IN ENGLISH ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS JUNE EXAMINATION PAPERS OF HARVARD, YALE, THE Instructor in English Literature in the Cutler School, New York THIRD SERIES BOSTON GINN & COMPANY 1900 PREFACE The scheme of English Requirements for Admission followed by all New England and Middle States and many other American colleges, is that recommended by the Commission of Colleges in New England on Admission Examinations. The report of the Commission for 1898-1899 says: "It will be remembered that the origin of the Commission was largely due to the attempts made by the colleges of New England previous to 1885 to unify college entrance requirements in English. The first steps towards unification of these requirements were taken by the Association of Colleges in New England. Some of the colleges in this Association had become convinced that uniformity was desirable, and sought to secure it. At a meeting of the Association at Trinity College a vote was passed recognizing the desirability of uniformity. At the same college, in December, 1879, representatives of several colleges met and drew up a scheme of requirements in English. These requirements were largely based on the requirements prescribed by Harvard College, and first introduced there in 1874. The intention of these Harvard requirements was to encourage teachers to familiarize their pupils with a few choice specimens of English literature, to pay careful attention to English composition, and to cultivate in their pupils, through correct translation and the reading of the 3 . prescribed books, accurate methods of thought and expression.' In October, 1885, when the Association met at Dartmouth College, special provision was made for preparing lists of books for the requirements in English, and the vote was passed which finally resulted in the creation of the Commission. In no department has the influence of the work of the Commission been more marked than in English. It early secured a recognition of its recommendations in many colleges and schools all over the country, and for the past five or six years the improvements which it has introduced, chiefly determined by the principles formulated by Harvard College twenty-five years ago, have been adopted by the associations named above. "See Annual Report of the President of Harvard College (C. W. Eliot), 1886-87, pages 4-6. The quoted words are from that report. The words "correct translation" refer to the recommendation that teachers shall insist on "simple and idiomatic translation " from the foreign languages studied in preparation for college. This recommendation the Commission has also made. "See first annual report, pages 5-7, 11; second annual report, pages 6-16, 19-26, and later reports, passim." REQUIREMENTS NOTE. No candidate will be accepted in English whose work is notably defective in point of spelling, punctuation, idiom, or division into paragraphs. I. READING.-A certain number of books will be set for reading. The candidate will be required to present evidence of a general knowledge of the subject-matter, and to answer simple questions on the lives of the authors. The form of examination will usually be the writing of a paragraph or two on each of several topics, to be chosen by the candidate from a considerable number-perhaps ten or fifteen-set before him in the examination paper. The treatment of these topics is designed to test the candidate's power of clear and accurate expression, and will call for only a general knowledge of the substance of the books. In place of a part or the whole of this test, the candidate may present an exercise book, properly certified by his instructor, containing compositions or other written work done in connection with the reading of the books. II. STUDY AND PRACTICE.-This part of the examination presupposes the thorough study of each of the worknamed below. The examination will be upon subjects matter, form, and structure, and will also test the candidate's ability to express his knowledge with clearness and accuracy. |