Harvard University

“Ut Italium laeti Latiumque petamus.” “Sandra, would you mind reading the next few lines and translating them for us?” The professor glanced at me, a kind glimmer in his bespectacled eyes. I gagged. I was in a classroom of eighteen, five of who were high school teachers. And I was supposed to recite and translate Levy’s Ab Urbe condita – with elesions! After fumbling through a few words and mistaking a verb for a noun, I finished the first sentence. I skimmed the second line, looking for the main verb. Singular. I searched for a singular noun and pieced the two together. Then, I noticed an…