Introduction
Heracles is performing a series of ‘Labours’ for King Eurystheus, who regards his cousin as a rival and would not be sorry to see him dead. But ever since Heracles came back wearing the pelt of the Nemean Lion, Eurystheus’s nerves have been jangling and he now keeps a capacious wine-jar, half buried in the ground, as a place of refuge.
AFTER the fiasco of the Cerynaean Hind, Eurystheus abandoned subtlety and went back to basics with the rampaging wild boar of the snow-capped Erymanthus Mountains. Heracles was ordered to bring him back alive, ideally coming to grief in the attempt.
In that region lived the centaur Pholus, an old friend, so Heracles looked him up, and cajoled him into serving some wine donated by Dionysius himself. Its heady bouquet drew the other centaurs, angry at being left out and brandishing rocks and staves. They retreated under a hail of Heracles’s arrows, tipped with the Hydra’s toxic blood, but in examining one Pholus nicked himself, and died.
Heracles wept as he buried him with honour, and then went after the boar. He flushed him out with great cries and drove him into a deep snow-drift where he netted him, and in due course he deposited him before Eurystheus.
The King took one look at those snarling tusks, and dived for the comforting safety of his wine-jar.
Précis
Heracles’s fourth Labour was to take the wild boar of Mount Erymanthus alive. He succeeded, but only after becoming embroiled in a violent quarrel over some special wine, which resulted in the accidental death of his friend Pholus. On delivering the boar to Eurystheus as requested, Heracles watched that intrepid monarch take refuge once more in his wine-jar. (58 / 60 words)
Heracles’s fourth Labour was to take the wild boar of Mount Erymanthus alive. He succeeded, but only after becoming embroiled in a violent quarrel over some special wine, which resulted in the accidental death of his friend Pholus. On delivering the boar to Eurystheus as requested, Heracles watched that intrepid monarch take refuge once more in his wine-jar.
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, just, must, or, since, unless, until, whereas.
Archive
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 Honor. Leave. Snarl.
2 Blood. Out. Weep.
3 Hydra. Snow. Toxic.
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.
ls (15+3)
ails. alas. ales. alias. also. eels. else. lease. lees. lies. loos. loose. lose. louse. oils.
aloes. leas. liaise.
