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.

John Stuart Mill

Losing Steam

Those in Power may imagine that a docile and compliant public makes Government run more smoothly, but a society of that kind just won’t move forward.

Length: 54 words

Aesop of Samos

The Wind and the Sun

The Wind and the Sun compete to see which of them can make an unsuspecting traveller shed his cloak.

Length: 57 words

Extracts from Literature

Tom Pinch Goes Up to London

Tom Pinch, who has seen at last what kind of man his apprentice-master Seth Pecksniff is, leaves Salisbury to seek a new life in London.

Length: 115 words

John Stuart Mill

The Decencies of Debate

Abusive language, straw-man arguments and downright ‘fake news’ should have no place in civilised debate, but censoring them is far worse.

Length: 110 words

John Stuart Mill

Social Intolerance

Even where freedom of speech and conscience are not curtailed by law, there is another kind of censorship that is just as destructive to progress.

Length: 113 words

John Stuart Mill

Three Aspects of Liberty

John Stuart Mill set out three kinds of liberty essential to a truly free society: freedom of conscience, of tastes, and of association.

Length: 119 words