Book Description

"mensa is back! - and this in itself summarises the Variatio approach: traditional, thorough and gimmick-free... This non-syllabus-specific course will appeal to anyone, from early teens to mature students, who wants a no-nonsense approach to getting stuck into this challenging but rewarding language." - Bob Bass, Head of Classics at Orwell Park School, author of the "Latin Practice Sentences" series and ISEB's chief setter for CE and CAS Latin examinations. Variatio is a two-part course, designed to take the student from the rudiments of Latin through to complex syntactical constructions. The books cater specifically for 13+ scholarship examinations, but contain every element of the Common Entrance, Common Academic Scholarship and GCSE syllabuses. Indeed all but three of the topics required for the AS language specification (deliberative questions, oratio obliqua and consecutive clauses with quam ut) are met. The course is also ideal for anyone who wishes to teach themselves Latin, or reacquaint themselves with the language. Part I covers the following: all declensions of nouns and adjectives, including irregular nouns; all conjugations of active verbs and sum; personal, demonstrative and reflexive pronouns; numerals, time, place and space. Part II begins with the passive voice and from there on covers the following topics: instrument and agent; comparison of adjectives and adverbs; demonstrative pronouns; the relative pronoun; deponent and semi-deponent verbs; irregular verbs; participles; ablative absolutes; the indirect statement and infinitives; the subjunctive mood; jussive subjunctives; cum clauses, temporal and causal; concessive clauses; final clauses; consecutive clauses; prolative infinitives and indirect commands; interrogatives; indirect questions; sub-clauses in indirect speech; verbs of fearing; conditional clauses; the relative pronoun within final clauses; the supine; gerunds; gerundives; the historic infinitive; inverse cum clauses; usage of cases. An appendix of past scholarship papers from a number of prominent senior schools - including Eton, Marlborough and Westminster - is also included.