ORAL ENGLISH
=Exercise 135=
RETELL a story that you know or one that the instructor has read to you.
See if you can tell the whole story in fairly long sentences without
using a single _and_. You will be allowed to use three _and's_. As soon
as you say the third, you must take your seat. Let the class keep count.
The story may be an anecdote, a fable, or any other short incident that
can easily be told in one or two minutes. You probably have read many
such or have heard your father and your mother tell them. A joke that
can be told in two or three sentences will not be long enough.
The excessive use of _and_ spoils the telling of many stories. It is a
mistake to think that the gap between the end of one sentence and the
beginning of the next appears as great to the listener as it does to us
as we are deliberating what to say next. To avoid the gap we bridge the
two sentences with _and_. Its use in this way is hardly ever necessary
if we think out a sentence to the end before we begin to speak it. When
we have finished the thought, we should finish the sentence without
trying to bind it artificially to the next one. The sentences will be
bound together if the thought of one grows out of the thought of the
preceding one.
If the unfolding of the idea does not seem sufficient to tie the parts,
there are better expressions to use than _and_. There are short
expressions like _in this way_, _likewise_, _moreover_, _thus_,
_therefore_, _besides_, _as might be expected_, and _too_. Another way
to avoid _and_ is to change the form of the sentence: (1) better than
the form, "I opened the window _and saw_," is, "_Opening_ the window, I
saw;" (2) better than "I am going to the store _and buy_ some sugar,"
is, "I am going to the store _to buy_ some sugar;" (3) better than
"There was a boy _and his name_ was John," is, "There was a boy _whose_
name was John;" (4) better than "I reached home _and found_ that my
cousin had arrived," is, "_When_ I reached home, I found that my cousin
had arrived." In place of _and_, therefore, we may use (1) participles,
(2) infinitives, (3) relative pronouns, and (4) subordinate
conjunctions.
Above all, avoid _and everything_, as in, "I washed the dishes and swept
the floor and everything." To try thus to complete an idea that is
already complete shows childishness.
=Exercise 136=
Very likely in telling the story as suggested above you found yourself
frequently using the word _so_ to connect two sentences. Perhaps, too,
you used _why_ to begin sentences.
Now tell one of your own experiences, being careful not to use _and_,
_so_, or _why_. Introduce as much conversation as possible. What, if
any, is the advantage of telling a story in the first person? Why is it
good to introduce conversation?
In your conversation make use of several of the following words:
replied whispered spoke inquired
answered agreed cried explained
asked exclaimed shouted remarked
questioned repeated continued suggested
promised maintained objected rejoined
interrupted quoted returned added
=Exercise 137=
Far too many boys and girls pay but little regard to the matter of
choosing the word that will give the exact meaning that they wish to
convey. In order to lend force to their words they have formed the habit
of speaking in superlatives; like the girl who said, "We had a perfectly
grand time, but I'm so beastly tired now that I'm nearly dead," and yet
she showed no evidence of suffering.
Isn't it a pity that our beautiful English language should be so
degraded in common usage that it loses all its force and meaning?
Instead of convincing people that she really was tired, the girl quoted
above made herself ridiculous by her exaggeration. Yet isn't the
quotation a fair example of the speech of many boys and girls? Surely
everything about us is not either grand or beastly. The habit thus
formed is difficult to break, but it must be broken if we wish to speak
our language correctly.
* * * * *
Make a list of the slang phrases that you have acquired. For each one
substitute a good English expression.
* * * * *
The reason we must watch our oral English closely is that it is in our
conversation that our habits of speech are formed. The expressions we
use then we unconsciously employ when we are writing or talking to the
class. If we are accustomed to use considerable slang when we speak, we
shall have difficulty in eliminating it from our writing or in finding a
good word to express the idea for which we usually use slang. As a rule,
slang and extravagant expressions of all kinds are used to serve such a
variety of meanings that the use of them tends to limit the vocabulary
to these expressions. Consider slang something undesirable and stop
using it.
=Exercise 138=
Look up the words in each of the following groups. You will notice that
there is a resemblance of meaning between all the words of each group,
but that there is also a shade of difference in meaning that
distinguishes each word from its companions. Discover that shade of
difference. Use each word in a sentence.