The Copybook

Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.

1231

Photo by Henry Lenthall (1819-1897), from the Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

As Good as his Word by Samuel Smiles

Benjamin Disraeli did not make a promising start to his Parliamentary career - but he did start with a promise.

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1232

© Sarah G. Perun, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.

The Knight’s Tale by Clay Lane

Two noble youths of ancient Thebes fall for the same princess.

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1233

© Pashadizel, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Sweet and Sour by Samuel Johnson

The great Dr Johnson argues that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

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1234

© Mstyslav Chernov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.

St Nicholas the Wet by Clay Lane

Two frantic parents implore St Nicholas’s help in rescuing their baby boy.

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1235

© Chris-Downer, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Ring out the Old, Ring in the New by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

For Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Christmas was a time to let the dead past bury its dead.

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1236

© Martin Addison, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Voyage of the ‘Golden Hinde’ by Clay Lane

Elizabethan adventurer Sir Francis Drake combined sailing round the world with really annoying the King of Spain.

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Clay Lane The Copybook
About Clay Lane nicholas@claylane.uk

© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 2 NS

April 19 OS

Hardly : Tone down these bold assertions with ‘hardly’.
The Death of Julius Caesar : When Julius Caesar entered the Senate that day, the note warning him of treachery was clutched in his hand — unread.
Two Letters Home : A German soldier stopped the Great War so he could ask Captain Hulse to post a letter for him.
Smile : Choose adjectives of praise for these nouns, at about the 7/10 level.
The Making of Mark : St Mark wrote his Gospel as a summary of the preaching of St Peter.
Zheng He and the Rise of Malacca : Malacca became a refuge from the overbearing empires of the Far East, thanks to a celebrated Chinese admiral.
Confusables : Compose sentences to bring out the similarities and differences between these words.
Jill and I : Include yourself in these sentences about Jill.
Saddled : Use these words in sentences, and see if you can use one of them as a verb.
Russia’s Heroic Stand : In 1941, with much of the West subdued, Adolf Hitler bent the full force of his hatred on Moscow.
Approachable : Replace the verb ‘can’ with these alternatives, and explain how the meaning of the sentence has changed.
The First Easter : In a translation from the Authorized Version of the Bible, published in 1611, St Mark recounts the discovery of Christ’s empty tomb.
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