exploration,' found in the first Gazette story (above, p. 370) might lead to a transformation drill which would produce sentences containing 'day-long tour,' 'week—long conference,' etc.
GROUPS OF MICROTEXTS
What has been said up to this point applies to single texts. But there are often advantages in presenting texts in groups. From a linguistic point of view, a set of texts on the same or closely related subjects will share much of their vocabulary, so that the average number of new items per 100 running words of text is reduced. This of course means that many words characteristic of the topic will be reintroduced in a number of different texts. A smal1—scale example, in a commonly taught language and from a readily available source, consists of the entries for the inert gases in Nouveau Petit Larousse (1968):
argon Corps simple gazeux, incolore, qui constitue environ le centième de 1'atmosphère terrestre.
[A colorless gaseous element, which constitutes about 1% of the earth's atmosphere.]
hélium Corps simple gazeux, de numéro atomique 2 ... découvert dans l'atmosphere solaire, et qui existe en trés petite quantité dans l'air.
[A gaseous element, atomic number 2, discovered in the sun's atmosphere, and which exists in minute quantities in the air.]
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