Arrogance, Presumption. The... of the prince caused the subjects to rebel. The . . . of the subjects caused the prince to exert his authority. In Paradise Lost' Satan is made to show.. to the Almighty but not Watt improved the steam-engine so much that he may almost claim to have...ed it. The Chinese claim to have. . .ed gunpowder, and to have . . .ed the properties of the magnetic needle. Boldness, Bravery, Valour, Fortitude, Prowess, Daring, Pluck. True . . ., friends, on virtue founded strong, meets all events alike. The soldier showed the ... of the lion. The wounded man gave proof of great The history of Wallace affords many examples of . . . Deeds of . . . are not always to be admired. None but the . . . deserve the fair. (b) Distinguish between the meanings of Counsel, admonish, and exhort. Growth, development, and evolution. Sympathy, compassion, and pity.. Skirmish, contest, and battle. bright, chiel. Injury, harm, damage, and detriment. Leisure, idleness, indolence, laziness, and sloth. (c) Make sentences containing the words given in (b). (d) Substitute better words for the words printed in italics in the following sentences :· The train was wrecked through the engine-driver's fault of vision. He proposed the study of Italian as an occupation for my idleness. The sentence of the jury and the verdict of the judge were approved. The counsel tried to confound the witness. He glared wistfully at the fruit. The good man is not overcome by disappointment when that which is mortal passes away, when that which is mutable dies, and when that which is transient begins to change. We may be taught to mend what is erroneous. We have enlarged our family and expenses and increased our garden and orchard. A hermit is rigorous in his life, a judge austere in his sentences. Galileo discovered the telescope; Harvey invented the circulation of the blood. (e) Fill each blank with one of the synonyms indicated. Casual, Accidental, Fortuitous. The world was held by Epicurus to be a In the course of conversation he let fall a . connection with the subject. . concourse of atoms. remark which had no He is suffering from lameness from the effect of an . . . hurt. Perilous, Dangerous, Hazardous. The minister has made a . . . experiment; in ordering an insufficient force to attack the enemy he has obliged the general to undertake a . . . enterprise. The attack was made, but one of the chief commanders received a wound. Revenge, Vengeance, Retribution, Retaliation. On taking the city ... was executed on the rebel sepoys, some of whom had murdered their officers out of ... for some fancied slight received. The carelessness of some of those in power has met with a terrible . . . Strong, Powerful, Vigorous, Forcible, Potent, Strenuous. Opium is a .. drug and has been known to undermine a very constitution. It is only by a ... . . effort that a man, once accustomed to the use of it, can break himself of the habit. If some speaker of intellect would make . . . exertions to bring the evil of the trade in it before the public mind and make a . . . attack on it in the House, it might be hoped he would succeed at this juncture in putting a stop to it. The character of this man inspires the reader with ... contempt. He seems to have been incapable of any . . . feeling or affection. 111. The shortest and simplest words in our language are generally native English. The following passage from Shakespeare contains 171 words, but only two of them are of foreign origin : This shoe, with the hole in, is my mother, and this my father. A vengeance on't! there 'tis: now, sir, this staff is my sister; for, look you, she is as white as a lily and as small as a wand: this hat is Nan, our maid: I am the dog-no, the dog is himself, and I am the dog,-O the dog is me, and I am myself: ay, so, so. Now come I to my father; 'Father your blessing;' now should not the shoe speak a word for weeping: now should I kiss my father; well, he weeps on. Now come I to my mother; O, that she could speak now! like a wood woman! Well, I kiss her; why, there 'tis; here's my mother's breath up and down. Now come I to my sister; mark the moan she makes. Now the dog all this while sheds not a tear nor speaks a word; but see how I lay the dust with my tears.-SHAKESPEARE, Two Gentlemen of Verona, act ii., sc. 3. 112. In stately prose (as in the following passages from Milton and Burke) we find a far larger proportion of words derived from Greek or Latin. It happened once to be a great and solemn debate in the court of Darius, what thing was to be counted strongest of all other. He that could resolve this, in reward of his excellent wisdom, should be clad in purple, drink in gold, sleep on a bed of gold, and sit next Darius. None but they, doubtless, who were reputed wise had the question propounded to them; who, after some respite given them by the king to consider, in full assembly of all his lords and gravest counsellors, returned severally what they thought. The first held that wine was strongest; another, that the king was strongest; but Zorobabel, prince of the captive Jews, and heir to the crown of Judah, being one of them, proved women to be stronger than the king. . . . Yet he proved on, and it was so yielded by the king himself and all his sages, that neither wine, nor women, nor the king, but truth, of all other things, was the strongest. ... For me, though neither asked, nor in a nation that gives such rewards to wisdom, I shall pronounce my sentence somewhat different from Zorobabel; and shall defend that either truth and justice are all one (for truth is but justice in our knowledge, and justice is but truth in our practice); and he indeed so explains himself, in saying that with truth is no accepting of persons, which is the property of justice, or else, if there be any odds, that justice, though not stronger than truth, yet by her office is to put forth and exhibit more strength in the affairs of mankind. For truth is properly no more than contemplation, and her utmost efficiency is but teaching; but justice in her very essence is all strength and activity; and hath a sword put into her hand, to use against all violence and oppression on the earth. She it is most truly who accepts no person, and exempts none from the severity of her stroke. She never suffers injury to prevail, but when falsehood first prevails over truth; and that also is a kind of justice done on them who are so deluded. Though wicked kings and tyrants counterfeit her sword, as some did that buckler fabled to fall from heaven into the Capitol, yet she communicates her power to none but such as, like herself, are just, or at least will do justice. For it were extreme partiality and injustice, the flat denial and overthrow of herself, to put her own authentic sword into the hand of an unjust and wicked man, or so far to accept and exalt one mortal person above his equals, that he alone shall have the punishing of all other men transgressing, and not receive like punishment from men when he himself shall be found the highest transgressor.— MILTON, Eikonoklastes, ch. xxviii. My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your government; they will cling and grapple to you; and no force under heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it be once understood that your government may be one thing and their privileges another; that these two things may exist without any mutual relation; the cement is gone-the cohesion is loosened—and everything hastens to decay and dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship freedom they will turn their faces towards you. The more they multiply, the more friends you will have; the more ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their obedience. Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every soil. They may have it from Spain, they may have it from Prussia; but until you become lost to all feeling of your true interest and your natural dignity, freedom they can have from none but you. This is the commodity of price, of which you have the monopoly. This is the true act of navigation, which binds you to the commerce of the world. Deny them this participation of freedom, and you break that sole bond which originally made, and must still preserve, the unity of the empire. Do not entertain so weak an imagination, as that your registers and your bonds, your affidavits and your sufferances, your coquets and your clearances, are what form the great securities of your commerce. Do not dream that your letters of office, and your instructions, and your suspending clauses are the things that hold together the great contexture of this mysterious whole. These things do not make your government. Dead instruments, passive tools as they are, it is the spirit of the English communion that gives all their life and efficacy to them. It is the spirit of the English constitution which, infused through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds, unites, invigorates, vivifies every part of the empire, even down to the minutest member.-BURKE, Speech on Conciliation with America (1775). 113. When you can write like Milton or Burke you may use as many words of foreign origin as you please; till then use, as far as possible, the short and simple words of your mothertongue.1 114. In the following sentence a burlesque effect is obtained by the use of long words. The authority, sir, of all these great men . . . deposes, with irrefragable refutation, against your ratiocinative speculations, wherein you seem desirous, by the futile process of analytical dialectics, to subvert the pyramidal structure of synthetically deduced opinions, which have withstood the secular revolutions of physiological disquisition, and which I maintain to be transcendentally self-evident, categorically certain, and syllogistically demonstrable.-PEACOCK, Headlong Hall. into 115. A similar effect is obtained by the transformation of Twinkle, twinkle, little star! Shine with irregular, intermitted light, sparkle at intervals, diminutive, luminous, heavenly body! How I conjecture, with surprise, not unmixed with uncertainty, what you are ! Located, apparently, at such a remote distance from, and at a height so vastly superior to, this earth, the planet we inhabit, Similar in general appearance and refractory powers to the precious primitive octahedron crystal of pure carbon, set in the aërial region surrounding the earth. When you doubt between two words choose the plainest, the commonest, the most idiomatic. Eschew fine words as you would rouge; love simple ones as you would native roses on your cheeks.-Guesses at Truth. |