"After work, we drove to the country for a picnic."
2. A word used to indicate the end of an activity: "We came to the end of the story and had to return the book to the library."3. Used to indicate that the following verb is in the infinitive form: "You asked why I like to swim. Well, that's a difficult question to answer."
"I decided to sell the car and the trailer, too."
"His teasing had gone too far and my sister was upset and was crying."
"The boy found only one or two pink shells on the beach."
I was too excited to realize that there would be two extra guests for dinner this evening.
Her father told the clerk that he wanted a couple of the pens and that he would give two to his daughter, too.
A theory can lead to a new conclusion or the discovery of a phenomenon. Developments of a theory often result in a change in paradigm; that is, looking at or thinking about a scientific problem in a totally different way as indicated by a set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitute a way of viewing reality for the scientific community that shares them.
it can be part of a maximum power point tracker.
An alphabetized listing of links to groups of English words in action as seen in sentences with short definitions.
Words are being added daily to expand your potential vocabulary for this modern age.
Josef Fritzl, who has admitted imprisoning his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children by her, will go on trial on March 16, 2009, on charges including murder, an Austrian court said Thursday.
Fritzl, 73, has been charged by prosecutors with the murder of one of his daughter's children who died shortly after birth. He is also charged with rape, enslavement, incest, coercion, and deprivation of liberty.
1. rape: The crime of forcing an unwilling or legally incompetent person to participate in sexual intercourse.Destructive assault, as on a city, landscape, etc.
2. enslavement: The process of making someone a slave.3. incest: Sexual relations between people who are so closely related that their marriage is illegal or forbidden by custom; such as, with a man's daughter.
4. coercion: To force to act or to think in a certain way by use of pressure, domination, restraining, or forcibly controlling.
5. deprivation of liberty: the act of taking a person's freedom away or preventing someone from having personal freedom from servitude or confinement or oppression.
Don’t lock the barn door after the horse is stolen.
Of little value his compunctions
Who assumes clavinous functions
When once from circumambient pen,
Is snatched its equine denizen.
Medical references as related to the body or anatomy.
I read your e-mail on the deplorable state of education in the United States.
Having taught both high school and college, I must admit that the comments are quite accurate. I must say that I am certainly doing my best to maintain high standards both at the university and high school levels and your newsletters have been a great help in helping me achieve this.
Best regards,James
John,
I enjoyed your latest newsletter about the problem of cheating and the watering down of the curricula in most academic areas. In my first teaching position almost forty years ago, I took a boy's History Regents paper away from him . . . along with his copious "cheat notes" and went to the Principal.
The result? I almost lost my job for daring to ruin this young person's life. The same Principal later asked me to remark the State Regents exams and see if I couldn't upgrade some of them because "they weren't going to be reviewed at the state capital that year and who would know the difference."
I'm happy to report I didn't, but it wasn't easy and the pressure on teachers to bend the rules has only grown worse. I don't know what the answers are, but you are right to highlight the problem.
Best wishes,
Ray
Hi John:
You have made some excellent points about education and Americans. I see this all the time. I have a Montessori Pre-school and we have "before and after-school kids" from three districts and it's amazing what they don't know and yet bring home "A's" and "B's".
Have you ever read the Leipzig Connection? I ran across it in a thrift store and it's the story of how America's education came to be what it is now.
Thanks for the wonderful newsletter. I don't say much about it but I do love getting it. You do a great job.
PamThese are REAL Headlines with double meanings that have appeared in newspapers from around the world. The list was contributed to this newsletter by a friend; otherwise, the source is unknown.
- March Planned For Next August
- Blind Bishop Appointed To See
- Lingerie Shipment Hijacked - Thief Gives Police The Slip
- L.A. Voters Approve Urban Renewal By Landslide
- Patient At Death's Door - Doctors Pull Him Through
- Diaper Market Bottoms Out
- Stadium Air Conditioning Fails - Fans Protest
- Queen Mary Having Bottom Scraped
- Antique Stripper to Display Wares at Store
- Prostitutes Appeal to Pope
- Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant
- Fund Set Up for Beating Victim's Kin
- Killer Sentenced to Die for Second Time in 10 Years
- Never Withhold Herpes Infection From Loved One
- Autos Killing 110 a Day; Let's Resolve to Do Better
- If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last A While
- Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures
- Blind Woman Gets New Kidney from Dad She Hasn't Seen in Years
- Flaming Toilet Seat Causes Evacuation at High School
- Defendants Speech Ends in Long Sentence
- Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
- Stiff Opposition Expected to Casketless Funeral Plan
- Collegians are Turning to Vegetables
- Quarter of a Million Chinese Live on Water
- Farmer Bill Dies in House
- Eye Drops off Shelf
- Reagan Wins on Budget, But More Lies Ahead
- Miners Refuse to Work after Death
- Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over
- Two Sisters Reunited after 18 Years in Checkout Counter
- Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead
- New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group
- Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
- Deaf College Opens Doors to Hearing
- Prosecutor Releases Probe into Undersheriff
- Old School Pillars are Replaced by Alumni
- Sex Education Delayed, Teachers Request Training
And even in Germany-
From the Mendener Zeitung: "748 Männer arbeiten im Rathaus, 312 davon sind Frauen." (748 men work in the city hall of which 312 are women).
From the March 20, 2000, issue of DER SPIEGEL, page 270.
That reminds me of a statement made by George W. Bush a few weeks ago when he was speaking about children and parental responsibilities; especially, of fathers. I was listening to NPR (National Public Radio) and Bush was saying, "Every father is responsible for his or her children."
Was this an extraordinary effort on his part to be PC (politically correct)?
If you read “Newsletter #5”, you know that there was an extensive discussion about the important field of “tribology”. Geoff, in the United Kingdom, sent me information that led to the following internet article about a “TRIBOPEN (tribo + pen)” a Plastic Identifier:
“The automotive industry has moved a step closer to maximum car recyclability following the development of two innovative plastic identifiers by Ford Motor Company and Southampton University.
“The biggest problem when recycling plastics is the sorting and grouping according to material type,” said Professor Walter Brandstetter, Director of Environment and Safety, Ford of Europe.
“Although many plastics look alike, just one percent of an incompatible plastic can be enough to ruin an entire batch of recyclate.”
The Spectrometer unit is the larger of the two. When its nozzle is placed against the plastic part in question, it will identify the exact type of plastic from which it was made. The unit compares the spectroscopic fingerprint with its own integrated database, which consists of more than 200 types of plastic.
The second, pen-shaped hand-held unit, known as the Tribopen, works on the basis of tribo-electric charges that occur when a metal or plastic surface is rubbed against the part. A wide range of different heads are available to cover all possible plastics, from car bumpers to cable shrouding. The portable Tribopen has been designed predominantly for use by dismantlers and recyclers.
Based on information from the University of Southampton with reference to Wolfson Electrostatics.
Since so many subscribers are from non-English speaking countries, the following may answer a question that has puzzled so many, including a few “native speakers”. Nichola of France, wrote:
“A Turkish friend of mine asked if I knew why English is one of the few languages of the world where ‘I’ is always capitalised. ”
Other than making it stand out in a sentence I couldn’t give him a satisfactory answer, could you help, is it based on historical use?"
Scribe answers:
Well, Nichola, and anyone else who is interested, William and Mary Morris, in their Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage explain:
“English is one of the few languages in which the pronoun for the first person, singular, is capitalized. For example, the French ‘je’ and the Spanish ‘yo’ are not capitalized unless they are the beginning of a sentence.
“This has nothing to do with egotism on the part of English-speaking people. Printing and handwriting have everything to do with it. In Middle English the first person singular was ‘ich’ with a lower-case ‘i.’ When this was shortened to ‘i,’ manuscript writers and printers found that it often became lost or attached to a neighboring word. So the reason for the capital ‘I’ is simply to avoid confusion and error.”
Scribe’s note: I would like to add that in English, the first person, “I” (referring to the person who is writing or who is quoted as the speaker), should always be capitalized, whether it is the first letter of a sentence or anywhere within the sentence.
Ms. McLaurin was invited as part of a Black History Month celebration. “I thought I would never live to get into the White House and I tell you I am so happy to have a black president,” she said to the smiling Barack Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama.
Click on this link: to see the video posted by the White House as Virginia McLaurin opens her arms wide and greets Obama with an excited "Hi!".
Click on this link: The Elephants that came to dinner so you can see what happened.
2. Neglect of reading challenging materials.
3. Lack of stimulating conversation.
4. Avoidance of challenging word (vocabulary) acquisitions from a variety of perspectives.
It’s not what you get, it’s what you keep that counts!
artery, the study of paintings.
bacteria, the back door of a cafeteria.
barium, what doctors do when patients die.
bowel, a letter like a, e, i, o, or u.
caesarean section, a neighborhood in Rome.
cat scan, searching for a lost cat.
cauterize, making eye-contact with a girl.
coma, a punctuation mark.
dilate, to live a long time.
enema, not a friend .
euthanasia, Chinese, Japanese, etc. adolescents.
fester, quicker.
fibula, a small lie.
genital, not a Jew.
hangnail, a coat hook.
impotent, distinguished, well known.
labor pain, getting hurt at work.
malfeasance, exorbitant charges for professional services.
medical staff, a doctor’s cane.
morbid, a higher offer.
nitrates, cheaper than day rates.
node, was aware of, knew.
nosography
1. The art of writing using a pen or pencil stuck up one’s nose.
2. The writing done by a nasograph.
outpatient, someone who has fainted.
pap smear, a fatherhood test.
pelvis, a cousin of Elvis.
prophylactic, a person who favors birth control.
recovery room, place to do upholstery.
rectum, dang near killed ‘em.
secretion, hiding something.
seizure, famous Roman leader.
tablet, a small table.
terminal illness, getting sick at the airport.
tumor, more than one.
urine, opposite of “you’re out”.
vein, conceited.
The answer will always end with 3. Delete the 3, and the remaining figure will be the original number that you started with.
Anyone who has had a can tied to him or her is a person whose presence is no longer desired.
Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.
Something that is no longer wanted nor appreciated.
Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.
2. To control or to stop an activity: A woman said that her husband was deceiving himself if he thinks he can tie a can to her.
Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.
3. To control someone or to make him or her do something: Another wife wants her husband to buy her a coat or she will tie a can to him in order to make him do what she wants him to and he is apparently not concerned about her threat.
Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.
start-up fund:
inventors:
"The U.S. government agency that helped invent the Internet now wants to do the same for travel to the stars."
Groups of Word Challenges so you can test your vocabulary skills.