Skills Development Workbook: Unit 5: Condition of Ireland

Name _____________________________________________________
Date ___________________
“Condition of Ireland,” The Illustrated London News
“Progress in Personal Comfort” by Sydney Smith
Build Vocabulary
Spelling Strategy To form the plural of many nouns, add s or es. For example, the plural
form of requisite is the word requisites.
Using the Humors
The Illustrated London News article describes problems faced by the Irish as melancholy,
or sad. The word melancholy originally meant “black bile,” which is one of the four principal
humors, or liquids, that people believed controlled health and personality. The other humors
were yellow bile, blood, and phlegm. Modern English contains words originating from the theory
of humors.
A. DIRECTIONS: Answer the following questions, based on clues given about the humors.
1. Phlegm is a thick, slow-moving fluid, so a phlegmatic person probably feels
___________________________.
2. A person controlled by the warm, life-giving flow of blood can be described as sanguine, or
___________________________.
Using the Word Bank
requisites sanction exonerate
melancholy indolence depredation
B. DIRECTIONS: For each sentence, choose the Word Bank word that best completes its meaning.
Write the word on the line.
1. Some landowners were lazy, and everyone suffered from this ___________________________.
2. The writer will ___________________________ people who meant no harm.
3. More food, more cultivation, and more employment were the ___________________________
for maintaining the Irish in existence.
4. When walking at night without streetlights, the writer felt exposed to danger and
___________________________.
5. The law gave landowners the ___________________________ and encouragement to evict people.
6. They could not get over the _________________________ sight of people needing to work for food.
© Prentice-Hall, Inc. Condition of Ireland/Personal Comfort 195
Unit 5: Progress and Decline
(1833–1901)

Name _____________________________________________________
Date ___________________
“Condition of Ireland,” The Illustrated London News
“Progress in Personal Comfort” by Sydney Smith
Grammar and Style: Coordinating Conjunctions
A coordinating conjunction links two sentence parts of the same grammatical kind. The
seven coordinating conjunctions are and, but, or, nor, yet, so, and for. Notice the use of coordinating
conjunctions in the following passages.
from “Condition of Ireland”
The present condition of the Irish…has been mainly brought on by ignorant and vicious
legislation. . . .
We shall fully consider that question before we quit the subject, but we shall now only say . . .
from “Progress in Personal Comfort”
. . . I now glide without noise or fracture, on wooden pavements.
A. Practice: Read the following passages from “Progress in Personal Comfort” and “Condition of
Ireland.” Underline any coordinating conjunctions that you find.
1. I can walk, by the assistance of the police, from one end of London to the other, without molestation;
or, if tired, get into a cheap and active cab . . .
2. Calmly and quietly, but very ignorantly . . . did the decree go forth which has made the temporary
but terrible visitation of a potato rot the means of exterminating, through the slow process of disease
and houseless starvation, nearly the half of the Irish.
B. Writing Application: Rewrite each of the following pairs of sentences, connecting them with
a coordinating conjunction.
1. Most people believe progress is always good. “Condition of Ireland” reveals something different.
2. In the name of economic progress, many people suffered. Many people died.
3. The Poor-Laws were supposed to provide relief for the people in Ireland. The laws instead
caused the people’s destruction.
4. People lost their land. They lost their livelihoods.
5. “Condition of Ireland” calls for compassion. It calls for change.
196 Selection Support © Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Name _____________________________________________________
Date ___________________
“Condition of Ireland,” The Illustrated London News
“Progress in Personal Comfort” by Sydney Smith
Reading Strategy: Distinguishing Emotive and
Informative Language
Emotive language includes words, phrases, and examples that appeal to a reader’s feelings.
Informative language conveys facts. Often emotive language is woven into the informative language
of an essay to capture the interest and emotions of readers and to reveal the attitude of a
writer toward his or her subject.
DIRECTIONS: As you read the selections, identify examples of emotive and informative language.
In each of the following passages from the selections, underline emotive language and circle informative
language. Then analyze the emotive words in the passages to determine the writer’s
attitude toward a particular subject or idea.
“Condition of Ireland”
1. The Poor-Law, said to be for the relief of the people and the means of their salvation, was the
instrument of their destruction. In their terrible distress, from that temporary calamity with which
they were visited, they were to have no relief unless they gave up their holdings.
Attitude _________________________________________________________________________________
2. Calmly and quietly, but very ignorantly—though we cheerfully exonerate the parties from any
malevolence; they only committed a great mistake, a terrible blunder, which in legislation is worse
than a crime—but calmly and quietly from Westminster itself . . . did the decree go forth . . .
Attitude _________________________________________________________________________________
“Progress in Personal Comfort”
3. It took me nine hours to go from Taunton to Bath, before the invention of the railroads, and I now
go in six hours from Taunton to London! In going from Taunton to Bath, I suffered between 10,000
and 12,000 severe contusions, before stone-breaking Macadam was born.
Attitude: ________________________________________________________________________________
4. There were no banks to receive the savings of the poor. The Poor Laws were gradually sapping the
vitals of the country; and whatever miseries I suffered, I had no post to whisk my complaints for a
single penny to the remotest corners of the empire . . .
Attitude: ________________________________________________________________________________
© Prentice-Hall, Inc. Condition of Ireland/Personal Comfort 197
Unit 5: Progress and Decline
(1833–1901)

Name _____________________________________________________
Date ___________________
“Condition of Ireland,” The Illustrated London News
“Progress in Personal Comfort” by Sydney Smith
Literary Analysis: Journalistic Essay
Journalistic essays are short prose pieces that describe current events or trends. Unlike
personal essays, which focus on a writer’s inner reflections and personal reactions to experiences,
journalistic essays examine news, facts, and events and try to make them directly relevant
to a wider audience. The writer of a journalistic essay gathers facts and weaves them into
a unified story.
DIRECTIONS: Answer the following questions.
1. What purely factual information does the journalistic essay “Condition of Ireland” present
about the Famine and Britain’s Poor-Laws?
2. What voice is used in The Illustrated London News article? What perspective does this voice
provide on the facts surrounding the famine? Name specific examples from the selection
that demonstrate the writer’s perspective.
3. According to “Progress in Personal Comfort,” what inventions and services came about
during Sydney Smith’s life?
4. How might you describe the voice of Sydney Smith in “Progress in Personal Comfort”? What
unique story about progress and a changing world does he tell? Give specific examples of
Smith’s perspective on these events.
198 Selection Support © Prentice-Hall, Inc.