I am doing summer homework. One of the assignments is to choose three words from this article that I was unfamiliar with, and define them. It's a short article and I am having trouble coming up with words I didn't know. I wasn't sure what "census regions" were when I read the article. I knew what "census" means, and I know what "regions" mean, but I didn't know what "census regions" were. I would use that, however the question says to define a word, not a group of words. The teacher for this class is quite strict, and I don't know if she would count "census region." This assignment is due today, help!
Responses (1)
...Summer homework? You may want to work on your procrastination, bud, if not your vocab.
You need to devise a strategy based on the known parameters.
The task is not clearly defined - at best it is intended to keep you sharp through the downtime (and failed at achieving this). As such, you could pick and define any three difficult looking words at random for a passable, if not honest response. Alternatively, if you say you know everything, expect to be tested for it by going through the most difficult terms in the paper, as the teacher's means of distinguishing the liars from the conceited scholars. Depending on the kind of teacher, they may try to break your hubris or seek a way to adjust the level. They may or may not succeed; ultimately, schools are institutions built & managed by ordinary folk for ordinary kids, within standard deviation.
I think it's best to just be truthful with yourself - acknowledge what you don't know so you can learn (whilst providing an opportunity to teach) and don't claim to know everything beyond a doubt unless you have gone through sufficient practice to back it.
Postscript: I think you can say "phrase" in this case rather than group of words, and that it's quite valid given that there's a wiki page for it. Such things are at least worthy of ascription to the vernacular, and their propagation rather than some committee sets their status in the language.
Case in point: Buzzwords. Technically they're 50% phrases.
Thank you for your suggestions. The teacher did specify not to say you knew all the words. I did end up using words that seemed more difficult. I'm sorry if it seemed I was being pretentious, I wasn't trying to sound that way. It really was just a shorter article, and there weren't many words to choose from. (And you're right, phrase would have a better word to use.)