IN 431 BC, Pericles gave all the peasantry of Attica wartime sanctuary within Athens, but the farmers could think only of the Spartans burning and looting their abandoned homesteads. Cramped, resentful Athens was then ravaged by a plague, and the fickle public turned on Pericles.
They decried his reckless spending, as if they had had no part in it. They disowned his artistic and architectural legacy, as if they had not been enriched by it. Rising orator Cleon brought him down much as Pericles had brought down Cimon, and he was stripped of his generalship.
Within months, the mercurial Athenians were begging him to return. But the loss of his two sons to the plague had broken his heart.
In the autumn of 429, wearied by forty years’ dancing attendance on the whims of Athens, Pericles - so charismatic, so profligate, so visionary - succumbed to the fever himself, and died.
Athens would have many more leaders with his faults; they would have none with his virtues.
Précis
Pericles’s handling of the Peloponnesian War dismayed the people of Athens, on whom he billeted the farmers of Attica. When a virulent plague broke out in the cramped city, the public turned against him. They came running back within months, but Pericles, heartbroken by the death of his sons, fell victim to the plague too, and died in 429 BC. (60 / 60 words)
Pericles’s handling of the Peloponnesian War dismayed the people of Athens, on whom he billeted the farmers of Attica. When a virulent plague broke out in the cramped city, the public turned against him. They came running back within months, but Pericles, heartbroken by the death of his sons, fell victim to the plague too, and died in 429 BC.
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: despite, just, or, ought, since, unless, until, who.
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Word Games
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Now. Participation. Politic.
2 Itself. Some. Ticket.
3 Accept. Serving. Think.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Adjectives Find in Think and Speak
For each word below, compose sentences to show that it may be used as an adjective. Adjectives provide extra information about a noun, e.g. a black cat, a round table, the early bird etc..
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Free. 2 Reckless. 3 Fickle. 4 Simple. 5 Early. 6 Greatest. 7 Scholarly. 8 Oldest. 9 Artistic.
Variations: 1.show whether your adjective can also be used as e.g. a noun, verb or adverb. 2.show whether your adjective can be used in comparisons (e.g. good/better/best). 3.show whether your adjective can be used in attributive position (e.g. a dangerous corner) and also in predicate position (this corner is dangerous).
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
ncls (5)
enclose. inclose. nucleus. uncles. uncoils.
