Beginners' Book in Language Part 14

3. Did you paint the same pictures in all houses?

=Memory Exercise.= When you understand every stanza in this poem, read the whole poem aloud several times. Perhaps the teacher will read with you, so that you may be sure to read correctly. After a few readings you will find that you can say the poem without looking at the book. It will be fun to see which pupils will know it first. But which pupils can recite it best?[47]

=37. Game=

=Group Exercise.= 1. Did you ever telephone? Make believe that you are telephoning to a cla.s.smate. Hold the make-believe telephone in your hands and call for the pupil with whom you wish to talk. He will take up his make-believe telephone and answer you. Ask him some questions.

Listen to what he says. Reply to what he asks. In this way carry on a conversation with him.

2. The cla.s.s will listen, and when you have finished talking they will tell you what they liked and what they did not like in the telephone conversation. The following questions[15] will help the cla.s.s to decide how the talks might have been better:

1. What interesting thing was said by the speakers?

2. Was any poor English used?

3. Were the voices of the speakers pleasant?

4. What might have been said that the speakers did not say?

3. Other pairs of pupils may now telephone. Each pair will of course try to make their conversation as bright as they can. The cla.s.s will enjoy listening to the bright talks.

4. Would it not be a good plan, before going on with this game of telephoning, for the cla.s.s to make a telephone directory? All names beginning with _A_ could be written on one page of a little notebook that you could make. All names beginning with _B_ would go on another page. And so it would go on, through the _C's_, the _D's_, the _E's_, to the end of the alphabet. Then each name could be given a number, just as in telephone books. Perhaps the teacher will bring a telephone directory to cla.s.s and explain it to you.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

5. It might be fun to place in your telephone directory such names as Jack Frost, Santa Claus, Peter the toymaker's son, Joseph his brother, Queen Mab, the busy ant, the lazy gra.s.shopper, and some of the Indians and Eskimos that you have come to know in this book. Then you could telephone to these. One pupil would be Jack Frost and would always answer when Jack Frost's number rang. Another would be Santa Claus, another would be Peter the toymaker's son, another Queen Mab, and so on.

6. You and your cla.s.smates may now have the following conversations over the make-believe cla.s.s telephone:

1. A conversation between Queen Mab and Jack Frost about some pupils in your cla.s.s

2. A conversation between Peter and Joseph about the lost magic ring

3. A conversation between the ant and the gra.s.shopper in the fable

4. A conversation between an Indian boy and a white boy

5. A conversation between two fairies, one in the woods and one in Santa Claus's workshop

6. A conversation between a polar bear and a boy hunter (the bear objects to being hunted)

7. A conversation between an Eskimo girl and a girl in your cla.s.s

8. A conversation between Santa Claus and the teacher about some pupils in your cla.s.s

9. A conversation between two girls about a plan for a good time next Sat.u.r.day with which to surprise the cla.s.s

10. A conversation between two girls about a new dress that one of them will soon wear to school

=38. Correct Usage--_May_, _Can_=

A mistake that pupils sometimes make is to use the word _can_ when they mean the word _may_. These two words do not have the same meaning. The following conversation shows this:

"Mother, can I eat another piece of pie?" once asked a boy at the dinner table.

"I suppose you can, Tom," replied his mother. "You have teeth to bite and chew, and there is room in your stomach for another piece.

Yes, I suppose you _can_ eat another piece. But you _may_ not, because I want to save it for to-morrow."

=Oral Exercise.= 1. Read the following sentences and try to tell the difference in meaning between _may_ and _can_:

1. I can run faster than you.

2. I can write my name.

3. May I write my name in your notebook? Will you let me?

4. May I run over to George's house, mother?

5. I can do many things.

6. May I read the book Santa Claus gave you?

7. I can read books.

2. Do you see that when you say, "I can do this," you mean, "I am able to do this"? What do you mean when you say, "May I go to the moving-picture theater, Mother?" Do you mean, "Will you permit me to go?"

3. Fill each blank in the sentences below with the right word, _may_ or _can_:

1. John, ---- you spell _Eskimo_?

2. Father, ---- I go with John to the game?

3. Miss Brown, ---- I change my seat?

4. Miss Brown, ---- you see me when I stand here?

5. Mary, ---- you find that book for me?

6. ---- you touch the ceiling when you are on the chair?

7. ---- I go home at three o'clock, Miss Smith?