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Introduction
Even in the days of Jack Hobbs and Wilfred Rhodes people were talking about the need to ‘brighten up’ the game of cricket, much as they do today. Writing shortly after the end of the Great War, ardent cricket fan A. A. Milne (of Winnie-the-Pooh fame) just wanted his beloved game back.
THERE are people who want to “brighten cricket.” They remind me of a certain manager to whom I once sent a play. He told me, more politely than truthfully, how much he had enjoyed reading it, and then pointed out what was wrong with the construction.
“You have two brothers here,” he said. “They oughtn’t to have been brothers, they should have been strangers. Then one of them marries the heroine. That’s wrong; the other one ought to have married her. Then there’s Aunt Jane — she strikes me as a very colourless person. If she could have been arrested in the second act for bigamy — And then I should leave out your third act altogether, and put the fourth act at Monte Carlo, and let the heroine be blackmailed by — what’s the fellow’s name? See what I mean?”
I said that I saw. “You don’t mind my criticizing your play?” he added carelessly. I said that he wasn’t criticizing my play. He was writing another one — one which I hadn’t the least wish to write myself.
Précis
Just after cricket matches resumed following the Great War, A. A. Milne found that some wanted to make cricket more exciting. He likened this to a theatrical manager who once suggested so many sensationalist changes to one of his plays that Milne said it was no longer his play and he had no wish to see it produced. (58 / 60 words)
Just after cricket matches resumed following the Great War, A. A. Milne found that some wanted to make cricket more exciting. He likened this to a theatrical manager who once suggested so many sensationalist changes to one of his plays that Milne said it was no longer his play and he had no wish to see it produced.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, besides, must, not, otherwise, since, unless, whether.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
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