Minis
Mini Copy Book

Each post in this section is a short précis (summary) of a passage in The Copy Book. All of them are in modern English. They are intended for students of English as a Foreign Language at Elementary Level.

Plutarch

A Pyrrhic Victory

The ancient Greek King knew victory had cost his army more than it could afford to lose.

Length: 65 words

Lives of the Saints

The Man Who Left No Footprints

A young monk was rewarded for taking his duties as guest-master seriously.

Length: 59 words

Classical History

The Rewards of Treachery

Cicero warns those who seek power through civic unrest that they will never be the beneficiaries of it.

Length: 58 words

Modern History

The Obstinacy of Fowell Buxton

Fatherless teenage tearaway Fowell Buxton was not a promising boy, but the Gurney family changed all that.

Length: 59 words

The First World War

The Battle of Jutland

Preventing the German fleet from breaking out into the Atlantic in 1916 should have felt like victory, but it felt like defeat.

Length: 56 words

Lives of the Saints

The Spy

In 1910, Constantine Zervakos, a young monk from the Greek island of Paros, found himself charged with espionage.

Length: 119 words