This page keeps you up-to-date with recent additions to Clay Lane. Keep track of new posts, and discover posts you may have missed. Read brief extracts from novels, plays and poems, and passages from history that are often uncannily modern. Tackle exercises in grammar, vocabulary and creative composition similar to those NL Clay gave to pupils aged 12-16 in the 1930s. Listen to short pieces of tuneful classical music, and watch scenes from classic films.
Make as many words as you can by adding vowels (AEIOU) to these consonants.
mnds (5)
amends. emends. mends. minds. mounds.
Picture: © Vietsui, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Pick any group of three words, and see if you can still remember them in an hour, and still remember them tomorrow. For a further challenge, try using all of your three words together in a single sentence.
The words in this puzzle are taken randomly from a list of 927 common words. You can change e.g. cat → cats, go → went, quick → quickly.
1 Character. Child. Treat.
2 Maybe. Page. Political.
3 Life. Receive. Send.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Picture: © Peter van der Sluijs. CC BY SA 4.0.. Source.
1 ★ For Today
John Kapodistrias had an instinct for how a long-oppressed people might think.
★ For April 3 ns
Jigsaws: Join this group of ideas together to make a single sentence, in as many ways as you can. See if you can include any of the words in square brackets.
Potatoes were not eaten in Greece. Then the country declared independence in 1821. Greece’s first Governor introduced potatoes.
Picture: Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
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2
Bishop Eusebius recalls what Constantine told him about the vision that brought him the crown.
Posted February 26
Jigsaws: Join this group of ideas together to make a single sentence, in as many ways as you can. See if you can include any of the words in square brackets.
Constantine saw a cross in the sky. He did not know what it meant. [Loss. Understand. Vision.]
Picture: © Udimu, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
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3
Use phrases such as ‘to the town’ in sentences, with nouns or with verbs.
Use each phrase (1) as an adjective (describing a noun) and (2) as an adverb (describing a verb). Click on any phrase to see some suggestions.
For example: to the town.
The road to the town was flooded. [Adjectival, describing ‘road’]
He walked to the town. [Adverbial, describing ‘walk’]
1 At the corner
Shop (n); Wait.
2 Under the floorboards
Strongbox; Look (vb).
3 In the garden
Cat. Play (vb).
Adapted from an exercise in Exercises 12-13 (1933) by NL Clay.
Posted February 26
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4
Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle explains what it is that defines a tyranny.
Posted February 25
Jigsaws: Join this group of ideas together to make a single sentence, in as many ways as you can. See if you can include any of the words in square brackets.
Tyrants employ bad men. They want dirty jobs done. Only bad men will do them. [Moral. Prepare. Reason.]
Picture: By Roland Vivian Pitchforth (1895-1982), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
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5
Plutarch argues that it when it comes to strong speech, less is always more.
Posted February 24
Jigsaws: Join this group of ideas together to make a single sentence, in as many ways as you can. See if you can include any of the words in square brackets.
Apollo liked to be brief. Being clear mattered less. [Few. Understand. Whether.]
Picture: By Johannes Moreelse (?1602-1634), Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
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6
Shuffle the letters of each of these words to make new ones. See if you can match the number indicated.
Click on any word to see some anagrams.
Posted February 23
Picture: © Tony Quilty, Geograph. CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
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7
Make as many words as you can using the letters of one nine-letter word. Can you beat our score?
Posted February 21
Picture: © Les Hull, Geograph. CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.