Vocabulary for
Fire Race
with Sniffy the Hamster, resident wordsmith
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Sniffy Says in a low voice: "My owners are bugging me. Last week they left the door open to the room my cage is in and this big, black dog attacked my home when I was trying to sleep—I was dreaming about doing a double back flip, half-twist swan dive off my platform into a big pile of cotton balls. When I woke up I jumped up so fast I banged my nose on the water bottle while doing a triple flip with a twist. And do you know what they feed me? Nuts! I don't want nuts, I want ice cream, I want chocolate-covered sugar bombs, I want ice cream, I want birthday cake, I want ice cream. Ice cream!! Whoops. You want to know what murmuring is? Why do you always ask me? I need a break sometimes, sometimes I don't want to be a wordsmith—it's tough work—have you ever tried to turn the pages of a dictionary 20 times your size with itty-bitty paws? I'm going to bed—if I can sleep—there's some little four-legged creature that barks outside my window during my naps. Do you know hard it is to take a nap in hamster cage when you have to worry about a big black dog that could gobble you up faster than you can say, 'hoggy doggy'?"
Sniffy Says: "My owners think I stay in my cage all night. Nope, nope, nope. I leave all the time. The wild mice outside have lots of good food, but they're stingy. So, here's what I do. I find their hole and hide behind a rock or in the grass until they come back from the human houses with the goods. They find cheese puffs, potato chips, chocolate, cupcakes—all the good stuff—all my favorite stuff. Well, when one of these mice passes me I leap out as quickly as I can, rip the food from their paws so abruptly and with such speed they hardly realize that anything has been snatched from them. Sometimes, as I seize the cheese puff I yell, 'The cats are coming!!' They scatter like a handful of marbles that has been dropped on the floor. No mouse wants to be snatched by a cat!"
Sniffy Says: "You want to know what 'coax' means? I'm not telling—I'm just too tired and overworked. I need to sleep."
Mr. Draeger Says: "Oh come on, Sniffy, please. I mean, I don't want to force you, but we need you, Sniffy. We can't do this without you—you're the best hamster wordsmith we know. If you were to tell us what it meant, I could always put a little ice cream on a spoon—you could lick the tasty vanilla or chocolate—but—well—I don't want you to do something you don't want to do. You're probably right—you need your sleep.
Sniffy Says: "I do, but I didn't know you needed me so much—what kind of ice cream is it? Not that I care. Ummm, let's see—coax. It's something you do, a verb—where's that ice cream? If you 'coax a fire' it means you very carefully try to start a fire and it might take a long time but you keep at it. When you 'coax' someone you might say nice things to them to get them to do . . . what . . . you . . . want . . . . . . hey!!!!!!"
On-Line Dictionaries
The Free Dictionary: This is now my favorite on-line dictionary (the box above links to this dictionary). Not only does it provide you with audios to pronounce the word, but it also gives you examples of the word used in context. They also have a "References in classic literature" section which provides entire sentences from classic literature in which the word is used. Also includes a thesaurus, encyclopedia and more.
Answers.com: This is not just a dictionary, but it has a dictionary and the reason I list it is because the dictionary has an audio pronunciation feature which is very helpful when one comes across words that are difficult to pronounce or have never been seen before. Access is free.
The Dictionary of Difficult Words: Good resource for those words that your dictionary doesn't have or that other on-line dictionaries do not have.
A Latin Dictionary: This is great resource for Latin. There is even a downloadable version for your computer that will do both Latin/English and English/Latin.
Dictionary.com Free Access. You can purchase additional features.
Merriam-Webster Free Access.
WordSmyth A children's dictionary is also available. This dictionary requires registration. Free Access.
Oxford English Dictionary The best English dictionary in the world! This dictionary requires paid subscription. $29.95 per month or $295.00 per year.
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