E.—la

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English Grammar and Composition. — For Class E and Junior Civil Service. Time allowed: 3 hours. 1. Point out, and explain the force of, the prefixes in—colloquial, irrevocable, succumb, superfluous, circumspectly, impervious. Write sentences showing that you understand the meaning of these words. 2. "That the congregation may thereby be satisfied, which before were offended." How do you account for this use of a plural verb with a singular nominative ? Mention, with examples, two or three other words that admit of a similar construction. 3. Distinguish between imperfect participles and gerunds or verbal nouns. Parse all the words in -ing in the following passages : — (a.) Oh ! who can hold a fire in his hand By thinking of the frosty Caucasus ? (6.) When midnight bells cease ringing suddenly, (c.) The sound of the church-going bell These valleys and rocks never heard. (d.) The younger people, making holiday, Went nutting to the woods, (c.) He told me with a bumpkin grin, A weakly intellect denoting, He'd rather not invest it in A company of my promoting. 4. Unhappy he, who, from the first of joys, Society, cut off, is left alone Amid this world, of death. Day after day Sad on the jutting eminence he sits And views the main that ever toils below ; Still fondly forming in the farthest verge, Where the round ether mixes with the sky, Ships, dim-discovered, dropping from the clouds. Parse the words—Society, cut, alone, forming, farthest, ships. Analyse the passage, day after day, &c, to toils below. Explain clearly the meaning of the last three lines. 5. Punctuate the following, and put capital letters where required : — When he was returned honest man said Sancho let me see that cane a little I have a use for it with all my heart answered the other sir here it is and with that he gave it him Sancho took it and giving it to the other old man there said he go your ways and heaven be with you for now you are paid how so my lord cried the old man do you judge this cane to be worth ten. gold crowns certainly said the governor or else I am the greatest dunce in the world and now you shall see whether I have not a headpiece fit to govern a whole kingdom this said he ordered the cane to be broken in open court which was no sooner done than out dropped the ten crowns. 6. The first four of the following sentences contain grammatical mistakes, and the second four some faults of expression. Point out and correct what is wrong in each case : — The very two individuals whom he thought were far away. A man may see a metaphor or an allegory in a picture as well as read them in a description. The plan proposed by Mr. Bright was certainly one of the boldest that has ever been put forward. He is not one of those who interferes in matters that do not concern him. In his ranting way, half-poetical, half-inspired, and half-idiotic, Coleridge began to console me. I have a singular power of seeing in the dusk, for though long-sighted, or perhaps for that reason, brilliant sunlight only dazzles me, in a dim uncertain light I can trust my eyes not to deceive me. It was the most amiable, although the least dignified, of all the party struggles by which it had been preceded. The future of the novel cannot be predicted, and had better not be attempted. 7. " When a nation has a real belief in culture, and when its schools are worthy of this belief, it will not suffer them to be sacrificed to any other interest; and, however greatly political considerations may be paramount in other departments of administration, in this they arc not." This sentence might be written : "A nation will not suffer its schools to be sacrificed to any other interest when it has a real belief in culture, and when its schools are w rorthy of this belief; and political considerations are not paramount in this department of administration, however greatly they may be in others." Examine the construction of the sentence, and show why as first written it has a great superiority in precision and force. 8. Write a short essay on— Any favourite book; remarking on its style and purpose, and the pleasure or profit you have derived from reading it; Or, Eiver Scenery; Or, Loyalty. 9. Write down, as an exercise in spelling, the words dictated by the Supervisor. [The words were —Circuit, assuage, auxiliary, prophecies (noun), beneficent, forfeiture, buoyant, guiltily, admissible, prophesies (verb), tenacious, variegated, vacillating, fulfilment, capricious, stationery (noun), flageolet, jeopardy, pavilion, cylinder, mischievous, portraiture, assassin, synonymous, confederacy.]