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Part 16

German Composition · Hermann Lange — chapter 16 of 240 · ~481 words · public domain

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+Er will Soldat werden.+

=Exception:= When the noun denoting the business or profession is preceded by an adjective, the indefinite article is used in German, as in English:

His father was a clever physician.

+Sein Vater war ein geschickter Arzt.+

When a =Proper Name= is used in the =Genitive Case=, it is generally placed before the governing noun, as in English: Schiller’s poems, +Schillers Gedichte+.

+Wißbegierde+, f.

How is the Passive Voice to be recognised? ‘To excite’, here +lebhaft an´regen+; construe accord. to S. 13, N. 5.

+aus´gestorben.+

in — sandstone, +in einem alten Rotsandsteinlager+; on which = where.

‘to inquire’, here +Nachforschungen anstellen+.

‘to make’ requires here the prep. +zu+ contracted with the def. art.; ‘that — geologist’, +machte mich schließlich auch zum Geologen+.

Section 15.

EXTREMES MEET.

When Diogenes, during the famous festival at Olympia, saw some young men of Rhodes arrayed most magnificently, he (App. § 15) exclaimed smiling: “This is pride!” And when, afterwards, he met with some Lacedæmonians in a mean and sordid dress, he said: “And this is also pride!”—REV. R. K. ARVINE.

+Die Extreme berühren sich.+

the festival at Olympia, +die Olympischen Feste. Diese berühmten Feste, auch Olympische Spiele genannt, wurden in jedem fünften Jahre am ersten Vollmond nach der Sonnenwende (Anfang Juli) bei Olympia zu Ehren des Zeus gefeiert. Sie dauerten fünf Tage und bestanden in Wettrennen (zu Wagen, zu Pferd und zu Fuß) und in gymnastischen Spielen aller Art.+

Contrary to English practice, =the comma is, as a rule, not used in German to enclose adverbs or adverbial clauses of time, manner, and place=.

‘to see’, here +erblicken+, which place after ‘Rhodes’; young men = youths; ‘of’, here +aus+; Rhodes, +Rhodus+.

‘arrayed — magnificently’. Turn these words into a relative clause, and say: ‘which were most magnificently (+aufs prächtigste+) arrayed (+schmücken+)’, according to the rule given in S. 7, N. 3, B.

to meet with a person, +einem begegnen+. Place the subject immediately after ‘when’. The Lacedæmonian, +der Lazedämonier+.

+armselig.+

+zerlumpt.+

Section 16.

POOR PAY.

When the Duke of Marlborough, immediately after the battle of Blenheim, observed a soldier leaning pensively on the butt-end of his musket, he accosted him thus: “Why so pensive, my friend, after so glorious a victory?” “It may be glorious,” replied the brave fellow, “but I am thinking that all the human blood I have spilled this day has only earned me fourpence.”—REV. R. K. ARVINE.

+Armselige Bezahlung.+

+Die Schlacht bei Blindheim+ (Engl. ‘Blenheim’) +wurde am 13ᵗᵉⁿ August 1704 von dem Herzog von Marlborough in Verbindung mit dem östereichischen Prinzen Eugen gegen die Franzosen gefochten. Blindheim ist ein kleines bayerisches Dorf bei Höchstädt, an der Donau. Die Schlacht wurde zu gunsten der Verbündeten entschieden, und der Herzog von Marlborough erhielt für diesen glänzenden Sieg von der Königin Anna ein prachtvolles Schloß+ (Blenheim House) +bei Woodstock in Oxfordshire zum Geschenk.+

Place the verb ‘observed’ after the noun ‘soldier’.

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