175. LANGUAGE LESSON

ADVERBS

The black dog is barking.

The black dog is barking now.
The black dog is barking there.

The black dog is barking loudly.

In the first sentence you know that the and black are adjectives, dog is a noun, and is barking a verb. In the other sentences now, there, and loudly are adverbs. Now tells when the dog is barking, there tells where he is barking, loudly tells how he is barking. Words used to modify the meaning of verbs are called adverbs. Adverbs usually modify the meaning of verbs by telling when, where, or how. Some adverbs answering the question when? are soon, already, ever, never, seldom, once, to-day.

now,

Some adverbs answering the question where? are: down, out, there, here, below.

Some adverbs answering the question how? are: gently, loudly, fiercely, nobly, grandly.

Other common adverbs are very, too, more, most, quite, rather. They often are used to modify the meaning of adjectives or other adverbs as well as verbs.

Make a sentence containing each adverb mentioned above. State with what verb, adjective, or other adverb it is connected.

Adverbs are words used to modify the meaning of verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

If your lips you would preserve from slips,

Five things observe with care:

Of whom you speak, to whom you speak,
And how and when and where.

Clear Enunciation

176. ORAL LESSON

CLEAR ENUNCIATION

157

How

Have you ever been in a great city railway station? were the departing trains announced? Could you understand the familiar names better than the unfamiliar? If the announcer called out Poughkeepsie, Albany, Buffalo, and Chicago, would it be plainer to you than if he called out a string of foreign names? Is it important to enunciate clearly? Why? Do you speak distinctly? Try the following lists, saying them so clearly that a foreigner might understand you. Bridgeport - New Haven New London -Stonington Providence - Boston Boston Express !! Trenton Philadelphia - Lancaster - Harrisburg — Altoona — and Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Express !!

Albany

:

Rochester - Buffalo - Cleveland and Chicago: Chicago Express !!

What train announcements do you remember?

Let some member of the class pronounce five names of persons or places, and call upon some one to repeat the names. Were the names correctly repeated? If not, was it the first speaker's fault?

177. WRITTEN LESSON

Write a composition, selecting one of these topics and following the outline.

THE ROBIN: (1) Its appearance, (2) Its food and habits, (3) Its relation to other birds.

THE OAK TREE: (1) Where it is found, (2) Its appearance, growth, etc., (3) Its uses.

THE POLICE: (1) How they are appointed, (2) How they are dressed, (3) What their duties are.

THE PUSH-CART MEN: (1) How they are dressed, (2) What they sell, (3) Where they are seen.

THE POSTMAN: (1) His uniform, (2) His duties.

178. LANGUAGE LESSON

1. In the following sentences select the adverbs. What words do they modify?

2. Make sentences, using one of the following adverbs in each sentence: already, seldom, yesterday, here, yonder, quite, rather, twice, possibly.

1. George and May watched the ripening corn eagerly.
2. They often talked of plucking the ears.
3. They got up early and dressed quickly.
4. The squirrel had been there already.
5. He now began to scold them angrily.
6. "How angry he is to-day!" said May.

3. Make sentences each containing an adverb not mentioned in this lesson.

179. ORAL LESSON

WHEAT

There are only a few kinds of grain that are much used for food by human beings. Among these, two stand out above the others rice is the grain that is most used in Asia, and wheat makes the bread of the nations of Europe and America. These two cereals are the principal food of the majority of the fifteen hundred million people in the world.

Wheat is grown in the temperate zones. It is not, like rice, a plant of the hot climates. Although it is cultivated in many places, the greatest wheat fields of the world are in the northern part of the United States, in Canada, and in Russia. These three

The Story of Wheat

159

regions export many millions of bushels to the rest of the world. A failure of the wheat crop in any one of these sections would mean great distress, not only in these places, but in the countries to which they are accustomed to send their wheat or their flour. Wheat is commonly planted in the fall. The soil must be fertile, and must be first plowed and then harrowed until it becomes loose and light. The seed was formerly scattered by hand, and then worked into the soil by brushes dragged over it. Now it is planted by a drill, a machine which inserts the seed in little rows that it makes as it is pulled along by horses.

The young plants appear in a week or two, and, if the soil is rich, and the season favorable, the ground will be covered by the beautiful emerald green of the wheat before the winter closes in.

Wheat is a hardy plant, and can live through a good deal of cold weather. But if the snow falls early and lies on the ground all winter, the young plants are all the better for this soft, warm covering. In certain places, however, the cold of the winter is too intense for the young plant to live through it. In some of our northwestern states, therefore, and in parts of western Canada, the seed must be sown in the spring. This is known in the markets as spring wheat; that planted in the autumn is called fall wheat; the fall wheat is of firmer and better quality.

Wheat raising in our country is an industry of enormous size. Millions of acres are planted every year, and a good crop, averaging twenty bushels to the acre, makes a total of seven or eight hundred million bushels. As wheat is worth about a dollar a bushel, you can see the benefit to the country of a good wheat crop.

The reaping or harvesting of the crop is a big affair. On the large farms of the northwest there are often from twenty to a hundred thousand acres of wheat to be cut. In one of these great fields there may be ten or even twenty reaping machines drawn by engines moving steadily across the field, cutting the golden

brown grain and dropping it in neatly bound bundles called sheaves. These sheaves are gathered up by a crowd of men, and either placed together in small tent-like piles called shocks, or hauled directly to the threshing machines. Into these threshers, huge machines that are operated by engines, the sheaves of wheat are thrust, head foremost. They pass between rapidly revolving cylinders spiked with pieces of iron. The grains of wheat are thus knocked loose from the straw and chaff. The straw and chaff are blown out in a never-ending cloud at the other end of the thresher, and the wheat pours out of the bottom of the machine in a golden-brown stream, Here it is caught in sacks, and is ready to be sent to the mills where it will be ground into flour.

Read this selection orally. Make an outline of it. Several members of the class are to be called upon to repeat the substance of the selection as an oral composition. These oral compositions are to be criticised for order and fullness of material and for clearness of speech and correctness of punctuation.