Introduction
John Goodricke lost his hearing when just a child, but a combination of a loving family, a private education system more advanced than some people today would have us a believe, and sheer determination meant that he achieved more in his short life than seems possible.
JOHN Goodricke lost his hearing to a childhood fever, but his parents found a place for him at a pioneering school for the deaf, the Thomas Braidwood Academy in Edinburgh, which then enabled him to attend the distinguished Warrington Academy.
At seventeen, he returned home to York, where his friend Edward Pigott, who shared his love of astronomy, encouraged him to train his telescope on Algol, a star in the constellation Perseus which would inexplicably ‘wink’ for about ten hours once every few days.
John concluded that another, darker star must be orbiting it, and eclipsing it at regular intervals.
He brought his findings before the Royal Society, and was awarded the Copley Medal for 1783, ‘for outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science’.
Goodricke was now recognised as an authority across Europe, but on the 20th of April, 1786, just four days after the Royal Society elected him as a Fellow, he died of pneumonia at home in York, aged twenty-one.
Précis
Despite losing his hearing to a childhood fever, with the help of an innovative private school John Goodricke won the Copley Medal, when aged just eighteen, for his explanation of why the variable star Algol appears to wink. Sadly, he died of pneumonia three years later, shortly after his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society. (57 / 60 words)
Despite losing his hearing to a childhood fever, with the help of an innovative private school John Goodricke won the Copley Medal, when aged just eighteen, for his explanation of why the variable star Algol appears to wink. Sadly, he died of pneumonia three years later, shortly after his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, besides, if, must, or, since, until, 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.
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 Day. Found. Hear.
2 Die. Eclipse. Return.
3 But. Deaf. Outstanding.
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.)
Subject and Object Find in Think and Speak
Use each word below in two sentences, first as the subject of a verb, and then as the object of a verb. It doesn’t have to be the same verb: some verbs can’t be paired with an object (e.g. arrive, happen), so watch out for these.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1. Science. 2. Home. 3. Hearing. 4. Train. 5. Parent. 6. Day. 7. Friend. 8. Star. 9. Branch.
Variations: 1.use your noun in the plural (e.g. cat → cats), if possible. 2.give one of your sentences a future aspect (e.g. will, going to). 3.write sentences using negatives such as not, neither, nobody and never.
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.
wt (5)
await. wait. wet. wit. wot.
