Prepositions exercise
Prepositions are important words and their correct usage shows your mastery over the language. Test your knowledge of prepositions with this exercise.
The habit of reading is one of the greatest resources of / for / to mankind; and we enjoy reading books that belong to / for / with us much more than if they are borrowed. A borrowed book is like a guest in / at / on the house; it must be treated with / for / at punctiliousness, with a certain considerate formality. You must see that it sustains no damage; it must not suffer while under / below / over your roof. You cannot leave it carelessly, you cannot mark it, you cannot turn down the pages, you cannot use it familiarly. And then some day, although this is seldom done, you really ought to return it.
But your own books belong to you; you treat them with that affectionate intimacy that annihilates formality. Books are for use, not for show; you should own no book that you are afraid to / of / with mark up, or afraid to place on the table, wide open and face down. A good reason for marking favorite passages in books is that this practice enables you to remember more easily the significant sayings, to refer to them quickly, and then in later years, it is like visiting a forest where you once blazed a trail. You have the pleasure of / for / off going over the old ground, and recalling both the intellectual scenery and your own earlier self.
Everyone should begin collecting a private library in youth; the instinct of private property, which is fundamental in / for / with human beings, can here be cultivated with every advantage and no evils. One should have one’s own bookshelves, which should not have doors, glass windows or keys; they should be free and accessible to / for / on the hand as well as to the eye. Most of my indoor life is spent in a room containing six thousand books; and I have a stock answer to the invariable question that comes from strangers. ‘Have you read all of those books?’ ‘Some of them twice.’ This reply is both true and unexpected.
