Passages for reading. Read them out aloud. Paraphrase or précis them. Discuss them with friends. Does anything surprise or impress you? How does the author work your feelings? Would you use his words? How would you direct the scene in a movie — and who would your stars be?
On This Day
For Church feasts falling on September 8 in the New Style calendar, see The Feast of Nativity of the Virgin Mary and Finding of the Kursk icon.
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International Relations
Britain has always demanded respect, open seas, and to be left in peace to ‘work out our own salvation’ — a courtesy we should extend to others.
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Animal Stories
Fables and true tales about animals, including a dog who regularly commuted to Matlock, a horse who didn’t approve of bad language, and a cat who saved her owners from an earthquake.
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Poets and Poetry
Passages from English verse, from Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf to Shakespeare’s sonnets, Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade, Kipling’s If and many more.
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The USA
Tales from our cousins to the West, telling of their independence from Britain, their bloody civil war, and their runaway prosperity — and the slender thread by which it hangs.
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Classical History
Tales of tragedy, ambition and heroism from the Battle of Marathon and Hannibal’s passage of the Alps to Caesar’s fateful crossing of the Rubicon.
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Discovery and Invention
Tales of scientific innovation and merchant enterprise, from steam power and life-saving medicines to new trade partners far away, and new ways to reach them.
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