Dr. Walter, in Frankfurt, has still another way of furthering his pupils’ familiarity with the resources of the foreign language; he dictates some of the sentences from what has been read, and lets the pupils themselves find as many different ways as possible of expressing the same thought. I shall reprint one of the sentences from his book, together with the pupils’ variants (marked with letters); they were written down in the course of 25 minutes: “ohne vorausgegangene besprechung” (in the second year of instruction, with, so far as I know, six hours a week); as will be seen, the variations are rather considerable.
The advantage of the English ships lay not in bulk, but in construction.
a. The English were overwhelming, not by the size of the ships, but their power lay in the construction of the ships.
b. In construction, not in bulk, lay the advantage of the English ships.
c. The English ships were superior to the Spanish not in bulk, but in construction.
d. The advantage of the English fleet (squadron) consisted not in bulk, but in construction.
e. The advantage of the English was the light construction of their ships.
f. The English had not large ships, but they were better constructed.
g. The power of the vessels of the English was not caused by the extent, but by the construction of the ships.