The Copybook

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

1651

© Lewis Clarke, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

November by Thomas Hood

Humorist Thomas Hood obviously didn’t like to see the nights drawing in

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1652

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

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The glory of political power soon passes away.

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1653

© Stephen McKay, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.

Unsung Heroes by Thomas Gray

The poet reflects on the obscure lives that most of us lead.

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© Nicholas Armitage / Clay Lane, 2025

May 1 NS

April 18 OS

Flying Scotsman : In 1928, a train service linking London and Edinburgh became the world’s longest non-stop run.
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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