Wide context

Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)

/^t/Many years ago, a long time before Bell's invention, man was prompted to take advantage of gifts from nature and, to save time and energy, employed pigeons to forward messages and orders. Not once did a folded piece of paper prevent a serious military conflict or a cry of anguish from the lips of a frustrated lover. And even in that age of bloodthirsty knights and ruthless kings, unhygienic conditions of living and a high death rate of children people did not have to discover a remarkable charm of gossip.