Skills

Quick review of Day 1. Without looking, answer: Who is Jesus Christ? (True God and true man, in one Person.) What is the word for God becoming man? (The Incarnation.) Then pray together the line from the Creed: 'For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.'

Modifiers add color and precision to writing, exactly the skill we need for this week's descriptive essay. An ADJECTIVE modifies a noun or pronoun, answering which one, what kind, or how many: 'the marble temple,' 'three rivals,' 'a brave king.' An ADVERB modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, answering how, when, where, or to what extent: 'fought bravely,' 'arrived early,' 'very tall,' 'quite quickly.' Many adverbs end in -ly, but not all (fast, well, often). Both can show DEGREES OF COMPARISON. Positive: tall, brave, quickly. Comparative (two things): taller, braver, more quickly. Superlative (three or more): tallest, bravest, most quickly. Rule of thumb: short words add -er/-est; longer words use more/most. Watch the irregulars: good/better/best, bad/worse/worst, little/less/least.

Worked example 1: 'Athens was a more powerful city than Megara, but Sparta had the strongest army of all.' (more powerful = comparative adjective; strongest = superlative.) Worked example 2: 'The runner moved swiftly, but his rival moved more swiftly, and the champion moved most swiftly of all.' (adverb degrees.)

Practice (write the correct form): 1. This statue is (beautiful) ____ than that one. [comparative] 2. Of all the city-states, Athens was the (wealthy) ____. [superlative] 3. Leonidas fought (bravely) than expected. [comparative] 4. Identify the adjective and adverb: 'The wise teacher spoke calmly.' 5. Write your own sentence using a superlative adverb.

Greece's geography explains its history. Look at the land: rugged mountains slice the country into small, separated valleys, which is exactly why dozens of independent city-states arose rather than one unified kingdom. The deeply indented coastline and scattered islands of the Aegean Sea made the Greeks superb sailors, traders, and colonists, spreading from the Black Sea to southern Italy ('Magna Graecia'). Mainland Greece in the north connects by a narrow isthmus to the Peloponnese, the large peninsula in the south where Sparta sat. Between and around them lies the Aegean, dotted with the Cyclades islands and bordered on the east by Asia Minor (modern Turkey), where Greek cities like Miletus and (legendary) Troy stood. Today's drawing task: sketch mainland Greece and the Peloponnese, then add the Aegean Sea to the east and the Ionian Sea to the west. Label these city-states and places: Athens (Attica), Sparta (Peloponnese), Corinth (on the isthmus), Thebes, Delphi, the island of Crete to the south, and Troy across the Aegean. Mark Mount Olympus in the north. Add a compass rose. Keep it simple but accurate, focus on the relationships between land and sea.

Add 'peninsula' and 'comparative/superlative' to your glossary. Write one sentence using a comparative adjective to describe two places on your Greece map (e.g., 'Sparta lies farther south than Athens').