The Blog
Updates from across the site
34
12 May
In 1819, Lady’s Magazine began publishing Mary Mitford’s sketches of village life in Berkshire, and was rewarded with a satisfying leap in circulation from 250 to 2,000. This extract comes from the beginning of a reflection on the superiority of village cricket over the professional game; given that Mary was writing to help pay off her father’s huge gambling debts, her point of view is understandable.
35
12 May
Write a paragraph of exactly three sentences about a well-known person. You may begin only one sentence with the person’s name, and only one sentence with he/she. Suggested people:
IMahatma Gandhi. IIJulius Caesar. IIIJane Austen. IVHenry VIII of England. VAlexander the Great. VINapoleon Bonaparte. VIILeonardo da Vinci.
Adapted from an exercise in Think and Speak (1929) by NL Clay.
36
9 May
Assess the punctuation of this sentence, according to the author’s own principles.
“I have some satisfaction in reflecting, that, in the course of editing the Greek text of the New Testament, I believe I have destroyed more than a thousand commas, which prevented the text being properly understood.”
37
9 May
In this sonnet, John Donne, Dean of St Paul’s, compares himself to a town occupied by an enemy and now under siege by its true King. The inhabitants want to let him in to liberate them, but their own leading men are too weak or corrupt; so the people send out a desperate message: use all force necessary.
38
9 May
Describe the view from one of the following, as you recall it or as you see it in your mind’s eye.
IAeroplane. IIBridge. IIICliff. IVHill. VTower.
Based on an exercise in School Certificate English Practice (1933) by NL Clay.
39
8 May
Speak these words out aloud:
Don’t do that again!
See if you can express the following four moods. How does your intonation change? What physical gestures do you feel compelled to use?
IAnger. IIFear. IIIDeprecation. IVExpostulation.
What pictures come into your mind? Try to describe them.
Note: Deprecation expresses ‘I’d rather you didn’t’. An expostulation is an exclamation of protest, a frustrated outburst.
Expanded from an exercise in A Year’s Course in Speech Training (1938) by Anne H. McAllister.
