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.

The First World War

The Gift of Life

When columnist ‘Alpha of the Plough’ was asked to select his most memorable moment of the Great War, he told the story of HMS Formidable.

Length: 59 words

Liberty and Prosperity

Measured Government

To Napoleon, the way that politicians in Paris had forced metric measurements on the public was a lesson in bad government.

Length: 59 words

Discovery and Invention

A Match Made in Stockton

The modern match is ignited by friction, a simple idea but one which had not occurred to anyone until 1826, when a Stockton pharmacist dropped a stick.

Length: 114 words

Indian History

Massacre at Amritsar

After one of the worst outrages in modern British history, Winston Churchill stood up in the House of Commons to label the Amritsar Massacre an act of terrorism.

Length: 113 words

Liberty and Prosperity

To-Whit, Tu-Whoo!

The mournful owl in her Sussex garden so troubled A. G. Gardiner’s friend that she rarely visited her house in the country.

Length: 117 words

Liberty and Prosperity

My Heart’s Right There

The British Tommy’s fondness for ‘Tipperary’ exasperated some of his countrymen, but ‘Alpha of the Plough’ thought it showed proper English spirit.

Length: 116 words