Answers:  Practice with Middle/End Blends

The middle/end-blends contained in “The Wolf and The Lamb” appear in bold.

WOLF, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to the Lamb the Wolf's right to eat him. He thus addressed him: "Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me." "*Indeed," bleated the Lamb in a mournful tone of voice, "I was not then born." Then said the Wolf, "You feed in my pasture." "No, good sir," replied the Lamb, "I have not yet tasted grass." Again said the Wolf, "You drink of my well." "No," exclaimed the Lamb, "I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother's milk is both food and drink to me." Upon which the Wolf seized him and ate him up, saying, "Well! I won't remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my *imputations." The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.

*Note:  If you selected the words “Indeed” and “imputations” as middle-blends, remember the definition.  These words do not contain an middle-blends.  They contain root words and prefixes.  The letters in a middle-blend must word together to create the unique sounds within the blend.  In the words “Indeed” and “imputations” this is not the case. 

The Kingdom of the Lion

The middle/end-blends contained in “The Wolf and The Lamb” appear in bold.

THE BEASTS of the field and forest had a Lion as their king. He was neither wrathful, cruel, nor tyrannical, but just and gentle as a king could be. During his reign he made a royal proclamation for a general assembly of all the birds and beasts, and drew up conditions for a universal league, in which the Wolf and the Lamb, the Panther and the Kid, the Tiger and the Stag, the Dog and the Hare, should live together in perfect peace and amity. The Hare said, "Oh, how I have longed to see this day, in which the weak shall take their place with *impunity by the side of the strong." And after the Hare said this, he ran for his life.

*Note:  Please see note above regarding the word “impunity”.

The Fisherman Piping

The middle/end-blends contained in “The Fisherman Piping” appear in bold.

A FISHERMAN skilled in music took his flute and his nets to the seashore. Standing on a projecting rock, he played several tunes in the hope that the fish, attracted by his melody, would of their own accord dance *into his net, which he had placed below. At last, having long waited in vain, he laid aside his flute, and casting his net into the sea, made an excellent haul of fish. When he saw them leaping about in the net upon the rock he said: "O you most perverse creatures, when I piped you would not dance, but now that I have ceased you do so merrily."

*Note:  The word “into” is a compound word.  The letters “n” and “t” in this word are not acting as middle-blends.