QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

1.  Name four methods for destroying monotony and gaining power in speaking.

2.  What are the four special effects of pause?

3.  Note the pauses in a conversation, play, or speech.  Were they the best that could have been used?  Illustrate.

4.  Read aloud selections on pages 50-54, paying special attention to pause.

5.  Read the following without making any pauses.  Reread correctly and note the difference: 

    Soon the night will pass; and when, of the Sentinel on the
    ramparts of Liberty the anxious ask:  | “Watchman, what of the
    night?” his answer will be | “Lo, the morn appeareth.”

Knowing the price we must pay, | the sacrifice | we must make, |
the burdens | we must carry, | the assaults | we must endure, |
knowing full well the cost, | yet we enlist, and we enlist | for
the war. | For we know the justice of our cause, | and we know,
too, its certain triumph. |

Not reluctantly, then, | but eagerly, | not with faint hearts, |
but strong, do we now advance upon the enemies of the people. |
For the call that comes to us is the call that came to our
fathers. | As they responded, so shall we.

    “He hath sounded forth a trumpet | that shall never call retreat,
    He is sifting out the hearts of men | before His judgment seat. 
    Oh, be swift | our souls to answer Him, | be jubilant our feet,
    Our God | is marching on.”

    —­ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE, From his speech as temporary chairman of
    Progressive National Convention, Chicago, 1912.

6.  Bring out the contrasting ideas in the following by using the pause: 

Contrast now the circumstances of your life and mine, gently and with temper, AEschines; and then ask these people whose fortune they would each of them prefer.  You taught reading, I went to school:  you performed initiations, I received them:  you danced in the chorus, I furnished it:  you were assembly-clerk, I was a speaker:  you acted third parts, I heard you:  you broke down, and I hissed:  you have worked as a statesman for the enemy, I for my country.  I pass by the rest; but this very day I am on my probation for a crown, and am acknowledged to be innocent of all offence; while you are already judged to be a pettifogger, and the question is, whether you shall continue that trade, or at once be silenced by not getting a fifth part of the votes.  A happy fortune, do you see, you have enjoyed, that you should denounce mine as miserable!

    —­DEMOSTHENES.

7.  After careful study and practice, mark the pauses in the following: