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Show THE PAUSE IN READING During the last ten years there has been a marked increase in the number of professional readers. The fact might suggest to an unobserving person that we are a nation of good readers, from whom the best have been called to delight the public ear. But the suggestion is not supported by the facts. In spite of schools of elocution and of common schools, too, it is difficult to find in private life a person who can read so as to please and instruct a family group. Perhaps the following dialogues translated for the ? Companion, from the French, may point out the cause of bad reading. A young man presented himself one day in the office of Mr. Samson, saying that he wished to be instructed in elocution, and the following conversation ensued. "You wish to take lessons in reading?" "Yes, sir." "Have you practiced reading aloud?" "Yes, sir; I have read many of the scenes in Shakespeare." "Before people?" "Yes." "Well, take this book and read the fable of the Oak and the Reed." The pupil began. "An oak one day, said to a reed- "That will do. You do not know how to read." "I suppose not, as I came here to take lessons. But how can you judge from one line-" "Well, begin again." The young man read as before, "An oak one day said to a reed." "I saw it before. You cannot read." "But-" "But, Yes. Does an adverb belong to a verb, or to a substantive? ‘One day" is here adverbial and should be joined to ‘said.' You should read, "An oak (comma) one day said to a reed." "That is true!" exclaimed the young man somewhat taken by surprise. "One of the most important points in reading is punctuation." "How! punctuation in reading, how can that be?" "By the pause. The pause is to the ear what the punctuation marks are to the eye. They do not, however, always coincide. The pause is also sometimes lighter than such as would be indicated by a comma, but by it a sentence is so arranged that the words which belong to each other are brought together, and those which do not belong to each other are separated." "One of the first elements of good reading, therefore, is attention to the pause. When due attention is not given to this, the emphasis is liable to be misplaced and the sense obscured." |