EXERCISES

Explain orally the following propositions by explaining any of the terms likely to be unfamiliar or misunderstood: 

1.  The purpose of muscular contraction is the production of motion.

2.  Ping-pong is lawn tennis in miniature, with a few modifications.

3.  An inevitable dualism bisects nature.

4.  Never inflict corporal chastisement for intellectual faults.

5.  Children should be led to make their own investigations and to draw their own inferences.

6.  The black willow is an excellent tonic as well as a powerful antiseptic.

7.  Give the Anglo-Saxon equivalent for “nocturnal.”

8.  A negative exponent signifies the reciprocal of what the expression would be if the exponent were positive.

+Theme XC.+—­Write an explanation of one of the following:

1.  Birds of a feather flock together.

2.  Truths and roses have thorns about them.

3.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

4.  Who keeps company with a wolf will learn to howl.

5.  He gives nothing but worthless gold, who gives from a sense of duty.

6.  All things that are, Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.

7.  Be not simply good—­be good for something.

8.  He that hath light within his own clear breast, May sit i’ the center, and enjoy bright day; But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the midday sun; Himself is his own dungeon.

(Select the sentence that seems most difficult to you, determine what it means, and then attempt to make an explanation that will show that you thoroughly understand its meaning.)

+164.  Exposition by Repetition.+—­In discussing paragraph development (Section 50) we have already learned that the meaning of a proposition may be made clearer by the repetition of the topic statement.  This repetition may be used to supplement the definition of terms, or it may by itself make clear both the meaning of the terms and of the proposition.  Each repetition of the proposition presents it to the reader in a new light or in a stronger light.  Each time the idea is presented it seems more definite, more familiar, more clear.  Such statements of a proposition take advantage of the fact that the reader is thinking, and we merely attempt to direct his thought in such a way that he will turn the proposition over and over in his mind until it is understood.

Notice how the following propositions are explained largely by means of repetitions, each of which adds a little to the original statement.