Fessons. These drills should be preceded by short breathing exercises. Raise the chest; inhale slowly; exhale through the nostrils. Repeat two or three times. Inhale again, and give the articulation drill. This should consist in pronouncing distinctly, several times, the words and phrases given for exercise. INFLECTION. Have pupils write answers in full to the questions in italics, and preserve them as rules for inflection and emphasis. Read the following questions correctly: Am I my brother's keeper? Is Saul also among the prophets? Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Shall mortal man be more just than his maker? Can the possession of wealth prolong the life of man for a moment? With what words may these questions be answered? How does the voice slide at the end of each ? How, then, should the voice slide at the end of questions that may be answered by yes or no? Read the following questions correctly: What is it that gentlemen wish? What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Where are the snows of last year? Can these questions be answered by yes or no? How does the voice slide at the end of each ? How, then, should the voice slide at the end of questions that cannot be answered by yes or no? Read the following questions correctly: Who did you say Homer was? What did you tell me about Hercules? What must be said in answer to these questions? How does the voice slide at the end of each ? How, then, should the voice slide at the end of questions that must be answered by repeating what was said before? In the following lines is the sense complete ? Child, amid the flowers at play While the red light fades away, The low desire, the base design, The revel of the treacherous wine, And all occasions of excess; Read these lines with the correct slide of the voice. How does the voice slide in reading them? How, then, should the voice slide at the end of expressions incomplete in sense? In the following lines is the sense complete ? Pray, ere yet the dark hours be, How high you lift your heads into the sky! How huge you are! How mighty and how free! Read these lines with the correct slide of the voice. How does the voice slide in reading them? How, then, should the voice slide at the end of expressions making complete sense? EMPHASIS. Select the important words in the following sentences: What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? We must fight; I repeat it, sir; we must fight! Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Joseph is dead, Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away, also. The very colors of our flag have a language. Read each sentence and show the important word by special stress, or emphasis, upon it. Why should emphasis be put on these words? Upon what sort of words, then, do you find that emphasis is placed, and why? Select, in the following sentences, the words that express contrast: Seven cities claimed great Homer dead, Through which the living Homer begged his bread. Homer was the greater genius, Vergil the better artist. Each morning sees some task begun, Each evening sees its close. Read each sentence and show the contrasted words by putting a special stress or emphasis upon them. Why is emphasis placed on these words? Upon words expressing what, then, do you now find emphasis placed? Read the following sentences, making a pause where it is indicated by the dash: What word in each sentence is made more impressive by this reading? How, then, may a word be emphasized except by a stress of voice? RHETORICAL PAUSES. In oral reading good taste must guide the reader in making rhetorical pauses. These pauses are made to set off from each other groups of words by which the meaning of what is read may be more easily and readily gained by the hearer. No principles for the rhetorical pause are given in this book. Read the following examples, making pauses as indicated by the bar (): Is it honorable | to shield a boy who dishonors and damages you? Is it honorable | to disappoint your parents and cheat me? Is it honorable | for us to let these little boys be injured | and let the one who injures them go free? I want a vote on this question. All the boys who think it an honorable thing | not to report continued bad conduct | will rise and stand. Up from the meadows | rich with corn, |