74 September 27
Make as many words as you can using the letters of one nine-letter word. Can you beat our score?
I have added a new Polyword to the collection.
Make as many words as you can using only the nine letters you are given below. Your words should all be four letters or more in length, and they should all contain the letter highlighted in the centre of the grid. You may not use the same letter twice. There is one nine-letter word to find.
Polywords (8)
75 September 21
Fill the empty boxes with letters, using the clues to help you find the right ones.
A new crossword for the collection.
Fill the empty boxes with letters to make words running across and down. Use the numbered clues to help you find the right words. Click any box to get started.
1 across Spotted. 5 letters
5 across Common name for nepeta cataria, a plant of the mint family. 6 letters
6 across Spire. 7 letters
7 across A golden era, a time of past success. 6 letters
2 down Just a little hungry. 7 letters
3 down Wide, tidal mouth of a river. 7 letters
4 down ‘A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of ____.’ (Proverb) 7 letters
Crosswords (5)
76 September 21
Dorothy Wordsworth recorded the magical effect of mentioning Rob Roy to a shy crofter’s wife.
I recently added this post, The Long Arm of Rob Roy.
It is taken from an entry in Dorothy Wordsworth’s diary of a visit to Scotland in 1803, in the company of her brother, poet William Wordsworth, and their friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In this extract, Dorothy recalls the magical effect that the mere mention of Rob Roy MacGregor’s name had on their hosts, a family of kindly Scottish crofters living beside Loch Lomond.
Composition
Join each group of ideas together into one sentence, in at least two different ways.
1 Mrs Macfarlane spoke little. Dorothy mentioned Rob Roy. Mrs Macfarlane told a dozen tales of him.
2 There was a shower of rain. Dorothy got wet. Mrs Macfarlane gave her dry clothes.
3 Rob Roy stole from the rich. He gave to the poor. Dorothy likened him to Robin Hood.
Copy Book Posts (37)
77 September 21
Suggest lively actions to make these simple scenes more interesting.
This is adapted from an idea in School Certificate English Practice (1933). It draws on a fundamental principle of writing often called ‘Show, Don’t Tell’, which encourages writers to paint lively, attention-grabbing images of something rather than make bald statements of it.
How would you show that a man had long arms? In her Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland in 1803, Dorothy Wordsworth, sister of poet William, was struck by how Scottish people spoke of Rob Roy’s prodigious reach:
“They told us that he could garter his tartan stockings below the knee without stooping.”
This is so much better than simply saying ‘Rob Roy had long arms’ and leaving it there.
Suggest similar ways to impress the following scenes on the imagination. How would you show that...?
1 A pool was stagnant.
2 A cave was huge.
3 A dog was helpful.
[Huge cave] In the narrow passages we had been noisy, but suddenly we found ourselves talking in whispers, like pilgrims in a cathedral.
For a helpful dog, read our story Manners Makyth Man by Edmund Saul Dixon.
Exercises (15)
78 September 21
Make as many words as you can using the letters of one nine-letter word. Can you beat our score?
I have added a new Polyword to the collection.
Make as many words as you can using only the nine letters you are given below. Your words should all be four letters or more in length, and they should all contain the letter highlighted in the centre of the grid. You may not use the same letter twice. There is one nine-letter word to find.
Polywords (8)
79 September 21
The Revd Edmund Saul Dixon urged young readers of Dickens’s Household Words to mind their manners.
I recently added this post, Manners Makyth Man.
The Revd Edmund Saul Dixon was a frequent contributor to Charles Dickens’s periodical Household Words. This extract comes from the start of what was really a review of several books on etiquette, from England, France, and French-colonial Algiers. Dixon was particularly impressed with those cultures in which class distinctions did not lessen the obligation to be courteous: he thought everyone should be polite to everyone else. The subject matter might have led to a rather preachy article but Dixon handled it with the kind of light touch that we would expect his editor to demand.
Composition
Join each group of ideas together into one sentence, in at least two different ways.
1 He has bad manners. He won’t get on.
2 Sometimes we need advice. Sometimes friends can help. Sometimes books must be used.
Copy Book Posts (37)