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January 20 January 7 OS

157

Infirm of Purpose!
By William Shakespeare

After the murder of King Duncan, Lady Macbeth is alarmed to see her husband losing his grip on reality.

Macbeth has stabbed Duncan, King of Scots, as he lay in his bed, hoping to give a little assistance to a witch’s prophecy that he would one day be King. Both Macbeth and his wife, who is the driving force behind the plot, are understandably jittery; but it soon becomes clear to the ever-competent Lady Macbeth that her husband is losing his grip.

Posted September 26 2024

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158

Tay
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Make as many words as you can from just nine letters. Can you beat our score?

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acting acuity anti antic aping aunt aunty cant catnip city cuing cyan gain gait gaunt giant gnat input pacing pact pacy pain paint pang panic pant paucity paying ping pint piny pita pity pugnacity punt puny tang tangy taping ting tiny tuna tunic tying typing unit unity yang yuan
acting catnip pacing paying taping typing antic aping aunty gaunt giant input paint panic tying tunic unity aunt cant city cyan gain gait gnat pacy pact pain pang pant pint piny pity punt puny tang tiny tuna unit
acting acuity anti antic aping aunt aunty cant catnip city cuing cyan gain gait gaunt giant gnat input pacing pact pacy pain paint pang panic pant paucity paying ping pint piny pita pity pugnacity punt puny tang tangy taping ting tiny tuna tunic tying typing unit unity yang yuan

Posted September 26 2024

Tags: Polywords (16) Think and Speak (37)

159

Crossword No. 5
Find in Think and Speak

Fill an empty grid with words, using the clues provided to help you.

Use the clues provided to help you fill this puzzle with the right words. Most of the clues test vocabulary, but some test general knowledge.

Crossword No. 5

From Crosswords

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.

SPIED****E*S*V***CATNIP**K*U*N**MINARET**S*R*G***HEYDAY******R**

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

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Posted September 21 2024

Tags: Crosswords (5) Think and Speak (37)

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160

Manners Makyth Man
By Edmund Saul Dixon

The Revd Edmund Dixon urged young people to think about what a little politeness could do for them.

In 1855, the November 24th issue of Charles Dickens’s Household Words carried a long article on good manners. Written by frequent contributor the Revd Edmund Saul Dixon, it took a look at etiquette in England, France and Arab lands, and the Arabs were the clear winners. The opening lines impressed on young readers the importance of courtesy, in a fashion suggesting that Dixon had a quite remarkable pet dog.

Manners Makyth Man

By Edmund Saul Dixon

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Posted September 21 2024

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.

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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.

Posted September 21 2024

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161

Owl
Find in Think and Speak

Make as many words as you can from just nine letters. Can you beat our score?

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aeon almoner aloe alone amen anew earl earn elan enrol lame lamer lane lawmen lawn lawnmower lean learn lemon loam loan lone loner lore lower male mane manor mare marl meal mean melon meow moan moaner molar mole moral morale more morn mower mown name near norm normal omen oral owner real realm ream renal roam roan role roman rowan wane warm warn weal wean wear woman women wore worm worn wren
lawnmower morale normal alone enrol learn lemon loner lower manor melon molar moral mower owner realm roman woman women aloe amen anew earl earn lame lane lawn lean loan lone lore male mane mare meal mean meow moan mole more mown name near omen oral real roam role wane warm warn wear wore worn worm wren
aeon almoner aloe alone amen anew earl earn elan enrol lame lamer lane lawmen lawn lawnmower lean learn lemon loam loan lone loner lore lower male mane manor mare marl meal mean melon meow moan moaner molar mole moral morale more morn mower mown name near norm normal omen oral owner real realm ream renal roam roan role roman rowan wane warm warn weal wean wear woman women wore worm worn wren

Posted September 21 2024

Tags: Polywords (16) Think and Speak (37)

162

The Long Arm of Rob Roy
By Dorothy Wordsworth

Nearly seventy years after his death, the roguish laird still cast a spell over the farm-folk of the Highlands.

In 1803, William Wordsworth, his sister Dorothy and their friend Samuel Coleridge travelled to Scotland, taking in beautiful Loch Lomond and the Trossachs. They begged bed and board from a startled Scottish farmer, and at breakfast the following morning (it was Saturday August 27th) the Macfarlanes told them in their slow English about Rob Roy.

Posted September 21 2024

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★ 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.

For Today • January 20 • The Death of John Howard

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

Posted Today • The Copy Book

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

Posted Today

Vocabulary Compose sentences to illustrate the meaning of these words.

Posted Today • 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 Yesterday • 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

Dear Anne Elliot Anne Thackeray saw something in Jane Austen’s heroines that she missed in their more modern sisters.

Posted January 4 • The Copy Book

The Three Bears The beginning of Robert Southey’s classic fairy tale.

Posted January 2 • The Copy Book