Marian Wharton

Plain English


Скачать книгу

align="center">

      Exercise 4

      Underscore the nouns in the following:

      How many abstract nouns?

      How many concrete?

      How many singular?

      How many plural?

FIVE AND FIFTYCharlotte Perkins Gilman

      If fifty men did all the work

      And gave the price to five;

      And let those five make all the rules—

      You'd say the fifty men were fools,

      Unfit to be alive.

      And if you heard complaining cries

      From fifty brawny men,

      Blaming the five for graft and greed,

      Injustice, cruelty indeed—

      What would you call them then?

      Not by their own superior force

      Do five on fifty live,

      But by election and assent—

      And privilege of government—

      Powers that the fifty give.

      If fifty men are really fools—

      And five have all the brains—

      The five must rule as now we find;

      But if the fifty have the mind—

      Why don't they take the reins?

      Exercise 5

      Select all the nouns in the following. Write their singular, plural and possessive forms. Decide whether they are abstract or concrete, common or proper or collective, masculine, feminine or neuter.

      Brother!

      Whoever you are, wherever you are on all the earth, I greet you.

      I extend to you my right hand.

      I make you a pledge.

      Here is my pledge to you:—

      I refuse to kill your father. I refuse to slay your mother's son. I refuse to plunge a bayonet into the breast of your sister's brother. I refuse to slaughter your sweetheart's lover. I refuse to murder your wife's husband. I refuse to butcher your little child's father. I refuse to wet the earth with blood and blind kind eyes with tears. I refuse to assassinate you and then hide my stained fists in the folds of any flag.

      Will you thus pledge me and pledge all the members of our working class?—Kirkpatrick.

      SPELLING

      LESSON 4

      Some of our consonants also have more than one sound. We have also certain combinations of consonants which represent one sound. This combination of two letters to represent one sound is called a digraph, as gh, in cough, ch in church. A digraph may either be a combination of two consonants or of two vowels or of a vowel and a consonant. The following table contains the consonants which have more than one sound:

      c—k as in cat

      c—s as in vice

      g—j as in ginger

      g—hard as in go

      s—sh as in sure

      s—zh as in usual

      s—soft as in also

      s—z as in does

      x—soft as in extra

      x—gz as in exist

      The following table gives the digraphs most commonly used:

      ng—as in ring, tongue

      ch—as in church and much

      ch—k as in chasm

      ch—sh as in chagrin

      th—as in then, those

      th—as in thin and worth

      ce—sh as in ocean

      ci—sh as in special

      dg—j as in edge

      gh—f as in rough

      ph—f as in sylph

      qu—kw as in quart

      qu—k as in conquer

      sh—as in shall

      si—sh as in tension

      si—zh as in vision

      ti—sh as in motion

      The use of these digraphs gives us a number of additional sounds. Notice the use of the consonants which have more than one sound and also the digraphs in the spelling lesson for the week. Mark the consonants and digraphs.

      Monday

      Commence

      Certain

      General

      Gradual

      Sugar

      Tuesday

      Soldier

      Season

      Pleasure

      Exact

      Exercise

      Wednesday

      Singular

      Chemistry

      Chapter

      Machine

      Changing

      Thursday

      Theory

      Thither

      Ocean

      Racial

      Budget

      Friday

      Philosophy

      Enough

      Quorum

      Bouquet

      Phonetic

      Saturday

      Permission

      Asia

      Attention

      Marshall

      Martial

      PLAIN ENGLISH

      LESSON 5

      Dear Comrade:

      We want to say just a word about the lesson assignment. This has been arranged on a schedule of days merely to assist you in systematizing your time and making the most of the leisure at your disposal. It is not intended that you should slavishly follow it. We thoroughly believe in individuality and all that contributes toward its development. But we are also confident that many foolish things are done in the name of liberty. Whenever we set ourselves to the performance of any task we necessarily limit our activities in some other direction. Power comes by concentration of force. Whenever we combine with others for the accomplishment of any purpose, it becomes necessary to have some plan of action and we give and take for the end which we have in view. The musician because he follows the law of harmony in music has not given up his liberty. He has only found a new freedom which enables him to make glorious music where only discord reigned before. System in our work does not mean loss of liberty or of individuality but only finding a channel through which individuality can flow into the great ocean of real freedom.

      So