Introduction
Emmeline Pankhurst’s campaign for women’s suffrage was not just about the right to vote: it was about the country’s desperate need for talented women actually in government. Her experiences as the only woman on the Board of the Chorlton-on-Medlock Workhouse in the 1890s rather proved her case.
EACH inmate was given each day a certain weight of food, and bread formed so much of the ration that hardly anyone consumed all of his portion. In the farm department pigs were kept on purpose to consume this surplus of bread, and as pigs do not thrive on a solid diet of stale bread the animals fetched in the market a much lower price than properly fed farm pigs.
I suggested that, instead of giving a solid weight of bread in one lump, the loaf be cut in slices and buttered with margarine, each person being allowed all that he cared to eat. The rest of the board objected, saying that our poor charges would suspect in such an innovation an attempt to deprive them of a part of their ration. This was easily overcome by the suggestion that we consult the inmates before we made the change.
Of course the poor people consented, and with the bread that we saved we made puddings with milk and currants, to be fed to the old people of the workhouse.
Précis
‘Votes for Women’ campaigner Emmeline Pankhurst served on the Board of Chorlton Workhouse in the 1890s. She found that the bread allowance was more than the inmates could eat, with the excess improperly fed to pigs. So with the inmates’ help (but not the Board’s) she streamlined the distribution, and used the surplus in tasty bread puddings for the elderly. (60 / 60 words)
‘Votes for Women’ campaigner Emmeline Pankhurst served on the Board of Chorlton Workhouse in the 1890s. She found that the bread allowance was more than the inmates could eat, with the excess improperly fed to pigs. So with the inmates’ help (but not the Board’s) she streamlined the distribution, and used the surplus in tasty bread puddings for the elderly.
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: besides, despite, must, unless, until, whereas, whether, who.
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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. 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 Change. Feed. Milk.
2 Cut. Weight. Workhouse.
3 Not. Object. Pig.
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.)
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.
crd (10+4)
acrid. card. cared. cord. cored. creed. cried. crude. curd. cured.
cardie. cred. credo. crud.
