EXAMINATION PAPERS PROPOSED AT THE BOROUGH ROAD NORMAL SCHOOL. AUTUMN, 1848. Write, at the top of the page, your name, age, and the time that you have been the master of an elementary school, the name of your school, and of the nearest post town. This examination paper is divided into sections. You are not at liberty to answer more than one question in each section. Your knowledge and merit will be accounted greater if you answer the third question in each section, rather than the first or second question. The questions in each examination paper are intended to afford you an opportunity of showing the extent of your knowledge on that subject; and, if you are enabled to show a competent knowledge in a fair proportion of the subjects of examination, the Committee of Council will be disposed to grant you a certificate of merit.* ENGLISH GRAMMAR. Section 1. 1. Give the exact meaning and etymology of the words denoting the different parts of speech. 2. Point out and classify the different methods in which English nouns form their plurals. 3. What are the principal sources from which the English language is derived? State particularly the circumstances under which the different elements have become incorporated into it? Section 2. 1. Show what inflections are employed in English to distinguish masculine from feminine nouns. Point out any of Latin origin. Each paper was thus headed, except that in the paper "Notes of a Lesson, "the second paragraph, of course, was omitted ; and also in the four papers on Languages, but its place supplied by the following : "Success in performing the exercise required in this paper will be received as an evidence of merit in any candidate, but it is not an indispensable condition of his receiving a certificate." 2. Describe what is meant by the terms personal, relative, possessive, demonstrative, distributive, indefinite, and reciprocal, as applied to pronouns. 3. Explain fully what you mean by abstract nouns; give some of the principal methods of forming them; and show their relation to adjectives. Section 3. 1. What do the moods of verbs signify? Explain the meaning of the words indicative, imperative, subjunctive, potential, and infinitive, as applied to verbs. 2. State what agreement exists between a noun and its verb; between a personal or relative pronoun and its antecedent; and between personified words when in apposition with each other. 3. What is the subject, predicate, and copula of a proposition, and what the agent and object in a sentence? Give examples of each. Section 4. 1. What are diminutives? Give their terminations, and show whence those terminations are derived. 2. Give some of the principal Latin prefixes to English verbs, and Greek prefixes to English nouns, explaining their precise meaning. 3. Give the derivation of the following words :-Barometer, telegraph, sinecure, inefficient, inactive, aphelion, perihelion, oppose, project, transit, paraphrase, Chester, doxology. The following paraphrase must be made by all candidates. Write down the meaning of the following passage in plain English prose:— "The quality of mercy is not strained, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, And earthly power doth then show likest God's ENGLISH HISTORY. Section 1. 1. By what different tribes or peoples was England invaded before the Norman conquest? Describe the character and habits of each. 2. Mention the different changes which took place in the political and religious state of Britain during the supremacy of the Saxons. 3. What important event took place at Runnymede—who were the principal actors in it-on what previous provisions were their claims founded-and in what did those claims consist? Section 2. 1. Give a sketch of the kings of the Lancastrian line, and show what was their claim to the throne? 2. Give the time and circumstances under which Wales and Ireland were respectively connected with the English crown. 3. Give an account of the feudal system—and show how it was gradually abolished. Section 3. 1. Give a sketch of the rise and progress of the wars of the Roses. 2. Give a short account of the events which led to the Reformation, and trace its history until finally established. 3. How long did the Protectorate last-what were the principal events which occurred during it at home and abroad-and who were the most prominent men in the history of the period? Section 4. 1. What was the claim of the house of Hanover to the throne? Trace the genealogy of George I. 2. What is meant by the Union of England and Scotland-in whose reign did it take place—and what effects has it had upon the prosperity of the two countries? 3. Sketch the circumstances which led to the formation of the British rule in India upon the ruins of the Mogul empire. GEOGRAPHY. Section 1. 1. Name the principal seaports of the continent of Europe to the north of the straits of Dover. 2. What are the principal articles of import and export to and from the ports of the Mediterranean? 3. Draw a map of England, showing the several counties, the towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants, and the principal mining (M.) and manufacturing (Mf.) districts. Section 2. 1. Mention the ranges of hills which form the principal watersheds of England, and the chief rivers that flow from each of them, and into what seas. 2. What are the principal English colonies in the eastern hemisphere, with their estimated population? 3. Enumerate the several states of the North American Union; describe in general terms their relative position; and give the names of their capital cities. Section 3. 1. In what manner and to what extent does the figure of the earth differ from that of a sphere; and what is meant by the terms zenith and nadir, the horizon and meridian of a place? 2. What is meant by the latitude and longitude of any place on the earth's surface? What is the length of a degree of each in our own latitude, and what is the greatest distance from the equator at which the sun's rays are ever vertical? 3. Give the elevation of the perpetual snow-line above the level of the sea, at the arctic circle, in the latitude of London, at the equator, and 10 degrees to the north and south of it, with the causes of its diversity in these latitudes. Section 4. .1. Mention the chief animal and vegetable productions which characterise the several zones. 2. What are the most marked diversities in the human race? Give their characteristics; and state the regions which they severally occupy. 3. Name those parts of the earth in which the Christian religion prevails, and those in which Mahommedanism, Buddhism, Brahminism, the Confucian system, and Fetishism severally predominate. ARITHMETIC. Section 1. 1. Explain each step in the process of subtracting 853 from 901. 2. Explain each step in the process of multiplying 3205 by 7030. 3. Explain each step in the process of dividing £132 7s. 3d. by 526, and express clearly what is the value of the remainder. Section 2. 1. Find, by practice, the value of 7 cwt. 3 qrs. 5 lbs. at £6 17s. per cwt. 2. If 27 quires of paper cost 10s. 6d., how much will 45 quires cost? Explain each step in the process of working the sum. 3. If 3 acres of grass be mown by 7 men in 4 days, how many acres can be mown by 65 men in 15 days? Section 3. 1. What is the interest of £415 15s. for 10 months at 4 per cent. per annum? 2. Reduce 2 qrs. 15 lbs. to the fraction of a cwt. 3. Multiply 68 by of and divide Section 4. by 25. 1. Divide 7.01 by 006, and give the reason for the place of the decimal point in the result. 2. Reduce to a decimal fraction. 3. Extract the cube root of 58-7564, and state why you divide the number into periods at the commencement of the process. GEOMETRY. Section 1. 1. Define a circle and a segment of a circle, a sc alene triangle a rhomboid, and a trapezium. 2. Disect a given rectilineal angle. 3. Prove that straight lines that are parallel to the same straight line are parallel to each other. |