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.

Tudor Era

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh’s first attempt to found an English colony in the New World failed, but two years later he was keen to try again.

Length: 118 words

Discovery and Invention

The Man Who Mapped the Moon

In 1609, Englishman Thomas Harriot turned his new-fangled telescope on the moon, and sketched for the first time the face of another world.

Length: 116 words

William Shakespeare

‘To Thine Own Self Be True’

Standing on the dockside with Laertes, who is eager to board ship for Paris, Polonius takes a moment to share some fatherly wisdom.

Length: 57 words

Abolition of Slavery

The Ordeal of Harry Demane

After word came that Harry Demane had been lured aboard a slave-ship, Granville Sharp had only a few hours in which to make sure he did not sail.

Length: 112 words

Character and Conduct

Through Russian Eyes

After a visit to England in 1847, Aleksey Khomyakov published his impressions of our country and our people in a Moscow magazine.

Length: 118 words

Classical History

What It Is to Be a King

Alexander, who had just taken the bath intended for his vanquished enemy Darius of Persia and was now eating Darius’s supper, was interrupted by a commotion in the camp.

Length: 116 words