These questions are not recommended as essential, but merely as suggestive and perhaps useful to teachers who prefer the Socratic method. They might also serve to call the attention of students to some point which they would otherwise overlook.
The general questions and those in ordinary type may be answered from the text itself; the answers to those in italics are to be found in other parts of the book, in a history of the United States, or in a cyclopedia. The questions in italics may of course, like all the rest, be omitted at the discretion of the teacher. The research required to answer such questions, however, will be of great value to the students, if they have the time for it. See also the suggestions given in the Preface.
General Questions.
These questions apply to all the authors, and hence will not be repeated under each name.
1. Give the date of birth, and the date of death of those not living. 2. Where was the author born? 3. Where did he pass his life? 4. What was his education? 5. What was his profession and what positions, if any, did he fill? 6. Describe his character. 7. His style of writing. 8. Give the names of his Works. 9. Title and contents of the extracts given. 10. Learn the short extracts and poems by heart. 11. Find on the map all the places mentioned. (This is of prime importance, and I beg that this question may never be omitted).
FIRST PERIOD, 1579-1750.
John Smith.—1. Why did Captain Smith fight against the Turks? 2. When did he come to America? 3. How did he spend his time after 1609? 4. What other settlement was in America at this time besides Jamestown? 5. By whom and when made?
William Strachey.—1. What is the special fame of this description of a storm? 2. Give some features of it. 3. Who was ruler of England at this time?
John Lawson.—1. Why did he come to Carolina, and when? 2. Tell of his sad death. 3. What is the story of “Sir Walter Raleigh’s Ship”? (See the poem, “The Palatine Ship,” by William Gilmore Simms) 4. Was there any settlement in South Carolina at this time? 5. If so when and by whom made?