CSEC English

Hello there! We’re working now with students who are in the third and fourth form classes at school—getting reading for exams in 2019 and 2020. The key to doing well in exams is to work steadily in the time leading up to them, rather than trying to cram at the last minute. We want to help you, so we invite you to join us every Sunday to look at various aspects of the CSEC English A and B syllabi. Read on now, and enjoy your CSEC English page.

LITERARY DEVICES

You have come across the term ‘imagery’, haven’t you? It’s used a lot in discussion of literature. What exactly does it mean? Well, an ‘image’ is a picture of something. In literature, writers create images—mental pictures—to help the reader imagine (there’s that word ‘image’ again!) what is being described.

We saw last week how both similes and metaphors create mental images. When Hopkins writes “The Holy Ghost over the bent/World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings”, we spot those words broods, breast, wings and we get a mental image of a bird protecting its young. The metaphor comparing the spirit of God to a mother bird is very effective in suggesting to us the love and protection offered by the Creator. Similarly, when Wordsworth writes, “The City now doth, like a garment, wear/The beauty of the morning”, a picture or image comes into our mind of a woman, say, wearing a beautiful ‘garment’. In the simile here, the City itself is wearing a lovely garment—and that garment is the beauty of the morning. It’s very effective, isn’t it? As the sunlight spreads over the city, it makes the whole place look gorgeous—just as a lovely garment would make the wearer look more beautiful. Interestingly, just as a garment can be put on AND taken off, so the effect of the sunlight is only transitory, and in a matter of minutes the city will look ordinary once again.

PERSONIFICATION

Now that we have revised simile and metaphor, let’s turn to a third type of imagery: personification.

That word ‘personification’ contains a clue to its meaning: the little word ‘person’. Personification is a literary device in which an abstraction or something non-human is talked about as if it is a person.

Sylvia Plath uses personification in her poem Mirror. We are familiar with the story of Snow White, and the wicked queen who consulted her talking mirror every day to make sure that she was still the ‘fairest in the land’. Plath cleverly allows her mirror to be the speaker in the poem (turning the mirror into a person). When the mirror describes his own personality, he uses words that are only used to describe human beings: he claims to be “not cruel, only truthful”, and says that he has ‘no preconceptions’, and is unmoved by either ‘love or dislike’ in making his assessment of what he sees.

EFFECTIVENESS OF PERSONIFICATION

Plath achieves a great deal by personifying the mirror. She makes us dislike the mirror because it seems so arrogant and uncaring, and consequently we feel sorry for the woman who finds no consolation when she looks into the mirror, hoping to be reassured that she is beautiful. We wish that she were not so dependent on the mirror’s good opinion of her, and we want to free her from his power to make her unhappy. The device is most effective: it makes us feel compassion for the woman, and intense dislike for the mirror. As we contemplate the poem, we realize that many women (and perhaps some men too) are so preoccupied with their looks that they become almost suicidal if they see a spot or a wrinkle, or notice extra fat here or there or bags under their eyes!

CAN WE SAY “MORE LATER”? Let’s think about that question! Look at this chart:

From the chart you can see that to form the “comparative” (in other words, to make a comparison), you will add –ER to the end of a short word OR you will put “more” in front of a long word.

So the answer to the question is NO!! We have already added –ER to turn “late” into “later”, so it would be wrong to also put “MORE” in front. It is wrong to say this: This is the most hardest Maths problem I have ever worked on. My best friend is

ASSORTED COMPARISONS Inferior TO

more younger than I am. Normally our comparative adjectives are followed by THAN as in the chart above. Please note that these examples follow a different pattern: Junior TO, senior TO, inferior TO, superior TO. • Miss Brown is senior to the typist who joined us only last week. • The cell phone that you bought is superior to the model I have.

Less and Least We can also make comparisons with “less” and “the least”. Look at these examples: • The student thought that French would be less difficult • Of the four boys, Robert is the least athletic. than Spanish.

Less and fewer Use “less” for an amount that CANNOT be counted (less sugar, less ability, less courage) Use “fewer” for an amount that CAN be counted (fewer marbles, fewer candles, fewer employees)

Older and elder Use “elder” before a noun: my elder sister Otherwise, use “older”: My sister is older than I am.

Worse and worst When things are going downhill for us, we often say: ‘Things went from bad to worse’.

And then if the downhill ride gets totally out of control, we say: ‘If worse comes to worst’, we’ll have to declare bankruptcy’—or something like that.

NB People often get this expression wrong. They say ‘If worse comes to worse’, or sometimes, ‘If worst comes to worst’. Both of those are wrong. Think about it, and you’ll see that it has to be, ‘If worse comes to worst’—showing the progression from the very bad to the completely bad!

ALWAYS COMPARE LIKE THINGS.

You will agree that it is impossible to compare, let’s say, light bulbs with doors, cats with pencils, umbrellas with chocolate ice cream! Amazingly, though, we do silly things like that in sentences. What is wrong with these sentences? • Your essay is better than Mary. • The population of London is greater than New York.

Correct: Your essay is better than than that of New York!

TIME TO PRACTISE

Choose the most suitable word from the brackets, and put it in its correct form. 1. Rats are (small, large) than mice. 2. Motor-racing is (dangerous, safe) than playing table-tennis. 3. Travelling by air is (slow,fast), (safe, dangerous) but (cheap, expensive) than

travelling in a taxi. 4. Many people regard Sunday as (busy, pleasant) day of the week. 5. Mr Smith is recovering from his operation. He is much (weak, strong) than he was a week ago, and his general condition is much (good, bad). Friday was his (bad) day for the week. 6. Girls are (honest, strong) than boys, but sometimes are (tough, talkative) too.

Put in

less, more, the most

7. Gold is ………… .expensive than silver. Therefore silver is………costly than

gold. 8. Human beings have …………… advanced homes than wild animals do but their

senses are usually ………… ..developed. 9. In a desert, ………..valuable commodity is water, and ………..useful is sand. 10. In Europe, ……..pleasant months for foreign visitors are probably June to August, and ………… attractive (because of poor weather) are January and February. 11. Carol is one of ………… .selfish people I know: she is always willing to share. 12. There is a well-known saying: “………… ..haste; ……….speed”

Time to Practise

or

Mary’s.

the least.

The population of London is greater

1 larger, 2 more dangerous, 3 faster, safer, but more expensive, 4 the most pleasant, 5 weaker, better, worst, 6 stronger, tougher, 7 more expensive, less costly, 8 more advanced, less developed, 9 the most valuable commodity, the least useful, 10 the most pleasant, the least attractive, 11 the least, 12 More haste; less speed.