We may not always agree with Shaw's opinions and views which are somewhat controversial and radical.
Yet, reading the 'Prefaces' enriches our insights into most complex areas like 'marriage'.
Once I saw a bulky volume of about 1500 pages in our local Public Library. It was a collection of all the prefaces of G.B. Shaw. I have tried to understand some of the Prefaces and apply my mind to his arguments. His arguments were awesome. But I found my study as something beyond my capacity and could not pursue it further. Yet, I am again trying it now.
ABOUT TWO-WORD ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVAL PHRASES
*Each phrase has two words.
*Attributive = Adjective precedes its object i.e. a noun.
*One or two phrases in the following exercises are not adjectival phrases. They are adverbial phrases. The object (second word) happens to be an adjective.
E.g. 1. conscious muscular. 2. serious psychological.
I have shortened (applied scissors) some of the long sentences of Shaw , for reading and comprehending convenience.
| 1<>conscious muscular |
| 2<>continuous attempts |
| 3<>dangerous majority |
| 4<>dangerous mistake |
| 5<>dangerous nonsense |
| 6<>disastrous anarchical |
| 7<>hazardous adventure |
| 8<>inordinate affections |
| 9<>licentious theatrical |
| 10<>monstrous proposition |
| 11<>private concern |
| 12<>private enterprise |
| 13<>private persons |
| 14<>rebellious spirits |
| 15<>religious restraint |
| 16<>ridiculous confession |
| 17<>serious attempt |
| 18<>serious consideration |
| 19<>serious offence |
| 20<>serious psychological |
| 21<>superstitious tolerance |
Fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box<> Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer
| 1. Conscious goodness, like ____effort, may be of use in emergencies. |
| 2. The ____nce so long accorded to monks . |
| 3. There is no more ____han the mistake of supposing that we cannot have too much of a good thing<. |
| 4. With those individualists who in the mid-XIXth century dreamt of doing away with marriage altogether on the ground that it is a ____een the two parties with which society has nothing to do, there is now no need to deal<. |
| 5. The fictitious Free Lover, who was supposed to attack marriage because it thwarted his ____. |
| 6. There is no subject on which more ____se is talked . |
| 7. When they finally give up the idea of reforming our marriage institutions by ____. |
| 8. but the existence of the treaty shews the same anarchical notion that the law can be set aside by any two ____by the simple process of promising one another to ignore it. |
| 9. but it goes further, into ____hical action<. |
| 10.Adults take ____it is not assumed that they live there. |
| 11.Against the ____that because certain attitudes . |
| 12.D____which regards the least hint of scepticism as to the beauty . |
| 13.Ever since Rousseau rose to the effort of making a certain very ____on the subject, there has been a growing perception that child whipping, even for the children themselves, is not always the innocent . |
| 14.For ____entertainments which no censorship can stem, and, worst of all, a confusion of virtue with the mere morality that steals its name until the real thing is loathed because the imposture is loathsome<. |
| 15.Million kind actions per annum, the effect on the character of the doers of the actions would be so appalling, that one month of any ____ out such counsels would probably bring about more stringent legislation against actions going beyond the strict letter of the law in the way of kindness than we have now against excess in the opposite direction. |
| 16.More ____ form illicit unions, defiantly sending cards round to their friends announcing what they have done<. |
| 17.Preaching: above all, by her ____ excite precocious sentimentality, a practice as objectionable, . |
| 18.Slavery by subjecting it to some ____. |
| 19.Very ____ for the Prime Minister who takes it in hand<. |
| 20.Very much of either without ____l mischief, ending in insanity or crime<. |
| 21.Write as if the highest attainable state is that of a family stewing in love continuously from the cradle to the grave, can hardly have given five minutes ____ation to so outrageous a proposition<. |
