B. Franklin (1706-1790)

• How can you characterize the style of B. Franklin?
• What was he writing about in his ‘Autobiography’?
• What believes and ideals did he advocate?
• Whom did he write to? Why did he decide to continue writing in 1784?

Selection I from “Autobiography”
• Why did he decide to stop playing chess with his acquaintance?
• How do you understand the phrase “I had to spare for study”?
• On what condition did he agree to play chess?
• Who usually imposed different tasks?
• How well did he know French and Spanish?
• What made him continue studying Latin?
• How will you paraphrase “I met with more success as these preceding languages had greatly smoothed my way”?

- In selection I try to find formal words and expressions; purely American expressions; some obsolete words and expressions.
• What inconsistency in the mode of teaching languages was he talking about?

- How do you understand his saying on page 11?
• Rewrite paragraph 2 using up-to-date language and syntax.
• Why did they keep their institution a secret? What were the reasons?
• According to Franklin, what were the advantages of forming additional clubs subordinate to the Junto?
• What did the club and its members do?

- How can you characterize the syntactic structure of his sentences?

Selection II from “Autobiography”.
• Why was he a leading American citizen of his day?
• What does ”civic-minded mean”?
• How can you characterize his writing:
expression narration; description, essay?
plan
content What things did he tell us about?
plan
• How was the city watch organized at the beginning?
• Why did the city watch turn into a place of profit?
• What was the paper about he wrote for reading in the Junto?
• Why did he talk about the inequality of the six-shilling tax of constables?
• What was his offer?
• What did he say about the tax?
• What was his second paper about?
• What was his project about?
• What did the members of the company have to do?
• What did the members have to pay tax for? How did he propose to spend it?
• What were the advantages for the city of having such company?