until the group can give no more words. Each word should be classified when given, thus: inspect (verb), inspection (noun), spectacular (adjective), spectacularly (adverb). When group A has done its best, if group B can add no word, group A wins one point; but if group B can add any words, each counts one point for B. Also if group B challenges a word given by group A, the latter group must use the word correctly in an English sentence, or lose one point to group B. Group B has its "inning" in the same way with the next Latin word. After ten minutes the teacher" calls the game" and announces the score. THE GAME OF CORRECT SENTENCES This can be played when the class writes upon the board its translations of sentences from English into Latin. The class itself is regarded as one "team," opposed to which is the "Team of Errors." As the game proceeds (i.e. as the sentences are corrected), the score is kept upon the board (as is the "score by runs " in baseball). There is an "inning" for each sentence. If the sentence is perfect in every respect, including the marking of quantities, one run is scored for the class and the sentence itself is starred; if there is the slightest mistake, the faulty sentence scores one for "The Errors." The team with the larger number of runs wins. The game can be varied by dividing the class into two sections ("sides") and assigning to both sides the same number of sentences to be written. An absolutely correct sentence counts as one "run," otherwise the side fails to score. In each inning the sides present one sentence apiece for criticism. At the end of the game the side with the larger number of runs is declared the winner. Correct sentences are starred. INTRODUCTION I. THE ROMANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE, "LATIN" In order really to understand our language, "English," and the world in which we live, we need to know about the ancient Romans and their language, Latin. 1. The Ancient Romans, Their Empire, Civilization, and Influence. The Romans at first lived in the central part of Italy. Their little settlement of shepherds on a hill1 near the Tiber river became in time the great city of Rome, which, according to legend, was founded in 753 B.C.; from this date therefore they reckoned time, as we do from the birth of Christ. The central part of Italy on the western side was called Latium'; the peoples there were Latins, and the language of the Romans was called Latin. North of Latium were the Etruscans, who had fine cities while Rome was still a settlement of shepherds; 1 EARLY ROME. The original settlement was on the Palatine Hill (which later became the residence of the Roman emperors, so that our English word "palace" is derived from it). Settlements on neighboring hills in time united with that on the Palatine. The low ground between the hills, the Forum, served as a market place and civic center. A second market place, nearer the river, was the Forum Boarium, which became the early commercial center. On the adjacent Capitoline Hill was a citadel, for Rome owed much of its early importance to its being a border fortress of the Latins at a point where an island in midstream made it easy for the hostile Etruscans to cross the Tiber. The Janiculum, a hill across the river, served as a fortified outpost to keep the Etruscans even from the farther bank. It "guarded the bridgehead" of the Sublician bridge. Cf. 84. |