Listening to teenagers planning a trip to see it – and they go less than quarterly, so it was a major choice – showed a more complex reality.  These are teenagers who watch and read anime,  who enjoyed “Van Helsing“, and who are mostly strong  English Literature students.  They have strong visual literacy and literary criticism skills, and appreciated Movie Bob’s analysis of the series.

Last Twilight film, they found that it really was better not to go all together – though they all wanted to go.  Some of the group ( a minority) were going with other friends, as they wanted to enjoy the romance (and skim over the plot holes and social issues) ;  most were going for a good laugh.  Not a good mix.

After the film, one of those who went for the laughs reported that “It was a hoot! … A total satire on romance and monster genres.   A laugh at least every 3 minutes.”  Adding to the intrinsic humour, audience participation as per “Mystery Science Theater 3000“  was enthusiastic and (in their group) appreciated.

They were left with one question:  was the satirical quality

(a) Accidental   (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes)

(b) Deliberate   (Top Secret (1984))

(c) Freudian    (Can you think of a film where the director, script writer, and cast all tried to play it straight – but their subconsciouses rebelled in synch?   Suggestions welcome …)

One can imagine the feelings of the romantics elsewhere in the theatre …

So, to increase audience viewing pleasure for Part II:  maybe the cinemas could organise separate theme  sessions – one for those who love sparkly vampires and one for  those who prefer “Then Buffy Met Edward” t-shirts.

1. Milk products:  In those with a low calcium intake, reduce feelings of hunger more than an energy-matched drink. The calcium and protein in milk may be the triggers for this effect.(1, 2)

2. fats and oils

The short-term effect of fats is to reduce the sensation of hunger shortly after the fatty acids from digestion of fats reach the duodenum.   Surprisingly small amounts of oil can have this effect, but in those who eat much fat it is suppressed -  the whole matter of fat digestion is horribly complex (3)   However, improved sensitivity was measured in obese men after 4 days on a VLCD . (4)

Unfortunately, it has been found that eating fats/oils  does not always reduce appetite later, and may increase appetite the next day (5).   This fits with anecdotal evidence – for example, following a cheesecake relapse, a dieter experienced more hunger than usual the next two days, where the same effect was not felt after a protein-binge.

More confusingly, the type of oil is important – for example, fish oil seems to add less energy (that is, result in less fat) than do maize oil or beef fat. (6)

3. Citrates

Lemon juice, and various similar chemicals often added to cordials.   In some people, citrates seem to make it more difficult to adhere to a VLCD.  This may be linked to  the role of citric acid in favouring gluconeogenesis over ketogenesis (7).  (VLCDs emphasise ketogenesis for weight loss.  Making glucose inside the body does burn energy, but seems linked to increased appetite

Research needed:

Most studies emphasise same-day or long-term effects of particular food types.   More reliable studies on two- or three-day effects on appetite and perceived tiredness/energy levels, with titles showing on net searches, would be welcome.

———————————————————————————-

Footnotes
1. Gilbert JA, Joanisse DR, Chaput JP, Miegueu P, Cianflone K, Alméras N, Tremblay A.   (2011)  “Milk supplementation facilitates appetite control in obese women during weight loss: a randomised, single-blind, placebo-controlled trial.”     Br J Nutr. 105(1):133-43.   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21205360

2. Major GC, Alarie FP, Doré J, Tremblay A. (2009) “Calcium plus vitamin D supplementation and fat mass loss in female very low-calcium consumers: potential link with a calcium-specific appetite control.” Br J Nutr. 101(5):659-63. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21205360

3. Little, Tanya J. and Feinle-Bisset, C  (2010)  “Oral and Gastrointestinal Sensing of Dietary Fat and Appetite Regulation in Humans: Modification by Diet and Obesity” Front Neurosci. 2010; 4: 178. Published online 2010 October 19. Prepublished online 2010 May 20. doi:  10.3389/fnins.2010.00178   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2981385/

4.

Brennan, I M,  Seimon, R V, Luscombe-Marsh, N D, Otto, B, Horowitz, M and Feinle-Bisset C (2011). “Effects of acute dietary restriction on gut motor, hormone and energy intake responses to duodenal fat in obese men” International Journal of Obesity 35, 448–456; doi:10.1038/ijo.2010.153; published online 3 August 2010  http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v35/n3/abs/ijo2010153a.html

5.http://www.reebokcrossfitone.com/Nutrition/Effect-of-dietary-fat-on-satiation-within-and-between-meals.html?print=1&tmpl=component (does not display well in my browser, but deserves credit for links to the fulltext article

Blundell, JE, Burley, VJ,  Cotton, JR, and Lawton CL  (1993) “Dietary fat and the control of energy intake: evaluating the effects of fat on meal size and postmeal satiety.”  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 57, 772S-778S  http://www.ajcn.org/content/57/5/772S.abstract?sid=d31ef1ca-bb08-4d39-9f0b-ec12322c5e74)

6.Jang IS, Hwang DY, Chae KR, Lee JE, Kim YK, Kang TS, Hwang JH, Lim CH, Huh YB, Cho JS. (2003) “Role of dietary fat type in the development of adiposity from dietary obesity-susceptible Sprague-Dawley rats.”  Br J Nutr. 2003 Mar;89(3):429-38. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12628037

7. Kreitzman, S.N. (1992)  Factors influencing body composition during very-low-calorie diets   Am J Clin Nutr 56:217S-23S.

To be generous, I will allow all  brain-scan linked psychology to be put under neuroscience, and all chemical-linked psychology to be under psychopharmacology.  I will consider only social psychology and the study of individual behaviours.

It is clear that any situation brings out different responses from different human individuals, and that the range of these responses is predictable.

Some situational responses are very common.  In a previous post  I gave some examples of famous response patterns,  but there is a huge range of psychological research into common effects.  (For a quick start, there are many videos and books from Richard Wiseman .)  However, for every standard response there is a sizeable minority who are non-standard.  Does this invalidate the claim to scientific status for psychology?  Consider the reasons for the range of responses:

To begin with, testing of famous effects has made it clear that different cultures prime us to different response sets.  (Laura Spinney’s article on being WEIRD gives a few examples. )

On the individual level, personality and past experience also prime individuals to particular responses.   Research on resilience gives many examples of this.

Finally, for each of us, there is a probability of a particular behaviour in a given situation – even in rats with strongly conditioned responses there is a degree of variability in response.

So, psychologist have found many aspects of variability in response, and are trying to identify causes and measure their effects – alone and in combination – and are testing their predictions.   That sounds like science to me.  However, they still can’t usually predict what an individual will do. So, is that a fatal flaw?

Let us consider Chemistry – that is a science.  Given a set of chemicals, in a given environment, the outputs are predictable – right?  Well, take burning an archetypical carbohydrate:  CH2O (s) + O2 (g)  – >  CO2 (g) + H2O (g).   Can the chemist predict which of the Oxygen gas’s atoms will end in the carbon dioxide?  Consider the history of producing  isocyanides  :  the proportions of different products from a given starting mix was initially hard to predict, and much research was needed before the exact conditions for high yield were found.   With the invention of microwave ovens, chemists found  a new range of conditions for chemical reactions – and again started by finding out the changes in  mixture of products from changes in process.  ( One example is the processing of methane, of interest to the natural gas / syngas industry.)

So, I argue that Psychology can be classed as a science precisely because  (like research Chemists) the researchers accept that there are limits to their knowledge,  that they must measure reality to form ideas of what might be happening (hypotheses),  and that their predictions (from hypotheses) of the results of given processes must be tested against reality before a strong theory can be developed.

Here  in Oz, it is starting to feel as though the Federal opposition think the voters are really, really ignorant of law and history, and that they want to keep things that way.  They seem to be going on the premise that

You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.  The trick is to fool enough to get elected into power.

Unfortunately, the media seem to be going along with it, to the detriment of our version of democracy.

I started to wonder how dim the average journalist is when no-one challenged the claim that, if a proposed tax did not get passed by parliament, the current government should (with voice tones suggesting “are required by tradition to…) dissolve parliament and hold an early election.  Now, I remember several occasions when financial bills were not passed, were resubmitted and rejected again, and the government of the day had a “double dissolution trigger” which they might choose to use.  Usually they did not.  Therefore, the clain was false – however, the press let it through unchallenged.

Then the Opposition started saying that Australia can’t be run by a Coalition – referring to the agreement between the Labour Party and the Greens.   They suggest that it is in some way wrong for Labour to trade favours with the Greens.

Not even the satirists have commented that we were run by the Liberal/National (a.k.a Country Party) coalition for many years (they joined in 1922), and that “The Opposition” is that same bunch, so famous that Wikipedia    gives them as the primary meaning for ” Coalition” in Australian politics.   None of the political journalists have mentioned the thousands of times Liberal policies were shifted to meet the demands of the gerrymandered rural electorates.

Now the Opposition is suggesting that the Labour party is wrong or weak to trade favours with the Independent Senators, who hold the balance of power.   Strangely, no-one has mentioned former Senator Brian Harradine, who served from 1975 to 2005, and strongly represented the conservative Christian viewpoint for many years by enthusiastically exploiting his position as a “balance of power” senator.    I have heard no-one  in the current commentariate  ask whether the series of (now) respected former PMs who did dubious deals with hin were, by that argument, wrong, or weak.  (At the time, it was a common left-wing  grumble about lack of courage – but dismissed by The Coalition, who liked many of his opinions.)

I wouldn’t be so annoyed by the Opposition’s attempts to sway voters if (i) they weren’t misleading voters as to the traditions and Law of our parliamentary system; (ii) if they hadn’t done exactly the same themselves; and (iii) if the current affairs programmes and satirists were hammering them for their hypocrisy.

The trouble is that younger voters haven’t lived through the events which this campaign ignores, schools haven’t the time to go through the details of past political horsetrading, most children learn just enough about the system for just long enough to pass their school tests, and most people don’t read political history for fun.  If the journalists don’t challenge them publicly, politicians can spread false views of Law and history.   Then we get the downside of democracy: the lazy and below-average together vastly outnumber and outvote those who are both gifted and thoughtful.

Where the lazy, average, and  below-average are not properly advised by the knowledgeable (or, even worse, are led by demagogues to distrust and mock those of high intelligence),  they have fewer thoughtful members to debate with the gifted and thoughtful and thus are less able to make a strong democracy.  Instead  we see the situation Mills warned of:

“A people may prefer a free government, but if, from indolence, or carelessness, or cowardice, or want of public spirit, they are unequal to the exertions necessary for preserving it; if they will not fight for it when it is directly attacked; if they can be deluded by the artifices used to cheat them out of it; if by momentary discouragement, or temporary panic, or a fit of enthusiasm for an individual, they can be induced to lay their liberties at the feet even of a great man, or trust him with powers which enable him to subvert their institutions; in all these cases they are more or less unfit for liberty: and though it may be for their good to have had it even for a short time, they are unlikely long to enjoy it.” — John Stuart Mill, Representative Government, 1861  (My emphases)    

To understand this, we have to understand a little human  biochemistry.

Glucose,  glycogen stores, and water

Our brains and muscles “burn” glucose – a simple sugar, found in many carbohydrate rich foods (for example, cane sugar is one fructose molecule bound to one glucose molecule).   It  is disassembled to release chemical energy, carried in the form of a small molecule called ATP (Adenosine triphosphate).   Glucose is so important that our bodies can use other molecules and energy from other foods to make glucose (gluconeogenesis).

As with other important materials, our bodies store glucose for later use.  The stores are not glucose itself – they are molecules which the body can take apart for glucose.  The first storage is as a molecule called glycogen, stored in the liver and muscles;  secondary storage is as fat.  When there is plenty of glucose and ATP,  insulin promotes the conversion of glucose into glycogen.

When there is little ATP and little glucose, our cells’ first response is to disassemble glycogen to keep the blood sugar level up.   So, in dieting, our cells first use the glycogen stores. A common estimate of adult glycogen stores is 400 to 500 g.   However, glycogen is not stored alone – like glucose, its pure form is not a soft or liquid substance.  It is stored with three to four times its weight in water (1).   So, in the initial stages of dieting, the glycogen stores are used up and the associated water is released.

It takes energy to make and store glycogen, and to transport its related water.  So, in using up glycogen, dieters  reduce the stored energy within their bodies.   Therefore, the weight loss is not just water, and does reflect a real improvement in body mass – just not as much in terms of fat-equivalents.

After the diet

When the dieter returns to a weight-maintenace eating pattern, it is reasonable for ver to rebuild ves glycogen stores.  So, ve must plan for that: ve must be aware that the first couple of kilos (after accounting for bowel contents) will not be fat, will be valuable for maintaining blood sugar levels, and are to be expected to be back very soon after leaving off the strict regimen (in days, not weeks.)  An immediate effect is that the target wieght should reflect this expectation: if ve wishes to weigh 65 kilos, ver goal in dieting would be 63 kilos.

Upsides and downsides of continuing low-energy dieting for more than the water-loss period

Upside

The body does not burn its fat stores significantly until the glycogen is low.   This is one reason to value the rapid initial glycogen and water weight loss stage, and to continue beyond it.

A second reason is not commonly known:  the brain relies on glucose for energy until blood sugar levels have been low for some time, but after about three days it starts using smaller molecules called ketone bodies (the things which give dieters ketosis, resulting in  “nail polish breath (2) “).  From about 40% after three days of starvation (3), after about a month it can get up to 7o% of its energy from ketone bodies.  In human evolution periods of  low-carbohydrate diets  – and real hunger – were common, so is reasonable that our bodies are adapted to use other energy sources.  It is now suggested that there may be benefits to deliberately triggering this shift in brain metabolism. (4)  As with decreased exposure to diseases with modern lifestyles (5,6), decreased exposure to hunger may not be entirely to our benefit.

Downside

There is one main downside:   Low blood sugar is linked to various problems, including difficulty  controlling impulses.  In dieting these are not as severe as those diabetics may experience , but a degree of crankiness is to be expected – especially in the days before the brain shifts to using ketone bodies.

A second downside is the risk that low energy intake may be associated with a poorly balanced diet with poor essential nutrient levels.  One may get away with this in the short term, but over longer periods one must plan very carefully.   I feel that this is minor, as there are several well balanced VLCD (very low calorie diet) systems available.  However, unless the dieter is competent in dietary analysis, it would be best to have nutritional advice from a University-trained source.

A third downside is that the process is a physical strain – which is why the packaged approaches recommend medical supervision: there is a risk that unrecognised problems (such as liver failure) may flare up under the stress.

Conclusion

It isn’t just water, and it is a sign that you are, at least, not getting fatter.  The hard work is worth it – but watch your temper and watch your nutrition.

_____________________________________________

1.  Kreitzman, S N  (1992)  Factors influencing body composition  during very-low-calorie diets Am J Clin Nutr 56:217S-23S.   http://www.ajcn.org/content/56/1/217S.long

2. Note that this mild ketosis is different from the severe and life-threatening ketoacidosis (commonly from diabetes or alcoholism), where the smell is stronger and medical attention is required.

3.Hasselbalch, SG; Knudsen, GM; Jakobsen, J; Hageman, LP; Holm, S; Paulson, OB (1994). “Brain metabolism during short-term starvation in humans.”. Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism 14 (1): 125–31. doi:10.1038/jcbfm.1994.17. PMID 8263048.

4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20188215   , http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20009300

5. Committee on The International Study of Asthma, Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), Steering Committee. Worldwide variation in prevalence of symptoms of asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, and atopic eczema. ISAAC Lancet. 1998. pp. 1225–32.

The  graph’s title as published was vague, as it related the graph also to an added range of possible effects  cut from this image.   I think of this graph as “Temperature increase in °C for given CO2 concentration, by climate sensitivity to CO2 in °C per doubling of CO2 level”

Questions:

• What does this graph show ?
• How does it make you feel about increasing CO2 levels?
• What title do you prefer at present?
• Can you imagine the following re-graphing:

- Put temperature increase (the dependant variable) on the Y-axis and CO2 (the independent variable) on the X-axis  (This is, after all, the customary arrangement.)

- double the size of the scale for Atmospheric CO2, so that “100″ is as far from the zero point as “200″ is at present;

- place the in-graph  labels for “likely Scenarios” “Outside possibilities” and “most likely scenario” so that they  are in the same visual spaces as in the original.

• Make the new graph you tried to imagine.   It does represent the same data.  Look at it:
• What title would you give it?
• Does it make you feel the same way about increasing CO2?
• Compare the two graphs.  Which do you prefer?  Why?
• New Scientist has been accused of being biased  in its presentation of the science concerning climate change.   Does the published graph  cross the line between science reporting and biased writing?
• Is there a distinction between persuasive and biased writing?
• Is there /should there be  a line between science reporting and persuasive writing?  Why / why not?

Extreme Fungi

Dishwashers have spawned some exceptionally tough fungi.  A survey of 189 dishwashers found that over half contained infectious “black yeasts” that, unlike all other known fungi, could survive heat, salt, strong detergents and both acid and alkaline water (Fungal Biology doi:10.1016/j.funbio.2011.04.007)

Confirmation : http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-06/e-mdi062011.php : P. Zalar, M. Novak, G.S. de Hoog and N. Gunde-Cimerman are the authors, and one of the black fungi (Exophiala dermatitidis) has caused fatal infections in  healthy people, more often is involved in pneumonia in people with cystic fibrosis.  It “is rarely isolated from nature”.

Project:

find out writing style and appearance of news sources:  New Scientist, The New York Times, local newspapers, science/tech news websites  …

Dig out articles on unexplained fish kills, bird deaths, local government claiming success in rat control, responses to disease outbreaks.

Write sequence of news stories : 

Major city happy  fewer rats reported;

Seal deaths – was it the oil spill?  Conflicting claims;

Infant pneumonia deaths increase in ghetto – poor education of parents or landlords to blame?;

How to get that stubborn black mould off without damaging the tiles;

Is air conditioning the link?  Increase in hospital admissions;

Sewerage workers OH&S strike as rare fungus causes 5 deaths;

CDC investigates rise in fungal illnesses;

New York stock exchange closed as deadly spores detected in air conditioning;

Fungal Biology link – protestors smash dishwashers in street;

Health Department  advises caution in use of mould removal chemicals;

Scientists developing phages for biological control;

“Clean air” conditioners marketed;

Low-evolution dishwashers developed;

We learned from the dishwasher plague: antimicrobial cleansers removed from general sale ….

Take a four-year trained Primary teacher in Western Australia on a starting salary of $56 122, rising to $61 567 after a year of service (the latter is the starting salary for a five-year trained teacher).

I will compare ves effective hourly payment with that of a starting-level Education Assistant/Teachers Aid on a starting salary of $33 484 / 19.75 per hour  (2010 WAIRC 00742)

They have the same school hours, but the teacher is expected to be present before and after school to open and close the class, meet parents and students, do required bureaucratic work, deal with emails, write up the daily workpad,  and so forth.  In addition, a teacher has to work out of school hours to complete important duties such as: prepare and change programs and lessons to meet the students’ needs; attend professional development; represent the school in out-of-hours activities; do professional reading;  explore, collect, and document useful materials for  activities;, contact parents; mark assessments; and write student reports.

I have heard teachers say that they regularly do over twenty hours per week out of school – that is, beyond the minimum of five hours at school before and after class, and the DOT time in school.  This does not include preparatory work done over school “vacations”.  First-year teachers are told to expect much longer hours, often eighty hours a week.  To be conservative, let us assume the new teacher is a genius and can get away with a term-time weekly average of the five hours at school and twenty-five out of school, and donates vacation time.

If teachers were paid the extra school hours at single time and the away-from-school  hours at time-and-a half,  and paid this  at the EA hourly rate of $19.75 per hour; if this were paid for 39 weeks a year; and if a first-year teacher received the EA base annual of $33 484 for the school year hours the EA attends,

 Then  the new teacher would get

$33 484 + (39 * (5 + 25 * 1.5) * $19.75)

= $33 484 + $32 735

=$ 66 219

So, for the first two years (ending on $61 567), the new genius teacher can expect an effective hourly rate below that of a new Education Assistant.  Less organised and gifted teachers would receive much less.

Note that I have made conservative assumptions on hours worked;  have had the teacher donate some holiday time;  have not made deductions for the purchse of professional reading, professional training,  and class materials;  and have not included double time for work on Sundays, although many conferences are scheduled for weekends and most teachers do some work on Sundays throughout term.

Teachers aren’t in it for the money.

It reminds me of the story of a Martial Arts master who received many gifts from those he taught, gifts according to their income.  A very rich man said: “Come and teach me, I’ll pay you well.”  Sensai was offended and said “You can’t afford to pay for my teaching!”

As I noted previously, Australian teachers’ pay relative to Average Weekly Earnings (and relative to backbenchers’ pay) has dropped massively over the past thirty years.  If the schools can’t afford to pay teachers more per work hour than unskilled workers, then Teachers’ Unions must demand that society as a whole regulates for extreme courtesy¹ towards teachers:  students, parents, and bureaucrats must recognise teachers’ years of training, specialist knowledge behind decisions, advanced diagnostic skills, and out-of-school workload,  and the complex challenges teachers face, and reflect this in their approach to individual teachers on individual issues.  

You can’t afford to pay the teachers what they are worth.  Recognise the imbalance in  social obligation:  you owe them, big time.

__________________________________________________________________

¹: Courtesy is the behaviour, respect is an internal state.  It is impossible to coerce people to have respect – one can only coerce them to produce the socially defined behaviours indicative of respect.  I believe that it is time for some coercion.

Most humans learn from example – this is so basic that I won’t bother to reference it.    Once a child has understood if not mastered the real basics – { . , “? !} – it is time for them to practice reading them, to reinforce the learning from example, and also to practice using them.  Again, I expect this is unexceptionable.

This is my contentious proposition:  If teachers are going to assess  writing using a marking format which includes complexity of sentences and punctuation, they hve a duty to make available the tools the child needs to produce the desired complexity.  If they have students who are capable of complex thought, they have a duty to equip them for self-expression as early as possible… regardless of age.  If the child reads only simple texts, where is the learning by example?

Do the above basic introduction, to be sure.   As soon as possible after this, I bellieve that any child who uses complex sentences should be introduced to the ways of punctuating them.   Any text with frequent short sentences (including newspaper articles and classroom books) should be looked at as a literary piece: are there examples ambiguities that could be resolved, repetitions that could be avoided, or relationships that could be made more clear by the use of “advanced” punctuation?  These can be used to demonstrate editing.  By year / grade 5 the class as a whole should be used to the idea of asking “Why has the simple form been used here?”   

Aside: I get the feeling that many writers underestimate (even patronise) their readers, assuming they cannot hold three related concepts in one sentence.

I have seen a (slightly above average) 10-year-old, two weeks after an  introduction to complex structures (and reading, with support, several examples of complex writing) start to talk about how one of these “simple sentence” stories could be made better by combining sentences and weeding out  a few words.

There is, of course, a downside:  an 11-year-old taught this way got into H.P. Lovecraft (try The music of Erich Zann , if you’ve not read any of his work), while ves agemates were into “Goosebumps”.

Choosing the texts

So, what sort of texts do I recommend?  For younger readers, mostly books from before the 1980s -  I give an exerpt from an  Andrew Davies Marmalade Atkins book below,  to give a feel for the level students age 8 – 11 have enjoyed.  His  books are playful yet challenging, so I use them,  but there are many other fine authors for this age whose works an older librarian could recommend.   For older readers, there is a multitude of works over the past 200 years from which to choose.   If you want some history / S&E, try comparing a translation of  the original Anderson’s “Little Mermaid” with the Disney book.  I like Cherryh at the moment, with examples below,  but there are other excellent authors.

 Do, however, check their pattern of punctuation.  Tom Holt is an entertaining writier (see Alexander at the World’s End) , but uses semicolons where The Penguin Guide to Punctuation would recommend a colon.  Indeed, such a style is preferred by some publishers now, to the extent that some teachers consider the older form incorrect.   Therefore, when an opportunity arises, I like to point out the existence of the two schools of thought, and allow the students to choose – and use only - the approach they prefer.   I also (as here) remind teachers of the existence of the two approaches.   (But I give out mainly examples of my preferred style, naturally.)

Examples of texts

In the first piece,  I begin with an Introductory Reference : The Colon and the Semicolon Compared, by Larry Trask .  We then see what CJ Cherryh does with them, and debate her choices.  I do not assert that her choices are always ideal,  but they are worth discussing.  (If students want to see a wider range of her style, I suggest the Russalka series.)

For older students,  small groups try to write their interpretations given those rules (they are expected to look up any words they don’t know, and figure out which words name an ethnic group/ nation / region names);   for younger students a more structured explanation sets the scene, the words are part of word study,  and it is a supervised small group or full class discussion.

CJ Cherryh  Fortress in the Eye of Time

p 246 .  [Heryn,  Lord of Amafel, has been found to have been careless to the point of being criminal concerning Prince Cefwyn's safety.   Cefwyn, soon to be king of Ylesuin (by Heryn's treachery), cannot prove the carelessness was deliberate action, or that Heryn has been taxing his people heavily and passing little on to the King.    Cefwyn sits in judgement - in Heryn's castle.]

“I must bear that, then,” Heryn said, and where sarcasm might have prevailed, perhaps, there was no apparent edge to his voice, only anguish.

Something must be done with him; the whole hall waited, anxious, sceptical of Heryn alike, perhaps embarrassed in Heryn’s fall from dignity, perhaps thinking of their own weapons:  Cefwyn knew the volatility of the region all too well; but he considered rejecting Heryn and his offer, and his tax records, a moment of two longer than he might ordinarily contemplate a move to fracture the peace.

But after such a delay, enough to make Heryn’s face go to pallor, he beckoned the man to rise, and, still frowning, gave him the formal embrace courtesy and custom demanded after such an accepted capitulation.

p 382. [ Idrys is Cefwyn's spy master, and often goes into danger for him;  Emuin is Cefwyn's wisest advisor.  The Marhanen are the ruling family, Cefwyn's family.  Cefwyn has become King, and has made choices that go against his land's and his family's traditions]

He cast a frowning look at Idrys, and knew that there was yet another danger that Emuin did not reckon of:  Idrys’ loyalty, and Idrys’ perception.  Idrys had taken an oath of homage to him.  Of fealty to him.  But in the challenge to the Marhanen that those oaths had never anticipated, he found himself without sure knowledge what Idrys’ attachment was: to him, as king; to the realm; to whatever man Idrys served – or to his own unexpressed sense of honor.  Idrys measured things by some scheme that had never yet diverged from his personal welfare.

[Note: from context, I suspect that the “his personal welfare” there is the king’s, and that she would have written “his own” had it been Idrys’ welfare. ]

p 399.  [People from a neighbouring kingdom are invading across Amefel - and the Lord of Amafel and some nobles have recently been executed for treason.  Cefwyn considers what his warlike and successful grandfather had taught him.]

It meant, of course, that the Elwynim disrupted their own harvest by taking men away from the farms, but if in years previous they had had the foresight to hold reserves of their grain, they could bring it from Elwynor, managing the extended supply that Grandfather had declared was the most important item to have secured: Never rely on the farmers for food, was another of Grandfather’s  rules; it makes the farmers mad, gives your enemy willing reports, and it never amounts to what you think it will once you most need it.

Grandfather was silent on the problems of feeding the farmers of Amafel while the armies of five provinces and all the enemy camped on their fields and their sheep-meadows – when the Amefin were farmers and shepherds of the chanciest loyalty in all Ylesuin.  As well the King did stand on their pastures;  holding Amefel otherwise would not be possible.

The next piece is good to read aloud, stopping if necessary to write up and define any unknown words.   There is then the opportunity to hand out an unpunctuated copy, for small groups or pairs of students to choose their own punctuation before seeing how Davies has done it.  This allows discussion of ways of punctuation, and thought about choices, before discussing how the piece was actually punctuated – and then discussing  how he gets away with breaking so many of the formal writing rules  (Lessons:  A  sentence can be very long and yet easy to read, if you punctuate clauses carefully.  A sentence fragment can be a paragraph – if you are writing in an informal style, and if you set up the situation correctly in your readers’ minds .)

Andrew Davies   Marmalade Atkins’ Dreadful Deeds

pp 18 – 19

Torchy was a fat white pony who went round with a secret smile on his face.  He was a very nice pony to ride if you didn’t mind stopping every few yards for him to have a snack.  The other thing he liked to do was roll on his back kicking his legs in the air, and most people found it best to dismount while he was doing this.

And then there was Rufus.  Rufus had come with the farm and nobody knew how old he was.  He wore an old straw hat that didn’t suit him but nobody had ever dared take it off, because although Rufus usually looked half asleep, there was a certain look about his half-shut eyes that warned you not to take liberties with Rufus or his hat.

After his hat, the next thing you noticed about Rufus was his coat, which was rough and thick, and several kinds of red in colour.  There were sandy tufts, and gingery tufts, and carroty whorls, and pinkish stubble.  His coat was of several different lengths, and grew in several different directions, and he looked as if he had just paid a visit to a drunken barber’s.  Despite all this, he seemed a nice old thing, and people who didn’t know him  would cry out: “Oh, what a sweet little donkey!  Isn’t he a love!” and people who did know him would clear their throats and change the subject, and Rufus himself would throw back his head and let out a sarcastic “Hee-haw!” in his very loud and vulgar voice, and if you looked into his sleepy old eyes you could see his crafty old brain ticking over, working out something bad to do.

Because Rufus was a pretty diabolical donkey.

Rufus liked to give people surprises.  One way of doing this was to come up behind them and give them a very gentle nudge with his nose.  Usually they would stroke his muzzle saying “What a sweet old thing!”  Then he would give then another nudge, a bit harder, then a very hard nudge indeed.  After about three nudges, most people fell down, and Rufus would stand on them.  Donkeys look small, but they weigh at least twice as much as your fattest auntie, and it is no joke being stood on by a donkey like Rufus.

Marmalade’s mother would try to smooth the situation over by whacking him with a twig and saying “Don’t be a bore, Rufus!” or “It’s only his way of showing he likes you!” but people who were stood on by Rufus wished he could show his affection in some other way; and those who looked up into his wickedly gleaming eyes thought, but didn’t like to say, that Marmalade’s mother was quite wrong and that Rufus did not in fact like them at all.

And in this they were usually right.

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Alexander at the World’s End