18. It (Death) was a word not to be [alluded to] to ears polite.
Oral Exercise.—The following sentences are from Lord Chesterfield’s letters to his son. As in the preceding exercise, choose the best word for each place in question.
1. Your own [remarks] upon mankind, when compared with those which you will find in books, will help you fix the true point.
2. There is nothing which I more wish that you should know, and which [less] people do know, than the true use and value of time.
3. Your [neglect] of dress, while you were a schoolboy, was pardonable, but would not be so now.
4. The [reputations] of kings and great men are only to be learned in conversation; for they are never fairly written during their lives.
5. What does Chesterfield mean by “in a good sense,” in the following? “Another, speaking in defence of a gentleman upon whom a censure was moved, happily said that he thought the gentleman was more liable to be thanked and rewarded, than censured. You know, I presume, that liable can never be used in a good sense.”
Review Exercise.—Let each word of the following list be taken up by itself. Each member of the class should give a sentence of his own, using the given word correctly.
Access, acceptance, alternative, avocation, observation, ability, capacity, character, discovery, limitation, party, portion, predominance, residence, except (verb), affect, effect, allude, claim, purpose, transpire, liable, apt, somewhat, quite, mad, practicable.