The Copybook

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

427

By Vasily Polenov (1844–1927), from the Russian Museum via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Woman Taken in Adultery from The Authorized Version

The Pharisees conspire to put Jesus in a seemingly impossible situation, by inviting him to take sides in the bitter politics of Jew and Roman.

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428

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

An Extraordinary Man by Benjamin Robert Haydon

Artist Benjamin Robert Haydon laments the passing of Lord Egremont, whose generosity and good judgment reached far beyond his support for struggling artists.

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429

Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Wolf and the Lamb by J.B. Rundell

A Wolf finds a series of reasons for making a meal of a little Lamb, but it turns out he did not really need them.

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430

© Sergei Andreichuk, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Squeers Method by Charles Dickens

Mr Squeers explains his educational philosophy to his new and bewildered assistant master at Dotheboys Hall in Yorkshire.

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431

Dominic Serres (1722–1793), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

One Man Army by Edward Fraser

The fort at Budge Budge near Calcutta proved stubborn against the massed artillery of the East India Company, but a tipsy seaman took it all by himself.

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432

By Benjamin Haydon (1786–1846), via the National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: ? Public domain.

The Button Man of Waterloo by Benjamin Robert Haydon

Amid all the confusion of the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington spotted a man in civilian clothes riding busily around on a stocky horse.

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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.
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.
A Collect for Easter Day : A short prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, for the day of Christ’s resurrection.
The Gambler : Which well-known expression is Dr Johnson talking about here?
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