Summary.

1. Choose words that fit your meaning with exactness. 2. Distinguish degrees of intensity in words.

3. Use idiomatic expressions.

4. Avoid slang.

47.

Assignments on Choice of Words.

A. In the following choose the word in brackets that best fits the context. Be ready to give reasons. Consult the dictionary or a book of synonyms.

1. It is a necessary condition of life that has desires at all that these desires should be toward life and not away from it; seeing how cheap and easy a thing is destruction on all hands, and how hard it is for race or unit to hold fast in the great struggle for existence. Surely our way is paved with the bones of those who have loved life and movement too little, and lost it before their time. If we could think of death without shrinking, it would only mean that this world was no place for us, and that we should [hasten, make haste, hurry] to be gone to leave room for our betters. And therefore the law of action which would put death out of sight is to be accounted good, as a holy and healthy thing (one word whose meanings have become unduly severed), necessary to the life of men, serving to [hold, bind, knit, keep, draw, pull, join] them together and to advance them in the right. Not only is it right and good thus to cover over and dismiss the thought of our own personal end, to keep in mind and heart always the good things that [shall, will be done, rather than ourselves who [shall, will] or [shall, will] not have the doing of them; but also to our friends and loved ones we [shall, will] give the most worthy honor and tribute if we never say nor remember that they are dead, but contrariwise that they have lived; that here

by the brotherly force and flow of their action and work may be carried over the gulfs of death and made [everlasting, immortal, eternal, endless, immutable, perpetual] in the true and healthy life which they worthily had and used.

2. Sir Thomas Payton came to me and told me my lord [would, should] fight with me on horseback with single sword; and, said he, “I [will, shall] be his second; where is yours?" I replied that neither his lordship nor myself brought over any great horses with us; that I knew he might much better borrow one than myself; howbeit, as soon as he showed me the place, he [would, should] find me there on horseback or on foot; whereupon both of us riding together upon two geldings to the side of a wood, Payton said he chose that place, and the time, break of day the next morning. I told him I [would, should] fail neither place nor time, though I knew not where to get a better nag than the horse I rode on; "and as for a second, I [will, shall] trust to your nobleness, who, I know [will, shall] see fair play betwixt us, though you come on his side.”

The lieutenant, though he did not know me, suspected I had some private quarrel, and that I desired this horse to fight on, and thereupon told me, "Sir, whosoever you are, you seem to be a person of worth, and you [will, shall] have the best horse in the stable; and if you have a quarrel and want a second, I offer myself to serve you upon another horse, and if you [will, shall] let me go along with you upon these terms, I [will, shall] ask no pawn of you for the horse." I told him I [would, should] use no second, and I desired him to accept one hundred pieces, which I had then about me, in pawn for the horse, and he [would, should] hear from me shortly again; and that though I did not take his noble offer of coming along with me, I [would, should] evermore rest much obliged to him: whereupon giving him

my purse with the money in it, I got upon his horse, and left my nag besides with him. — LORD CHERBURY.

3. The Castello di San Giorgio, or, as it [should, might, could, would] more properly have been [designated, called, named], the "Casa," or Villa di San Giorgio, was [built, erected, constructed] upon the summit of a small conical hill, amid the sloping bases of the Apennines, at a [part, portion, point] of their long range where the [tops, summits] were low and green. In that delightful [place, spot, country, neighborhood, region, district] the cultivation and richness of the plain is united to the wildness and [prettiness, sublimity, beauty, attractiveness] of the hills. The heat is tempered in the shady valleys and under the [dense, thick, solid, impenetrable] woods. A delicious [humidity, wetness, dampness, moisture] and soft haze hangs about these dewy, grassy places, which the sun has power to [warm, heat] and gladden, but not to parch. Flowers of every hue cover the ground beneath the oaks and elms. Nightingales sing in the thickets of wild rose and clematis, and the groves of laurel and of the long-leaved olives are [full of, swarming with, crowded with] small creatures in the full enjoyment of life and warmth. Little brooks and rippling streams, half [hidden, concealed, obscured] by the tangled thickets, and turned from their courses by the mossy rocks, flow down from the hill ravines, as joyful and clear as in that old time when each was the care of some [defending, protecting, shielding] nymph or rural god. In the waters of the placid lake are reflected the shadows of the hills, and the tremulous shimmer of waving woods. -SHORTHOUSE: JOHN INGLESANT.

B. Read the following paragraphs until you have complete possession of the thought. Then rewrite, substituting other expressions of equivalent meaning for those italicized. The change in phraseology may compel a change in grammatical structure.

1. The effect of the great freedom of the press in England has been, in a great measure, to destroy this distinction [between oratory and other forms of literature], and to leave among us little of what I call Oratory Proper. Our legislators, our candidates, on great occasions even our advocates, address themselves less to the audience than to the reporters. They think less of the few hearers than of the innumerable readers. At Athens the case was different; there the only object of the speaker was immediate conviction and persua sion. He, therefore, who would justly appreciate the merit of the Grecian orators should place himself, as nearly as possible, in the situation of their auditors: he should divest himself of his modern feelings and acquirements, and make the prejudices and interests of the Athenian citizen his own. He who studies their works in this spirit will find that many of those things which, to an English reader, appear to be blemishes, the frequent violation of those excellent rules of evidence by which our courts of law are regulated, the introduction of extraneous matter, the reference to considerations of political expediency in judicial investigations, the assertions, without proof, the passionate entreaties, the furious invectives, are really proofs of the prudence and address of the speakers. He must not dwell maliciously on arguments or phrases, but acquiesce in his first impressions. It requires repeated perusal and reflection to decide rightly on any other portion of literature. But with respect to works of which the merit depends on their instantaneous effect the most hasty judgment is likely to be best.

—

- MACAULAY: Essay on the Athenian Orators.

2. In the Netherlands a man of small capacity, with bits of wood and leather, will, in a few moments, construct a toy that, with the pressure of the finger and thumb, will cry "cuckoo! cuckoo!" With less of ingenuity and inferior

materials the people of Ohio have made a toy that will, without much pressure, cry "Previous question, Mr. Speaker! Previous question, Mr. Speaker!"

C. Fill the blanks with who, whom, which, or that, and select the fitting words from the brackets:

DECEMBER 13 (1710).

An old friend of mine being lately come to town, I went to see him on Tuesday last about eight o'clock in the evening, with a design to sit with him an hour or two, and talk over old stories; but upon inquiring after him, I found he was gone to bed. The next morning, as soon as I was up and dressed, and had despatched a little business, I came again to my friend's house about eleven o'clock, with a design to renew my visit; but upon asking for him, his servant told me he was just sat down to dinner. In short, I found that my old-fashioned friend [zealously, religiously, devotedly] adhered to the example of his forefathers, and observed the same hours . . had been kept in the family ever since the Conquest.

It is very [certain, plain, obvious, clear, sure, apparent] that the night was much longer formerly in this island than it is at present. By the night, I mean that portion of time nature has thrown into darkness, and . . . the wisdom of mankind had formerly dedicated to rest and silence. This used to begin at eight o'clock in the evening and conclude at six in the morning. The curfew or eight o'clock bell was the [sign, token, signal, device] throughout the nation for putting out their candles and going to bed. Our grandmothers, though they were wont to sit up the last in the family, were all of them fast asleep at the same hours their daughters are busy at crimp and basset. Modern statesmen are concerting schemes, and engaged in