Question
The One-Room Schoolhouse
For many years, the one-room rural schoolhouse was commonplace in America. This tiny
(1) did have only one room, where all the pupils, ranging in age from five or six to their teens, sat together with one teacher—a young man or woman looking at them with a(n)
(2) expression. The teacher might have just graduated from a “normal school” (a teacher-training institute) but would be trying to seem as serious and dignified as possible. School was held mostly in winter, because the pupils were farm children who had to work from spring planting until the harvest was in.
If you could go back in time and enter such a schoolhouse, you would hear a
clamor—a(n)
(3) of voices as many of the pupils, grouped by grades, “said” their lessons all at once. The smallest children would be memorizing the alphabet; the oldest might be reciting some famous speech from the past, perhaps an
eloquent (4) delivered in the ancient Roman senate, where speakers used powerful, passionate language to
vilify their opponents. All of the students would be wearing long woolen underwear and
writhing and scratching to
(5) the itching. A wood-burning stove heated the room, more or less. The “big boys” would keep the woodbox filled, or a pupil might have to fetch wood as a punishment for some
(6) of a rule, such as
(7) language, although misbehavior of such
(8) was rare.
These one-room schools held a special place in the hearts of Americans. In fact, at one time in American history, any political speech was sure to draw
(9) if it did not include a(n)
(10) in praise of the “little red schoolhouse.”
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