The System of Basic English
Part III. Examples, p.298
IX . Religion
The stories here printed are taken from the Basic selection of Stories from the Bible and are part of the complete Basic Bible on which work was started in 1930. In addition to the general 850,the Basic Bible will make use of ioo words for reading verse :
It will be noted that we say reading ; and from the point of view of the learner this is important. If he has a good working kowledge of the 850, he has only to get the sense of the 150
other words when he comes across them (in the process of reading almost 1,000,000). That sense is generally given by the rest of the verse, and the sound of such words is frequently more important than the sense, so that an hour or two will be quite enough far any 'learning' which may be necessary.
It would naturally not be wise for the learner to make use in
everyday talk of all the turns of language in these Bible stories. There has been a certain loss of the power of simple statement in the last three hundred years; but it is possible that, with the help of Basic, we may get back to some of our earlier forms of word music. Current American tendencies are here frequently working in the right direction.