Higher Lessons in English by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg (small books to read TXT) 📖

we would go to Chapel exercises, then breakfast, school would commence at nine o’clock and closed at four in the afternoon allowing an hour for dinner from one until two then we would resume our studies until four in the afternoon. 3. Jewelry was worn in the time of King Pharaoh which is many thousand years before Christ in the time when the Israelites left they borrowed all the jewels of the Egyptians which were made of gold and silver. 4. When it is made of gold they can not of pure gold but has to be mixed with some other metal which is generally copper which turns it a reddish hue in some countries they use silver which gives it a whitish hue but in the United States and England they use both silver and copper but the English coins are the finest.

+Direction+.—_Point out the faults, and recast these sentences, making them clear_:—

(If any one of the sentences has several meanings, give these.)

1. James’s son, Charles I., before the breath was out of his body was proclaimed king in his stead. 2. He told the coachman that he would be the death of him, if he did not take care what he was about, and mind what he said. 3. Richelieu said to the king that Mazarin would carry out his policy. 4. He was overjoyed to see him, and he sent for one of his workmen, and told him to consider himself at his service. 5. Blake answered the Spanish priest that if he had sent in a complaint, he would have punished the sailors severely; but he took it ill that he set the Spaniards on to punish them.

+Direction+.—_So place these subordinate clauses that they will remove the obscurity, and then see in how many ways each sentence can be arranged_:—

1. The moon cast a pale light on the graves that were scattered around, as it peered above the horizon. 2. A large number of seats were occupied by pupils that had no backs. 3. Crusoe was surprised at seeing five canoes on the shore in which there were savages. 4. This tendency will be headed off by approximations which will be made from time to time of the written word to the spoken. 5. People had to travel on horseback and in wagons, which was a very slow way, if they traveled at all. 6. How can brethren partake of their Father’s blessing that curse each other? 7. Two men will be tried for crimes in this town which are punishable with death, if a full court should attend.

Direction.—_Each of these sentences may have two meanings, supply the two ellipses in each sentence, and remove the ambiguity:_—

1. Let us trust no strength less than thine. 2. Study had more attraction for him than his friend. 3. He did not like the new teacher so well as his playmates. 4. He aimed at nothing less than the crown. 5. Lovest thou me more than these?

 

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LESSON 152.

PERSPICUITY—CRITICISM.

Direction.—_So place these italicized phrases that they will remove the obscurity, and then see in how many ways each sentence can be arranged:_—

1. These designs any man who is a Briton in any situation ought to disavow. 2. The chief priests, mocking, said among themselves with the scribes, “He saved,” etc. 3. Hay is given to horses as well as corn to distend the stomach. 4. Boston has forty first class grammar-schools, exclusive of Dorchester. 5. He rode to town, and drove twelve cows on horseback. 6. He could not face an enraged father in spite of his effrontery. 7. Two owls sat upon a tree which grew near an old wall out of a heap of rubbish. 8. I spent most on the river and in the river of the time I stayed there. 9. He wanted to go to sea, although it was contrary to the wishes of his parents, at the age of eighteen. 10. I have a wife and six children, and I have never seen one of them.

+Direction.+—_So place the italicized words and phrases in each sentence that they will help to convey what you think is the author’s thought, and then see in how many ways each sentence can be arranged:_—

1. In Paris, every lady in full dress rides. 2. I saw my friend when I was in Boston walking down Tremont street. 3. The Prince of Wales was forbidden to become king or any other man. 4. What is his coming or going to you? 5. We do those things frequently which we repent of afterwards. 6. I rushed out leaving the wretch with his tale half told, horror-stricken at his crime. 7. Exclamation points are scattered up and down the page by compositors without any mercy. 8. I want to make a present to one who is fond of chickens for a Christmas gift.

+Direction.+—_Make these sentences clear by using simpler words and phrases:_—

1. A devastating conflagration raged. 2. He conducted her to the altar of Hymen. 3. A donkey has an abnormal elongation of auricular appendages. 4. Are you excavating a subterranean canal? 5. He had no capillary substance on the summit of his head. 6. He made a sad faux pas. 7. A network is anything reticulated or decussated, with interstices at equal distances between the intersections. 8. Diligence is the sine qua non of success. 9. She has donned the habiliments of woe. 10. The deceased was to-day deposited in his last resting-place. 11. The inmates proceeded to the sanctuary. 12. I have partaken of my morning repast. 13. He took the initiative in inaugurating the ceremony.

 

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LESSON 153.

ENERGY—CRITICISM.

+Direction+.—_Expand these brief expressions into sentences full of long words, and note the loss of energy_:—

1. To your tents, 0 Israel! 2. Up, boys, and at them! 3. Indeed! 4. Bah! 5. Don’t give up the ship! 6. Murder will out. 7. Oh! 8. Silence there! 9. Hurrah! 10. Death or free speech! 11. Rascal! 12. No matter. 13. Least said, soonest mended. 14. Death to the tyrant! 15. I’ll none of it. 16. Help, ho! 17. Shame on you! 18. First come, first served.

+Direction+.—_Condense each of these italicized expressions into one or two words, and note the gain_:—

1. He shuffled off this mortal coil yesterday. 2. The author surpassed all those who were living at the same time with him. 3. To say that revelation is a thing which there is no need of is to talk wildly. 4. He departed this life. 5. Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated this bird of dawning singeth all night long.

+Direction+.—_Change these specific words to general terms, and note the loss in energy_:–

1. Don’t fire till you see the whites of their eyes. 2. Break down the dikes, give Holland back to ocean. 3. Three hundred men held the hosts of Xerxes at bay. 4. I sat at her cradle, I followed her hearse. 5. Their daggers have stabbed Caesar. 6. When I’m mad, I weigh a ton. 7. Burn Moscow, starve back the invaders. 8. There’s no use in crying over spilt milk. 9. In proportion as men delight in battles and bull-fights will they punish by hanging, burning, and the rack.

+Direction+.—_Change these general terms to specific words, and note the gain in energy_:—

1. Anne Boleyn was executed. 2. It were better for him that a heavy weight were fastened to him and that he were submerged in the waste of waters. 3. The capital of the chosen people was destroyed by a Roman general. 4. Consider the flowers how they increase in size. 5. Caesar was slain by the conspirators. 6. The cities of the plain were annihilated.

+Direction+.—_Arrange these words, phrases, and clauses in the order of their strength, placing the strongest last, and note the gain in energy_:—

1. The nations of the earth repelled, surrounded, pursued, and resisted him. 2. He was no longer consul nor citizen nor general nor even an emperor, but a prisoner and an exile. 3. I shall die an American; I live an American; I was born an American. 4. All that I am, all that I hope to be, and all that I have in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it. 5. I shall defend it without this House, in all places, and within this House; at all times, in time of peace and in time of war. 6. We must fight if we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate our rights, if we do not mean to abandon the struggle.

 

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LESSON 154.

FIGURES OF SPEECH—CRITICISM.

+Direction+.—_Name the figures of speech, and then recast a few sentences, using plain language, and note the loss of beauty and force_:—

1. Lend me your ears. 2. Please address the chair. 3. The robin knows when your grapes have cooked long enough in the sun. 4. A day will come when bullets and bombs shall be replaced by ballots. 5. Genius creates; taste appreciates what is created. 6. Caesar were no lion were not Romans hinds. 7. The soul of Jonathan was knit to that of David. 8. Traffic has lain down to rest. 9. Borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. 10. He will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. 11. Have you read Froude or Freeman? 12. The pen is mightier than the sword. 13. If I can catch him once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. 14. The destinies of mankind were trembling in the balance, while death fell in showers. 15. The threaded steel flies swiftly. 16. O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb that carries anger as the flint bears fire. 17. I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old_. 18. Nations shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. 19. The Morn in russet mantle clad walks o’er the dew of yon high eastern hill. 20. Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a sudden overflow; Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a constant stream. 21. The air bites shrewdly. 22. He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus. 23. My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar. 24. All hands to the pumps! 25. The gray-eyed Morn smiles on the frowning Night. 26. The good is often buried with men’s bones. 27. Beware of the bottle. 28. All nations respect our flag. 29. The marble speaks. 30. I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent. 31. I am as constant as the northern star. 32. Then burst his mighty heart. 33. The ice is covered with health and beauty on skates. 34. Lentulus returned with victorious eagles. 35. Death hath sucked the honey of thy breath. 36. Our chains are