What is Your Object in Studying English? ... 1A Few Warning Words ... 3Two Dictionaries Recommended ... 6How to Read the Dictionary ... 9Good Pronunciation ... 12English Pronunciation is English ... 15What to Read ... 18Reading Aloud ... 21Do You Read the Preface? ... 25Can You Read Englishmen’s English? ... 28Verse and Poetry Distinguished ... 30A Few Terms of Prosody Explained ... 33About Composition “Don’ts” ... 36An Easy Sentence to Study ... 38Idiom and Slang ... 41Logic and Usage ... 44A Special Use of Quotation-Marks ... 47Double Negatives in Current English ... 49What Does “Would of Come” Mean? ... 51“No! No! NO!” ... 53Language and Impression ... 56Lying without Deceiving ... 59Puns and Punning ... 62What is Humour? ... 65Irish Bulls ... 68Repartees ... 71Do You See the Point of the Joke? ... 74Can You Guess a Riddle? ... 76The Familiar Essay ... 79Headings in Newspapers ... 82Headings and Sub-headings ... 85The Beginning is a Summary ... 88Some Common Expressions in News Items ... 91Letters from Correspondents ... 95Letters to the Editor ... 98Leaders and Leaderettes ... 101The Book Page ... 104The Woman’s Page ... 107Dramas, Movies, Etc. ...111Advertisements ...115Wanted — A Guide to Idiomatic English for Chinese Students ...119Reading to Learn the Art of Expression ... 122About the Study of Grammar ... 125Knowing Just Enough Grammar to Go Wrong ... 128A “Foolish” Principle of Composition ... 130An Aid to Composition ... 133Some Mistakes to Consider ... 135Some More Mistakes to Consider ... 137Make the Word Your Own ... 140Words that Are Too Often Used ... 142Metaphorical and Plain Idioms ... 144Are You a Votary of Mrs Malaprop? ... 147A Warning Regarding the Use of Words ... 150What “Literary English” Means ... 152Simplicity and Affected Simplicity ... 154Love of Commercialisms ... 157The Compound-Prepositional Style ... 160Imitation, Good and Bad ... 163Paraphrase as an Exercise in Composition ... 166Composition and Compositions ... 169On English Letter-Writing ... 172A Few Points of Form in Letters ... 175Never Mind the Shortness ... 178Three Popular Superstitions ... 181The That-Clause in Letters ... 183Notes on Some Common Words in Letters ... 186Two Friendly Letters ... 189On the Europeanization of the Chinese Language ... 192Some Fragments of Pai Chü-I’s Poetry Concerning Women ... 199Some Longer English Lyrics ... 206How to Study English ... 230