19
Saturday
Suggest answers to these questions, in passages of at least 20 words.
1 If the earth isn’t flat, why does it look flat?
2 How can I tell whether a word is being used as a noun?
3 Why is it that the thing we are searching for is always in the last place we look?
Based on an exercise in Think and Speak (1929) by NL Clay, and Better English: Fifth Year (1930) by Harry Jewett Jeschke, Milton C. Potter and Harry O. Gillet.
20
Saturday
Deep Harmony
by J. William Jones
Introduction — J. William Jones was a Baptist minister and former chaplain to the Confederate Army in the US Civil War. While in Chattanooga, Tennessee, attending the Southern Baptist Convention held there on 8th-14th May, 1896, Jones was asked to give a speech at a state school, during a ceremony honouring the Union flag. These were his closing remarks, as given in Confederate Veteran magazine that August.
Read
21
23 May
Describe half an hour in one of the following:
IA vet’s waiting room. IIA broken-down lift. IIIA bus.
What pictures come into your mind? Try to describe them.
From an exercise in Exercises 12-13 (1933) by NL Clay.
22
23 May
Introduction — Sir Guyon, the Knight of Temperance, has been commissioned to help an old man whose land is troubled by a wicked witch. The journey is fraught with dangers, and Sir Guyon has been cast into an endless swoon by Mammon, the money-god, for refusing to be his slave. As the knight slumbers, Spenser reflects on God’s care for the helpless.
Read
23
22 May
For each word below, suggest other words that seem to go with it, e.g. Pirate → parrot, eyepatch, treasure map etc.. Can you make your words into a lively scene?
ICowboy. IIMermaid. IIISurgeon.
Based on a game in Think and Speak (1929) by NL Clay.
24
22 May
Tilting at Windmills
by Miguel de Cervantes
Introduction — 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.
Read
25
21 May
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
ITablet. IITelevision. IIICushion. IVLamp. VChocolate. VISofa.
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.
26
21 May
Introduction — 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.
Read
27
21 May
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
IAuthorship, Courtship, Scholarship. IIBankruptcy, Candidacy, Constancy. IIICertitude, Fortitude, Magnitude. IVFrailty, Normality, Purity.
Based on Straightforward English (1949) by NL Clay.