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PART THREE

201. ORAL LESSON

ENUNCIATION

Your attention was called in Lesson 191 to certain faults of speech common in this country. Our words are often mumbled and often run together or clipped off, so that we are not easily understood. Sometimes our voices are very shrill or harsh, and many of us have the bad habit of talking through our noses. Words are the tools by which we express our thoughts to each other. Why not learn to use these valuable tools correctly?

Much of the beauty of good literature is spoiled by bad reading. Read aloud carefully the two following passages from Tennyson, and see how clear enunciation and good tones add to their beauty:

1.

2.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying clouds, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd lad,
Or long-haired page in crimson clad,
Goes by to towered Camelot.

Read aloud the poems in Part II, Lessons 113, 131, 146, 161, 185.

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In the following description from Stevenson, one of our most pleasing modern writers, see how the music of the language is helped by careful reading:

This was a very different camp from that of the night before in the cool and silent pinewoods. It was warm and even stifling in the valley. The shrill song of frogs, like the tremolo note of a whistle with a pea in it, rang up from the riverside before the sun was down. In the growing dusk, faint rustlings began to run to and fro among the fallen leaves; from time to time a faint chirping or cheeping noise would fall upon my ear; and time to time I thought I could see the movement of something swift and indistinct between the chestnuts. A profusion of large ants swarmed upon the ground; bats whisked by, and mosquitoes droned overhead. The long boughs with their bunches of leaves hung against the sky like garlands; and those immediately above and around me had somewhat the air of a trellis which should have been wrecked and half overthrown in a gale of wind.

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Write a brief account of some incident in your vacation. What is the title? Where is it to be written? How many paragraphs are there to be in your composition? What is each one to be about? Where should the first word of each paragraph be placed? After you have finished writing, look over your work and revise your spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

Some of the compositions may be read aloud, and judged by the teacher for (1) interest, (2) clearness, (3) good oral reading:

The Parts of Speech

181

203. LANGUAGE LESSON

THE PARTS OF SPEECH

There are eight Parts of Speech or uses of words in the Five of these have already been studied in Part II.

sentence.

Nouns are words that name persons, places, things, ideas.
Pronouns are words that stand for nouns.

Verbs are words that assert or tell something.

Adjectives are words that modify nouns or pronouns.

Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

Find each of these parts of speech in the following sentence:

The little dog quickly buried his bone in the ground. Give several examples of each of these parts of speech.

Make sentences by enlarging the following subjects and predicates. In each sentence put at least one adjective or adverb. See if you can make more than one sentence for each noun and verb. See how many modifiers you can introduce in a single sentence.

EXAMPLE: The yellow lion roared with delight.

The fierce lion had roared for the last time.

In the morning the big ugly lion roared for his breakfast.

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The eight parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections.

204. ORAL LESSON

AURORA

A long time ago people believed that the sun, moon, and stars were persons like themselves, only greater and more powerful. They worshiped these powerful beings as gods. The Greeks called the moon-goddess Diana, and the sun-god Apollo. Our

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picture is from a famous painting that illustrates the Greek story about Apollo, who changed night into beautiful day with its welcome light and warmth.

Apollo's palace was far away in the east where he rested during the night, seated upon a golden throne. The Hours, Days, and Months stood ready to attend him on his daily journey.

During the night the beautiful Diana made her journey across the sky, and each morning she was succeeded by Aurora, the rosy-fingered goddess of dawn. You can see Aurora in the picture parting the clouds in order to prepare the way for the chariot of the sun-god. To this chariot are harnessed the four white horses, which no one but Apollo could drive. The picture shows the moment of dawn and the beginning of Apollo's journey.

He drove his chariot up the steep ascent of the sky until he reached the top. From the rapidly driven chariot streamed light

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and heat. At noon the descent began, and the chariot sped on west, and the sun-god was glad to bathe Aurora again parted the clouds, which

down the sky toward the his head in the cool sea. her rosy fingers transformed into the beautiful hues of the sunset, and the sun-god sank to rest beneath the western sea.

Guido Reni, who painted this picture, was not a Greek, but an Italian who lived long after the Greeks. How many goddesses encircle the chariot? Why has the painter put wreaths of flowers in Aurora's hands? Apollo (or Phoebus), Aurora, and Diana are frequently referred to in English poetry. If you remember this picture, you will understand many passages, as the following, from Shakespeare: The heavenly-harnessed team

Begins his golden progress in the east.

Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus' lodging.

ORAL COMPOSITIONS:

I. The Story of Apollo.

1. Beliefs of the Greeks about the sun and moon.
2. Apollo's Palace.

3. The Dawn.

4. Apollo's daily journey.

II. The Picture Aurora, by Guido Reni.

1. What the picture represents.

2. Persons in the picture:

(a) Aurora; (b) Apollo; (c) Apollo's attendants.

205. WRITTEN LESSON

Write a composition on (1) The Story of Apollo, or (2) The Picture of Aurora, following one of the outlines given in Lesson 204.

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