A German Reader with Practical Exercises 1

A German Reader with Practical Exercises 1

Ährenlese A German Reader with Practical Exercises

: Heinrich Conrad Bierwirth

Asbury Haven Herrick

Anmerkungen zur Transkription

 

Transcriber’s Notes

 

This text is based on the 1918 edition of the book. Passages in German

have been printed in Fraktur font, which also represents the standard

typeset for this text. For English passages, however, Antiqua script

has been used, which will be highlighted by ~tildes~. Punctuation

errors have been silently corrected; the original spelling has been

retained, except for apparent printer’s errors.

 

Double oblique hyphens (⸗) have been used to indicate variable

components in German words, whereas in English words single straight

hyhpens have been used. In the glossary, the main stress of German

words is identified by prime characters (′), acute accents (´)

represent a secondary stress. The latter symbol is also used if a word

has no more than one stress.

 

The following passages have been corrected:

 

S. 222 [lassen]: ‘41, 6’ → ‘41, 16’

S. 268 [vĕrwundern]: ‘verwundern’ → ‘vĕrwundern’

 

The following characters have been used to denote additional font

styles:

 

italic: _underscores_

bold: =equals signs=

spaced: /forward slashes/

 

Small caps have been converted into uppercase letters.

 

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~Heath’s Modern Language Series~

 

~Ährenlese~

 

~A GERMAN READER WITH PRACTICAL EXERCISES~

 

~BY~

 

~H. C. BIERWIRTH AND A. H. HERRICK~

 

~ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR~ ~INSTRUCTOR~

 

~IN~

 

~HARVARD UNIVERSITY~

 

~D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS~

 

~BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO~

 

 

 

 

~COPYRIGHT, 1918,~

~BY D. C. HEATH & CO.~

 

 

 

 

~PREFACE~

 

 

~If we mistake not, three of the commonest questions anticipated and

answered, or at least discussed, in the preface to a book like this

are: First, why a new book at all? Second, where, or at what stage of

the student’s course, may it be taken up most profitably? And third,

how or with what method of instruction should it be used?~

 

~As to the first question, we offer no elaborate apology for this

compilation, but simply say that we have thought the material worth

editing. The title, _Ährenlese_ or _Gleanings_, should not be taken to

imply that we had a hard time in gathering what we offer, nor that we

think we have left the field bare behind us, but rather that the ears

and stalks, though somewhat trimmed by us before being bound together,

are indigenous fruits of the good old German soil and not the product

of our own cultivation.~

 

~The second question it would be presumptuous for us to attempt to

answer _ex cathedra_, but we believe that, as far as the mere reading

matter is concerned, this collection should prove neither too advanced

for high school use nor too elementary for college use. Of this,

however, every teacher can judge best for himself.~

 

~Even on the third question we go no farther than to say that we

believe the frequent, though unforced, repetition of the vocabulary of

this book and the thoroughly idiomatic exercises adapt it to ready use

with any mode of instruction. Moreover, after many years’ experience in

reading both Harvard and “Board” admission examinations, we are by no

means inclined to make a shibboleth of any “Method.” We are, however,

in hearty accord with the Direct Method, or for that matter with any

other, as long as it encourages a thorough understanding of what is

read and an intelligent application of linguistic principles to the

actual and correct use of the foreign tongue.~

 

~These two ends we have aimed to further not only by questions and

exercises based on the text, which do not differ essentially from the

customary ones, but also by a vocabulary which does differ from most

others in its fulness of detail, and which may therefore require a word

of explanation.~

 

~Our reasons, then, for incorporating such extended lexicographical

and grammatical comment in the vocabulary were these: First, the desire

to dispense with a separate body of notes, which since the coming into

use of questions and exercises has made the very handling of some

Readers more difficult for the student than it ought to be. Second,

the conviction that the beginner needs more explicit information than

is usually offered regarding the inflection of the nouns, adjectives,

and verbs that he is expected to learn in the course of his reading.

And, third, the belief that although it is well for the student not to

consult the vocabulary until he has exerted his own wits to the utmost

in getting at the meaning of new words or phrases, lest he become a

slave thereto, it is equally important that whenever he does resort to

it he should find there, and just then, all the information which the

full understanding of the text, the answering of the questions, and the

reproduction of the text involved in the exercises can reasonably call

for.~

 

~In conclusion we might add that it is just such immediate and

intensive study of all common words, phrases, and constructions that

constitutes one of the most valid claims of the Direct Method to its

name and distinction. Too often, however, in our opinion, the rash

adoption of this method as something new has resulted in the most

indirect and expensive way of teaching, as well as of learning, that

modicum of grammar and syntax without which all study of language is

doomed sooner or later to end in disappointment.~

 

~H. C. BIERWIRTH~ ~A. H. HERRICK~

 

~CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, December, 1917.~

 

 

 

 

Inhaltsverzeichnis.

 

 

Lesestücke Seite

 

1. Die Fliege, die in die Schule ging 1

 

2. Der Fuchs und der Krebs L. Bechstein 3

 

3. Gevatter Tod L. Bechstein 4

 

4. Der Schmied von Jüterbog L. Bechstein 9

 

5. Ein Traum T. Kerkhoff 14

 

6. Der Zwerg und die Gerstenähre H. Seidel 18

 

7. Die teuren Eier K. Simrock 24

 

8. Der starke Drescher F. Goebel 27

 

9. Die befreiten Seelen R. Baumbach 28

 

10. Der arme Musikant und sein Kollege W. O. von Horn 35

 

11. Das Gegengeschenk K. Simrock 38

 

12. Wie der alte Hermesbauer gestorben ist H. Hansjakob 42

 

13. Bruder Klaus und die treuen Tiere R. Baumbach 44

 

14. Der bekehrte Stiefelknecht J. Sturm 49

 

15. Die Wunderlampe B. Rosegger 54

 

16. Kurze Reise nach Amerika K. Stöber 59

 

17. Wie man Diebe fängt E. Frommel 66

 

18. Die Grenzfichte J. Schlicht 70

 

19. Das Abenteuer im Walde J. Trojan 74

 

20. Wie die Wodansmühle entstand R. Vogel 81

 

21. Der Lindenbaum H. Seidel 89

 

 

Übungen 105

 

 

Wörterbuch 143