Practical English Composition Part 15

13. Explain the subject of each paragraph in Model I.

14. Divide Paragraph 3, Model I, into the six parts of a complete speech.

15. What are the important places in a sentence? Did the writer of these models recognize this fact?

16. Find a metaphor in Model I. An alliteration. An ant.i.thesis.

17. Point out the Four W's, and discuss the sentence structure.

18. What is the subject of each paragraph in Model II?

19. Write a note of fifty words on Augustine Birrell.

20. Explain the nature and location of Ireland, Wales, Chester, Durham, Dublin, Edinburgh, London.

21. Who were David Garrick and Dr. Johnson?

22. Why did Burke stand no higher with his contemporaries?

23. Explain the nature of Burke's importance to the world to-day.

24. Have the British adopted his principles in the management of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa?

25. Explain the figure of speech in each quotation in the last paragraph of Model II.

26. Find in Paragraph 2 of Model II a metaphor and an ant.i.thesis.

27. How many of the six parts of a speech can you find in Lincoln's Gettysburg speech?

VI. Composition

Hear and report a speech. If this appears to be undesirable or impossible, the teacher may read one to the cla.s.s. The following are suggested:

1. Macaulay's _Speech on Education_.

2. One of the lectures in Thackeray's _English Humorists_ or _Four Georges_.

3. Phillips's _Toussaint L'Ouverture_.

4. Webster's _Bunker Hill Speeches_.

5. Lincoln's _Peoria Speech_ against Douglas.

6. One of Birrell's _Obiter Dicta Lectures_.

Others equally good will probably suggest themselves.

VII. Suggested Time Schedule[6]

_Week I_ _Week II_

_Monday_--I, II, III. V, 15-27.

_Tuesday_--IV, 1. Oral Composition.

_Wednesday_--IV, 2. Oral Composition.

_Thursday_--V, 1-14. Written Composition.

_Friday_--Speaking. Speaking.

[6] SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS:

1. Inspect notebooks frequently.

2. Do not forget home-reading.

3. Be careful to a.s.sign a definite task each day.

4. Do not forget the minutes of the previous meeting.

5. Call on everybody every day, even if it is only to recite one line of a poem.

6. Don't do the reciting yourself. Give the cla.s.s a chance. Make them a.s.sume responsibility. Require them to rewrite themes until they are perfect in technique, but do not bother too much to point out their errors. Let the pupils discover them.

7. Chapters V, VI, and XII of Book I should be reviewed at frequent intervals until their contents become as familiar as the alphabet. This result can be obtained only by time and persistency. Before it is reached, the average pupil will have learned and forgotten over and over again the material involved.

These chapters may sometimes be reviewed as wholes, but it is also well to take a small section of each daily.

VIII. Memorize

THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB

The a.s.syrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset were seen; Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast And breathed in the face of the foe as he pa.s.sed; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved and forever grew still!

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; And the might of the Gentiles, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.

LORD BYRON.

CHAPTER XII

DRAMATIC NOTICES

"To hold the mirror up to Nature."

SHAKESPEARE.

I. a.s.signment