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January 22 January 9 OS

109

Rest Cure
By Charles Dickens

Whenever Charles Dickens felt his exhausting workload was starting to take its toll, he knew just what to do.

Charles Dickens corresponded regularly with a Swiss friend whom he had met in Lausanne, a M. de Cerjat. In one of his letters, written from his home near Rochester in Kent, Dickens shared with his friend the secret of his remarkably industrious working life — frequent trips to France.

Posted November 8 2024

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110

The Water Truce
By Rudyard Kipling

The animals in the jungle agree that amidst the drought, the sport of hunter and hunted has to be suspended.

In Rudyard Kipling’s story The Jungle Book, a prolonged drought has left Mowgli and the animals with no food and little water. The waterhole has sunk so low that the Peace Rock is showing, and Hathi, the elephant, has called the Water Truce so hunter and hunted alike can drink. As dusk falls, the truce is holding — though Bagheera, the blank panther, isn’t much help.

Posted November 7 2024

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111

Music Video

Motu perpetuo, from York Bowen’s Suite Mignonne Op. 39 for piano.

Media not showing? Let me know!

Posted November 7 2024

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112

A Great Writer
By Fyodor Dostoevsky

One author was a long way ahead at the top of Dostoevsky’s reading list.

In one letter, Nikolai Osmidov asked novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky whether he should believe in God; in another, he asked him what he should give his daughter to read. Dostoevsky found none of Osmidov’s questions easy to answer, but he was sure about one thing: the girl absolutely must read the novels of Sir Walter Scott.

Posted November 5 2024

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113

Believe Me
By Fyodor Dostoevsky

A loving parent doesn’t want her son to be a success; she wants him to be a fine human being.

In February 1878, Fyodor Dostoevsky received a letter from an anxious mother asking him how to bring up a child. Dostoevsky was taken aback, and told her plainly that she was requiring more wisdom than he was fit to give. In particular, her question “What is good, and what is not good?” left him almost speechless; fortunately for us, that left just enough speech to impart this touching counsel.

Posted November 5 2024

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114

How Much?

Find words and phrases to indicate the degree to which something is true.

Consider this sentence:

He was surprised by the news.

Just how surprised was he? Extremely, quite, more than a little, slightly, scarcely even, or simply not? Or was he sufficiently surprised to be astonished, or maybe flabbergasted?

Try it with these other sentences:

1 He was frightened by the film.

2 He was responsible for the defeat.

3 The car was damaged in the accident.

4 He was ashamed of what he had done.

5 He could remember what happened.

6 He was puzzled by what he had heard.

7 He was sure they would agree.

8 He was satisfied with the result.

Some possible words and phrases can be seen by clicking this button.

Suggested Words and Phrases

Posted November 5 2024

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★ Wulfstan and the Seal of Approval William the Conqueror’s purge of the English Church was halted by a humble bishop and a dead king.

For Today • January 9 • The Feast of St Wulfstan of Worcester

Servants of the People A US Congressman tells the House why they mustn’t censor the press.

Posted Today • The Copy Book

How the Cobra Got His Spectacles John Wood shares the wonder of the Indian cobra’s hood, in science and in myth.

Posted Yesterday • The Copy Book

Naughty Eppie Silas Marner has to harden his heart and teach little Eppie a lesson she will remember.

Posted January 20 • The Copy Book

Music Video Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Othello, Op. 79: II. Children’s Intermezzo

Posted January 20

Vocabulary Compose sentences to illustrate the meaning of these words.

Posted January 20 • Think and Speak

A European Fraud Dostoevsky had to break it to Moscow’s students that ordinary Russians found their brand of politics patronising.

Posted January 19 • The Copy Book

Pronunciation Suggest words in which the letter ‘o’ is pronounced as it is in ‘comely’.

Posted January 18 • Think and Speak

Tea Make as many words as you can using the letters of one nine-letter word. Can you beat our score?

Posted January 17 • Think and Speak

Film Video Professor Smith reluctantly confides his ‘guilty secret’ to his students.

Posted January 16

Sentegrams Unjumble these sentences from the novels of George Eliot.

Posted January 15 • Think and Speak

There’s Nae Good Luck in Durham Gaol On his visits to Durham Gaol, prison reformer John Howard found conditions that were all too familiar.

Posted January 15 • The Copy Book

Music Video Alexander Borodin: Petite Suite: VI. Rêverie

Posted January 14

Person, Object, Action! Make up sentences using these phrases, making sure you put plenty of action in.

Posted January 14 • Think and Speak

Rhymes Suggest words that rhyme with ‘love’.

Posted January 13 • Think and Speak

The Abuse of Literacy Reading and writing should have taught the people more than name-calling and how to manipulate opinion.

Posted January 13 • The Copy Book

Among Old Friends ‘Alpha of the Plough’ hoped Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not treat his old friends as he treated his favourite books.

Posted January 12 • The Copy Book

Music Video Orlando Gibbons: Thus Angels Sung

Posted January 12 • Comfortable Words

A Reckless Indifference to Life In eighteenth-century England, the death penalty was the solution to almost any crime.

Posted January 11 • The Copy Book

Music Video Sir Charles Villiers Stanford: Symphony No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 28 (Irish): II. Allegro molto vivace

Posted January 10

Vocabulary Express each of these phrases in a single word.

Posted January 10 • Think and Speak