[Among the million words that the English language supposedly i=
ncludes, some of them sound very strange. Other words are written in an une=
xpected way. Most of these words were never taught in your English language=
class unless you had ME for a professor.]
**Scrumptious – this word is practic=
ally an onomatopoeia and refers to a delicious dish.
**Serendipity – This word ap=
pears in numerous lists of untranslatable words and is a mystery mostly for=
non-native speakers of English. It refers to a happy and unexpected discov=
ery or event.
**Quire – You surely must have, at one time or another, wanted to o=
rder in English 24 or 25 sheets of paper without having to say, “I wo=
uld like 24 or 25 sheets of paper, please”. Right? Problem solved: As=
k for a quire.
**Tittynope – To be precise: the scattering of crumbs left on one =
side of the plate, the few grains of rice sitting at the bottom of the bowl=
, the few drops remaining in the glass, are NOT mere leftovers and dregs. N=
ow you know.
**Yarborough – A useful term for daily life, especially if you play =
bridge. You probably know that unpleasant feeling of having a hand where no=
card is higher than 9. That’s a yarborough hand.
**Winklepicker – Yo=
u may not use mollusk skewers often (or ever), but if your boots or shoes h=
ave such a sharp point that they evoke the utensils used to pry winkles fro=
m their shells, you’re wearing winklepickers.
**Gobbledygook – In 194=
4, Politician Maury Maverick described a bill riddled with official jargon =
and extremely complex sentence structures.
**Halfpace – It is a landing, certai=
nly, but not just any landing. It is that small landing at the top of a fli=
ght of stairs where you have to turn and take another flight of stairs whet=
her going up or down.
~~ANSWERS TO ‘WHO SAID IT’ QUIZ 2~~
1. “If you are going through hell, keep going.=
221; – Prime Minister Winston Churchill
2. “Wise men learn by other’=
s harms; fools by their own.” – Benjamin Franklin
3. "The unexamined l=
ife is not worth living." – Socrates
4. "Every saint has a past, and ev=
ery sinner has a future." – Oscar Wilde
5. “It does not matter how sl=
owly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
6. “If a man doe=
s not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a diffe=
rent drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or=
far away.” – Henry David Thoreau
7. "The future doesn’t belong to the=
fainthearted; it belongs to the brave." – President Ronald Reag=
an
8. =
“It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.=
221; – Rev. William Watkinson (on Chinese wisdom, NOT Confucius)=
9. “=
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were =
to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison
10. “I have never let =
my schooling interfere with my education.” – Mark Twain
11. “To err i=
s human; to forgive, divine." – Alexander Pope
12. “In this world ther=
e are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other =
is getting it.” – Oscar Wilde
&nb=
sp;
13. "Never interrupt your enemies when t=
hey are making a mistake." – Emperor Napoleon Bonapart
14. “Don=
’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you =
plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
=
15. “Don’t let what you cannot=
do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden (UCLA basketball c=
oach)
Bonus: “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want somethin=
g done, ask a woman.” – Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
“From all harm safe in His shelter=
ing arms
I’m living by faith =
and feel no alarm.”
=
Vir=
us-free.www.avast.com