Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SPECIMEN TOPICS FOR WRITTEN EXERCISES Unless expressly stated otherwise, it is understood that each exercise is to consist of a single properly constructed paragraph. Topics preceded by a are intended as optional subjects, to be assigned only to special pupils. Suggestions as to allusions that may be more carefully investigated, may be gained from the Explanatory Notes. 1. Is the statement in the second sentence of paragraph 1 ? The inventor of a spinning-jenny, etc.?true, and if so, why? 2. What did Oarlyle think had been lacking in the previous biographies of Burns? (Paragraphs 2-5.) 3. What is Oarlyle’s theory of a good biography? (Paragraph 5.) 4. What is meant by the expression,
He had his very materials to discover ? How and why was his material new ? (Paragraph 6.) 5. Compare Carlyle’s view (in paragraph 6) of the unfavorable circumstances surrounding Burns, with Macau- lay’s view of those affecting Milton, in the first part of the essay on Milton. Are they inconsistent, and if so which is right? (Two or three paragraphs.) 6. Summarize in a single paragraph the leading ideas of the second division of the essay. (Paragraphs 6-9.) 7. Compare the thought in lines 29-33, page 11, with a similar idea in the first paragraph of Emerson’s essay on Self-Reliance. SPECIMEN TOPICS FOR WRITTEN EXERCISES ii 8. Carlyle and Emerson?their similarity as authors and their friendship as men. (Length optional.) 9. What does Carlyle mean by Sincerity ? (Paragraphs 11, 12.) 10. Condense the thought in paragraphs 11-13 into a single, short, well-balanced paragraph. 11. How does Carlyle’s opinion in paragraph 12 agree with that expressed by Matthew Arnold in his essay on Byron ? 12. Condense the thought of paragraphs 14-17 into one. 13. Compa…