4. Give a short humorous delineation of the conversational "oracle."

 

5. Give an account of your first day at observing conversation around you.

 

6. Give an account of one day's effort to improve your own conversation.

 

7. Give a list of subjects you heard discussed during any recent period you may

select.

 

8. What is meant by "elastic touch" in conversation?

 

9. Make a list of "Bromides," as Gellett Burgess calls those threadbare

expressions which "bore us to extinction"--itself a Bromide.

 

10. What causes a phrase to become hackneyed?

 

11. Define the words, (_a_) trite; (_b_) solecism; (_c_) colloquialism; (_d_)

slang; (_e_) vulgarism; (_f_) neologism.

 

12. What constitutes pretentious talk?