6.05: Unit Test Read the passage.
Read the sentence from the passage.
excerpt from "A Cub Pilot"
from Life on the Mississippi
by Mark Twain
With what scorn a pilot was looked upon, in the
old times, if he ever ventured to deal in that
feeble phrase, "I think," instead of the vigorous
one, "I know!"
Unit Test
6.05 Unit Test: Tone Voi.
How does the word feeble affect the meaning of
the sentence?
END OR LESSON
There is one faculty which a pilot must
incessantly cultivate until he has brought it to
absolute perfection. Nothing short of perfection
will do. That faculty is memory. He cannot stop
with merely thinking a thing is so and so; he
must know it; for this is one of the "exact"
sciences. With what scom a pilot was looked
upon, in the old times, if he ever ventured to
deal in that feeble phrase, "I think," instead of
the vigorous one, "I know!"
Feeble contrasts with vigorous to
emphasize the difference between "I
think" and "I know."
Feeble explains old times to show
that only older pilots were weak.
Feeble follows from ventured to
draw attention to how strong pilots
did their job.
One cannot easily realize what a tremendous
thing it is to know every trivial detail of twelve
hundred miles of river and know it with absolute
exactness. If you will take the longest street in
New York and travel up and down it-conning its
features patiently until you know every house
and window and lamppost and big and little sign
by heart, and know them so accurately that you
can instantly name the one you are abreast of
Feeble supports scorn to show that
pilots were taken seriously.