The following selection taken from
Dewey's _Psychology_ illustrates the exposition of a proposition by
explaining its terms:--
The habitual act thus occurs automatically and mechanically. When we say
that it occurs automatically, we mean that it takes place, as it were, of
itself, spontaneously, without the intervention of the will. By saying
that it is mechanical, we mean that there exists no consciousness of the
process involved, nor of the relation of the means, the various muscular
adjustments, to the end, locomotion.
It is possible for our listeners or readers to understand each term in a
proposition and yet not be able to understand the meaning of the
proposition as a whole. When this is the case, we shall find it necessary
to make use of methods of exposition discussed later.
EXERCISES
Explain orally the following propositions by explaining any of the terms
likely to be unfamiliar or misunderstood:
1. The purpose of muscular contraction is the production of motion.
2. Ping-pong is lawn tennis in miniature, with a few modifications.
3. An inevitable dualism bisects nature.
4. Never inflict corporal chastisement for intellectual faults.
5. Children should be led to make their own investigations and to draw
their own inferences.
6. The black willow is an excellent tonic as well as a powerful
antiseptic.
7. Give the Anglo-Saxon equivalent for "nocturnal."
8. A negative exponent signifies the reciprocal of what the expression
would be if the exponent were positive.
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