The Copybook

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

463

© Mikey, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

The Horse and his Rider by Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo berates the general public for crediting everything they do themselves to their supposedly wonderful Government.

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464

© DS Pugh, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Unfolding the Universe by William Stukeley

Sir Isaac Newton told William Stukeley about the day when an apple fell from a tree and set him thinking about the solar system.

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465

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

Twink by Anonymous

When a new mother found herself and her kittens on the wrong side of a nasty-looking stream, Twink was there to help.

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466

By Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Character of Sir Isaac Newton by Humphrey Newton

Sir Isaac’s secretary has left us an engaging portrait of a kindly genius, the absent-minded professor of our fancy.

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467

By Anonymous (1810), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

Eureka! by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

When Archimedes discovered the principle of displacement, he was hot on the trail of a clever fraud.

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468

© Marathon, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Table Steaks by Pierre-Jean Grosley

French travel writer Pierre-Jean Grosley toured Georgian London just in time to witness a culinary revolution: the sandwich.

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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 5 NS

April 22 OS

When the Cat’s Away... : A Victorian artist and avid bird-watcher banished cats from his country cottage, but soon wished he hadn’t.
Patience : Make a single sentence out of these three ideas.
The Angel Cried : A hymn sung in the weeks after Easter, imagining how Gabriel brought the news of Christ’s resurrection to Mary.
She was a Phantom of Delight : Mary Wordsworth wasn’t pretty or bookish, but she was kind and vital, and William loved her.
Hardly : Tone down these bold assertions with ‘hardly’.
The Death of Julius Caesar : When Julius Caesar entered the Senate that day, a 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.
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