Plain English Part 29

Exercise 4

Underscore all the verbs and verb phrases in the following quotation.

Write all the time forms of the transitive verb, _lose_, as the time forms of the verb _see_ are written in the foregoing table.

When we study the animal world and try to explain to ourselves that struggle for existence which is maintained by each living being against adverse circ.u.mstances and against its enemies, we realize that the more the principles of solidarity and equality are developed in an animal society, and have become habitual to it, the more chance it has of surviving and coming triumphantly out of the struggle against hards.h.i.+ps and foes. The more thoroughly each member of the society feels his solidarity with each other member of the society, the more completely are developed in all of them those two qualities which are the main factors of all progress; courage, on the one hand, and, on the other, free individual initiative. And, on the contrary, the more any animal society, or little group of animals, loses this feeling of solidarity--which may chance as the result of exceptional scarcity or else of exceptional plenty--the more the two other factors of progress, courage and individual initiative, diminish; in the end they disappear, and the society falls into decay and sinks before its foes.

Without mutual confidence no struggle is possible; there is no courage, no initiative, no solidarity--and no victory!--_Kropotkin_.

SPELLING

LESSON 8

In p.r.o.nouncing words of more than one syllable we always lay a little greater stress upon one syllable of the word; that is, that syllable receives the emphasis of the voice so as to make it more prominent than the other syllables. This is called accent, and the syllable which receives the special stress is called the accented syllable.

+Accent is the stress of the voice upon one syllable of the word.+

You will notice when you look up the p.r.o.nunciation of words in your dictionary that a little mark called the accent mark is placed after the accented syllable, as for example: di-vide'.

Many words differ in meaning according to which syllable receives the accent. Our spelling lesson for this week contains a number of these words.

These words, when accented on the first syllable, are nouns; when accented on the second syllable, they are verbs.

+Monday+

Con' tract Con tract'

Pro' test Pro test'

Rec' ord Re cord'

Im' port Im port'

De' tail De tail'

+Tuesday+

Con' vert Con vert'

Con' flict Con flict'

Prog' ress Pro gress'

Im' press Im press'

Ref' use Re fuse'

+Wednesday+

Con' test Con test'

Con' duct Con duct'

Proj' ect Pro ject'

Des' ert De sert'

Ex' tract Ex tract'

+Thursday+

Con' trast Con trast'

Con' sort Con sort'

Reb' el Re bel'

Con' script Con script'

Pres' ent Pre sent'

+Friday+

Com' pound Com pound'

Re' tail Re tail'

Com' press Com press'

Im' print Im print'

Com' bine Com bine'

+Sat.u.r.day+

Con' fine Con fine'

Sus' pect Sus pect'

Com' mune Com mune'

Ex' port Ex port'

In' crease In crease'

PLAIN ENGLISH

LESSON 9

Dear Comrade:

You have been studying several weeks now in this Plain English Course and we trust you are enjoying the unfolding of the powers of expression.

We have been necessarily studying rules to some extent but you have seen how these grew out of the need for expression. We have been breaking the sentence up into its different parts. First we had the names of things and now we are studying the words used to tell what these things _do_ and _are_--namely verbs. And as our life has grown complex and our powers of thinking diversified covering the whole range of time, past, present and future, we have had to invent many forms of the verb to express it all.

Now do not try to commit these facts concerning the verb to memory. You are not studying English in order to know rules. You are studying English that you may be able to say and write the things you _think_. So first of all, _think_, _think_! That is your inalienable right! Do not accept anything just by blind belief. Think it out for yourself. Study until you see the '_why_' of it all. "Independent thinking has given us the present, and we will forever continue to make tomorrow better than today. The right to think is inalienable, or a man is a machine. Thought is life or a human soul is a thing."

And do not lack the courage of your own thoughts. _You_ do not need to cringe or apologize to any man. "Our life is not an apology but a life."

Dare to think and dare to express and live your thought.

Did you ever read Emerson's definition of genius? "To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,--that is genius." Then he says, "We dismiss without notice our own thoughts, because they are ours. Tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense, precisely what we have thought and felt all along and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another."

Have you not experienced this? How often we hear some one express a truth and we say to ourselves, "That is just what I have long believed but I have never dared say so." We have been so taught all our lives to depend on some outside power and discredit the power within ourselves, that we pay no attention to the thoughts that are ours for who are we that we should dare to think and perchance disagree with those who have a.s.sumed authority over us! But that is precisely what we should dare to do--to think and to do our own thinking always. Who dares place anything before a man!

So _think_ as you study these lessons and use these rules and formulas simply as means to an end, as tools to aid you in expressing these thoughts.

Yours for Education,