"And the people have blue noses, eh? Ha! ha! Excuse me, then, but is a milksop a man from some state, or some country, too?"
At tea some one used the word "claptrap." "What's that?" quickly demanded the student in our midst. "'Claptrap'—'clap' is so (he struck his hands together); 'trap' is for rats—what is, then, 'claptrap'?"
"It is a vulgar or unworthy bid for applause," I explained.
"Bah!" he contemptuously exclaimed. "I know him,—that cheap actor who plays at the gallery. He is, then, in English a 'clap-trapper,' is he not?"
It was hardly possible to meet him without having a word or a term offered thus for explanation.
—Clara Morris: Alessandro Salvini ("McClure's").
B. Write six sentences which might be developed into paragraphs by giving specific instances.
+Theme XXI.+—Write a paragraph by furnishing specific instances for one of the following topic statements:—
1. Nine tenths of all that goes wrong in this world is because some one does not mind his business.
2. It requires a man of courage and perseverance to become a pioneer.