Introduction
It is Christmas 1915, and on a secret mission during the Great War, Richard Hannay has found refuge in a remote cottage in southern Germany. The house is kept by a desperately poor woman with three children, whose husband is away fighting the Russians. Hannay comes to realise that, unlike the German government, he does care about collateral damage.
THAT night I realized the crazy folly of war. When I saw the splintered shell of Ypres and heard hideous tales of German doings,* I used to want to see the whole land of the Boche given up to fire and sword.* I thought we could never end the war properly without giving the Huns some of their own medicine.*
But that woodcutter's cottage cured me of such nightmares. I was for punishing the guilty but letting the innocent go free. It was our business to thank God and keep our hands clean from the ugly blunders to which Germany’s madness had driven her. What good would it do Christian folk to burn poor little huts like this and leave children’s bodies by the wayside? To be able to laugh and to be merciful are the only things that make man better than the beasts.
The Battles of Ypres were three battles of the First World War fought in Belgium during October and November 1914, April and May 1915, and from July to November 1917. It was at the second of these that the Germans deployed poison gas.
‘Boche’ is derived from 19th century Parisian slang ‘caboche’, roughly equivalent to thick-head, blockhead. It was applied to the invading Germans in the First World War. Buchan deliberately uses the derogatory term to evoke the outrage of a frontline soldier who has seen indescribable suffering.
The Huns were the people of Attila, the great fifth century warlord of central and eastern Europe. Kaiser Wilhelm II invoked his example in a speech in 1900, urging that the Boxer Rebellion in China be crushed without mercy or quarter given. The speech provoked disgust in Britain, and was remembered long after.
Précis
His experience of the brutality of war at Ypres made Richard Hannay long to pay back the Germans in their own coin. However, after receiving hospitality from an ordinary German woman and her three children, he realised that his argument was not with ordinary Germans, but with the politicians and military commanders who placed no value on innocent life. (59 / 60 words)
His experience of the brutality of war at Ypres made Richard Hannay long to pay back the Germans in their own coin. However, after receiving hospitality from an ordinary German woman and her three children, he realised that his argument was not with ordinary Germans, but with the politicians and military commanders who placed no value on innocent life.
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: about, besides, despite, just, may, or, until, whether.
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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 Land. Saw. Think.
2 Do. Nightmare. Sword.
3 Blunder. Innocent. Use.
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.)
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
Your Words ()
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