Follow these links for a flavour of what’s happening in the world of digital texts:

www.futureofthebook.org.uk
www.bookfutures.com
www.fictional-stimulus.ning.com
www.ifsoflo.ning.com
www.insearchoflosttim.net
www.songsofimaginationanddigitisation.net
www.thegoldennotebook.org

Related posts:

1. Two Hour Guest Appearance On BBC World Service
2. Unsentimental education — Book Review
3. Why our schools have plunged in world league tables despite billions being spent

The agony of waiting is over. Yesterday was national offer day, when parents learnt if their children had got into their favoured secondary schools. Unfortunately, as many as 100,000 children and their families have been bitterly disappointed.

As a teacher who has taught at various comprehensives for 20 years, I know that means a lot of tears and pain. I have seen parents who hit the bottle and come raging on to the school premises, demanding that the school takes their child; parents who do nothing but pester the school secretaries on the phone or by email; and parents who have just given up in despair, despite the fact that they have good grounds to appeal.

The main things parents should remember is not to descend into a great panic, and to review their situation dispassionately. What many don’t grasp is that if they fail to meet the admissions criteria of a school, children won’t get in, no matter how wonderful. The government has a strict admissions code that means schools have little room for manoeuvre: they can no longer just pick pupils they like the look of.

Parents are often confused by the wildly different criteria of various schools. Grammars can select pupils based on 11-plus exams, faith schools can choose from the relevant religious backgrounds, and specialist schools can select 10% of their intake according to a child’s aptitude in that specialism. To make things more complicated, some boroughs have banding and lottery systems whereby pupils are either selected by ability “band”, or randomly allocated one of the schools in the pot.

I’ve only really scratched the surface here: parents thinking of appealing should contact an expert. But don’t waste money on lawyers. The Advisory Centre for Education provides an excellent free service; and many boroughs have advisers who can help. Ultimately, however, only a quarter of appeals are successful, with the vast majority of parents having to accept that their child will not go to their favoured school.

True choice is a myth. All parents want are good local schools, but it appears no political party is interested in delivering them. Both Conservatives and Labour seem obsessed with in effect privatising the system by persuading companies, religious organisations and charities to run the show. The US has been doing this for two decades, and the most significant research shows that it doesn’t work: on average, children at state-run schools do significantly better than their counterparts at taxpayer-funded but privately run schools.

Perhaps even more worryingly, the concept of school choice has led to deep societal fractures, as the biggest ever study of charter schools in 16 states by Stanford’s Centre for Research on Education Outcomes found last year. Not only were many of these schools failing their pupils, it was proving difficult to shut them down on the grounds of poor academic performance. Nonetheless, Michael Gove, the Conservative education spokesman, is intent upon a mass privatisation of our schools, and Labour is hot on his heels. Last week Gordon Brown announced that he wants to give parents the power to vote headteachers out of their jobs and hire in private companies to run failing schools.

Yet the evidence shows that parents are tremendously supportive of schools, even when they are failing, as Charles Desforges established in a thorough research review conducted in 2003. His findings should reassure parents who were disappointed yesterday. They showed that if a parent talks regularly to their child, has high expectations and believes in the value of education, then that child will succeed – even in a school with a poor reputation.

Related posts:

1. Should parents pay for solicitors to help them get the school of their choice?
2. How you can win your school appeal
3. Turned Away at the School Gates

I appeared on BBC Breakfast talking about the issue. I was on with one teaching assistant who seemed to be at a school where violence was at an unacceptable level: she claimed that she was breaking up fights every day, although close questioning revealed that this didn’t really appear to be the case. What was distressing was her acceptance of violence. “Boys are boys, aren’t they?” she said. Well, no, boys can be taught to be civilised, no matter what their backgrounds.

The union ATL has produced  a survey saying that half of NQTs don’t feel qualified to deal with violence in schools and this issue in particular. Vernon Croaker, the Schools’ minister, croaked and mumbled that the government was doing a lot to solve the issue, but I felt the government send mixed signals: on the one hand, they want teachers to endanger themselves by stopping fights, but on the other, we find far too many cases of teachers being unjustly accused of manhandling children.

The ATL’s advice on this issue is pretty good, as is most of the unions. This is what unions are for: if teachers feel that the violence in their school is unacceptable and nothing is done about it, they MUST go to their union.

Related posts:

1. Give me more powers and I’ll stop my pupils fighting
2. Should a teacher be sacked for writing about his/her pupils?
3. Why We Should Give Teachers a Pay Rise

1. Comparing The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd. Marlowe’s poem is very passionate. What imagery does the poet use to make the shepherd’s love seem so passionate? What are the delights that the shepherd is offering? In Ralegh’s poem, the Nymph has many doubts about the delights that the shepherd promises. What are these doubts? What are the two poet’s contrasting attitudes towards the country and to love?
2. Comparing To Autumn page 47 and Binsey Poplars page 50. In To Autumn Keats personifies Autumn. What sort of person is Autumn? Explain the imagery that Keats uses to describe this season: explain what ‘close bosom-friend of the maturing sun’ means, describe what he is like in verse 2, the jobs he does and his laziness, and the music of Autumn in verse 3. In Binsey Poplars Manley Hopkins personifies the poplar trees, how does he do this? Both poems use complex rhythm and rhyme, and imagery to suggest the beauty and complexity of nature, how and why do they do this?
3. Comparing Beeny Cliff and The Eagle. Both poems attempt to describe the grandeur of nature. How and why do they do this? What imagery in the poems suggest the monumental qualities of nature?
4. The Way Through The Woods and On Wenlock Edge. Both poems are about the ways in the which the past affects the present. Explain the ways in which the imagery explores the world of the past.
5. The Lake Isle of Innisfree page 51 and Symphony in Yellow page 51. Both poems use three verses to suggest the magical qualities of the town and the country. How do the poets’ attitudes towards the town and country contrast? Discuss the ways in which the poets create certain effects through their use of imagery, rhythm and rhyme.
6. Conveyancing and A Dead House in Kensington Gardens. How do both poems suggest the difficulties of living and existing in  London? One poem is very humorous but has some serious criticisms of London, and the other uses mysterious, sad imagery to suggest the futility of living in the city.
7. Composed Upon Westminster Bridge and London. In what ways do the poets attitudes towards London contrast and differ in these poems?
8. The Song Of The Shirt and The World. In what ways do these poems suggest that we live in a hellish world?

Related posts:

1. Comparing Lake Isle of Innisfree and A Dead Harvest In Kensington
2. Romeo and Juliet: Exam questions on ‘Romeo and Juliet’ with page references for quotes
3. Compare in which the poets movingly portray sympathy for the loss of life in wartime in these two poems: The Deserter and The Hero.

Use this frame to help you!

Explore the different ways in which the poets portray nature  in ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’’ and ‘A Dead Harvest in Kensington’

Introduction: where you introduce the poems by explaining BRIEFLY what they are about. Remember you get most marks for COMPARING AND CONTRASTING THE POEMS

In this you COMPARE AND CONTRAST the  SUBJECTS AND THEMES of the poem, by pointing out THEIR SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

• In ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ Yeats is speaking of himself arising and going to Innisfree as if it is a place of refuge. The poem presents nature as a deeply spiritual and mystical place, where the growing of things has a magical quality. At the end of the poem, Yeats says that nature has such a profound effect upon him that he carries it in his “deep heart’s core”, in other words the experience of being in the natural world has given an inner power to combat the lifeless man-made world exemplified by the “grey” pavements of the city.
• However ‘ADHK’ is about how the city has killed off the natural world, not only by destroying plants and trees but also by destroying the “natural” part of man , Meynell compares this lifeless season to the lifeless town dwellers who lack spirituality.
• They both address the theme of nature, but Meynell is more pessimistic, perceiving the death of the natural world, whereas Keats sees…

Now lead into a detailed paragraph COMPARING AND CONTRASTING the IMAGERY of the poems, by pointing out THEIR SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

• Yeats conveys his positive impression of nature by using several images….PEAL  – whatever you like- “purple glimmer”  
• Meynell uses images of fire to suggest ………PEAL
• These images show different views on nature as one…….and the other….

COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE LANGUAGE, by pointing out THEIR SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES - comment on one or two poetic devices that really stand out to you in the poem

• Yeats uses many poetic devices to show us how much he likes autumn. What particularly stands out is his use of…..PEAL…ATMOSPHERE/MOOD/TONE
• Meynell…PEAL… ATMOSPHERE/MOOD/TONE

COMPARING AND CONTRASTING THE STRUCTURE, by pointing out THEIR SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES - (rhyme, rhyming couplets, rhythm, syllables, punctuation)

It is easy to comment on structure, but you must make it relevant

• The structure of The Lake Isle is that it is written in 3 stanzas. Yeats uses each stanza to show autumn in a different way………They describe the Isle in depth and its beautiful setting.
• Meynell uses a very regular rhyme scheme in her poem of  AA…This perhaps suggests how she feels that in the town there is no room for freedom; Everything is restricted and lifeless and relentless.

So, the fail safe formula for all your poetry essays is to ANSWER THE QUESTION AND COMPARE AND CONTRAST (similarities and differences)

• COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE SUBJECT AND THEME (introduction)
• COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE IMAGERY
• COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE LANGUAGE
• COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE STRUCTURE
• Conclusion.

For each point talk about each poem. Compare and contrast them!

Related posts:

1. Comparing Poems from Town and Country — mock exam questions
2. The role of families in war poetry; Spring Offensive; In Flanders’ Field and ‘The Falling Leaves’
3. Compare in which the poets movingly portray sympathy for the loss of life in wartime in these two poems: The Deserter and The Hero.

Presentation format:

On PowerPoint: give some history and a task for pupils to do. All presentations must include some definitions on standardisation. Ask FGI for help if necessary.

Devise a presentation on how spelling was standardised, the development of printing, dictionaries, mass education.

Devise a presentation on STANDARD ENGLISH and the media: when and why does the media use Standard English.

Devise a presentation on SEMANTIC AND LEXICAL CHANGE, looking particularly at DIALECTS and how and why they are dying off in our culture.

Devise a presentation on the History of the English Language, looking at key figures in the development of the language, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, the mass media in the twentieth century.

Devise a presentation on the differences between DIACHRONIC and SYNCHRONIC CHANGE

Devise  a presentation on the STANDARDISATION of Shakespeare’s language. Look at issues such as “false friends”, look at Crystal’s Encyclopedia.

Devise a presentation on Chaucer, looking at the different translations of Chaucer.

Devise a presentation on the ways in which STANDARD ENGLISH is the language of power, and how it made certain words and phrases taboo. Look in particular at the language connected with taboo subjects such as the ways in which SCIENCE has standardised the words connected with reproduction.

Devise a presentation on how dramatists in the theatre use and “abuse” Standard English. Look at plays you like and enjoy.

Devise a presentation on how and why non-standard forms of English create humour. Eg Fawlty Towers.

Devise a presentation on how and why the language connected with SPORT/BUSINESS/SCIENCE has become standardised.

Devise a presentation on SEMANTIC AND LEXICAL CHANGE, looking particularly at DIALECTS and how and why they are dying off in our culture.

Devise a presentation on the uses of dictionaries in the culture and the ways in which they have standardised the language.

PRESENTATIONS:

Standardisation

According to ISO, it is the process of formulating and applying rules for an orderly approach to a specific activity for the benefit and cooperation of all concerned, and in particular for the promotion of the over all economy, considering due safety requirements.

SEMANTIC AND LEXICAL CHANGE, looking particularly at DIALECTS and how and why they are dying off in our culture.

Dialects – the loss of status

Dialect – is a regional or social variety of language distinguished by             features of vocabulary, pronunciation, and discourse that differ         from other varieties.

• •The relationship between sound and spelling in the English language is not straight forward.  The way words sound are not the way they are spelt.  For instance there are many ways of spelling the same vowel sound ‘ee’, e.g. free, these, field
• •Newton tried ‘fixing’ the pronunciation of English.  The slippery slope began and the ideal sets out to replace all street language, all ‘uncouth’ usage. 
• •It was the 18^th century that dialects lost most status, which was the result of pressure to write ‘correctly’ and the codification of writing. 
• •Shreidan published a book in 1756 – ‘British Education’, basically if you wanted to say something in the best possible way, then you needed an education, which is what the book provided. 
• •Shreidan held a number of public lectures on elocution which attracted large and influential audiences.  He was one of the first to establish the number of distinct sounds in the English language and the number of diphthongs and syllables. 

Is standard English just another dialect?

• •Standard English was originally the dialect of the mid-eastern and became the accepted writing through the influence of printers, as this was the main area that they were situated.  i.e. Cambridge and Oxford.  It became used by people in power, law and education.
• •Local dialects, died as the media and education started to standardise English and people were influenced. 
• •It is a dialect that has become powerful

Taboo Language!

How taboo language has changed over time

• •In the 50’s words such as ‘damn’ were considered swear words.
• •Swear words were often not used around women (and women didn’t swear).

But now…

• •Women swear just as much as men do.
• •Words like c*** and f*** (which is from German origin), much stronger and more aggressive.
• •So, it would seem that people have become less sensitive to taboo language.
• •Damn has been ameliorated, it’s meaning has become less severe. 

Other taboo language

• •The word fag was less severe but now it has been pejorated and broadened in meaning.
• •Fag now can mean; gay man and cigarette.
• •Queen has also drifted in register, it can now also mean gay man. Damn you men for taking a powerful word about a woman and making it rubbash.

Different words for sex

• •Intercourse
• •Relations
• •Rutting
• •S*******
• •F******
• •To bone
• •Romping
• •Bumping uglies
• •Making love
• •Sleeping together

As you can see…

• •The different words for sex have become harsher and also more comical, for instance ‘to bone’.
• •This suggests that sex has become a more acceptable topic and also a funny one.
• •Hurrah for the modern age!

In what context has the word sex been used over time?

• •1382: Wyclif Gen vi 19-“Of alle thingis hauynge sowle of only flehs, two thow shalt brynge into the ark, that maal sex and femaal lyuen with thee.”
• •HOW INTERESTING!
• •1848: Thackeray Van. Fair xxv-“She was by no means so far superior to her sex as to be above jealousy”
• •2009: Kings of Leon-“Your sex is on fire”

Analysis

• •1382: Sex in that quote was referring to gender, which we still do.
• •1848: This quote still refers to gender, so it would seem that people still remained scientific about sex.
• •2009: This, it would seem, is referring to actual intercourse and, seemingly, someone being randy.
• •The semantics of ‘sex’ hasn’t changed, because we still do use it when referring to gender. However, it’s meaning has broadened to encompass actual intercourse.
• •The spelling of sex hasn’t changed over time either.

To conclude

• •The English Language is anything but standard, there are many variations of words.
• •Different words mean different things to different people.. Different!
• •People have become very rude and coarse.
• •Also, sex has changed its meaning. People have become more relaxed and colloquial.

Related posts:

1. Year 13: June 2007 St. John’s Wort Language Change Question AQA Spec B English Language — student answer
2. The changing discourses connected with health
3. Mercutio, Nurse essays

Learning Objective: to learn how and why the discourses about health have changed over time.

This advertisement for a London Quack doctor dates back to 1650. The doctor, who lived in Gun-Powder Alley, claimed to be able to predict the future, answering questions on a range of subjects from marriage and riches to fertility and professional success. He could also tell patients whether their ’sicknesse be curable or mortall’, and had ‘ready prepared the most approved remedies for all diseases…that are curable.’

Taken from: Quack Doctors’ Advertisement “Without Offense…”
Author / Creator: Unknown
Date: 1650
Copyright: © The British Library Board

Advertisement for a Quack Doctor

Without offence to the Lawes of God and

Man: onely by Mathematicall Arts and Naturall Sci-

ences: A certaine true and probable Answer may be

given to any lawfull demaund whatsoever, as by the testimoney of the

Learned among all Nations, and in all ages, and innumeralbe Examples

of our owne experience have invincibly confirmed.

3 Of the Complexion of the body: and the Inclination of th eminde.

2 Of Riches, and pverty, how, and when they shall happen.

3 Of Marriage, the number, quality, time and place.

4 Of Children, if few, or many, their sexe and disposition.

5 Of Travailes, the time, the part of the World, and the evenet.

6 Of the Profession, Trade and manner of life.

7 Of Dignity grace, and disgrace, and from whom.

8 Of Friends and Enemies, and th eevent of their love or hatred.

9 Whether any that is Absent be alive? how? and where?

10 Whether any shall have riches, and at what time?

11 Whether a Partner of Factor be just and faithfull?

12 Whether a Man shall marry that Woman he desireth?

13 Whether a Woman be apt to have Children?

‘Five Minutes Advice on the Bath Waters’ was first published in 1843. The book discusses the restorative effects of drinking and bathing in Bath mineral waters. The author states in the preface that many of the advantages of Bath waters can be experienced in the home, if the right products are purchased. This means that patients may avoid ‘the annoyance and expense attendant upon distant travelling, frequently so prejudicial to persons in delicate health.’ The book also contains an array of advertisements for various potions and pills.

2010 Website

http://www.chapelspa.co.uk/about.php

Chapel Spa invites you to join us on our unique path of life; a journey of relaxation, rebalancing and uplifting to a place of harmony where you can escape from the outside world.

Your wellbeing is our priority, and in the beautiful and individual surroundings of the Portland Chapel, built in 1812, we have recreated a haven of security, warmth and inner calm to reflect its original purpose. Our hospitality and holistic approach in caring for our client’s individual needs are interwoven into the tapestry of the Spa and all we offer. Hidden away is our retreat of calm and tranquillity; the perfect place for daydreaming while you let your cares dissolve.

Lit by flickering candlelight, while gentle sounds and scents drift over you, your body will feel at peace as you lie back on the soft loungers to the hypnotic bubbling of the spa pool. The Hydrotherapy Pool is the centrepiece to the spa and will massage your body from head to toe, with stimulating jets of water to invigorate and loosen the muscles.

Give your body a boost by stepping into the Steam Room with its moist aromatic atmosphere designed to ease away stresses and strains. The humidity helps to purify and detoxify the body and your respiratory system will feel the benefits too.

Related posts:

1. Standardisation: presentation ideas and presentation on processes of semantic change, taboo words
2. Dramatising your life
3. Year 13: Going beyond Chomsky and Skinner in Language Acquisition — Notes and question adapted from Myszor

Key quotes:

“German guns”

Eyes were wild

blindfolded

English bullet in his heart

Abject fear of death

Deserter’s grave

Panicked down the trench

Mother’s grief

The Deserter

“To add more sympathy at the end, the poet goes on to say about his mother thinking the deserter is a hero. This is highly ironic because she thinks he died because he was fighting, but in actual fact, the truth is very different. This yet again really does make us feel more sympathetic towards the deserter, who was just too scared and upset. But it also makes us feel sympathy for the mother who has now been told a lie.”

How could this be improved still further?

More quotes from your essays

I feel that this is a warm sympathy for the loss of life.

Something to keep her going through mourning.

Also the words used like ‘cold’ and ‘useless’ show the bad side of the soldiers and therefore they further receive our pity.

What is good about these quotes? What could be added? Improved?

More quotes

The way the poet uses the phrase ‘tired voice’ suggests that the mother has been grieving or talking a lot…Sassoon also uses the word ‘choke’; he uses it to emphasize that she is so emotional towards her son’s terrible fate.

Quotes

Finally, and most interestingly, it is the endings of both poems which are extremely effective. They concentrate upon the images of the grief-stricken mothers. There is a sharp contrast between the soldiers, who were telling the mothers about the death, and the mothers themselves. It is worth investigating the complexities here: the soldiers are aware the dead soldiers were deserters and therefore cowards. They are more indifferent than the mothers who believe their sons died heroes.

Related posts:

1. The role of families in war poetry; Spring Offensive; In Flanders’ Field and ‘The Falling Leaves’
2. Re-writing autobiographical extracts, editing and improving them
3. Teacher’s comments on two Romeo and Juliet essays on hatred

Explain poem 1

Explain poem 2

Similarities

In imagery and language

Structure and themes

Differences

In imagery and language

Structure and themes

Conclusion to the question.

Related posts:

1. Comparing Lake Isle of Innisfree and A Dead Harvest In Kensington
2. Comparing Poems from Town and Country — mock exam questions
3. Romeo and Juliet: Compare Romeo and Juliet’s different attitudes towards love in the play — a pupils essay with teacher comments

Gabriel Oak complains about Bathsheba’s vanity in the first chapter.

Gabriel Oak is a shepherd NOT a farmer at the beginning of the novel.

Oak rescues Bathsheba from dying of suffocation in his hut.

Bathsheba doesn’t want to marry Oak because she does not love him.

Oak would have been financially secure if he had insured his sheep.

Oak wishes he had Bathsheba as his wife after he loses his sheep.

Oak looks for work as a bailiff (a manager of a farm) but is forced to seek work as a shepherd when other farmers learn he was once a farmer himself.

Oak doesn’t know how to put out the fire at Weatherbury farm.

Put these sentences in the correct order.

Bathsheba’s uncle dies and she inherits Weatherbury Farm: she is now the owner of a very large farm and responsible for all her farm workers.

Gabriel Oak loses his sheep after his dog drives them off a cliff.

Oak is penniless and is forced to look for work first as a bailiff and then a shepherd.

Gabriel Oak sees Bathsheba playing on her horse.

Gabriel Oak proposes marriage to Bathsheba and is rejected.

Oak sees Bathsheba on a wagon looking at a mirror. He pays her toll fare but receives no thanks for it.

Oak saves the hay ricks at Weatherbury Farm from being burned down.

Passage analysis: look at these three passages carefully and answer the questions that follow them.

‘How did you find me?’

‘I heard your dog howling and scratching at the door of the hut when I came to the milking (it was so lucky, Daisy’s milking is almost over for the season, and I shall not come here, after this week or the next). The dog saw me, and jumped over to me, and laid hold of my skirt. I came across and looked round the hut the very first thing to see if the slides were closed. My uncle has a hut like this one, and I have heard him tell his shepherd not to go to sleep without leaving a slide open. I opened the door, and there you were like dead. I threw the milk over you, as there was no water, forgetting it was warm, and no use.’

‘I wonder if I should have died?’ Gabriel said, in a low voice, which was rather meant to travel back to himself than to her.

Quick notes: underline 3 verbs in this passage which create tension eg howling and make a note of why they create tension.

KNOWLEDGE OF THE STORY: What has happened before this passage? What happens after it? How does Hardy make the story exciting?

ANALYSIS OF THE LANGUAGE AND IMAGERY: Pick out THREE phrases, words or IMAGES which Hardy uses in order to create suspense. Explain how they create suspense.

ANALYSIS OF THE CHARACTERISATION: How does Hardy make the characters interesting and sympathetic here?

ANALYSIS OF THE CONTEXT and SETTING: What do we learn about the way people lived in the countryside from this passage? What do we learn about the world of the novel here?

‘Upon my heart and soul, I don’t know what a maid can say stupider than that,’ said Oak. ‘But dearest,’ he continued in a palliative voice, ‘don’t be like it?’ Oak sighed a deep honest sigh– none the less so in that, being like the sigh of a pine plantation, it was rather noticeable as a disturbance of the atmosphere. ‘Why won’t you have me?’ he appealed, creeping round the holly to reach her side.

‘I cannot,’ she said, retreating.

‘But why?’ he persisted; standing still at last in despair of ever reaching her, and facing over the bush.

‘Because I don’t love you.’

‘Yes, but . . . ’

She contracted a yawn to an inoffensive smallness, so that it was hardly ill-mannered at all. ‘I don’t love you,’ she said.

‘But I love you – and, as for myself, I am content to be liked.’

‘O Mr Oak – that’s very fine! You’d get to despise me.’

‘Never,’ said Mr Oak, so earnestly that he seemed to be coming, by the force of his words, straight through the bush and into her arms. ‘I shall do one thing in this life – one thing certain– that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die.’ His voice had a genuine pathos now, and his large brown hands perceptibly trembled.

QUICK NOTES: Underline 3 adjectives which create tension and say why they will create tension.

KNOWLEDGE OF THE STORY: What has happened before this passage? What happens after it? How does Hardy make the story exciting?

ANALYSIS OF THE LANGUAGE AND IMAGERY: Pick out THREE phrases, words or IMAGES which Hardy uses in order to create suspense. Explain how they create suspense.

ANALYSIS OF THE CHARACTERISATION: How does Hardy make the characters interesting and sympathetic here?

ANALYSIS OF THE CONTEXT and SETTING: What do we learn about the way people lived in the countryside from this passage? What do we learn about the world of the novel here?

Related posts:

1. Quiz questions on Far From The Madding Crowd
2. How successfully does Hardy open Far From The Madding Crowd?
3. Betrayal — Chapters 27-46