La Gradation (climax, anti-climax) is the arrangement of ideas in increasing or decreasing order of quantity, size, or importance : Va, cours, vole, et nous venge. Un souffle, une ombre, un rien, tout lui donnait la fièvre. Vous êtes grand comme le monde. Ce clocher est pointu comme une aiguille. L'Interrogation (rhetorical question) as a figure of speech is used not so much to express a question as to attract attention : Remportait-il quelque avantage? A l'en croire, ce n'était pas lui. Rendait-il compte d'une bataille? Il n'oubliait rien, sinon que c'était lui qui l'avait gagnée. Exclamation. To express a sudden emotion : O Corse à cheveux plats! Que ta France était belle, L'Apostrophe is an invocation of someone living or dead, of something present or absent: O Paris! qu'attends-tu? La famine ou la honte ? Sous l'aiguillon du sang qui dans ton cœur remonte, La Prosopopée represents things, dead persons, time, etc., as actively interested. Here is a well-known example from the address of Bonaparte to his soldiers in the Egyptian campaign : Soldats! soldats! songez que du haut de ces pyramides quarante siècles vous contemplent ! " III. EXERCICES PRÉPARATOIRES Chapter I.-Exercices élémentaires 1. Conseils généraux.-The first condition to be fulfilled before any attempt is made at free composition or essay-writing of a more or less difficult character, is the acquisition of a fair vocabulary and sufficient practice with it to render the expression of thoughts in French an easy matter. With pupils trained on the direct method, the preliminary exercises in this chapter may be begun during the second year. Assuming a previous study of the vocabulary, and before beginning preliminary exercises, a few words of advice may be given. Concentrate your mind on the subject to be treated. This will prevent you from misunderstanding what exactly you are to treat. Read attentively every word and weigh the meaning very carefully in each case. He who sets the subject most probably knows his business; it will be yours to find out what he means you to do, and this may not (in many cases will not) be evident at first sight. Thought, together with previous training, will be required. If you are careful, you will refrain from writing about anything but the subject, a mistake only too common. Avoid hurrying, but do not waste time. Hurry accounts for many mistakes that, otherwise, would not have escaped detection. Waste of time has often caused failure in examinations where there is a choice of subjects. Candidates try one of them, then reject it for another, with little better results. They remind us of Buridan's ass, which, because it could not make its mind whether first to satisfy hunger or thirst, died of both. up 30 "Please Be accurate. No one would ever write to a draper: send me some material for a dress." It would be felt necessary to specify whether the material was to be of wool, cotton, or silk, whether it was to be cheap or of superior quality, plain or striped, thick or thin, red or grey, whether one or six yards were required, etc. Yet the very students who would have readily supplied all these details and many more, will sin in this respect when dealing with essay-writing. Make sure that every word written is correctly spelt. If at home, use a dictionary, if sitting for an examination reject any word about which you are doubtful. Lastly, write legibly and neatly, punctuate appropriately, and do not forget accents. 2. Sets of words to turn into connected prose.-The most elementary kind of exercises, the introduction, so to speak, to essay-writing in a foreign language, is to write connected prose with the help of the necessary vocabulary. This exercise affords an opportunity to give the first hints, as to grouping and arranging the materials provided. A book of vocabularies 1 in which words are systematically grouped will offer an endless list of subjects. I shall confine myself here to a few examples fully treated, as they should be in the class-room, and in addition provide materials for a few more subjects.2 First Word-Group: Les Sens Introduction: Homme, animaux, avoir, sens; odorat, goût, toucher. vue, ouïe, Les organes: Organes, correspondants, être : yeux, pour, vue; oreilles, ouïe; nez, odorat; langue, palais, goût; corps, mains, toucher. Usages: Vue, nous, permettre, distinguer, couleur, forme, 1 Such as the author's Vocabulaire Français (Bell), or Rippmann's Picture Vocabulary (Dent), or Guerra's French Word Groups (Dent). 2 See also Miss Bull's Easy Free Composition (Dent). objets. A l'aide de, ouïe, entendre, différent, sons. Odeurs, être, percevoir, odorat. Goût, faculté, apprécier, nourriture, boisson. Par, toucher, se rendre compte, si, chose, être, dure, molle, chaude, froide, rugueuse, unie. Absence Homme, qui, ne pas, entendre, être, sourd. Un muet, parler, pas. Conclusion: Tous, organe, très, important, pour, vivre. It will be noticed that from the very first the pupil must be trained to take into account the following points : 1. Ideas and the words used to express them must be grouped and form paragraphs. 2. A certain logical order should be adopted for these paragraphs. 3. Variety of expression should be aimed at. With the help of this set of words, connected prose should be obtained from the pupils both orally and in writing, first looking at the book, then dispensing with it. When the whole subject~ is familiar, and not before, other ways of expressing the same thing may be given. Further exercises given to pupils may present more or less grammatical difficulties according to the standard of the class: for example, beginners are usually given nouns with the suitable number and gender, verbs in the proper tense and person. Later, only the infinitive of the verbs and the mere noun are shown. The words may also be given in any order and pupils asked to group them (with books closed) in a suitable manner. They may be asked to find appropriate headings for each group. Second Word Group: Les Saisons Introduction: L'année, diviser, saison: printemps, été, automne, hiver. Description: Le, hiver, être, saison, peu, agréable. Il y a, beaucoup, neige; il, pleuvoir, constamment. Glace, sur, rivière, lac, étang. Quelque, plaisir, par, exemple: patinage. 1 Au, printemps, plus, gai. Fleur, commencer, paraître. Température, douce, plus, agréable. En, été, faire, généralement, chaud. Vacances, avoir, lieu. Saison, très, agréable. Automne, feuilles, tomber. Triste saison. Conclusion: Saisons, ressembler, vie. In this essay avoid the usual pitfalls. Do not give dates (an essay is not an "almanac "), nor technical information about the causes of the seasons which would be out of place in an elementary essay and would betray a lack of the sense of proportion. As you must confine yourself to generalities, give only the most characteristic features of each season. Third Word Group: Le Corbeau et le Renard Introduction: Le corbeau, être, percher, sur, arbre, tenir, dans, son, bec, fromage, Le, renard, sentir, désirer. Parler, ainsi. Développement: Joli, corbeau, si, votre, chant, être, aussi, beau, que, plumage, vous, être, phénix. A, ces, mot, corbeau, vaniteux, chanter; fromage, tomber; renard, le, saisir; se moquer de, corbeau. Conclusion: Corbeau, jurer, jamais, écouter, flatteur. 3. Passages for reproduction As soon as the pupils have acquired a certain amount of proficiency, they should reproduce passages of prose or poetry, the meaning of which has been first explained to the class. C La Cigale et la Fourmi I.-La cigale ayant chanté Tout l'été, Se trouva fort dépourvue Pas un seul petit morceau De mouche ou de vermisseau (petit ver). |