or academic costume ||
 * lygerastia || The condition of one who is only amorous when the lights are out ||
 * maledicent || One who is addicted to abusive speech ||
 * mallemaroking || The carousing of seamen on board Greenland whaling ships ||
 * mammothrept || A child who is raised and spoiled by their grandmother ||
 * maritodespotism || Tyrranical rulership of a woman by her husband ||
 * matronolagnia || An attraction to older women, especially ones who have children ||
 * misocapnist || One who hates the smell of tobacco smoke ||
 * misodoctakleidist || Someone who hates practicing the piano ||
 * mulligrubs || A state of depression or low spirits ||
 * mumpsimus || One who sticks obstinately and wrongly to their old ways ||
 * mytacism || The incorrect or excessive use of the letter M ||
 * nelipot || Someone who walks without shoes ||
 * nepheligenous || Producing clouds of tobacco smoke ||
 * nidorosity || Belching with the taste of undigested meat ||
 * nudiustertian || Pertaining to the day before yesterday ||
 * oculoplania || Letting one's eyes wander while assessing someone's charms ||
 * onychophagy || The habit of biting one's fingernails ||
 * pandiculation || Stretching and yawning before going to bed or after waking up ||
 * petrichor || The smell of rain on dry ground ||
 * philosophunculist || One who pretends to know more than they do to impress others ||
 * pogonotomy || The act of cutting a beard ||
 * polyphloisboian || Making a lot of noise or loud racket ||
 * preantepenultimate || Fourth from last ||
 * prosopography || The description of a person's appearance ||
 * psithurism || The sound of wind in trees or rustling leaves ||
 * pyknic || Short and fat ||
 * qualtagh || The first person you see after leaving your house ||
 * quidnunc || One who always wants to know what is going on ||
 * quomodocunquize || To make money by any means possible ||
 * recumbentibus || A knockout blow, either verbal or physical ||
 * runcation || The act of weeding ||
 * sabrage ||  The act of opening a bottle with a sabre  ||
 * saprostomous || Having bad breath ||
 * scacchic || Pertaining to the game of chess, or to chess pieces ||
 * sciapodous || Having huge feet ||
 * scolecophagous || One who eats worms ||
 * sgiomlaireached || The habit of dropping in at mealtimes ||
 * skoptsy || The act of self castration ||
 * slubberdegullion || A filthy, slobbering person ||
 * sphallolalia || Flirtatious talk that leads nowhere ||
 * steatopygic || Having a fat behind ||
 * strikhedonia || The pleasure of being able to say to hell with it ||
 * tachyphagia || Fast eating ||
 * tarantism || An urge to overcome melancholy by dancing ||
 * tetrapyloctomy || The act of splitting a hair four ways ||
 * thelemic || Permitting people to do as they like ||
 * tibialoconcupiscent || Having a lascivious interest in watching a woman put on stockings ||
 * ulotrichous || Having very wooly hair ||
 * ultracrepidarian || Of one who speaks or offers opinions on matters beyond their knowledge ||
 * usufructuary || A person who has use or enjoyment of something, especially property ||
 * ventripotent || Big-bellied, gluttonous ||
 * vesthibitionism || The flirtatious display of undergarments by a woman ||
 * vigesimation || The act of killing every twentieth person ||
 * viraginity || Masculine qualities in a woman ||
 * wanweird || An unhappy fate ||
 * witzelsucht || A feeble attempt at humour ||
 * xenobombulate || To malinger ||
 * xerophagy || A diet of bread and water ||
 * ximelolagnia || The urge to stare at women who are sitting with crossed legs ||
 * xylopolist || One who sells wood products ||
 * yclept || By the name of; called ||
 * zenzizenzizenzic || A number raised to the eighth power ||

At the moment my assigment is to read an autobiography or biography about my chosen person and present a movie or keynote about them. my chosen person is Marco Polo.

Marco’s father Niccolo, was a merchant based in the Italian port of venice. In 1253, Niccolo’s wife became pregnant. Niccolo and his family depended on trading, so he and his brother Maffeo set off on a trading expedition to Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). In 1254, while he was still away, his wife gave birth to a boy named Marco, Marco’s mum died shortly after he was born.

In 1259, after six years’ trading in Contantinople, the brothers gathered together a store of precious stones and moved east into lands controlled by the Mongols. Niccolo and Maffeo travelled for weeks on end. They would have met other traders from time to time. They were all trading salt, furs and slaves. But as the Polos moved further from the main trade routes, the goods they preferred to trade were those that were easily transportable: gold, precious stones and spices. The Polo brothers moved into the land were Barka Khan, a Mongol leader, brought his people and flocks for summer feed. The Polos sold all there stones they had brought for double the price they had paid. Barka Khan protected the two merchants and encouraged their trade. The Polos travelled in the city for 3 years. Then, by luck, they accepted the invitation of the local tribal chief, to go with envoys to meet Kublai Khan, ruler of the Mongols, who had defeated the chinese and ruled most of their land.

while his father was traveling, Marco was growing up in venice/ we know very little about marcos childhood It is certain that, as the child of a merchant trading family he would have been taught the basic tools of reading writing and enough arithmetics to add and subtract.

Venice is tucked in the northwest corner of the Adritic Sea. In Marco’s day it was home to a vast trading empire. Venice was founded in the sixth century by refugees from the invading Goths who were originally from scandinavia.

In china the polo brothers were welcomed by kublai khan who was full of curiosity about the rest of the world. Khublai khan liked the Polos and he often asked them to come to his new court at khanbaliq now beijing during the two years they spent in china. Naturally after all these years the two men wanted to see venice again. The brothers now faced a journey of thousands of miles across mountains and deserts. The journey would take three years. The brothers were continually held up by storms snow floods and blocked paths. the two men promised to take a message to the pope in rome from kublai khan. but when they arrived in rome they heard the pope was dead so they decided that they might as well return home to see their families. niccolo did not know that his wife was dead and that he had a 15 year old son

Niccolo and Maffeos homecoming in april or may 1269 was not so much a rest as a pause. Before long they planned their next journey to china. this time they decided to take niccolos young son marco polo with them. As a son of a trading family marco probably would have expected to go with his father on his next journey. In the middle ages boys were expected to start work much earlier than they do today.

The brothers were ready to return to china. The gift that kublai khan had demanded they bring back with them was no ordinary request. He wanted the brothers to bring back the pope himself to khanbaliq. They had explained that might not be possible. He had agreed that he would accept a hundred Christian priests instead. He wanted a quantity of the holy oil from the lamp that had always burned the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Although he was Buddhist, the khan was eager to hear the christian faith preached by european priests.

On their journey to China, the Polos travelled across mountains and deserts, through dangerous floods and past ancient cities. They travelled from Venice, the jewel of Europe, to Khanbaliq, the capital of kublai khans empire. The city was greater than Venice in population, wealth and even organization. They carried their bags on backs of donkeys, mules, horses and camels. Sometimes they travelled with other merchants for safety, and sometimes alone. The route the polos took was similar to the Silk Road, which lead from Europe to China. v

The toughest test of travellers on this part of the silk road was the Gobi desert. Stretching for hundreds of miles, even at its narrowest point, it took a month to cross. Legend held that the desert was haunted by spirits and that strange voices lured travellers to their death.

Marco soon learned the customs and language of the Mongols and became a favourite of Kublai. According to Marco, the ruler was impressed with the young Venetian’s quick intelligence. The Khan decided to employ him as a traveling spy, acting as the ruler’s eyes and ears in distant parts of his empire. Niccolo and Maffeo, under the khans protection, went on working as merchants.

It took the Polos many months to reach Venice from Kerman.The three men were used to the magnificence of the cities I China. The towns and cities they now travelled through were nowhere near as grand. They had not seen Venice in 24 years.Since he was last there, Marco Polo had grown a boy of fifteen to a man of 39.

Marco Polo soon became known as Il milione or the thousand for the thousand lies some believed he told in his book. historians today still debate whether Marco really did everything he claimed. He wrote about paper money, black stones that burned coal and galleys five times the size of warships. his 14th century readers had never heard of such things and thought ha was lying. Today, we know that these things are true. Marco also wrote about things we cannot believe, such as birds that picked up elephants. The truth may be that Marco recorded not only what he saw but also stories he heard.