Graded Lessons in English Part 49

Pupils may study the meaning of the six adjectives last mentioned, and use them to fill the following blanks:--

| distinction ----------+ workmanship | calculation

| stillness ----------+ chasm | rumbling

| child ----------+ features | character

| palace ----------+ victory | illumination

| manners ----------+ taste | furniture

| deeds ----------+ dreams | butchery

This work may very profitable be extended.

A word picture is often spoiled by using too many adjectives; as,

"A _great_, _large_, _roomy_, s.p.a.cious hall"; "_Superb_, delicious, _magnificent_ pumpkin-pie"; "A _stingy_, miserly, _close-fisted_ fellow."

The italicized words may be omitted.

Pupils should be taught to watch for such errors, and to correct them.

Pupils may be required to copy choice selections from literature, and to note carefully capitals, punctuation, and the use of adjectives. We offer the following exercise as a specimen:--

We piled with care our nightly stack Of wood against the chimney-back,-- The oaken log, green, huge, and thick, And on its top the stout back-stick; The knotty fore-stick laid apart, And filled between with curious art The ragged brush; then, hovering near, We watched the first red blaze appear, Heard the sharp crackle, caught the gleam On whitewashed wall and sagging beam, Until the old, rude-furnished room Burst, flower-like, into rosy bloom.

_Whittier.--Snow-Bound_.

+Observation Lesson+.--Of what are the lines above a picture? Where, and in what kind of house, do you think this picture was seen?

What object is pictured by the help of five adjectives? Are the adjectives that precede the name of this object of the same rank? Are those that follow of the same rank? What noun is modified by three adjectives of different rank? What noun by three adjectives two of which are of the same rank? What difference is found in the punctuation of these several groups?

Notice how the noun _crackle_ crackles as you p.r.o.nounce it, and how the adjective _sharp_ makes it penetrate. Notice how strong a picture is made in the two lines immediately before the last. The adjectives here used bring out the most prominent qualities of the room, and these qualities bring along with them into the imagination all the other qualities. This is what we must try to make our adjectives do.

Point out all the adjectives in the selection above, and explain the office of each.

What peculiar use of capitals do you discover in these lines of poetry?

Much that has been suggested above concerning the use of adjectives will apply to adverbs also.

ARRANGEMENT.

The following exercises are given to show how pupils may discover for themselves the _natural order_ of words and phrases:--

(_a_) Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.

(_b_) William's sister Mary is an excellent musician.

(_c_) Everything suddenly appeared so strangely bright.

(_d_) We saw it distinctly.

(_e_) We had often been there.

(_f_) Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo.

+Observation Lesson+.--The words and the phrases in the sentences above stand in their _Natural Order_.

From (_a_) and (_b_) determine the natural order of the subject, predicate, and complement. From (_b_) determine the natural order of a possessive modifier, of an explanatory modifier, and of an adjective. From (_c_), (_d_), and (_e_) determine the several positions of an adverb joined to a verb. Determine from (_c_) the position of an adverb modifying an adjective or another adverb. Determine from (_a_) and (_f_) the natural order of a phrase.

Pupils may copy the following, and note the arrangement and the punctuation of the phrases:--

(_g_) This place is endeared to me by many a.s.sociations.

(_h_) To me, this place is endeared by many a.s.sociations.

(_i_) Your answers, with few exceptions, have been correctly given.

(_j_) He applied for the position, without a recommendation.

+Observation Lesson+.--Phrases in their natural order follow the words they modify. When two or more phrases belong to the same word, the one most closely modifying it stands nearest to it.

In the first sentence above, _to me_ tells to whom the place is endeared; _by many a.s.sociations_ tells how it is endeared to me, and is therefore placed after to me. Try the effect of placing _to me_ last. Phrases, like adjectives, may be of different rank.

Phrases are often transposed, or placed out of their natural order. Notice that _to me_, in (_h_) above, is transposed, and thus made emphatic, and that it is set off by the comma.

In (_i_), the phrase is loosely thrown in as if it were not essential, thus making a break in the sentence. To make this apparent to the eye we set the phrase off by the comma.

Place the phrase of (_i_) in three other positions, and set it off. When the phrase is at the beginning or at the end of the sentence, how many commas do you need to set it off? How many, when it is in the middle?

Do you find any choice in the four positions of this phrase? After having been told that your answers were correct, would it be a disappointment to be told that they were not all correct? Is the interest in a story best kept up by first telling the important points and then the unimportant particulars? What then do you think of placing this phrase at the end?

What does the last phrase of (_j_) modify? Take out the comma, and then see whether there can be any doubt as to what the phrase modifies.

In the placing of adverbs and phrases great freedom is often allowable, and the determining of their best possible position affords an almost unlimited opportunity for the exercise of taste and judgment.

Such questions as those on (_i_) above may suggest a mode of easy approach to what is usually relegated to the province of rhetoric. Let the pupils see that phrases may be transposed for various reasons--for emphasis, as in (_h_) above; for the purpose of exciting the reader's curiosity and holding his attention till the complete statement is made, as in (_i_) above, or in, "In the dead of night, with a chosen band, under the cover of a truce, he approached"; for the sake of balancing the sentence by letting some of the modifying terms precede, and some follow, the princ.i.p.al parts, as, "In 1837, on the death of William IV., Victoria succeeded to the throne"; and for other reasons.

Other selections maybe made and these exercises continued, the pupils discussing fully the effects of all possible changes.

Pupils may note the transposed words and phrases in the following sentences, explaining their office and the effect of the transposition:--

1. Victories, indeed, they were.

2. Down came the masts.

3. Here stands the man.

4. Doubtful seemed the battle.

5. Wide open stood the doors.

6. A mighty man is he.

7. That gale I well remember.

8. Behind her rode Lalla Rookh.

9. Blood-red became the sun.

10. Louder waxed the applause.

11. Him the Almighty Power hurled headlong.

12. Slowly and sadly we laid him down.

13. Into the valley of death rode the six hundred.