Medi+and+Morph-Period+6

Medi: half, middle, between

Words containing the root medi-

Mediocre- (adj.) of only moderate quality; not very good; average or ordinary Sentence: She received mediocre grade on her history quiz, only earning a 72%.

Mediate- (verb) intervene between people in a dispute in order to bring about an agreement or reconciliation Sentence: The teacher tried to mediate between the two students so they could come to an agreement and stop arguing.

Medial- (adj.) situated in the middle, in particular; middle Sentence: The skyscraper lies medial in the large city.

For history class, Don built a model of the White House for a presentation. The day of the presentation, some of the structures and pieces of the house began to fall off. Because of the mediocre quality of the house, Don received a mediocre grade on his model. When he told his parents his grade, they began to argue. Don's older sister, Mandy, had to mediate between Don and his parents so the dispute wouldn't get out of hand. Mandy's position between Don and the two parents was medial, as she tried to break up the fighting in the middle of them.

Morph: form, shape, transformation

Words containing the root morph-

Metamorphosis- (noun) the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages Sentence: The famous actor had a well-known metamorphosis from an awkward boy to a fully grown man.

Amorphous- (adj.) without a clearly defined shape or form; shapeless, formless Sentence: The artist used an amorphous lump of clay to start his sculpture.

Morphology- (noun) the study of forms of things, in particular Sentence: In Biology, you can study the different morphologies of animals, such as a bird.

Since Don didn't do well on his History model, he decided to put extra effort into his Biology project. Among his many talents, Don is an excellent sculptor. Since he was studying the morphology of animals, or the forms of animals, he decided to sculpt the metamorphosis of a bird using clay. He started out with an amorphous lump of clay, and then worked for hours and successfully sculpted the transformation of an immature bird to a mature bird, or the metamorphosis of a bird. Don received an exceptional grade of a 97%.