Richard Grenville lay_, _Spanish
ships_; or when the first word ends with a consonant and the second
begins with a vowel, as in _eats apples_, _not at all_, _an ox_, etc.
On the other hand, too evident an effort to secure the proper
enunciation of the sound elements should be avoided, since a stilted
mode of utterance is thus produced.

Exercises for drill in the vowel sounds and in articulation are
provided in Appendix A.

=Expression=

Oral reading, however, even in its earliest stages, consists in more
than recognizing words, pronouncing them correctly, and articulating
them distinctly. It includes thinking thoughts, seeing mental
pictures, (which is only another form of thinking) and feeling varied
emotions--all while the mechanical act of reading is going on. To
illustrate, let us take a line from _The Island of the Scots_:

High flew the spray above their heads, yet onward still they bore.

If we wish to read this line well, what must we do besides pronouncing
the words correctly and articulating them distinctly? We must think
about the meaning of what we read. This includes two kinds of
thinking. In the example we first think the picture presented by the
words; that is, we make a mental image of the little band of Scots,
hand in hand, trying to ford the swiftly flowing waters of the swollen
river. This is called concrete thinking. At the same time we form some
judgment based on the picture. We think of the great determination and
courage these men showed in struggling forward in spite of the danger.
This is called =abstract thinking=. But, as we have said, a reader
does more than think in these two ways--he feels; and feeling, or
=emotion=, comes of itself, if the reader thinks in the two ways
described, for emotion is the result of thinking. Especially is it the
result of concrete thinking; for what we see, even if only with the
mind's eye, stirs our emotions more than that of which we think in the
abstract.

While reading the line just quoted, there are three emotions which
spring from the thinking. As we see these men struggling against the
strong current we have an emotion of fear for them; then as we think
of their determination and courage in the face of such great danger,
an emotion of determination comes to us, for we identify ourselves
with their fortunes; and lastly we are filled with admiration for
their heroism. Thus we experience the three emotions of fear,
determination, and admiration,