_Unsatisfactory._ "To go up in the air." "What you go up in." "When you go up." "They go up in it." "It's full of gas." "To carry you up." "A balloon is a balloon," etc. "It is big." "They go up," etc. (b) _Tiger_ _Satisfactory._ "It is a wild animal of the cat family." "It is an animal that's a cousin to the lion." "It is an animal that lives in the jungle." "It is a wild animal." "It looks like a big cat." "It lives in the woods and eats flesh." "Something that eats people." _Unsatisfactory._ "To eat you up." "To kill people." "To travel in the circus." "What eats people." "It is a tiger," etc. "You run from it," etc. (c) _Football_ _Satisfactory._ "It is a leather bag filled with air and made for kicking." "It is a ball you kick." "It is a thing you play with." "It is made of leather and is stuffed with air." "It is a thing you kick." "It is brown and filled with air." "It is a thing shaped like a watermelon." _Unsatisfactory._ "To kick." "To play with." "What they play with." "Boys play with it." "It's filled with air." "It is a football." "It is a basket ball." "It is round." "You kick it." (d) _Soldier_ _Satisfactory._ "A man who goes to war." "A brave man." "A man that walks up and down and carries a gun." "It is a man who minds his captain and stands still and walks straight." "It is a man who goes to war and shoots." "It is a man who stands straight and marches." _Unsatisfactory._ "To shoot." "To go to war." "It is a soldier." "A soldier that marches." "He fights." "He shoots." "What fights," etc. "When you march and shoot." Silence accounts for only a small proportion of the failures with children of 8, 9, and 10 years. REMARKS. The "use definitions" sometimes given at this age are usually of slightly better quality than those given in year V. Younger children more often use the infinitive form, "to play with" (doll), "to drive" (horse), "to eat on" (table), etc. Use definitions of this year more often begin with "they," or "what"; as, "they go up in it" (balloon), "they kick it" (football), etc. Why, it may be asked, is the use definition regarded as inferior to the descriptive or the classificatory definition? Is not the use to which an object may be put the most essential thing about it, for the child at least? Is it not more important to know that a fork is to eat with than to be able to name the material it is made of? Is not the use primary and does it not determine most of the physical characteristics of the object?