Read the following sentences. (a) Have you seen the pretty new picture in our hall? (b) Yes, I have seen it once or twice and I am going to see it again tomorrow. (c) I want to see it often; it is such a pretty picture. (d) Yesterday all the children from our class went to see it. (e) Our teacher says the picture is ours and we must go to look at it often. VIII. BOOKS I AM READING Are you reading books from the list on page 355? Be prepared to tell at the next language exercise about some good book that you have just read or that you are reading. Try to tell the following about the book in a one-minute speech: 1. The title of the book 2. The name of the author 3. What the book is about Think just what you want to say before you begin to speak. Then speak clearly and distinctly. Try to interest your classmates in the book that interests you, so that they will want to read it if they have not done so. IX. STUDYING A DIALOGUE STUDYING A DIALOGUE 87 Here is a conversation heard in a home. Mother: Alice, will you run upstairs and fetch my knitting? Alice: Where is your knitting, Mother? Mother: I think it is on the table in the sewing-room. Alice: No, it is not there. Mother: Did you look in the big work-basket? Alice: Yes, I did look there. Mother: Well, look about and see if you can't find it. It may be in my bedroom. Alice: I have looked everywhere, Mother. I can't find it. Mother: I am so tired! But I suppose I must climb the stairs and find it myself. I know it is somewhere in plain sight. That child never gets a thing she is sent for. We are now going to make a story from this conversation, or dialogue. What two people were talking? Where do you think Alice was when her mother asked her to go for the knitting? If the beginning of a story is interesting, a reader will wish to finish it. Which of these beginnings is the more interesting? (a) Once there was a little girl. One day she was sitting by the window. She was reading. Her mother spoke to her. (b) One afternoon as Alice sat by the window reading, her mother said, "Alice, will you run upstairs and fetch my knitting?" Write an interesting beginning for your story. Make a sentence telling how she went upstairs. How long did she look for the knitting before calling down to her mother? Was her voice always pleasant when she spoke? Make sentences telling what Alice said and what her mother said. Tell also how each spoke. Was it patiently, impatiently, or crossly? Make sentences telling how the story ended. Did the mother climb the stairs? Did she find her knitting? Where? Was it in plain sight? What did she say to Alice? Now begin at the beginning and tell the whole story. You may look at the conversation in your book while you are telling your story, so that you may be sure to tell exactly what was said. A conversation written in the form given on page 87 is called a dialogue. It gives only the words of persons. Such a story as you have just made from the dialogue is sometimes called a narrative. A narrative tells what persons do as well as what they say. WRITING A NARRATIVE X. WRITING A NARRATIVE FROM A DIALOGUE 89 After studying the conversation on page 87, write a story, The Girl who Couldn't Find Things. Before writing one word of a sentence, think the sentence through to the very end. You may keep your book open at the dialogue. Things to Remember 1. Every quotation in a narrative must be inclosed in quotation marks. In a dialogue, the name at the left tells who is speaking, and so the quotation marks are not needed. 2. Try to use as many different words for "said" as you can. Here are a few: replied, answered, responded, asked, cried. 3. There are two new uses for the comma in this lesson. When the mother speaks to the little girl, she calls her "Alice." Alice." You will find that when she does this, the word "Alice" is separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma. When the child speaks to her mother, calling her "Mother," the word "Mother" is separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma. The names of persons spoken to, or addressed, are separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. The words yes and no (the opposite of yes) are separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. Do not forget to use commas in your story. XI. SHOWING SELF-RELIANCE The child in the story you have just told could not be depended on. She was not self-reliant; that is, she did not depend on herself. When asked to do a thing, she did not feel and think: "This is my work. I must do it myself.” Write four sentences telling how you can show self-reliance in school · in attendance, in behavior, in study, in helpfulness. XII. WRITING CONTRACTIONS In Pippa's Song (p. 69) there is a contraction in every line. Write these contractions in a column, and opposite each write the words for which the contraction stands; thus, year's year is day's Things to Remember 1. A direct quotation, the exact words of a speaker, is always inclosed in quotation marks (""). "Good morning," said I. |