3. Sir Winston S. Churchill
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sir Winston S. Churchill
(1874-1965), British Prime
Minister (1940-45; 1951-55),
was also a writer of
eminence. He wrote several
books , the most notable
being his a history of English
speaking peoples (4vols). He
won the noble prize for the
literature in 1953.
4. SUMMARY
Sir Winston S. Churchill tells us his Entrance Examination at Harrow
and his school days experiences.
He describes in a humorous way the thought time through which he
passed in school especially during examinations . His favorites
subject were history , poetry and essay writing while he examined in
Latin and Mathematics which he did not like at all.
Moreover , the teachers did not ask him those questions , the answer
which he knew . Instead of that they asked him those questions about
which he did not know anything.
He says that in the entrance examination at Harrow, he was unable to
answer a single question in Latin paper. First of all ,he simply wrote his
name and the question number on the answer book. After some time he
wrote something on the paper and returned it to the examiners.
5. However, the Headmaster Mr. Weldon passed him in the paper on the
basis of his general ability. Although he was given admission, he was
placed in the third or lowest division.
For a year ,he was kept at school in the lowest form, which proved of
immense advantage to him. Unlike the clever and intelligent students
he was taught English rather than Latin and Greek.
His teacher some well taught him how to split English sentences into
their component parts; such as verb, subject, adjective, adverb, noun
etc. In this way he learnt English thoroughly.
The writer says that in the later years, his intelligent school fellows
were compelled to learn English for their living. As he had learnt
English thoroughly, he did not feel himself at any disadvantage as
compared those who had learnt Latin and Greek.
At the end of the essay he says that he would like all the children who
like to learn English. He wants to punish those children who do not
learn English well.