XXVIII. EXERCISES FOR DICTATION Write the following exercises from dictation: I. May's pup is only a month old, but he knows his name and will come when he is called. May is trying to teach him to shake hands. She holds out her hand and tries to take Billy's right paw. He thinks she wants to play. Instead of giving her his paw he rolls over on the ground. II. In Rio de Janeiro the seasons are just the reverse of ours. When we are shivering with cold and wrapping ourselves up in furs to keep out the biting wind of December, our friends in Brazil are stifling with heat. Only in March or April do they begin to feel any relief from hot weather. Then as our winter slowly gives way to spring, the Brazilian autumn advances. When, at the middle of summer, we are panting with heat they are feeling their coldest weather. III. Until the close of the eighteenth century all fabrics carrying designs were woven wholly by hand. About 1801 Joseph Marie Jacquard invented an attachment by which the design could be made by machinery. In 1809 this invention was first put into practical use on a silk loom at Lyons, France. The Emperor Napoleon bought the attachment, donated it to the world, and pensioned the inventor. IV. One of the most important problems in any household is the transporting and storing of food. The early people used baskets for this purpose. In making baskets they began with a foundation frame. This frame was often made of peeled twigs. Grass, raffia, or reed was woven around this foundation until the basket was completed. By using dyed fiber many beautiful designs could be woven into the basket. V. In everyday life you constantly need mathematics. When you get up in the morning, you figure how long it takes you to dress or to get to school. When you go to school you have to buy something, and you must know how much it costs. You have to pay for it, and watch that you receive the correct change. If you wish to know how far you live from school, you can find out only by measuring the disThus it is easy to see that mathematics grew out of people's tance. needs. EXERCISES FOR DICTATION 153 VI. The Wind and the Sun quarreled as to which was the stronger. Presently they saw a stranger approaching. "The one who can first make the traveler take off his cloak is the stronger," said the Sun. "Agreed," replied the Wind. The Wind blew with all his might and tried his best to blow off the traveler's cloak, but the traveler only drew it around him more tightly. Then the Sun began to shine. Little by little the traveler loosened his cloak, and at last he took it off. "You see that gentleness is better than force," said the Sun. VII. All the convicts except one dropped their tools and sprang for the fence. One light-haired young fellow did not move. "Come on, Jack," cried his companion. "I can't," he replied. "I gave my word of honor not to escape." The others had given their word of honor, too, and they stopped short in their tracks. VIII. Running Wolf was to start out on his first warpath. All the preliminary religious rites had been performed, so he prepared to depart. First he trimmed, oiled, and decorated with eagle feathers his scalp lock. He selected a pair of moccasins beautifully decorated with beads and porcupine quills, and he hung a small medicine bag around his neck. Then he painted himself on the face, chest, and legs with war paint. IX. Running Wolf slung his quiver and bow case over his shoulder, stuck his knife and tomahawk through his belt, and took a small bag of parched corn and dried venison. Then, gun in hand and naked to the breech cloth, he stepped out of his lodge and was soon lost to sight in the forest. He struck out directly for the country of the Hurons. As he traveled through friendly territory, his journey was uneventful until he crossed Lake Erie. But once across the lake, Running Wolf was in the country of the hostile Hurons. Here great skill and caution were needed to cover up his trail and to move without noise. X. As Ernest listened to the poet, he imagined that the Great Stone Face was bending forward to listen too. He gazed earnestly into the poet's glowing eyes. "Who are you, my strangely gifted guest?" he said. The poet laid his finger on the volume that Ernest had been reading. "You have read these poems," said he. "You know me then-for I wrote them." HAWTHORNE. - XI. One day a crow was sitting in a tree with a piece of cheese in her bill. A fox passing below wanted the cheese. "Mrs. Crow, what a beautiful bird you are!" said the cunning fox. "Can you sing as beautifully as you look?" The crow was so flattered that she tried to sing. As she opened her mouth the cheese fell out and the fox ran away with it. XII. When General Washington was President of the United States, he had a secretary who was directed to come to him at a certain hour each day. More than once he was late, and excused himself by saying that his watch was wrong. "Then," said the President, "if your watch is to blame, either you must get another watch or I must get another secretary." (The above selection is taken from Rollo W. Brown's How the French Boy Learns to Write. Mr. Brown dictated this paragraph to a class of twenty-eight French boys, eleven and twelve years old, who had studied English two years. Eleven boys out of the twenty-eight wrote the passage without error.) XIII. Yet Wee Willie Winkie was not lovely. His face was permanently freckled, as his legs were permanently scratched. In spite of his mother's protest he had insisted upon having his long yellow locks cut short in the military fashion. "I want my hair like Sergeant Tummil's," said Wee Willie Winkie. XIV. Have you ever run the rapids of a swift mountain stream in a canoe? Nothing is more exciting. It is a little dangerous, too, if the water is deep. But that only adds to the fun of the thing. As the canoe slips through a riffle without a scratch and shoots into the next you are very apt to laugh. "This is real sport!" you say, just as a bucketful of water is splashed into your lap. XV. Breathes there the man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said, "This is my own, my native land"? Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering on a foreign strand? XVI. One day a twelve-year-old boy applied for a job in a railroad freight office in Cleveland, Ohio. "I'm afraid you won't do," said the chief. "We need a boy, but you are not tall enough to reach the letter press." EXERCISES FOR DICTATION 155 "Well, couldn't I stand on a box?" suggested the young seeker of employment. That day a box was added to the equipment of the freight office and the name of a new boy was placed on the payroll. XVII. Munsey's Magazine Then out spake brave Horatius, And the temples of his gods?" XVIII. "When did I first decide to be an opera singer?" Miss Farrar smiled. "Let me see. At least as early as the age of eight. This is how I remember. At school I used to get good marks in most of my studies, but in arithmetic my mark was about sixty. That made me unhappy. But once when I was eight I remember thinking that it didn't really matter, because I was going to be an opera singer." Good Housekeeping XIX. "You never can tell," said the broken vase to the discarded bread knife. "Last night I was very proud when a lady paid twentyfive dollars for me. I little thought I should be in a trash pile so soon." "As for me," sighed the bread knife, "I have always been poor, but I have also been useful. Now my life's work is over. I have nothing to do but wait for the garbage man." "Oh, it isn't so bad as that," cheerfully replied the vase. "At least we can play a lively tune before we are carried off." So the vase rolled over to the bread knife and they became quite sociable. XX. As our reporter entered Sir James Barrie's hotel room by one door, the next door softly closed. I sprang into the corridor and had just time to see a man fling himself down the elevator. When I returned to the room Sir James Barrie's servant was there. "Sir James is very sorry, but he has been called away," he assured me. Then he added, "But this is the pipe." "The pipe he smokes?" I asked. THE SENTENCE Subject and Predicate. You have learned that the sentence contains two essential parts, the subject, or that about which something is told, and the predicate, or that which is told about the subject. No sentence is complete without both a subject and a predicate. In certain sentences that express commands or requests, as "Close the door," "Please come to see me," the subject is you understood. You have learned also that the principal word of the subject is called the subject substantive and that the principal word of the predicate is called the predicate verb. Objects, Predicate Nominatives, etc. The predicate verb sometimes requires a word to complete its meaning, such as an object, a predicate noun or pronoun, or a predicate adjective; as, “He saw me," "She is my friend," "It is true.” Modifiers. Both the subject substantive and the predicate verb may have modifiers, which are words or groups of words that affect the meaning of the word modified. SUBJECT Boys Boys of all ages Boys that live in the country PREDICATE play. play in the open air. play when they are not working. nothing but a subject subThe subject substantive of In the first sentence we have stantive and a predicate verb. the second sentence is modified by a single word, healthy, and the predicate verb is modified by a single word, outdoors. In the third sentence the same subject substantive, bovs, is modified by a phrase, of all ages, and the same predicate verb, play, is modified by another phrase, in the open air. |