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.

Discovery and Invention

The First Train Journey by Steam

Richard Trevithick’s boss hailed the engineer as a genius. Today he’d have been fired. (Oh, and the train was delayed.)

Length: 55 words

Discovery and Invention

The Ladder with Twenty-Four Rungs

The Duke of Argyll was pleasantly surprised to find one of his gardeners reading a learned book of mathematics - in Latin.

Length: 60 words

Discovery and Invention

The Star that Winked

John Goodricke’s observations of Algol won him the Copley Medal while still in his teens, despite his disability.

Length: 57 words

Discovery and Invention

Timothy Hackworth

Timothy Hackworth (1786-1850) turned steam locomotives into a reliable commercial success.

Length: 59 words

Music and Musicians

Zadok the Priest

Handel’s anthem sets to glorious music words sung at English coronations for over a thousand years.

Length: 54 words

Mediaeval History

Black Agnes Dunbar

When Edward III sent the Earl of Salisbury to take her absent husband’s castle, Agnes brushed his attack aside - literally.

Length: 57 words