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6 Thursday

Tilting at Windmills

Quexana is a woolly-headed, Spanish country gentleman, bordering fifty, from La Mancha, southeast of Madrid. Bewitched by tales of romance, he has dubbed himself Don Quixote, Knight, and set out in search of ‘adventures’ with his companion Sancho Panza. His quest is to capture a giant as a love-offering to his lady Dulcinea (a pleasing fantasy inspired by an old flame) and he has just been promising Sancho his own realm too.

Tilting at Windmills

Don Quixote seizes his chance to capture a giant for his lady-love, Dulcinea.

7 Wednesday

Kim’s Game

Study this list of words and commit them to memory. When you are ready, hide the list and see how many you can recall.

Hide List

IChocolate. IICushion. IIILamp. IVTablet. VSofa. VITelevision.

Variations: See if you can mentally put these words into A to Z order. How many can you work into a single sentence?

Based on a game in Kim (1901) by Rudyard Kipling.

8 Wednesday

A Mechanical Miracle

One day, Charles Babbage was in his drawing-room showing off his calculating machine to two friends from Ireland, Dr Lloyd and Dr Robinson. He showed them how the machine automatically flipped back and forth between multiple programs ad infinitum, and remarked that there may be a parallel with the laws governing Evolution. The spark in the eyes of his two visitors made him even bolder.

A Mechanical Miracle

The father of computing believed his machine held the key to some of life’s greatest mysteries.

9 Wednesday

Essential Nouns

Words that indicate the ‘essence’ of something often use suffixes, e.g. leader → leadership, supreme → supremacy, and so on. Suggest at least three nouns of this sort for each suffix below:

I-SHIP. II-CY. III-TUDE. IV-TY.

Suggestions

Based on Straightforward English (1949) by NL Clay.

10 Wednesday

The Follies of Youth

In Crabbed Age and Youth, Robert Louis Stevenson argued that we should not try to silence the opinions of the young, however foolish they may seem. He did not pretend that the young are wise and pioneering thinkers. He thought they were mostly thinking nonsense. But it was better to come up with bad answers to good questions than to ask no questions at all.

The Follies of Youth

RL Stevenson was of the opinion that wrongthink was better than groupthink.

11 Monday

Thick and Thin

Express each of these ideas with a single word. Don’t be satisfied with the first word you think of: think of several, and choose the best.

IThickness or thinness of a liquid. IIMedicated cloth or pad applied to a wound or sore. IIILine of flight of a projectile such as a bullet or arrow. IVLong, open channel of flowing water. VPleasant smell. VISudden violent rush of wind.

Suggestions

Consistency. Dressing. Fragrance. Gust. Path. Poultice. River. Scent. Squall. Stream. Trajectory. Viscosity.

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