Introduction
The rich have always had nice things; what changed in the eighteenth century was that, because of private enterprise and the industrial revolution, the poor started to share them too. Josiah Wedgwood was one of the pioneers who changed the lives of the poor for the better.
A NASTY bout of smallpox when he was eleven left Josiah Wedgwood so lame that he could not work the pedal of a potter’s wheel.
But pottery was all he knew, so in 1759 he turned from manufacture to innovation, employing others for design and production, and burying himself in the chemistry of his trade.
After many disappointments, Josiah developed ‘creamware’, a mass-produced yet visibly superior white earthenware, which could be also be tastefully decorated. It was a runaway success.
Wedgwood established the world’s first ceramics factory, employing twenty thousand people on generous wages in Etruria, a Staffordshire town he built specially for them, and making quality tableware for the industrial revolution’s emerging middle-class.
Soon he found himself taking orders from Queen Charlotte and — for 952-piece service — from Empress Catherine of Russia.
But powerful people had always had fine things; now working families had the same crockery on their tables. It was a sort of revolution - in a tea-cup.
Précis
A childhood sickness left Josiah with a disability which might have prevented him following in the family pottery business. But he turned from manufacture to innovation, developing a new earthenware so popular that soon he was supplying the everyday tables of Staffordshire with the very same crockery he sold to the royalty of Europe. (54 / 60 words)
A childhood sickness left Josiah with a disability which might have prevented him following in the family pottery business. But he turned from manufacture to innovation, developing a new earthenware so popular that soon he was supplying the everyday tables of Staffordshire with the very same crockery he sold to the royalty of Europe.
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: besides, despite, may, not, since, 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.
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 Class. Runaway. Success.
2 Eleven. Generous. Many.
3 Could. Superior. They.
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.)
Opposites Find in Think and Speak
Suggest words or phrases that seem opposite in meaning to each of the words below. We have suggested some possible answers; see if you can find any others.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Variations: 1.instead of opposites, suggest words of similar meaning (synonyms). 2.use a word and its opposite in the same sentence. 3.suggest any 5 opposites formed by adding un-.
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?
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