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1860; he fought again for Rome in 1867; he combated with the Germans in defense of France in 1870. He was possessed of the flame of heroism and the genius of war. He was engaged in forty battles, and won thirty-seven of them.

When he was not fighting, he was laboring for his living, or he shut himself up on a solitary island, and tilled the soil. He was teacher, sailor, workman, trader, soldier, general, dictator. He was simple, great, and good. He hated all oppressors, he loved all peoples, he protected all the weak; he had no other aspiration than good, he refused honors, he scorned death, he adored Italy. When he uttered his war-cry, legions of valorous men hastened to him from all quarters; gentlemen left their palaces, workmen their ships, youths their schools, to go and fight in the sunshine of his glory. In time of war he wore a red shirt. He was strong, blond, and handsome. On the field of battle he was a thunderbolt, in his affections he was a child, in affliction a saint. Thousands of Italians have died for their country, happy, if, when dying, they saw him pass victorious in the distance; thousands would have allowed themselves to be killed for him; millions have blessed and will bless him.

He is dead. The whole world mourns him. You do not understand him now. But you will read of his deeds, you will constantly hear him spoken of in the course of your life; and gradually, as

you grow up, his image will grow before you; when you become

a man, you will behold him as a giant; and when you are no longer in the world, when your sons' sons and those who shall be born from them are no longer among the living, the generations will still behold on high his luminous head as a redeemer of the peoples, crowned by the names of his victories as with a circlet of stars; and the brow and the soul of every Italian will beam when he utters his name. EDMONDO DE AMICIS, "Cuore"

EXERCISE 5

SKETCHING THE LIFE OF SOMEBODY AND NOTING THE VERBS USED1

You are often called on to tell the story of a life in a few sentences or paragraphs. This is a difficult thing to do well. Of course you do not wish merely to give a list of dates or to string together the barest facts of deeds and writings. Study the sketch of Garibaldi in the last exercise and notice what its author chose to tell that gives a lively impression of Garibaldi's character and career. What does each paragraph contribute? What details are given, even in so brief a summary ?

Plan a sketch of the life of somebody whom you have met in history or literature study. Find several accounts of this person's life and see who can write the most interesting and lively brief sketch for your magazine. If you prefer, you may choose a local hero, or the most interesting neighbor you know, or even a child or an animal whose biography you can narrate at first hand; and each member of the class may then choose a different subject.

Plan to cover the most important topics, only one in each paragraph; for example, Theodore Roosevelt: (1) hunter, (2) literary man, (3) soldier, (4) statesman.

When you have made the first draft, underline your verbs and verb phrases. Have you used interesting ones, or do you repeat was, was, was, again and again? Have you kept the time straight? Are all verbs correctly mated with their subjects, singular and plural? Revise carefully for verb forms and also notice the pronouns and the use of and's.

1 This exercise may be fitted into a project already begun.

2 Find the interesting, picturing verbs in Fabre's account of the red ants, Appendix F.

PROBLEM XXVIII

REVIEWING

EXERCISE 1

PRACTICING PREVISION IN LIFE AND IN COMPOSITION

Each of you will soon receive a gift of one hundred days. Plan how you will invest them to realize the greatest sum of pleasure and profit. Plan also how you will tell about your plan in the cleverest and most interesting way.

As a proof of your progress during the year, write the best theme that is in you. Recall and use all that you have learned of limitation of subject, good beginning, good details, vivid words, and correct form. After you have made it as interesting as possible, revise carefully for all points of sentence structure and of good form in general.

The best of these themes may be preserved as a final contribution to the class magazine or as a standard for the class that comes after you. While they are being chosen and corrected, you may do such of the following exercises as your class needs most for reviewing and rounding out the year's work. If some members of the class prove by these test themes that they are still uncertain in regard to matters of form not reviewed here, devise drill exercises for them, or use some from the Appendix or from earlier problems. As a class you should take pride in seeing that every member of your group achieves perfection in as many matters of good form as possible before he leaves the seventh year's work.

EXERCISE 2

SUMMING UP WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED OF
LETTER-WRITING

Prepare a three-minute theme, carefully planned, telling what you have learned of the art of letter-writing, illustrating either with a letter written by yourself or with extracts from letters that you have received. Be definite, and tell the truth as interestingly as you can. Your method and manner of giving this theme will also prove what you have learned about oral composition.

EXERCISE 3

REVIEWING THE FACTS OF GRAMMAR LEARNED
THIS YEAR

By means of the outline on pages 329-338, think through all that you have learned about the grammatical structure of the sentence and about nouns, pronouns, verbs, and verb phrases. Be ready to define every term mentioned in the outline and to illustrate every grammatical fact, either in a good oral paragraph on one main topic of the outline or in clear answers to questions. When you have the facts well in mind you may play again the game called for in Problem XV, Exercise 3.

EXERCISE 4

PROVING WHAT YOU KNOW OF PUNCTUATION,
CAPITALIZATION, AND SPELLING

A. Try again a dictation exercise of about the same length and difficulty as that used in Problem I, Exercise 2, and see how much progress you have made during the year in

What rules of punctuation

accurate writing of your native language. You should, of course, test yourselves with a paragraph which none of you have studied, and compare the results with those achieved. at the beginning of the year. and capitalization have you learned and practiced since then? You may find it interesting to try a considerably more difficult paragraph and see whether you cannot make as good a record with that as you did with the easy one in the first problem.

B. Arrange a spelling match, using the words in your individual and class spelling lists. See how many can stand up to the end.

C. Supply capitals and marks of punctuation omitted in the following passage and tell the reason for each; also divide the conversation into paragraphs. Do not take Humpty Dumpty's remarks too seriously, though you may find them suggestive.

i dont know what you mean by glory alice said humpty dumpty smiled contemptuously of course you dont till i tell you i meant theres a nice knockdown argument for you but glory doesnt mean a nice knock down argument alice objected when i use a word humpty dumpty said in rather a scornful tone it means just what i choose it to mean — neither more nor less the question is said alice whether you can make words mean so many different things the question is said humpty dumpty which is to be master- thats all alice was too much puzzled to say anything so after a minute humpty dumpty began again theyve a temper, some of themparticularly verbs theyre the proudest adjectives you can do any thing with but not verbs however i can manage the whole lot of them impenetrability thats what i say would you tell me please said alice what that means now you talk like a reasonable child said humpty dumpty looking very much pleased i meant by impenetrability that weve had enough of that subject and it would

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