VOCABULARY TONICS

20 random synonyms MCQ test

2011-07-12T09:33:00.001-07:00

Word-power is as important as grammar. Right word at right place raises the effectiveness of a communication. Synonyms help us to have a set of words available for selection. Some synonyms, though synonyms (words of similar meaning) have different collocations. Misplaced collocations can lead to bankruptcies or broken loves or fierce battles.

1. unaesthetic: synonym

inartistic basic actinic quixotic

2.spoiling: synonym

mending messing up uprooting tilling

3.inquisitors: synonym

passers-by adjudicators arbitrators questioners

4.felon: synonym

criminal innocent witness supporter

5.milieus: synonym

circulars surroundings arrangements apprehensions

6.hornet: synonym

organ a small horn hornwort vespid wasp

7.infinitude: synonym

boundlessness voraciousness foresight hindsight

8.regime: synonym

a unit of army discipline Government freedom

9.internalisation: synonym

reservation incorporation rationalisation management

10.lowercase: synonym

minuscule major moderate base

11.surrealist: synonym

fantasizezr dreamer fiction-writer fantasmagoricalist

12.boaster: synonym

low-profiler bragger self-effacer pretendor

13.pretence: synonym

feigning fiendishness fastidiousness factiousness

14.factious: synonym

turbulant tranquil difficult to please artificial

15.spar: synonym

pliar fistcuff chain imprison

16.palpitate: synonym

relax force thrive throb

17.cosily: synonym

pensively restlessly snugly awkwardly

18.barge: synonym

frigate flatboat yacht canoe

19.bespeak: synonym

narrate foretell report recall

20.overenthusiastic: synonym

overzealous moderate penetrating ever-ready

Passage comprehension and vocabulary enrichment

2011-07-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

*Ecology and economics should push in the same direction. After all, the 'eco' part of each word derives from the Greek word for â€œhomeâ€�, and the *protagonists of both claim to have humanity's welfare as their goal. Yet environmentalists and economists are often at *loggerheads. For economists, the world seems to be getting better. For many environmentalists, it seems to be getting worse. These environmentalists have developed a sort of *â€œlitanyâ€� of three big environmental fears: natural resources are running out; the population is ever growing, leaving less and less to eat and the planet's air and water are becoming ever more polluted. Human activity is thus *defiling the earth, and humanity may end up killing itself in the process. The trouble is, the evidence does not back up this litany. The early environmental movement worried that the mineral resources on which modern industry depends would run out. Clearly, there must be some limit to the amount of fossil fuels and metal ores that can be extracted from the earth: the planet, after all, has a *finite mass. But that limit is far greater than many environmentalists would have people believe. Reserves of natural resources have to be located, a process that costs money. That, not natural scarcity, is the main limit on their availability. However, known reserves of all fossil fuels, and of most commercially important metals, are now larger than were believed to be. In the case of oil, for example, reserves that could be extracted at reasonably competitive prices would keep the world economy running for about 150 years at present consumption rates. Add to that the fact that the price of solar energy has fallen by half in every decade for the past 30 years, and appears likely to continue to do so into the future, and energy shortages do not look like a serious threat either to the economy or to the environment. The population explosion is also turning out to be a bugaboo. As far back as the end of the 18th Century Thomas Malthus claimed that, if unchecked, human population would expand exponentially, while food production could increase only linearly, by bringing new land into cultivation. He was wrong. Population growth has turned out to have an internal check: as people grow richer and healthier, they have smaller families. Indeed, the growth rate of the human population reached its peak, of more than 2% a year, in the early 1960s. The rate of increase has been declining ever since. It is now 1.26%, and is expected to fall to 0.46% in 2050. The United Nations estimates that most of the world's population growth will be over by 2100, with the population stabilising at just below 11 billion. Granted, the threat of pollution is real, but exaggerated. Many analyses show that air pollution diminishes when a society becomes rich enough to be able to afford to be concerned about the environment. For London, the city for which the best data are available, air pollution peaked around 1890. Today, the air is cleaner than it has been since 1585. There is good reason to believe that this general picture holds true for all developed countries. And, although air pollution is increasing in many developing countries, they are merely *replicating the development of the industrialized countries. When they grow sufficiently rich they, too, will start to reduce their air pollution. All this contradicts the litany. Yet opinion polls suggest that many people, in the rich world, at least, *nurture the belief that environmental standards are declining. Scientific funding goes mainly to areas with many problems. That may be wise policy, but it will also create an impression that many more *potential problems exist than is the case. The attitude of the media is also a factor in the *distortion. People are clearly more *curious about bad news than good. Newspapers and broadcasters are there to provide what the public wants. That, however, can lead to significant distortions of *perception. To replace the litany with facts is *crucial if people want to make the best possible decisions for the future.

Answer the following questions, from the above passage, taken courtesy from a UNO website. They have used for their 'General Paper-OHRM examination). Questions and answers are ours. The answers are context-based rather than strictly lexical. :

1.Ecology studies

resources environment fauna NOT

2.'Protagonists' are

supporters denigrators analysts NOT

3.'at Loggerheads' mean

exchanging views a largeheaded turtle in dispute bulbus rods

4.'Litany' implies

tactful address tedious speech hopeful prayer garbage

5.'Finite' indicates

temporal limits tentative limits exhaustibility with dimensions

6.'Bugaboo' indicates a ____ monster.

imagined monster threatening fiendish

7.'Defiling' indicates

exhausting removing scheming sullying

8.'Linearly' implies

with limits in a straight line of progression with a long trail NOT

9.'Replicating' suggests

supporting questioning disputing reproducing

10.'Nurture' indicates

nourish and rear advocate and argue beseech and borrow cherish and cuddle

11.'Potential problems' indicate

powerful problems problems likely to crop up issues of electrical charges NOT

12.'Distortion' implies

conformation obformation deformation subformation

13.'Curious' indicates

eager odd peculiar queer

14.'Perception' indicates

noesis after discussion cognition with senses limited understanding broad understanding

15.This passage ___ Malthusian theory.

supports ignores criticises touches

16.Present consumption rates (of oil) will

increase fall stagnate this passage does not say anything

17.'Crucial' indicats

vicarial vidal vital virtual

18.This UNO passage aims to

remove litany presents facts hails media all

19.Limit on fossil fuels is owing to

technical difficulties in exploration need to go deep into earth's crust higher costs of exploration all

20.This passage is

optimistic pessimistic neutral NOT

20 English Vocabulary MCQs

2011-07-09T04:43:00.000-07:00

1. Synonym of 'suave' is:

acerbic sullen trite sweet

2.Synonym of 'sheen' is:

achromatic opaque transparent glow

3.Antonym of 'significant' is:

absolute minuscule cumulative

4.One-word substitution for 'offensive to the mind' is:

abhorrent doting nonchalant indifferent

5.An uncomfortably closed room we can call

houseroom anteroom claustrophobic room elbow room

6.One-word substitution for 'ritual washing of a priest's hands' is:

ablation ablution abocclusion abruption

7.One-word substitute for 'noisy, rapid talk' is:

rat-a-tat ratch rattle cark

8.Find the oddman out:

granter imparter subscriber snatcher

9.'Swindle' - synonym is:

cheat wander warble startle

10.'Snap' - synonym is:

stitch break twist snick

11.Which of the following is not one of the meanings of 'snick'?

cut hit lightly strike off murmer

12.The word 'blueberry' refers to a

software county fruit NOT

13.The action verb 'Infuse' refers to

install instep instill impute

14.The status verb 'stay put' advises a person to :

stagnate recoupe resist stick around

15.A coagulant ____ blood.

thickens dilute breaks pollutes

16.A synonym of 'flick' is:

flow blow slow glow

17.Find the oddman out:

flock gather crowd diffuse

18.Find the oddman out:

lulu smasher stunner crone

19.Which of the following is not a synonym of 'sue'?

chase petition compound seek

20.Find the oddman out:

gigolo pimp panderer procurer

Find the oddman out

2011-07-01T05:17:00.000-07:00

Antonyms - Multiple Choice Test

2011-06-27T03:36:00.001-07:00

1.Identify the word which is not a synonym of the remaining words-- Grill:

examine question cook and roast assuage

2.Seize:

discontinue confiscate sequester impound

3.Eve:

occasion woman evening jealousy

4.Whopping:

minuscule large gigantic gorgeous

5.Rival :

competitor challenger contender unequal

6.Intensity:

strength magnitude softness depth

7.Squash:

crush unripe compress soothe

8.Ideal:

model conceptional imaginary pragmatic

9.Stranglehold :

grip achilles' heel straitjacket bear hug

10.Bag :

sack receptacle full repository

11.Tiff:

quarrel spat truce squabble

12.Vehemence :

adaptiveness stubbornness persistence adamance

13.Effigy:

image corpse representation strawman

14.Moolah :

root money lucre dough

15.Fief:

fiend estate land fee

16.Stir:

move disturb set agitate

17.Stifle:

squeeze asphyxiate stuff smother

18.Decline:

fall express unwillngness inflect delineate

19.Flee :

fly run away twitch escape

20.Roar :

recede boom thunder howl

WORDS STARTING or ENDNG WITH 'vert'

2011-04-20T01:28:00.000-07:00

STUDY THE FOLLOWING

1.vertebrates

11-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1.animadvert.2.controvert

10-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1.extravert.2.extrovert.3.reconvert.4.retrovert

9-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1.antivert.2.vertical.3.vertical

8-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1.convert.2.convert.3.convert.4.convert.5.convert.6.convert.7.pervert.8.subvert.9.subvert

7-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1.advert.2.covert.3.divert.4.divert.5.divert.6.invert.7.revert

6-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1.avert.2.overt.3.verts

5-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

HOVER YOUR MOUSE TO SEE THE WORD/PHRASE

11-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:-Anthropology : Humans fall under the class of ______________ just as the fish.

10-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:-Human behaviors : A cynic may ______________ others and unnecessarily scorn them.;\> .

2:-Lexicography : Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary has not, somehow recognised the word ' ______________ ' .

9-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:-HRD Policies of Corporates : The advertising Insurance Company wants an ______________ person to sell its insurance.

2:-Lexicography : Many dictionaries treat the words ' ______________ ' and ' extrovert ' synonymously and classify 'extravert' as a rare word.

3:-Foreign Exchange : Businessmen and tourists say that it is difficult to ______________ soft currencies into hard currencies.

4:-Sociology : Do social customs ______________ ? To how many centuries do they retrovert.

8-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:-Architecture : We have to plan the size and strength of the ______________ pillars for the proposed building.

2:-Health : Is ______________ an antihistamine? Does antivert initiate its own symptoms of allergies.

3:-Musicology : What advantages do ______________ flutes possess over horizontal flutes.

7-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:-Human perversions and temptations : What does not ______________ people? Alcohol? blow jobs? clits? dicks? erections and ejaculations? Flattery and fucking? Misinformation? Pelf and power? Religion? Wealth?;\> .

2:-Investments : Ruinous misjudgments can ______________ princes into paupers.

3:-Courting and Dating: Ruinous self-assessments can ______________ sages into fools.

4:-Jurisprudence and Law :He implores the assistance of the law in vain, who endeavours to ______________ the laws themselves.

5:-Rule of Law and subverters of justice ______________ers of justice : He deservedly loses the benefit of the law, who intends to subvert the law itself .

6:-Persuasion and Proselytism :Seeking to ______________ infidels to the true faith is futile.

7:-Universal urbanization : We cannot ______________ cornfields into fallow lands .

8:-Philosophy of Success : A successful person can ______________ his deficiencies into strengths and vice versa .

9:-Philosophy of Poverty : Can deprivation ______________ people into introverts .

6-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:-Philosophy of Drama : An actor may smile, ______________; His soul is still his own.

2:-Grieving and Mourning : Attempts to ______________ grief, irritate grievers.

3:-Downward organizational communications : Frequent conferences, ______________ managers' attention, from their operations.

4:-Pubs and Taverns : London has many clubs of sexually ______________ persons.

5:-World Political scenario : Democratic countries cannot ______________ to their old anarchic systems of governance.

6:-Social behaviors : Do fans ______________ to every word of the celebrities they adore.

7:-Social Behaviors: Did Sherlock Holmes use the beggary of the Street Arabs as a ______________ for his spying purposes? I do not think so.

5-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:-Jurisprudence and Law : Is law more concerned with intentions or ______________ acts.

2:-Neighbors : Can we say that most neighbors prefer to ______________ overt or covert confrontations.

3:-Food Technology : Nobody may be able to understand if we say ' haricot ______________ '.

VERB PHRASE ANALYSIS - SHAKESPEARE'S HENRY IV PART I

2011-04-06T05:35:00.000-07:00

STUDY THE FOLLOWING

22-lettered words/phrases:
sealed interchangeably
Observation: Transitive verb and the complementary adverb which describes it.

18-lettered words/phrases:
tattered Prodigals

Observation: Past participle of the verb used as adjective plus its noun.

17-lettered words/phrases:
showed themselves

Observation : Transitive verb followed by its object.

renowned Douglas!

Observation : Past participle used as adjective plus its noun.

anointed majesty!
Observation : Past participle used as adjective plus its noun.

16-lettered words/phrases:
banished honours

Observation : Past participle used as adjective plus its noun.

stained nobility

Observation : Past participle used as adjective plus its noun.

15-lettered words/phrases:
tacked together

Observation : verb plus its complementary adverb together. How tacked? Tacked together.

14-lettered words/phrases:
called thieves

Observation : transitive verb plus its object.

unyoked humour
drowned honour

Observation : Past participles used as adjectives followed by their objects.

13-lettered words/phrases:
thee hanged first!
Observations: object (thee=you) + past participle used as adjective (hanged), complementary ordinal adverb (first).

usage

And our indentures tripartite are drawn;
Which being sealed interchangeably
(A business .

I had a
hundred and fifty tattered Prodigals lately come from
swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks.

have showed themselves humours
since the old days of goodman Adam to the pupil age of this
present this twelve o'clock at midnight.

What never-dying honour hath he got
Against renowned Douglas! whose high deeds,
Whose hot incursions and great name in arms
Holds from all soldiers chief majority
And military title capital
Through all the kingdoms .

And God defend but still I should stand so,
So long as out of limit and true rule
You stand against anointed majesty!
But to my charge.

you are fooled, discarded, and shook off
By him for whom these shames ye underwent?
No! yet time serves wherein you may redeem
Your banished honours and restore yourselves
Into the good thoughts of the world again;
Revenge the jeering and disdained contempt
Of this proud king, who studies day and night
To answer all the debt he owes to you
Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.

Prince Hall |-- Lead me, my lord, I do not need your help;
And God forbid a shallow scratch should drive
The Prince of Wales from such a field as this,
Where stained nobility lies trodden on,
And rebels' arms triumph in massacres!
John.

the half-shirt is two
napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like a
herald's coat without sleeves.

are squires of the night's body be called thieves of the day's
beauty.

Prince Hall |-- I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness.

Hotspur |-- By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap
To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon,
Or dive into the bottom of the deep,
Where fadom line could never touch the ground,
And pluck up drowned honour by the locks,
So he .

Ay, when? canst tell? Lend me thy lantern, quoth he? Marry,
I'll see thee hanged first!
Gads.

SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS - HIS WAYS OF DESCRIBING FACES

2011-04-05T08:12:00.001-07:00

How did Shakespeare describe 'faces' of himself and his beloved, in his sonnets?
Shakespeare's 154 sonnets are available.
Well, I am not competent enough to comment or discourse upon the quality of the sonnets.

Just have a look
13-lettered words/phrases:
celestial face
12-lettered words/phrases:
earthly faces
borrowed face
10-lettered words/phrases:
golden face
their faces
9-lettered words/phrases:
sweet face
8-lettered words/phrases:
that face
7-lettered words/phrases:
the face
old face
thy face
Thy face
thy face
thy face
her face
6-lettered words/phrases:
no face
my face
5-lettered words/phrases:
a face
a face

With ugly rack on his celestial face,.
And from the forlorn world his visage hide

Such heavenly touches never touched earthly faces..
So should my papers (yellowed with their age)

Fairing the foul with art's false borrowed face,.
Sweet beauty hath no name no holy bower,

Kissing with golden face the meadows green;.
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy:

Tibey are the lords and owners of their faces,.
Others, but stewards of their excellence:

Rise resty Muse, my love's sweet face survey,.
If time have any wrinkle graven there,

Now is the time that face should form another,.
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,

Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest,.
Now is the time that face should form another,

Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new..
Lo thus by day my limbs, by night my mind,

That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell,.
Whatever thy thoughts, or thy heart's workings be,

Thy face hath not the power to make love groan;.
To say they err, I dare not be so bold,

A thousand groans but thinking on thy face,.
One on another's neck do witness bear

As those two mourning eyes become thy face:.
O let it then as well beseem thy heart

To follow that which flies before her face:.
Not prizing her poor infant's discontent;

Methinks no face so gracious is as mine,.
No shape so true, no truth of such account,

And therefore from my face she turns my foes,.
That they elsewhere might dart their injuries:

Look in your glass and there appears a face,.
That over-goes my blunt invention quite,

To put fair truth upon so foul a face?.
In things right true my heart and eyes have erred,

SUPERLATIVES USED BY SHAKESPEARE IN HIS MERCHANT OF VENICE

2011-04-02T08:18:00.001-07:00

BASIC GRAMMATICAL PRINCIPLES OF USING SUPERLATIVES
1. Use of the suffixes 'er' and 'est' in case of adjectives which have a single syllable (monosyllabic).
2. Use of the prefixes 'more' and the 'most' in case of adjectives which have more than one syllable (multi-syllabic or polysyllabic).

You will find that Shakespeare had, by and large, followed these principles in choosing his superlatives.
What are the exceptions?
E.g. 'the unpleasantest words'.

STUDY THE FOLLOWING
1. the unpleasantest words

25-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

24-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

23-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1. the most impenetrable

22-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

21-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1. the most courageous

20-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1. the sternest eyes

19-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1. the smallest orb

18-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1. the farthest by

17-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

16-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

15-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

14-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

13-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

12-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

11-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1. the most

10-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

HOVER YOUR MOUSE TO SEE THE WORD/PHRASE 25-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:- BASSANIO. O sweet Portia ,
Here are a few of______________ That ever blotted paper! Gentle lady ,
When I did first impart my love to you ,
I freely told you all the wealth I had
Ran in my veins- I was a gentleman.

24-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

23-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

22-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:- I will have my bond. Exit
SOLANIO. It is______________ cur
That ever kept with men.

21-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

20-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:- scorn running with thy heels.' Well ,______________
fiend bids me pack. 'Via!' says the fiend.

19-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:- Therefore , I pray you , lead me to the caskets
To try my fortune. By this scimitar ,
That slew the Sophy and a Persian prince ,
That won three fields of Sultan Solyman ,
I would overstare______________that look ,
Outbrave the heart most daring on the earth ,
Pluck the young sucking cubs from the she-bear ,
Yea , mock the lion when 'a roars for prey ,
To win thee , lady. But , alas the while.

18-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:-
There's not______________which thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings ,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins.

17-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:- but let it be so hasted that supper be
ready at______________five of the clock. See these letters
delivered , put the liveries to making , and desire Gratiano to
come anon to my lodging. Exit a SERVANT
LAUNCELOT. To him , father.

16-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

15-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

14-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

13-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

12-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

11-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

10-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1:- but my chief care
Is to come fairly off from the great debts
Wherein my time , something too prodigal ,
Hath left me gaged. To you , Antonio ,
I owe______________, in money and in love.

MERCHANT OF VENICE : 'TO' PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

2011-04-02T00:17:00.000-07:00

USE OF 'TO' AS 'PREPOSITION'
A 'preposition' is a word which comes first in position. What comes next? Ans: The preposition's object.
A preposition's object should, by and large, be a noun.
'To' indicates direction. The direction may be towards a place/person/situation/time.
E.g. : to madness.
to Portia.
to church.

How about 'to infinitive'?
The preposition 'to' + a verb's basic form (also called bare infinitive) gives us the 'to infinitive'.
E.g. : to determine.
to discharge.
to undertake.

A preposition should actually have a noun/noun phrase/noun clause as its object. How is it that verbs are following the 'to'?

E.g. : That comes to hazard for my worthless self.

Here hazard is the situation. 'To' is directing towards a situation of 'hazard'. In a way, thus to is followed by the noun hazard. Some interpretors say that 'to infinitive' indicates purpose. Purpose = 'for what?'. The preposition 'for' also gets a noun after it. We, thus, find that a verb gets the force of a noun, when following a preposition.

Gerunds and 'to infinitives' have some similarities. Both can be used as verbal nouns.
E.g. : To err is human.
Erring is human.
She likes to sing.
She likes singing.

I guess, an explanation here. The words 'determine, discharge, undertake' prima facie appear as verbs here, but they have a connotation of a noun.

Classify the following " 'to' + phrases " into 'to infinitives' and others.
To infinitives : E.g.: to change, to render, to determine etc.
Others : E.g. : to dinner, to my heaven, to myself, to himself etc.

Let us now STUDY THE FOLLOWING " 'to' prepositional phrases" from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.

20-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

19-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

18-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

17-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

16-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1to falconbridge

15-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

14-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1to christians.2to understand

13-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1to determine.2to discharge.3to solemnize

12-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1to carthage.2to judgment.3to judgment.4to marriage.5to tripolis

11-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1to believe.2to belmont.3to contain.4to exclaim.5to harbour.6to himself.7to lorenzo.8to lorenzo.9to madness.10to observe.11to qualify

10-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1to answer.2to attend.3to become.4to behold.5to change.6to choose.7to choose.8to choose.9to church.10to church.11to depart.12to dinner.13to dinner.14to dinner.15to hazard.16to heaven.17to heaven.18to heaven.19to making.20to myself.21to please.22to portia.23to portia.24to render.25to render.26to return.27to search.28to soften.29to supper.30to supply.31to thrive

9-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

HOVER YOUR MOUSE TO SEE THE WORD/PHRASE 20-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

19-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

18-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

17-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

16-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

15-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 NERISSA. What say you then ______________ , the young baron of
England.

14-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

13-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1
But there the Duke was given ______________
That in a gondola were seen together
Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica.

2 and he says you are no good member
of the commonwealth , for in converting Jews ______________ you
raise the price of pork.

12-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1
And , when your honours mean ______________
The bargain of your faith , I do beseech you
Even at that time I may be married too.

2 Besides , it should appear that , if he had
The present money ______________ the Jew ,
He would not take it. Never did I know
A creature that did bear the shape of man
So keen and greedy to confound a man.

3 DUKE OF VENICE. Upon my power I may dismiss this court ,
Unless Bellario , a learned doctor ,
Whom I have sent for ______________ this ,
Come here to-day.

11-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 yet his means
are in supposition: he hath an argosy bound ______________ , another
to the Indies.

2 such it is
As are those dulcet sounds in break of day
That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear
And summon him ______________. Now he goes ,
With no less presence , but with much more love ,
Than young Alcides when he did redeem
The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy
To the sea-monster. I stand for sacrifice.

3 SHYLOCK. A Daniel come ______________! Yea , a Daniel.

4 I charge you by the law ,
Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar ,
Proceed ______________. By my soul I swear
There is no power in the tongue of man
To alter me. I stay here on my bond.

5 LORENZO. In such a night
Stood Dido with a willow in her hand
Upon the wild sea-banks , and waft her love
To come again ______________.

10-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 for if he
love me ______________ , I shall never requite him.

2 GRATIANO. You must not deny me: I must go with you ______________.

3 GRATIANO. And I must ______________ and the rest.

4 ARRAGON. I am enjoin'd by oath ______________ three things:
First , never to unfold to any one
Which casket 'twas I chose.

5 A SONG
the whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets ______________
Tell me where is fancy bred ,
Or in the heart or in the head ,
How begot , how nourished.

6 and even now , but now ,
This house , these servants , and this same myself ,
Are yours- my lord's. I give them with this ring ,
Which when you part from , lose , or give away ,
Let it presage the ruin of your love ,
And be my vantage ______________ on you.

7 ANTONIO. I have heard
Your Grace hath ta'en great pains ______________
His rigorous course.

8 This deed will be well welcome ______________.

9 PORTIA. If you had known the virtue of the ring ,
Or half her worthiness that gave the ring ,
Or your own honour ______________ the ring ,
You would not then have parted with the ring.

10 Nerissa teaches me what ______________:
I'll die for't but some woman had the ring.

11
There you shall find three of your argosies
Are richly come ______________ suddenly.

9-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 Vailing her high top lower than her ribs
To kiss her burial. Should I go ______________
And see the holy edifice of stone ,
And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks ,
Which , touching but my gentle vessel's side ,
Would scatter all her spices on the stream ,
Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks ,
And , in a word , but even now worth this ,
And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought
To think on this , and shall I lack the thought
That such a thing bechanc'd would make me sad.

2 I take it your own business calls on you ,
And you embrace th' occasion ______________.

3 SALERIO. We'll make our leisures ______________ on yours.

4 NERISSA. If he should offer ______________ , and choose the right casket ,
you should refuse to perform your father's will , if you should
refuse to accept him.
PORTIA. Therefore , for fear of the worst , I pray thee set a deep
glass of Rhenish wine on the contrary casket.

5
they have acquainted me with their determinations , which is
indeed ______________ to their home , and to trouble you with no more
suit , unless you may be won by some other sort than your father's
imposition , depending on the caskets.

6 ANTONIO. Shylock , albeit I neither lend nor borrow
By taking nor by giving of excess ,
Yet , ______________ the ripe wants of my friend ,
I'll break a custom. [To BASSANIO] Is he yet possessed
How much ye would.

7 This was a way ______________ , and he was blest.

8 PORTIA. You must take your chance ,
And either not attempt ______________ at all ,
Or swear before you choose , if you choose wrong ,
Never to speak to lady afterward
In way of marriage.

9 or , as you would say in plain
terms , gone ______________.

10 but let it be so hasted that supper be
ready at the farthest by five of the clock. See these letters
delivered , put the liveries ______________ , and desire Gratiano to
come anon to my lodging. Exit a SERVANT
LAUNCELOT. To him , father.

11 and my suit is-
LAUNCELOT. In very brief , the suit is impertinent ______________ , as
your worship shall know by this honest old man.

12 Shylock thy master spoke with me this day ,
And hath preferr'd thee , if it be preferment
To leave a rich Jew's service ______________
The follower of so poor a gentleman.

13 If ever the Jew her father come ______________ ,
It will be for his gentle daughter's sake.

14 SHYLOCK. I am bid forth ______________ , Jessica.

15
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside ______________.

16 SOLANIO. The villain Jew with outcries rais'd the Duke ,
Who went with him ______________ Bassanio's ship.

17 PORTIA. To these injunctions every one doth swear
That comes ______________ for my worthless self.

18 How much unlike art thou ______________.

19 But lest you should not understand me well-
And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought-
I would detain you here some month or two
Before you venture for me. I could teach you
How ______________ right , but then I am forsworn.

20 First go with me ______________ and call me wife ,
And then away to Venice to your friend.

21 for your coming in ______________ , sir , why ,
let it be as humours and conceits shall govern.

22
And if on earth he do not merit it ,
In reason he should never come ______________.

23 first let us go ______________.

24 thou art come ______________
A stony adversary , an inhuman wretch ,
Uncapable of pity , void and empty
From any dram of mercy.

25 SHYLOCK. I am not bound ______________ thee with my answers.

26
You may as well do anything most hard
As seek ______________ that- than which what's harder?-
His jewish heart. Therefore , I do beseech you ,
Make no moe offers , use no farther means ,
But with all brief and plain conveniency
Let me have judgment , and the Jew his will.

27 we do pray for mercy ,
And that same prayer doth teach us all ______________
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea ,
Which if thou follow , this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

28
I would she were in heaven , so she could
Entreat some power ______________ this currish Jew.

29
I am content , so he will let me have
The other half in use , ______________ it
Upon his death unto the gentleman
That lately stole his daughter-
Two things provided more.

30 Exit SHYLOCK
DUKE OF VENICE. Sir , I entreat you home with me ______________.

31 NERISSA. Sir , I would speak with you.
[Aside ______________] I'll See if I can get my husband's ring ,
Which I did make him swear to keep for ever.

MERCHANT OF VENICE :TWO WORD PHRASES WITH ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES ENDING IN ' Y'

2011-04-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

SHAKESPEARE'S MERCHANT OF VENICE

STUDY THE FOLLOWING two word phrases.

The first word is expected to be an adjective ending in. 'y'.

Some of the first words, you will find, are unfortunately NOT ADJECTIVES.

Identify the first words which are not adjectives.

E.g. "competency lives". Competency, basically is a noun. The relevant adjective form is competent. 'Competency' , though a noun, can be used as an adjective in phrases like 'competency parameters'. But such uses are exceptional. 'Competency' in the under-noted Shakespeare's sentence is used as a noun, which the contextual meaning shows.

Hint: 'My' and 'thy' are attributive possessive adjectives. They end in 'y'.

20-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

19-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

18-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 petty traffickers

17-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 competency lives .2 princely suitors .3 twenty merchants

16-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 woolly breeders

15-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 pretty follies .2 try confusions .3 very dangerous

14-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 brassy bosoms .2 mercy seasons .3 my affections .4 naughty times
.5 thy plainness .6 wednesday was

13-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 gratify this .2 holy crosses .3 holy witness .4 many cowards .5 many friends
.6 money gratis .7 my worthless .8 thy thoughts .9 twenty miles .10 twenty times .11 twenty times .12 twenty times .13 very friends

12-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 brightly as .2 gently kiss .3 happy hours .4 many months
.5 many things .6 may dismiss .7 merry tales .8 my bargains .9 my fortunes .10 my fortunes .11 my mistress .12 my servants .13 my servants .14 my ventures .15 my ventures .16 sunny locks
.17 thy desires
.18 thy fellows .19 vasty wilds

11-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 fancy dies
.2 harmony is .3 many books .4 many fools .5 my affairs .6 my deserts .7 only loves .8 sweetly as

10-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

HOVER YOUR MOUSE TO SEE THE WORD/PHRASE 20-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

19-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

18-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

17-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1
There where your argosies , with portly sail-
Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood ,
Or as it were the pageants of the sea-
Do overpeer the______________,
That curtsy to them , do them reverence ,
As they fly by them with their woven wings.

16-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 and yet , for aught I
see , they are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that
starve with nothing. It is no mean happiness , therefore , to be
seated in the mean: superfluity come sooner by white hairs , but
______________longer.

2 therefore the lott'ry that he hath
devised in these three chests , of gold , silver , and lead- whereof
who chooses his meaning chooses you- will no doubt never be
chosen by any rightly but one who you shall rightly love. But
what warmth is there in your affection towards any of these
______________that are already come.

3 He plies the Duke at morning and at night ,
And doth impeach the freedom of the state ,
If they deny him justice.______________,
The Duke himself , and the magnificoes
Of greatest port , have all persuaded with him.

15-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1
And when the work of generation was
Between these______________in the act ,
The skilful shepherd pill'd me certain wands ,
And , in the doing of the deed of kind ,
He stuck them up before the fulsome ewes ,
Who , then conceiving , did in eaning time
Fall parti-colour'd lambs , and those were Jacob's.

14-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 I will______________with him.

2
But love is blind , and lovers cannot see
The______________that themselves commit ,
For , if they could , Cupid himself would blush
To see me thus transformed to a boy.

3 the Goodwins I think
they call the place , a______________flat and fatal , where the
carcases of many a tall ship lie buried , as they say , if my
gossip Report be an honest woman of her word.

13-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 SOLANIO. Believe me , sir , had I such venture forth ,
The better part of______________would
Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind ,
Peering in maps for ports , and piers , and roads.

2 I will not say you
shall see a masque , but if you do , then it was not for nothing
that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black Monday last at six o'clock
i' th' morning , falling out that year on Ash______________four
year , in th' afternoon.

3 but if mine , then yours ,
And so all yours. O! these______________ Puts bars between the owners and their rights.

4 but thou , thou meagre lead ,
Which rather threaten'st than dost promise aught ,
______________moves me more than eloquence ,
And here choose I. Joy be the consequence.

5
And where thou now exacts the penalty ,
Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh ,
Thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture ,
But , touch'd with human gentleness and love ,
Forgive a moiety of the principal ,
Glancing an eye of pity on his losses ,
That have of late so huddled on his back-
Enow to press a royal merchant down ,
And pluck commiseration of his state
From______________and rough hearts of flint ,
From stubborn Turks and Tartars , never trained
To offices of tender courtesy.

6
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When______________justice. Therefore , Jew ,
Though justice be thy plea , consider this-
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation.

12-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1
But more for that in low simplicity
He lends out______________, and brings down
The rate of usance here with us in Venice.

2 An evil soul producing______________
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek ,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.

3 LORENZO. Heaven and______________are witness that thou art.

4 PORTIA. To these injunctions every one doth swear
That comes to hazard for______________self.

5 How______________, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of s.

6 Such as I am. Though for myself alone
I would not be ambitious in my wish
To wish myself much better , yet for you
I would be trebled______________myself ,
A thousand times more fair , ten thousand times more rich ,
That only to stand high in your account
I might in virtues , beauties , livings , friends ,
Exceed account. But the full sum of me
Is sum of something which , to term in gross ,
Is an unlesson'd girl , unschool'd , unpractis'd.

7 Enter LORENZO , JESSICA , and SALERIO , a messenger
from Venice
BASSANIO. Lorenzo and Salerio , welcome hither ,
If that the youth of my new int'rest here
Have power to bid you welcome. By your leave ,
I bid my______________and countrymen ,
Sweet Portia , welcome.

8 JESSICA. When I was with him , I have heard him swear
To Tubal and to Chus , his countrymen ,
That he would rather have Antonio's flesh
Than______________the value of the sum
That he did owe him.

9
For never shall you lie by Portia's side
With an unquiet soul. You shall have gold
To pay the petty debt______________over.

10 and therefore haste away ,
For we must measure______________to-day. Exeunt
SCENE V.

11 Antonio ,______________gentleman ,
For in my mind you are much bound to him.

12 she doth stray about
By______________, where she kneels and prays
For happy wedlock hours.

13
And in the hearing of these______________ I swear to thee , even by thine own fair eyes ,
Wherein I see myself-
PORTIA. Mark you but that.

11-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1
And every object that might make me fear
Misfortune to______________, out of doubt ,
Would make me sad.

2 I thank my fortune for it ,
______________are not in one bottom trusted ,
Nor to one place.

3
For the four winds blow in from every coast
Renowned suitors , and her______________ Hang on her temples like a golden fleece ,
Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos' strond ,
And many Jasons come in quest of her.

4 ANTONIO. Thou know'st that all______________are at sea.

5 PORTIA. He doth nothing but frown , as who should say 'An you will
not have me , choose.' He hears______________and smiles not. I fear
he will prove the weeping philosopher when he grows old , being so
full of unmannerly sadness in his youth. I had rather be married
to a death's-head with a bone in his mouth than to either of
these. God defend me from these two.

6 and he rails ,
Even there where merchants most do congregate ,
On me ,______________, and my well-won thrift ,
Which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe
If I forgive him.

7 Tubal , a wealthy Hebrew of my tribe ,
Will furnish me. But soft! how______________ Do you desire? [To ANTONIO] Rest you fair , good signior.

8 The Hyrcanian deserts and the______________ Of wide Arabia are as throughfares now
For princes to come view fair Portia.

9 'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.'
I will assume desert. Give me a key for this ,
And instantly unlock______________here.

10 Myself and what is mine to you and yours
Is now converted. But now I was the lord
Of this fair mansion , master of______________,
Queen o'er myself.

11 LORENZO. Fair thoughts and______________attend on you.

12 LORENZO. Yet more quarrelling with occasion! Wilt thou show the
whole wealth of thy wit in an instant? I pray thee understand a
plain man in his plain meaning: go to______________, bid them cover
the table , serve in the meat , and we will come in to dinner.

13 DUKE OF VENICE. Upon my power I______________this court ,
Unless Bellario , a learned doctor ,
Whom I have sent for to determine this ,
Come here to-day.

14 for______________ Are wolfish , bloody , starv'd and ravenous.

15Belmont. The garden before PORTIA'S house
Enter LORENZO and JESSICA
LORENZO. The moon shines bright. In such a night as this ,
When the sweet wind did______________the trees ,
And they did make no noise- in such a night ,
Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls ,
And sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents ,
Where Cressid lay that night.

16 STEPHANO. Stephano is my name , and I bring word
______________will before the break of day
Be here at Belmont.

17 PORTIA. So doth the greater glory dim the less:
A substitute shines______________a king
Until a king be by , and then his state
Empties itself , as doth an inland brook
Into the main of waters. Music! hark.

18 How______________by season season'd are
To their right praise and true perfection.

19
Give order to______________that they take
No note at all of our being absent hence.

10-LETTERED-WORDS/PHRASES

1 Not I , but______________, have made you wait.

2 SOLANIO. I think he______________the world for him.

3 Is that my prize? Are______________no better.

4 and______________ In the cradle where it lies.
Let us all ring fancy's knell:
I'll begin it- Ding , dong , bell.

5 and I do know
A______________that stand in better place ,
Garnish'd like him , that for a tricksy word
Defy the matter. How cheer'st thou , Jessica.

6 we
turn'd o'er______________together.

7
Such______________in immortal souls ,
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in , we cannot hear it.
Enter MUSICIANS
Come , ho , and wake Diana with a hymn.

8 PORTIA. The crow doth sing as______________the lark
When neither is attended.

SHAKESPEARE'S MERCHANT OF VENICE - 11 TO 20 LETTERS WORDS ANALYSIS

2011-03-31T23:47:00.000-07:00

STUDY THE FOLLOWING

20-LETTERED-WORDS

19-LETTERED-WORDS

18-LETTERED-WORDS

17-LETTERED-WORDS

16-LETTERED-WORDS

15-LETTERED-WORDS

14-LETTERED-WORDS

1 appropriation .2 ceremoniously .3 commiseration .4 unpleasantest

13-LETTERED-WORDS

1 accomplished
.2 commonwealth .3 constitution
.4 conveniently .5 discontinued .6 impenetrable .7 inscriptions .8 intermission
.9 marvellously .10 questionless .11 throughfares .12 underprizing

12-LETTERED-WORDS

1 acknowledge .2 adventuring .3 approaching .4 commendable
.5 commendable .6 controversy .7 conveniency
.8 description
.9 exhortation .10 forfeitures
.11 immediately .12 impertinent .13 importunity .14 inexecrable .15 ingratitude
.16 injunctions .17 inscription .18 magnificoes
.19 merchandise .20 merchandise .21 neighbourly .22 philosopher .23 quarrelling .24 remembrance .25 superfluity .26 transformed .27 understands .28 undervalued .29 unwillingly

11-LETTERED-WORDS

HOVER YOUR MOUSE TO SEE THE WORD/PHRASE 20-LETTERED-WORDS

19-LETTERED-WORDS

18-LETTERED-WORDS

17-LETTERED-WORDS

16-LETTERED-WORDS

15-LETTERED-WORDS

14-LETTERED-WORDS

13-LETTERED-WORDS

1 and he makes it a great______________to his own good
parts that he can shoe him himself.

2 BASSANIO. O sweet Portia,
Here are a few of the______________words
That ever blotted paper! Gentle lady,
When I did first impart my love to you,
I freely told you all the wealth I had
Ran in my veins- I was a gentleman.

3
And where thou now exacts the penalty,
Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh,
Thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture,
But, touch'd with human gentleness and love,
Forgive a moiety of the principal,
Glancing an eye of pity on his losses,
That have of late so huddled on his back-
Enow to press a royal merchant down,
And pluck______________of his state
From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of flint,
From stubborn Turks and Tartars, never train'd
To offices of tender courtesy.

4 But go we in, I pray thee, Jessica,
And______________let us prepare
Some welcome for the mistress of the house.

12-LETTERED-WORDS

1 Believe me, you are______________chang'd.

2 O my Antonio, had I but the means
To hold a rival place with one of them,
I have a mind presages me such thrift
That I should______________be fortunate.

3
I will survey th'______________back again.

4 The Hyrcanian deserts and the vasty wilds
Of wide Arabia are as______________now
For princes to come view fair Portia.

5
Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts
To courtship, and such fair ostents of love
As shall______________become you there.'
And even there, his eye being big with tears,
Turning his face, he put his hand behind him,
And with affection wondrous sensible
He wrung Bassanio's hand.

6 so sweet a bar
Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs
The painter plays the spider, and hath woven
A golden mesh t' entrap the hearts of men
Faster than gnats in cobwebs. But her eyes-
How could he see to do them? Having made one,
Methinks it should have power to steal both his,
And leave itself unfurnish'd. Yet look how far
The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow
In______________it, so far this shadow
Doth limp behind the substance. Here's the scroll,
The continent and summary of my fortune.

7 for______________ No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.

8 PORTIA. There are some shrewd contents in yond same paper
That steals the colour from Bassanio's cheek:
Some dear friend dead, else nothing in the world
Could turn so much the______________ Of any constant man. What, worse and worse.

9 I will have my bond. Exit
SOLANIO. It is the most______________cur
That ever kept with men.

10 but in such a habit
That they shall think we are______________ With that we lack. I'll hold thee any wager,
When we are both accoutred like young men,
I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
And wear my dagger with the braver grace,
And speak between the change of man and boy
With a reed voice.

11 And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,
That men shall swear I have______________school
About a twelvemonth. I have within my mind
A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,
Which I will practise.

12 LORENZO. I shall answer that better to the______________than you
can the getting up of the negro's belly.

11-LETTERED-WORDS

1
Therefore my______________makes me not sad.

2
I'll end my______________after dinner.

3 I'll grow a talker for this gear.
GRATIANO. Thanks, i' faith, for silence is only______________ In a neat's tongue dried, and a maid not vendible.

4 and by______________both
I oft found both. I urge this childhood proof,
Because what follows is pure innocence.

5 and yet, for aught I
see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that
starve with nothing. It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be
seated in the mean:______________come sooner by white hairs, but
competency lives longer.

6 PORTIA. He doth nothing but frown, as who should say 'An you will
not have me, choose.' He hears merry tales and smiles not. I fear
he will prove the weeping______________when he grows old, being so
full of unmannerly sadness in his youth. I had rather be married
to a death's-head with a bone in his mouth than to either of
these. God defend me from these two.

7 PORTIA. You know I say nothing to him, for he______________not me,
nor I him: he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian, and you
will come into the court and swear that I have a poor pennyworth
in the English. He is a proper man's picture.

8 PORTIA. That he hath a______________charity in him, for he borrowed
a box of the ear of the Englishman, and swore he would pay him
again when he was able.

9 and my suit is-
LAUNCELOT. In very brief, the suit is______________to myself, as
your worship shall know by this honest old man.

10
But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit,
For, if they could, Cupid himself would blush
To see me thus______________to a boy.

11 PRINCE OF MOROCCO. The first, of gold, who this______________bears:
'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.'
The second, silver, which this promise carries:
'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.'
This third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt:
'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.'
How shall I know if I do choose the right.

12 Or shall I think in silver she's immur'd,
Being ten times______________to tried gold.

13
Lastly,
If I do fail in fortune of my choice,
______________to leave you and be gone.

14 PORTIA. To these______________every one doth swear
That comes to hazard for my worthless self.

15 SERVANT. Madam, there is alighted at your gate
A young Venetian, one that comes before
To signify th'______________of his lord,
From whom he bringeth sensible regreets.

16 for, were he out of Venice, I can make what
______________I will. Go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue.

17 He plies the Duke at morning and at night,
And doth impeach the freedom of the state,
If they deny him justice. Twenty merchants,
The Duke himself, and the______________ Of greatest port, have all persuaded with him.

18And then treble that,
Before a friend of this______________ Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault.

19 his reason well I know:
I oft deliver'd from his______________ Many that have at times made moan to me.

20 LORENZO. Madam, with all my heart
I shall obey you in an fair commands.
PORTIA. My people do already know my mind,
And will______________you and Jessica
In place of Lord Bassanio and myself.

21 LORENZO. How every fool can play upon the word! I think the best
grace of wit will shortly turn into silence, and discourse grow
______________in none only but parrots. Go in, sirrah.

22 LORENZO. Yet more______________with occasion! Wilt thou show the
whole wealth of thy wit in an instant? I pray thee understand a
plain man in his plain meaning: go to thy fellows, bid them cover
the table, serve in the meat, and we will come in to dinner.

23
You may as well do anything most hard
As seek to soften that- than which what's harder?-
His jewish heart. Therefore, I do beseech you,
Make no moe offers, use no farther means,
But with all brief and plain______________ Let me have judgment, and the Jew his will.

24 SHYLOCK. No, none that thou hast wit enough to make.
GRATIANO. O, be thou damn'd,______________dog.

25 but in the instant that your
messenger came, in loving visitation was with me a young doctor
of Rome- his name is Balthazar. I acquainted him with the cause
in______________between the Jew and Antonio the merchant.

26 he is furnished with my opinion
which, bettered with his own learning-the greatness whereof I
cannot enough commend- comes with him at my______________to fill
up your Grace's request in my stead. I beseech you let his lack
of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation,
for I never knew so young a body with so old a head. I leave him
to your gracious acceptance, whose trial shall better publish his
commendation.'
Enter PORTIA for BALTHAZAR, dressed like a Doctor of Laws
DUKE OF VENICE. YOU hear the learn'd Bellario, what he writes.

27
Take some______________of us, as a tribute,
Not as fee. Grant me two things, I pray you,
Not to deny me, and to pardon me.

28 BASSANIO. Sweet Portia,
If you did know to whom I gave the ring,
If you did know for whom I gave the ring,
And would conceive for what I gave the ring,
And how______________I left the ring,
When nought would be accepted but the ring,
You would abate the strength of your displeasure.

29
My honour would not let______________ So much besmear it. Pardon me, good lady.

PEARL HARBOR ADDRESS OF FRANKLING D. ROOSEVELT - LONG WORD USAGE ANALYSIS

2011-03-30T22:21:00.000-07:00

The address made by Franklin Roosevelt at Pearl Harbor in 1941 is worth remembering.
Popular name of this speech : Pearl Harbor Address.
Doer : Franklin D. Roosevelt, the then President of the U.S.

MPT (Manner, Place, Time) Context:
Manner : Convincing the Houses to declare the deceptive and sudden invasion by Japan, as an act of war.

Place : A Joint Session of House of Representatives and the Senate.

Time : 7th Dec. 1941. 2nd World War. Japan torpedoed San Francisco and Honolulu. Attacked Guam, Honkong, Malaya, Midway Island, Phillippines and Wake Islands.

Size of the speech : Aprox. 800 words.

We shall now study the long words (length : 12 letters and above) used by Mr. Roosevelt.

12-LETTERED-WORDS

1: deliberately

2: solicitation

3: deliberately

4: deliberately

5: implications

6: premeditated

13-LETTERED-WORDS

7: determination

14-LETTERED-WORDS

15-LETTERED-WORDS

16-LETTERED-WORDS

17-LETTERED-WORDS

18-LETTERED-WORDS

19-LETTERED-WORDS

20-LETTERED-WORDS

HOVER YOUR MOUSE TO SEE THE WORD/PHRASE

12-LETTERED-WORDS

1
. Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives: Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and ______________attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan..
2
. It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was ______________planned many days or even weeks ago..
3
. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this ______________invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory..
4
. During the intervening time, the Japanese government has ______________sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace..
5
. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the ______________to the very life and safety of our nation..
6
.At the ______________of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific..

,13-LETTERED-WORDS

.
With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding ______________of our people, we will
gain the inevitable triumph so help us God..

,14-LETTERED-WORDS

,15-LETTERED-WORDS

,16-LETTERED-WORDS

,17-LETTERED-WORDS

,18-LETTERED-WORDS

,19-LETTERED-WORDS

,20-LETTERED-WORDS

LONG-WORD LENGTH-ANALYSIS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT'S MUCK RAKE ADDRESS

2011-03-30T04:29:00.000-07:00

The following is a longword-length analysis of a speech given by Late American President Mr. Theodore Roosevelt.

This particular address is famous as 'muck-rake' address.

This speech is worthy of study, whether we agree with the views of Mr. Theodore Roosevelt or not.

The verb 'muck-rake' refers to mudslinging. Mr. Roosevelt was, somehow, peeved at the binge of mudslinging that was going on in political circles. He was trying in the speech, to chastise the muck-rakers.

Here, I present a long-word analysis of words lengthier than 11 letters (12 letters and more).

16-20 long letter words are conspicuously absent.

I feel that he had not used any rare words. Exception : penitentiary. It refers to a correction home or jail.

How would Mr. Theodore Roosevelt have reacted, if he were alive today, in the midst of great global corruption?

Was he worse than today's business tycoons and politicians?

STUDY THE FOLLOWING

,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,

,

,

,

,

12-LETTERED-WORDS

consistently

untruthfully

whitewashing

unscrupulous, penitentiary

illegitimate

condemnation

indifference

discriminate

oscillations, acquiescence

significance

immeasurable

emotionalism

transmission

corporations

incalculable

immeasurably

13-LETTERED-WORDS

extraordinary

misunderstand

understanding

sensitiveness

indispensable

disinterested

determination

impracticable

14-LETTERED-WORDS

indiscriminate

sensationalism

Ecclesiastical

rebelliousness

15-LETTERED-WORDS

generalizations

dissatisfaction

superintendence

16-LETTERED-WORDS

17-LETTERED-WORDS

18-LETTERED-WORDS

19-LETTERED-WORDS

20-LETTERED-WORDS

,,,,

HOVER YOUR MOUSE TO SEE THE WORD/PHRASE

12-LETTERED-WORDS
,,

,
,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,

,
,

1:-

.
At the risk of
repetition let me say again that my plea is not for immunity to, but for the
most unsparing exposure of, the politician who betrays his trust, of the big
business man who makes or spends his fortune in ______________gitimate or corrupt ways..

2:-

.
One of the chief
counts against those who make indiscriminate assault upon men in business or men
in public life is that they invite a reaction which is sure to tell powerfully
in favor of the ______________crupulous scoundrel who really ought to be attacked, who
ought to be exposed, who ought, if possible, to be put in the penitentiary ..

3:-

.
The fool who has
not sense to ______________inate between what is good and what is bad is well nigh as
dangerous as the man who does discriminate and yet chooses the bad..

4:-

. Again, the national government must in some form exercise supervision
over ______________ngaged in interstate business-and all large corporations
engaged in interstate business-whether by license or otherwise, so as to permit
us to deal with the far reaching evils of overcapitalization..

5:-

. Bad though a state of hysterical
excitement is, and evil though the results are which come from the violent ______________ions such excitement invariably produces, yet a sodden acquiescence in
evil is even worse..

6:-

. If it seeks to
establish a line of cleavage, not along the line which divides good men from
bad, but along that other line, running at right angles thereto, which divides
those who are well off from those who are less well off, then it will be fraught
with ______________le harm to the body politic..

7:-

. If they fail to get their way they will still do ______________arm by provoking the kind of reaction which in its revolt against the senseless
evil of their teaching would enthrone more securely than ever the evils which
their misguided followers believe they are attacking..

8:-

. It puts a premium upon knavery ______________untruthfully to attack
an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with
untruth..

9:-

. Such taxation should, of course, be aimed merely at the inheritance
or ______________in their entirety of those fortunes swollen beyond all healthy
limits..

10:-

. The
soul of every scoundrel is gladdened whenever an honest man is assailed, or even
when a scoundrel is ______________ntruthfully assailed..

11:-

. There results a general attitude either of
cynical belief in and ______________erence to public corruption or else of a distrustful
inability to discriminate between the good and the bad..

12:-

. To assail the great and
admitted evils of our political and industrial life with such crude and sweeping
generalizations as to include decent men in the general ______________mnation means the
searing of the public con science..

13:-

. We should ______________ in the sharpest way between fortunes well won
and fortunes ill won.

14:-

. Yet he also typifies the
man who in this life ______________ consistently refuses to see aught that is lofty, and fixes
his eyes with solemn intentness only on that which is vile and debasing..

15:-

. and both the interested
individuals who need ______________itewashing and those others who practice mud slinging
like to encourage such confusion of ideas..

16:-

. but we appreciate also
that the things of the soul are ______________e important..

17:-

. violent ______________m leads to exhaustion..

18:-

.It turns into a mere crusade of appetite against appetite, of a contest
between the brutal greed of the "have nots" and the brutal greed of the "haves,"
then it has no ______________nce for good, but only for evil..

13-LETTERED-WORDS
,,,,,,,,,

1:-

.

This truth should be kept
constantly in mind by every free people desiring to preserve the sanity and
poise ______________rmanent success of self-government..

2:-

.
Now, it is easy to
twist out of shape what I have just said, easy to affect to ______________
and if it is slurred over in repetition not difficult really to misunderstand
it..

3:-

.
So far as this
movement of agitation throughout the country takes the form of a fierce
discontent with evil, of a ______________the authors of evil, whether
in industry or politics, the feeling is to be heartily welcomed as a sign of
healthy life..

4:-

. Gross and
reckless assaults on character, whether on the stump or in newspaper, magazine,
or book, create a morbid and vicious public sentiment, and at the same time act
as a profound deterrent to able men of normal ______________nd to prevent
them from entering the public service at any price..

5:-

. No honesty will make a public man useful if that man is
timid or foolish, if he is a hot-headed zealot or an ______________lt.

6:-

. Some persons are sincerely incapable of ______________to denounce mud
slinging does not mean the endorsement of whitewashing.

7:-

. The men
with the muck rakes are often ______________well being of society.

8:-

. There is any
amount of good in the world, and there never was a time when loftier and more ______________ the betterment of mankind was being done than now..

9:-

. We now administer the affairs of a nation in which the ______________owth of population has been outstripped by the growth of wealth in complex
interests..

14-LETTERED-WORDS
,,,,,

1:-

.
An epidemic of ______________n character does no good, but very great harm..

2:-

.
Hysterical ______________t weapon wherewith to fight for lasting
righteousness..

3:-

.
In his ______________ne old Elizabethan divine, Bishop Hooker, wrote:

He that goeth about
to persuade a multitude that they are not so well governed as they ought to be
shall never want attentive and favorable hearers, because they know the manifold
defects whereunto every kind of regimen is subject, but the secret lets and
difficulties, which in public proceedings are innumerable and inevitable, they
have not ordinarily the judgment to consider..

4:-

.
One of the chief
counts against those who make ______________ men in business or men
in public life is that they invite a reaction which is sure to tell powerfully
in favor of the unscrupulous scoundrel who really ought to be attacked, who
ought to be exposed, who ought, if possible, to be put in the penitentiary..

5:-

. It is of the utmost importance for our future that this should prove to
be not the unrest of mere ______________f mere dissatisfaction
with the inevitable inequality of conditions, but the unrest of a resolute and
eager ambition to secure the betterment of the individual and the nation..

15-LETTERED-WORDS
,,,,

1:-

. It is of the utmost importance for our future that this should prove to
be not the unrest of mere rebelliousness against life, of mere ______________able inequality of conditions, but the unrest of a resolute and
eager ambition to secure the betterment of the individual and the nation..

2:-

. To assail the great and
admitted evils of our political and industrial life with such crude and sweeping ______________ecent men in the general condemnation means the
searing of the public con science..

3:-

. and it will amount to a great deal more in
so far as it is taken as a first step in the direction of a policy of ______________corporate wealth engaged in interstate
commerce.

4:-

. this ______________ be exercised in a spirit of
malevolence toward the men who have created the wealth, but with the firm
purpose both to do justice to them and to see that they in their turn do justice
to the public at large..

16-LETTERED-WORDS

DISCUSSION ON COMPLEMENTARY ADJECTIVE PHRASES FROM SHERLOCK HOLMES -' THE SIGN OF THE FOUR'

2011-03-29T16:04:00.000-07:00

DISCUSSION ON COMPLEMENTARY ADJECTIVE PHRASES FROM SHERLOCK HOLMES -' THE SIGN OF THE FOUR'
PLEASE study the following phrases and the manner in which we have filled-in the sentences with the phrases.
SOURCE OF THE SENTENCES : Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his Sherlock Holmes. His work: ' THE SIGN OF THE FOUR'.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

PHRASES LIST
1<> am delighted
2<> am ashamed
3<> am compelled
4<> am surprised
5<> are disguised
6<> are suspicious
7<> shall be suspected
8<> should be treated
9<> was informed
10<> was movement
11<> was annoyed
12<> was caused
13<> was cleaned
14<> was concerned
15<> was conscious
16<> was consulted
17<> was content
18<> was despondent
19<> was hanged
20<> was irritated
21<> was muffled
22<> were anxious
23<> were informed
24<> will be instructive
25<> will be called
26<> would be accused

Hover your mouse over the blanks.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.

"I very well remember the sensation which____ by the
disappearance of Captain Morstan.<.

2.

Miss Morstan____n a dark cloak, and her sensitive face was
composed, but pale.<.

3.
They____s folk in the East, however: so what does this rajah
do but take a second even more trusty servant and set him to play the
spy upon the first? This second man was ordered never to let Achmet
out of his sight, and he followed him like his shadow.<.

4. "I____o be a valetudinarian.<.

5. "It____efore being sent to me.<.

6. And now he is dead, and the police will be called
in, and I____of having had a hand in it.<.

7. And now he is dead, and the police____ and I shall be suspected of having had a hand in it.<.

8. Apply them, and it____ive to compare results.<.

9. At the sound of his strident, angry cries there____nt in the huddled bundle upon the deck.<.

10. Detection is, or ought to be, an
exact science, and____eated in the same cold and unemotional
manner.<.

11. I am loath to go, for it is quite on the cards that
some message may come during the day, though Wiggins____dent
about it last night.<.

12. I confess that I____ and disappointed.<.

13. I confess, too, that I____ted by the
egotism which seemed to demand that every line of my pamphlet should be
devoted to his own special doings.<.

14. I____o hear that they are unwarranted.<.

15. On reaching London I drove to the Langham, and____ that Captain Morstan was staying there, but that he had gone
out the night before and had not yet returned.<.

16. The pay was fair, I had comfortable quarters, and
altogether I____to spend the remainder of my life in
indigo-planting.<.

17. They____to hear what
happened.<.

18. He had suffered for years from
an enlarged spleen, but he now became rapidly worse, and towards the
end of April we____that he was beyond all hope, and that he
wished to make a last communication to us.<.

19. but I could
not but recognize that there was every chance that I____of his murder.<.

20. yet I____o
say that selfishness took me by the soul, and that my heart turned as
heavy as lead within me.<.

21."

I____at this criticism of a work which had been specially
designed to please him.<.

22."

It was between eight and nine o'clock now, and I____ of a
strong reaction after the successive excitements of the night.<.

23."I____ed
last week by Francois Le Villard, who, as you probably know, has come
rather to the front lately in the French detective service.<.

24."They____ed
hands, except the letter," he said, presently, "but there can be no
question as to the authorship.<.

25.I assure you that the most winning woman I ever knew____for poisoning three little children for
their insurance-money, and the most repellant man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor.<.

26.The case____ with a will, and possessed some
features of interest.<.

OBSERVATIONS AND DEDUCTIONS
*Type 1 : Existence verb (Verb of incomplete predication?) + an adjective.
*Type 2 : Existence verb + a past participle.
A past participle = past tense form of the verb, used as adjective.
Some interpretors treat these phrases as only verbs.
*Both the types of phrases are 'complementary' in nature i.e. the adjectives follow their objects. These are not attributive adjectives.
*Using the complementary adjectives , as attributive adjectives particularly with pronouns, may result in awkward constructions.
E.g.
John is defiant. (Complementary. In line with the current English).
Deficient John is not co-operating. (Deficient is Attributive. In line with the current English).
John is deficient. "Deficient he, is not co-operating." (Awkward construction).

FOUR-WORD PHRASES WITH THE PREPOSITION 'OF'

2011-03-28T01:19:00.000-07:00

DISCUSSION ON FOUR-WORD PHRAZES
Four-word phrases are not difficult to compose or master.
I furnish below, in the box a set of four-word phrases. The phrases have one common thread.
The first word, mostly, is a noun.
The second word, you will find, is the preposition 'of'' .
Of , often indicates a possessive case relationship between the word preceding the preposition and of's object.

We, can now, recollect how the possessive adjective 'apostrophe+'s' ' and 'of + its object' work.
e.g. : Obama's wife. (Apostrophe + s is used, in cases of a living person/thing's possessions. There are some exceptions.)
'Of preposition + its object' is the chosen possessive case, in case of inanimate objects.
E.g. Liberation of diverse energies.
Preservation of ancient buildings.

Observation : We should, normally, get a three-word-phrase in this construction.
We are getting a four-word-phrase construction, because the object has an additional adjective: 'diverse, ancient etc.'.=
The phrase 'of diverse energies' describes liberation. 'Of ancient buildings' describes 'preservation'.

We can call this, from one perspective, as adjectival phrase. 'Of ancient buildings' is the adjectival phrase which describes the noun 'preservation'.

My humble personal view
Mastering three / four /five word-phrases we can consider as , ' as important as building active and passive vocabulary'.
Reason : Phrases facilitate modular costruction of sentences. Good long phrases work like prefabricated building blocks which have revolutionized the construction sector. Bricks yield their place to blocks. Words slowly lose their place to phrases.

USAGE QUIZ

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1<>
Liberation of diverse energies

2<>
Preservation of ancient buildings

3<> abolition of class domination

4<> accumulation of single propositions

5<> attainment of higher education

6<> attribution of infinite dimensions

7<> destruction of human liberties

8<> distinction of their destinies

9<> enjoyability of sexual intercourse

10<> environment of unbelief pervades

11<> execution of huge projects

12<> foundation of domestic happiness

13<> foundation of political happiness

14<> indication of great abilities

15<> instrument of eternal happiness

16<> investigation of natural phenomena

17<> prohibition of them constitutes

18<> supposition of possessing something

19<> terseness of their expression

20<> treatment of cardiopulmonary ailments

21<> veneration of intellectually penetrating

22<> vulgarization of noble theories

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box<> Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.
____s of free nations, should be our top priority.

2.
____ngs tantamounts to preservation of fame .

3.
Concentration of power is what always precedes the____.

4.
I greatly appreciate your____trating books.

5.
It should be possible to every capable child the____on.

6.
Setbacks and cost overruns are common in the____.

7.
Sex and Happiness : The enjoyability of sexual intercourse , as an____ is suspect .

8.
Sex and Happiness : The____se , as an instrument of eternal happiness , is suspect .

9.
The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be the best.
Every man who observes vigilantly, and resolves steadfastly, grows unconsciously into genius.

Perseverance is not always an____.

10.
We find many things to which the____s the only temptation.

11.
Where can we find the unexampled____ies.

12.
Suicide itself, that fearful abuse of the dominion of the soul over the body, is a strong proof of the____.

13.
The____ to the human mind is a part of human imagination .

14. We really know very little and are all fallible in facing the immense difficulties presented by____a .

15.Does democracy aim at____.

16.Family Lives : The____ is faith in the virtue of woman.
.

17.He specialises in____ary ailments .

18.Histories and Philosophies of Sciences : The most lofty fabrics of science are formed by the continued____ions.
.

19.Philosophies of Politics : The____ness is confidence in the integrity of man.
.

20.Prides and Prejudices : All affectations proceed from the____ething better than the rest of the world possesses.

21.Selected thoughts depend for their flavor upon the____.

22.Social Behaviors : An____s every moment. This is particularly true in monetary matters.

HERE ARE FOUR EXAMPLES OF "FOUR=WORD OF-PREPOSITION PHRASES" FROM 'A STUDY IN SCARLET' OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.

,,,,

1<>
combination of unforeseen circumstances

2<>
exactness of their learning

3<> presence of death inspires

4<> recognition of their services

5<> significance of this discovery

,
,,

1.
His intention had been to be absent a year at the most, but a____s prevented his leaving the mines
for nearly five.

2. Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the____lt.

3. Holmes walked in, and I followed him with that subdued feeling
at my heart which the____.

4. It is expected that a testimonial of some sort
will be presented to the two officers as a fitting____ices."

.

5. No doubt you see the____overy of mine?"
"It is interesting, chemically, no doubt," I answered.

DESCRIBING THE MANNER OF SAYING SOMETHING

2011-03-26T05:35:00.001-07:00

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a great narrator.

Characters speak in narrations.

Most conversations, particularly in detective novels tend to be in direct speech i.e. quotes followed by 'said'.

The narrator/author can use a manner adverb to describe how this 'said' was done.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had perfected the art of describing these 'said' sentences, by using the most apt adverb, which matches the dialogue given in the quotes.

Example from the following quiz question No. 1:

"Deduce what?", said he, petulantly.

'Petulantly' here indicates some irritation. The manner of speaking, may irritate the other person.

I am not a fiction-writer, right now. I dream that I shall some-day take up fiction-writing. It may not be crime probably.

The manner adverbs used by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle should definitely inspire us to enrich our repertory of our manner adverbs.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1<>
said to myself, "but he is certainly

2<> said
evasively

3<> said Holmes heartily

4<> said Holmes, blandly

5<> said Holmes, gravely

6<> said Hope faintly

7<> said Lestrade gravely

8<> said Sherlock Holmes curtly

9<> said Sherlock Holmes, sharply

10<> said a childish voice reproachfully

11<> said at last, stopping abruptly

12<> said cordially

13<> said earnestly

14<> said he, petulantly

15<> said her preserver, respectfully

16<> said slowly

17<> said the elderly

18<> said the man confidently

19<> said the other sternly

20<> said the other, warmly

21<> said,
querulously

22<> said,
sardonically

23<> said, bitterly

24<> said, commiseratingly

25<> said, confidently

26<> said, earnestly

27<> said, gruffly

28<> said, hoarsely

29<> said, hurriedly

30<> said, in solemn words, "it can only

31<> said, laughing gleefully

32<> said, naively

33<> said, placidly

34<> said, triumphantly

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box<> Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.

"Deduce what?"____t.

2.

"How are you?" he____.

3.

"I have now in my hands," my companion____ntly, "all the
threads which have formed such a tangle<.

4.

"If we take you with us," he____n words, "it can only be as
believers in our own creed<.

5.

"Let me know when you have settled which it is to be," he____.

6.

"Look at that!" he____ntly<.

7.

"Poison,"____es curtly, .

8.

"Poor devil!" he____had listened to my
misfortunes<.

9.

"Thank God!" he____ng .

10.

"The blundering fool," Holmes____ our
lodgings<.

11.

"There can't be any number of Injuns here,"____ who
appeared to be in command<.

12.

"There will be no more murders," he____topping abruptly .

13.

"Why," I cried, "you have an aortic aneurism!"

"That's what they call it," he____dly<.

14.

"You're not hurt, I hope, miss,"____r, respectfully<.

15.

"You've hurt me!"____h voice reproachfully<.

16. "I'll follow her," he____.

17. "I'm awful
frightened," she____.

18. "May I ask, my lad," I
said, in the blandest voice, "what your trade may be?"

"Commissionaire, sir," he____lt.

19. "This fellow may be very clever," I____he is certainly very conceited<.

20. "whoever would have thought that Poncho
would have been so scared by a lot of cows?"

"Thank God you kept your seat," the other____.

21. Joseph Stangerson,"____gravely, "was
murdered at Halliday's Private Hotel about six o'clock this morning<.

22."

"But my prospects are better,"____t.

23."

"Do not jest at that which is sacred,"____t.

24."

"Don't mind me,"____t.

25."

"Good boy,"____dly<.

26."

"I don't fear them, or their warrant," Hope____y<.

27."

"I have had so much to do inside the house," the detective____<.

28."

"I've got a good deal to say," our prisoner____.

29."

"Not a doubt of that,"____.

30."

"Why didn't you say so before?" she____gleefully<.

31."

"You do me too much honour,"____gravely<.

32."

"You don't mean to say," I cried, in amazement, "that that tottering,
feeble old woman was able to get out of the cab while it was in motion,
without either you or the driver seeing her?"

"Old woman be damned!"____ly<.

33."

"You'll see prettier things than them soon,"____.

34.No criminals in these days," he____y<.

TWO-WORD ADJECTIVAL PHRASES OF GEORGE BERNARD SHAW , USED IN HIS 'PREFACE TO ON GETTING MARRIED'

2011-03-26T04:16:00.000-07:00

George Bernard Shaw's 'Prefaces' have great reputation for the depth of their arguments and exactitude of expression of ideas.

We may not always agree with Shaw's opinions and views which are somewhat controversial and radical.

Yet, reading the 'Prefaces' enriches our insights into most complex areas like 'marriage'.

Once I saw a bulky volume of about 1500 pages in our local Public Library. It was a collection of all the prefaces of G.B. Shaw. I have tried to understand some of the Prefaces and apply my mind to his arguments. His arguments were awesome. But I found my study as something beyond my capacity and could not pursue it further. Yet, I am again trying it now.

ABOUT TWO-WORD ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVAL PHRASES
*Each phrase has two words.
*Attributive = Adjective precedes its object i.e. a noun.
*One or two phrases in the following exercises are not adjectival phrases. They are adverbial phrases. The object (second word) happens to be an adjective.

E.g. 1. conscious muscular. 2. serious psychological.

I have shortened (applied scissors) some of the long sentences of Shaw , for reading and comprehending convenience.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1<>conscious muscular

2<>continuous attempts

3<>dangerous majority

4<>dangerous mistake

5<>dangerous nonsense

6<>disastrous
anarchical

7<>hazardous adventure

8<>inordinate
affections

9<>licentious theatrical

10<>monstrous proposition

11<>private concern

12<>private enterprise

13<>private persons

14<>rebellious spirits

15<>religious restraint

16<>ridiculous
confession

17<>serious attempt

18<>serious consideration

19<>serious offence

20<>serious psychological

21<>superstitious
tolerance

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box<> Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.

Conscious goodness, like ____effort, may be of use in emergencies.

2.

The ____nce so long accorded to monks .

3.

There is no more ____han the mistake of supposing that
we cannot have too much of a good thing<.

4.

With those individualists who in the mid-XIXth century dreamt of doing away with
marriage altogether on the ground that it is a ____een
the two parties with which society has nothing to do, there is now no
need to deal<.

5.
The fictitious Free Lover, who
was supposed to attack marriage because it thwarted his ____.

6.
There is no subject on which more ____se is talked .

7.
When they finally give up the idea of reforming our
marriage institutions by ____.

8.

but the existence of the treaty shews the same anarchical notion that the law can be set aside
by any two ____by the simple process of promising one another to ignore it.

9. but it goes further, into ____hical action<.

10.Adults take ____it is not assumed that they live there.

11.Against the ____that because certain attitudes
.

12.D____which
regards the least hint of scepticism as to the beauty .

13.Ever
since Rousseau rose to the effort of making a certain very ____on the subject, there has been a growing perception that
child whipping, even for the children themselves, is not always the
innocent .

14.For
____entertainments which no censorship can stem,
and, worst of all, a confusion of virtue with the mere morality that
steals its name until the real thing is loathed because the imposture
is loathsome<.

15.Million kind actions per annum, the effect on the character
of the doers of the actions would be so appalling, that one month of
any ____ out such counsels would probably bring
about more stringent legislation against actions going beyond the
strict letter of the law in the way of kindness than we have now
against excess in the opposite direction.

16.More ____ form illicit unions, defiantly sending cards
round to their friends announcing what they have done<.

17.Preaching: above all, by her ____
excite precocious sentimentality, a practice as objectionable, .

18.Slavery by subjecting it to some
____.

19.Very
____ for the Prime Minister who takes it in hand<.

20.Very much of
either without ____l mischief, ending in insanity or
crime<.

21.Write as if the highest attainable
state is that of a family stewing in love continuously from the cradle
to the grave, can hardly have given five minutes ____ation
to so outrageous a proposition<.

LONG WORDS USED BY GEORGE BERNARD SHAW IN HIS PREFACE TO 'ON GETTING MARRIED'

2011-03-25T21:02:00.001-07:00

Here is a list of 15 and more -lettered words from used by George Bernard Shaw in his Preface to "On getting married".

My layman's observation: Shaw had a penchant for long words. I find very few long words in the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Here is a small quiz based on these words?
,,,,,,,,,,

1. controversialists

2. counterbalanced

3. disentanglement

4. enthusiastically

5. excommunication

6. extraordinarily

7. indissolubility

8. sentimentalists

9. sentimentalities

10. susceptibilities

11. thoughtlessness

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,

1.

..this change of front has not yet been noticed by our
newspaper ____ and by the suburban season-ticket holders
whose minds the newspapers make.
<.

2. they are
only expressing inaccurately a very real need for the ____of sexual relations from a mass of exorbitant and irrelevant
conditions imposed on them on false pretences to enable needy parents
to get their daughters “off their hands” <.

3. one of the surest methods to obtain a husband is to practise
on his ____s until he is either carried away into a promise
of marriage to which he can be legally held, <.

4.And all the time we shall keep ____y investing
her trade with every allurement that the art of the novelist, the
playwright, the dancer, the milliner, the painter, the limelight man,
and the sentimental poet can devize <.

5. ... what our ____have not yet been told is that exactly the same thing
applies to maternity as to government.

<.

6. .. population
declines, because the high birth rate of the very poor is
____ by a huge infantile-mortality in the slums, <.

7.Substituting for
political articles informed by at least some pretence of knowledge of
economics, history, and constitutional law, such paltry follies and
____s, snobberies and partisaneries, as ignorance can
understand and irresponsibility relish.

8.That such a convention should have been
established shews that the ____of marriage creates such
intolerable situations that only by beglamoring the human imagination
with a hypnotic suggestion of wholly unnatural feelings can it be made
to keep up appearances.

9.The result was, not the abolition
of sex, but its ____.

<.

10.They read old-fashioned
newspapers with effort, and were just taking with avidity to a new
sort of paper, costing a halfpenny, which they believed to be
____ bright and attractive

<.

11.They practised
the most appalling cruelties from mere ____, thinking
nothing of imprisoning men and women for periods up to twenty years
for breaking into their houses.

COMPLEMENTARY ADVERBIAL PHRASES USED BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE IN HIS 'A SCANDEL IN BOHEMIA'

2011-03-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of complementary adverbs used by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his "Scandel in Bohema" , a Sherlock Holme Adventure. .

About Complementary Adverbs:
Adverbs, in terms of positioning, are of two kinds:
1. Attributive adverbs
2. Complementary adverbs.
We can position the attributive adverbs only before the words, the adverbs describe.
We can position the complementary adverbs anywhere in the sentence, particularly after the words they describe or at the end of the sentence.
We can place some adverbs both as attributes (before the object) or complements (anywhere or at the end).
Complementary adverbs are often used to complete the meaning of the sentence, particularly after verbs of incomplete predication.
Example : He is well.
The 'well' , here describes the verb 'is'. Hence it is an adverb. It is complementary because it is placed at the end of the sentence.
We cannot , normally use well as an attributive adverb.

E.g. : He well did.
Improved : He did well.
Exceptions: Use of 'well' as prefix in compound-adverbs :

Example: well-done, well-written, well-prepared. The prefix 'well' is adverb because it describes the past participle-cum-adjective 'done'.
This compound word well-done becomes a compound-adjective, when placed before a noun and used as an attribute to describe it.

E.g. : well-written story, well-designed web-page, well-noted person etc.

'Well' is by and large, a complementary adverb.
We may, sometimes, be tempted to feel that well is an adjective.

E.g. He is well. Here 'well' is not qualifying the noun/subject 'he'.

The word 'is' has a Sanskrit origin 'asti'.
'Asti' indicates existence and state or status.
The words 'state or status' have their origin in the Sanskrit word 'sthiti'.

Many grammarians declare that 'is' is a verb of incomplete predication. That means, 'is' cannot complete a sentence meaningfully.
I, as a layman, feel that 'is' can complete the sentence.

Example: 'He is.'
The sentence here, I feel , is complete because it indicates that he exists. It indicates his state.

How is he means : how does he exist or how is his state/status/sthiti ?
Ans : 'well' describes his state.
Hence well is an adverb. It is a complementary adverb, because we do not place it before its object (verb/adjective/another adverb).

,,,,,,,,

Some complementary adverbs used by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his "Scandel in Bohema"
1. accomplished so delicately and successfully
2. called myself is not exactly
3. entered who could hardly
4. examined it closely
5. laughed heartily
6. looked impatiently
7. paused immediately
8. turned hungrily
9. walked swiftly

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,

1.
A man____have been less than six feet six
inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules.

2.
A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and
in the passage,____utside the door.

3.From time
to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons
to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up
of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee,
and finally of the mission which he had____for the reigning family of Holland.

4.He____and in silence for some few minutes until we
had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the
Edgeware Road.

5.Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and____y at his
gigantic client.

6.I walked round
it and____y point of view, but without
noting anything else of interest.

7.Now, he said as he____on the simple fare that
our landlady had provided, I must discuss it while I eat, for I
have not much time.

8.Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in
front of the fire and____r some minutes.

9.The
august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to
you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have
just____t exactly my own.

Notes: 'Exactly' in the last sentence is not a complementary adverb because it describes 'my own'. We are getting 'exactly' before its object 'my own'. Hence 'exactly' is attributive here.

e.g. of complementary use of the adverb 'exactly' :

He calculated exactly.

ADVERBIAL PHRASES OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH FROM HIS 'SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER'

2011-03-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of ADVERBIAL PHRASES FROM THE PLAY 'SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER' , A WORK OF 'OLIVER GOLDSMITH' . Here is a small quiz based on these phrases.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1. Extremely elegant

2. abruptly informed

3. actually afraid

4. actually begins

5. actually thinks

6. agreeably
entertained

7. certainly
improve

8. chiefly
spent

9. chiefly consists

10. confoundedly ashamed

11. damnably imposed

12. infinitely better

13. necessarily delayed

14. properly taken

15. readily
undertook

16. scarcely speak

17. shortly convince

18. sprightly malicious

19. stoutly about

20. totally overset

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,
,
,
,
,,,,,,,,,

1.
And, though it was ____d till late in the season, I have
every reason to be grateful.

2.
HASTINGS. ____d degagee, upon my word, madam. Your
friseur is a Frenchman, I suppose.

3.
HASTINGS. Perish the baubles! Your person is all I desire. In the
mean time, my friend Marlow must not be let into his mistake. I know
the strange reserve of his temper is such, that if ____d of
it, he would instantly quit the house before our plan was ripe for
execution.

4.
MARLOW. (Aside.) He has got our names from the servants already. (To
him.) We approve your caution and hospitality, sir. (To HASTINGS.) I
have been thinking, George, of changing our travelling dresses in the
morning. I am grown ____amed of mine.

5.
MARLOW. My meaning, madam, but ____expressed. And I
can't help observing----a----

MISS HARDCASTLE. (Aside.) Who could ever suppose this fellow
impudent upon some occasions?

6.
MARLOW. Never saw a more ____us eye. Yes, yes, my dear,
I did call. Have you got any of your--a--what d'ye call it in the
house.

7.
MARLOW. So then, all's out, and I have been ____on. O,
confound my stupid head, I shall be laughed at over the whole town. I
shall be stuck up in caricatura in all the print-shops.

8.
MARLOW. The Englishman's malady. But tell me, George, where could I
have learned that assurance you talk of? My life has been ____at college or an inn, in seclusion from that lovely part of the
creation that chiefly teach men confidence.

9.
MISS HARDCASTLE. And her partiality is such, that she ____s
him so. A fortune like yours is no small temptation. Besides, as she
has the sole management of it, I'm not surprised to see her unwilling
to let it go out of the family.

10.
MISS HARDCASTLE. But if I ____ of his modesty, that he
has only the faults that will pass off with time, and the virtues that
will improve with age, I hope you'll forgive him.

11.
MISS HARDCASTLE. I protest, sir, I never was more ____ in all my life. Pray go on.

12.
MISS NEVILLE. A fortune like mine, which ____s in jewels,
is no such mighty temptation. But at any rate, if my dear Hastings be
but constant, I make no doubt to be too hard for her at last. However,
I let her suppose that I am in love with her son.

13.
MISS NEVILLE. But what will repair beauty at forty, will ____e it at twenty, madam.

14.
MISS NEVILLE. You have nothing to fear from him, I assure you. You'd
adore him, if you knew how heartily he despises me. My aunt knows it
too, and has undertaken to court me for him, and ____to
think she has made a conquest.

15.
MRS. HARDCASTLE. I'm ____of his lungs.

16.
TONY. Mum, you fool you. Let THEM find that out. (To them.) You
have only to keep on straight forward, till you come to a large old
house by the road side. You'll see a pair of large horns over the
door. That's the sign. Drive up the yard, and call ____.

17. So that--I can ____-it affects me. Farewell.

18.ANd so you left it with the landlady, who, no doubt, very ____the charge.

19.FAith, I have often formed a resolution to break the ice, and rattle
away at any rate. But I don't know how, a single glance from a pair of
fine eyes has ____my resolution.

20.SO much for supper. And now to see that our beds are aired, and
____.

Same phrases, when we use in our own sentences, will work out on the following lines. These are only examples worked out by me. You can work out your own examples using your own work-environment and creative-environment.
You will find from the list that 'denied stoutly' is a complementary adverb, in the sense that, it is not preceding the verb it is describing. Others are attributive adverbial phrases. The adverbs precede their objects .

Confoundedly ashamed, infinitely better, sprightly malicious : : What will you observe from these phrases. The adverbs confoundedly, infinitely, and sprightly describe 'adjectives' and not verbs.

You will also find that all these adverbs are 'manner adverbs', whether they describe verbs or the adjectives.

EXAMPLE OF OUR USAGE OF THE SAME PHRASES
1. Her extremely elegant suit tempted me to buy a similar suit.
2. My boss abruptly informed me that I would be sacked.
3. A person who is actually afraid may pose as a bravado. The exposure of his truth will take place when an occasion arises to show his gallantry.
4. Life's conflict actually begins after coming out of the College. Life's conquest is imaginary,
5. My boss actually thinks that he is a genius. I shall not call him a tomfool. I shall not say that he is mediocre. Everything is relative. He is 80% on the scale of intellect, if I am just 50%.
6. The Secretary says that she has to keep her boss agreeably entertained all the time.
7. The CEO says that our sugar factory's financial condition will certainly improve when the markets take an upturn this busy cane-crushing season.
8. The President says that Government's income is chiefly spent on salaries of Government staff.
9. The Government's revenue chiefly consists of Customs and Excise duties.
10. A person not knowing English, may find himself confoundedly ashamed when he has to talk to his clientel in U.K. and U.S..A.
11. The Government damnably imposed income tax on the low paid scavengers and sweepers.
12. Is begging infinitely better than borrowing with no intent to repay, or with intent to repay but without any capacity to repay? Which is a greater curse?
13. The Government has necessarily delayed the recruitment of elementary school teachers. Its coffers are empty. Paying salaries to the existing teachers itself has become too unbearable
14. Do you think that the theater management has properly taken all the statutory precautions to prevent the devastating fire? The mishap would not have taken place, had they done their minimum duty.
15. The hero in the film readily undertook the chivalrous job of protecting the heroine from the hooligans. The heroine in her turn of gratitude loved him. Everything took place as per the directions of the film director.
16. Our M.P.s scarcely speak about the growing income and wealth disparities, and the rising prices. They invite us to enrich their kith and kin, by visiting the pubs owned by them.
17. I shall, shortly convince , all my creditors that I am going to liquidate all their dues. I am going to get a lottery.
18. This sprightly malicious dancer is going to extract large moolah from the gullible fans.
19. The accused denied stoutly about his presence at the scene of the crime and his selling the booty.
20. The purchasers of our Cement Plant have totally overset the work environment of the factory labor and the sales staff. We can show good results and we have been doing it consistently. But, the new Management wants great instant results.

ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVAL PHRASES USED BY CHARLES DICKENS - IN CHAPTERS 1 AND 2 OF HIS NOVEL OLIVER TWIST

2011-03-24T05:11:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of attributive adjectival phrases used in Chapters 1 and 2 of Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist.
Here is a small quiz based on these phrases
,,,,,,,,,,,,

1. accurate perception

2. experimental philosopher

3. experimental philosophy

4. festive composition

5. gradual process

6. material influence

7. medical gentleman

8. oratorical powers

9. parental
superintendence

10. parochial generation

11. periodical pilgrimages

12. porochial business

13. supernatural exertions

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.
'And notwithstanding a offered reward of ten pound, which was
afterwards increased to twenty pound. Notwithstanding the most
superlative, and, I may say, ____ns on the part of this
parish,' said Bumble, 'we have never been able to discover who is his
father, or what was his mother's settlement, name, or condition.'

Mrs. Mann raised her hands in astonishment.

2.
'Do you think this respectful or proper conduct, Mrs. Mann,' inquired
Mr. Bumble, grasping his cane, 'to keep the parish officers a waiting
at your garden-gate, when they come here upon ____ss with
the porochial orphans?

Are you aweer, Mrs. Mann, that you are, as I
may say, a porochial delegate, and a stipendiary?'

'I'm sure Mr. Bumble, that I was only a telling one or two of the dear
children as is so fond of you, that it was you a coming,' replied Mrs.

3.
And she had a very ____n of what was good for herself.

4.
Mr. Bumble had a great idea of his ____nd his
importance. He had displayed the one, and vindicated the other. He
relaxed.

5.
Poor Oliver! He little thought, as he lay sleeping in happy
unconsciousness of all around him, that the board had that very day
arrived at a decision which would exercise the most ____all his future fortunes. But they had. And this was it.

6.
We'll stop it all, in no time.' So, they established the rule, that
all poor people should have the alternative (for they would compel
nobody, not they), of being starved by a ____use,
or by a quick one out of it. With this view, they contracted with the
water-works to lay on an unlimited supply of water.

7. Unfortunately for, the ____phy of the
female to whose protecting care Oliver Twist was delivered over, a
similar result usually attended the operation of
her system.

8. Besides, the board
made ____ges to the farm, and always sent the beadle the
day before, to say they were going.

The children were neat and clean to behold, when they went.

9. Everybody knows the story of another ____who had a
great theory about a horse being able to live without eating, and who
demonstrated it so well, that he had got his own horse down to a straw
a day, and would unquestionably have rendered him a very spirited and
rampacious animal on nothing at all, if he had not died,
four-and-twenty hours before he was to have had his first comfortable
bait of air.

Oliver's warden .

10. Out of which the master, dressed in an apron for the
purpose, and assisted by one or two women, ladled the gruel at
mealtimes. Of this ____ach boy had one porringer, and
no more.

11. The workhouse authorities replied with humility, that there was not. Upon this, the parish authorities
magnanimously and humanely resolved, that Oliver should be 'farmed,'
or, in other words, that he should be dispatched to a branch-workhouse
some three miles off, where twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders
against the poor-laws, rolled about the floor all day, without the
inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing, under the ____ndence of an elderly female, who received the culprits at and
for the consideration of sevenpence-halfpenny per small head per week.

12.GOod-night!'

The ____d away to dinner.

13.SO, she appropriated the greater part of the weekly stipend to her own
use, and consigned the rising ____ even a shorter
allowance than was originally provided for them.

Oliver's warden .

12- LETTERED-WORDS FROM SHAKESPEARE'S HAMLET

2011-03-24T01:07:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of 12 -lettered words from Shakespeare's Hamlet . Here is a small quiz based on these words?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1. Guildenstern

2. achievements

3. circumstance

4. compulsatory

5. conveniently

6. demonstrated

7. disappointed

8. entreatments

9. incontinency

10. indirections

11. instrumental

12. invulnerable

13. questionable

14. stubbornness

15. undertakings

16. unprevailing

17. unprofitable

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.
Dramatis Personae - Claudius, King of Denmark. - Marcellus, Officer. - Hamlet, son to the former, and nephew to the present king. - Polonius, Lord Chamberlain. - Horatio, friend to Hamlet. - Laertes, son to Polonius. - Voltemand, courtier. - Cornelius, courtier. - Rosencrantz, courtier. - ____, courtier. - Osric, courtier. - A Gentleman, courtier. - A Priest. - Marcellus, officer. - Bernardo, officer. - Francisco, a soldier - Reynaldo, servant to Polonius. - Players. - Two Clowns, gravediggers. - Fortinbras, Prince of Norway. - A Norwegian Captain. - English Ambassadors. - Getrude, Queen of Denmark, mother to Hamlet. - Ophelia, daughter to Polonius. - Ghost of Hamlet's Father. - Lords, ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, Attendants.

2.
Hamlet comments to his friend Horatio : This heavy-headed revel east and west
Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations;
They clip us drunkards and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition; and indeed it takes
From our ____, though performed at height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute.

3.
Hamlet's father's ghost says to Hamlet : Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand
Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatched;
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
Unhouseled, ____, unaneled,
No reckoning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head. Notes: Anele = anoint. Unaneled = unanointed.

4.
Polonius comments to his daughter Ophilia Hamlet's love : Affection? Pooh! You speak like a green girl,
Unsifted in such perilous ____.

5.

Horatio explains to Bernardo about the motives of young Fortinbros : But to recover of us, by strong hand
And terms ____, those foresaid lands
So by his father lost; and this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations,
The source of this our watch, and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage in the land. - Notes :

Bernardo (officer) tells Horatio- Hamlet's friend before seeing the ghost of the slain king : I think it be no other but even so.

6.
Hamlet wonders to himself in resignation after seeing his mother and uncle Claudius : How weary, stale, flat, and ____
Seem to me all the uses of this world!.

7.
Horatio (Hamlet's friend) comments about bad omens for the country :
And even the like precurse of fierce events,
As harbingers preceding still the fates
And prologue to the omen coming on,
Have heaven and earth together ____
Unto our climature and countrymen.

8.
King Claudius was chiding Hamlet : We pray you throw to earth
This ____ woe, and think of us
As of a father; for let the world take note
You are the most immediate to our throne,
And with no less nobility of love
Than that which dearest father bears his son
Do I impart toward you.

King Claudius was childing Hamlet : For your intent In going back to school in Wittenberg, It is most retrograde to our desire; And we beseech you, bend you to remain Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

9.
Polonius asks his daughter Ophilia to accompany him to the King and Queen's presence : Come, go with me. I will go seek the King Claudius :
This is the very ecstasy of love,
Whose violent property fordoes itself
And leads the will to desperate ____
As oft as any passion under heaven
That does afflict our natures.

Polonius inquires from his daughter Ophilia whether she spoke any harsh words to Hamlet : I am sorry.

10.
Polonius counsels his daughter Ophilia about Hamlet's love : Set your ____ at a higher rate Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet, Believe so much in him, that he is young,
And with a larger tether may he walk Than may be given you. Note : 'tether' here means : restraint consisting of a rope chain used to restrain an animal.

11. Hamlet to his father's ghost : Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou comest in such a ____ shape
That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane. O, answer me? Note : Goblin = a small grotesque supernatural creature that makes trouble for human beings.

12. Horatio (Hamlet's friend) says to Marcellus (officer) : Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
Where we shall find him most ____.
(Horatio) Exeunt.

13. Polonius (Ophilia's father) says to Reynaldo (his servant): See you now-
Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth;
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By ____ find directions out.

14. Polonius (Ophilia's father) says to Reyaldo (his servant) : You must not put another scandal on him,
That he is open to ____.

15.King Claudius to Hamlet : It is sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
To give these mourning duties to your father;
But you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
In filial obligation for some term
To do obsequious sorrow. But to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious ____.

16.King Claudius to Polonius's son Laertes : The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more ____ to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.

17.Marcellus (Officer) tells his colleagues. Context : Their effort to pierce the slain king's ghost with a partisan failed : We do it wrong, being so majestical,
To offer it the show of violence;
For it is as the air, ____,
And our vain blows malicious mockery.

ATTRIBUTIVE ADVERBS USED BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE in 'IN HIS LAST BOW' of Sherlock Homes

2011-03-22T19:34:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of some adverbs used by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle through his legendary character Sherlock Holmes. Source Book: "In his Last Bow".

Here is a small quiz based on these phrases.

Adverbs can describe 1. verbs; 2. adjectives 3. other adverbs.

Just observe which adverbs are describing the verbs, which are describing adjectives and which are describing other adverbs.

Example from sentence No. 7 below:
The adverb 'heavily' is describing the adjective 'sealed (a past participle). The adjectival (not adverbial) phrase 'heavily sealed' is describing its object which is a noun (' bottle '). Dust-covered is adjective number-2 for the noun 'bottle'.

,,,,,,,,,

1.
heavily sealed

2.
strangely irrelevant

3. carefully adjusted

4. especially when

5. hardly observed

6. hardly seen

7. heavily gabled

8. permanently defiled

9. softly clapped

10. vainly
wriggled

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,

1.

The two famous Germans stood beside the stone parapet of the garden
walk, with the long, low,____behind them, and they
looked down upon the broad sweep of the beach at the foot of the great
chalk cliff in which Von Bork, like some wandering eagle, had perched
himself four years before(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

2. But you, Watson"--he stopped his work
and took his old friend by the shoulders--"I've____ in the
light yet(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

3. He then closed the door behind the bulky form which
followed him and____ed the heavy curtain over the latticed
window(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

4. Only for one instant did the master spy glare at this____nt inscription(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

5. Putting down his cigar he____fat hands(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

6. The secretary lay back in the cushions of the
luxurious limousine, with his thoughts so full of the impending
European tragedy that he____d that as his car swung round
the village street it nearly passed over a little Ford coming in the
opposite direction(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

7. What! Tokay!" He indicated a____ dust-covered bottle which stood with two high glasses
upon a salver(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

8. With my hair cut and a few other superficial changes
I shall no doubt reappear at Claridge's to-morrow as I was before this
American stunt--I beg your pardon, Watson, my well of English seems to
be____defiled--before this American job came my way(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

9. How,
then, can England come in,____n we have stirred her up such a
devil's brew of Irish civil war, window-breaking Furies, and God knows
what to keep her thoughts at home(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

10."
The two friends chatted in intimate converse for a few minutes,
recalling once again the days of the past, while their prisoner____ to undo the bonds that held him(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

12 LETTER WORDS USED BY SHERLOCK HOLMES

2011-03-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of 12 letter-words used by Sherlock Holmes in His Last Bow .

Shall we have a small quiz based on these words?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1. Observations

2. acquaintance

3. apprehension

4. arrangements

5. chloroformed

6. confidential

7. considerable

8. constabulary

9. conversation

10. deliberation

11. difficulties

12. interruption

13. occasionally

14. satisfaction

15. stertorously

16. thoughtfully

17. triumphantly

18. unproductive

brFill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.

"I shall get level with you, Altamont," he said, speaking with slow
____(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

2.

For answer the man waved a small brown-paper parcel ____ above
his head(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

3. But certainly I may claim my four years in
this country have not been ____(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

4. Here is the fruit of my leisured ease, the magnum
opus of my latter years!" He picked up the volume from the table and
read out the whole title, Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with Some
____ upon the Segregation of the Queen(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

5. Instantly he gave an exclamation of ____,
strapped up the valise, shut the safe, locked it, and hurried out on to
the terrace(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

6. She was bending over her knitting and stopping
____ to stroke a large black cat upon a stool beside her(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

7. The ____
was amazingly indiscreet(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

8. The German lay upon the sofa sleeping
____ with a strap round his upper arms and another round his
legs(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

9. The next he was gripped at the back
of his neck by a grasp of iron, and a ____ sponge was held in
front of his writhing face(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

10. They stood with their heads close together,
talking in low, ____ tones(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

11. Von Bork detached a small key from his watch chain, and after
some ____ manipulation of the lock he swung open the heavy door(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

12. When I say that I started my pilgrimage at
Chicago, graduated in an Irish secret society at Buffalo, gave serious
trouble to the ____ at Skibbareen, and so eventually caught the
eye of a subordinate agent of Von Bork, who recommended me as a likely
man, you will realize that the matter was complex(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

13. But I can assure you that so far as the essentials
go--the storage of munitions, the preparation for submarine attack, the
____ for making high explosives--nothing is prepared(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

14. Holmes, but glanced with some ____ at the figure
upon the sofa(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

15. There
will be no ____ for you or your baggage(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

16. Von Bork, I may say that this is not my first
____ with the members of your family(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

17. We are safe from ____(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

18."
"I don't know about that," said the other ____(Sherlock Holmes - His Last Bow).

10-10 lettered two-word phrases

2011-03-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of 10-10 lettered two-word phrases .

A word of ten letters is moderately long. A phrase consisting of two such words will have good symmetry because both the words have same length and probably same strength.

A two-word phrase of 3-10 will have more weight on the second part because the first word may only be a structural word like a preposition or a definite article (the).

A two-word phrase of 10-3 will have more weight on the first part. The second part may be a structural word, something like a hanging preposition.

I am trying to measure the phrases of 10-10 letters where both the parts have equal length and probably will be balanced.

I hope this exercise may not be futile for a wordo-holic (unable to find this word in dictionary).

Shall we have a small quiz based on these words?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1. Dependence suffocates

2. Providence encourages

3. Restaurant executives

4. Theorizing physicians

5. absolutely pernicious

6. consecrate themselves

7. convincing techniques

8. employment afterwards

9. everything thoroughly

10. experience excellence

11. inscribing falsehoods

12. intoxicate themselves

13. oppressive Government

14. overground operations

15. preventing population

16. scientific hypothesis

17. successful operations

18. successive evolutions

19. themselves exceptions

20. transitory semblances

brFill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.

We show our sorrow for the dead by ____ on their epitaphs.

Epitaphs contain nothing but lies about dead persons.

2.
Men can ____ with ideas as effectually as with alcohol or bang, and produce by dint of intense thinking, mental conditions hardly distinguishable from monomania .

3.
____ may show up as blind empirics.

4.
Agitators and propagandists have to adopt ____ to attract audiences.

5.
Crete seems to have adopted homosexuality as a technique of ____ growth.

6.
Foolish men mistake ____ for eternal facts.

7.
Generosity has its chances and turns of good fortune.

____ noble hearts through occasional good fortunes.

8.
Humans are the outcome of ____, both physiological and emotional.

9.
People make ____ to everything.

10.
The spectrum of comprehensive ____ to subterranean construction needs redesign .

11.
They have an idol, to which they ____ high priests, and deem it holy work to offer sacrifices of whatever is most precious.

12.
To amuse oneself with a view to steady ____, as Anacharsis says, is thought to be right.

13. Large ____ can begin in a small way .
Grief divided is made lighter.

14. We must ____; it need not be a spoken word.

15.____ the germ of virtue.

16.____, do they have rest.

17.A ____ is merely a scientific idea, preconceived or previsioned .

18.A feeble government produces more factions than an ____.

19.Death destroys ____ and unceasingly.Death crushes to dust plants and beasts, men and their work.

20.Devotion devoid of elevation of mind is ____.

SEVENTEEN-LETTERED-WORDS

2011-03-20T19:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of 17-letter-words. Shall we have a small quiz based on these words?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1. Misinterpretation

2. compartmentalised

3. comprehensibility

4. constitutionalism

5. contemporaneously

6. cryptocrystalline

7. disadvantageously

8. electromechanical

9. environmentalists

10. extraterrestrials

11. greatgrandmothers

12. incircumscription

13. incompatibilities

14. indistinguishable

15. misunderstandings

16. selfrighteousness

17. spectrophotometer

18. straightforwardly

19. thermodynamically

20. uncomfortableness

21. understandability

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.
Jawa is portable and does not cause ____.

2.
Semantics deal with words and their meanings.

____is a risk we face when we use words; we cannot always use gestures and pictures.

3.
The freedom of citizens has not enjoyed perfect ____, throughout history .

4.A ____compares luminosities of different colors in a spectrum .

5.A preacher does not need to boast of ____.

6.American jurisprudence encourages ____.

7.Are sugar and urea ____, simply because they appear white .

8.Do ____favor beach-side desalienation plants .

9.Fiction or non-fiction , ____is important .

10.He has dealt with the matter ____, but with little success .

11.I am worried about earthly things. Where is the time for ____.

12.I often experience ____, whenever I have to enter an air-conditioned room .

13.Is an exhibition of paintings ____created by different artists ever possible .

14.Jurisprudence and philosophy suffer from lack of ____.

15.Landlocked countries are ____placed in the world, from the point of view of logistics .

16.People with ____thinking cannot live in pluralist countries .

17.She has both her ____surviving .

18.The ____appliances are gradually replacing the hand operated tools .

19.The world's only ____operated garden employing deep sea water to cool plant roots is in Hawaii .

20.We cannot allow ____to mar relationships .

21.Which continent abounds in ____rocks .

ATTRIBUTIVE ADVERBS ENDING IN 'LY' AND ADVERBIAL OBJECTS ENDING IN 'ATE'

2011-03-19T19:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of words starting with an ATTRIBUTIVE ADVERB , ENDING IN 'ly' and followed by the OBJECT THEY DESCRIBE. THE OBJECTS MOSTLY ARE VERBS ENDING IN 'ATE' .

Shall we have a small quiz based on these words?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1. actually circumnavigate

2. confidently promote

3. definitely constitute

4. directly execute

5. easily execute

6. greatly appreciate

7. lordly taste (attributive adjective)

8. mostly illiterate (Attributive adverb which describeS an adjective)

9. only proximate (Attributive adverb which describes another adjective.)

10. only waste

11. ostentatiously celebrate

12. parametrically evaluate

13. rarely emulate

14. rarely intimate

15. rarely tolerate

16. rarely write

17. rightly estimate

18. sexually incapacitate

19. uncharacteristically irate (Attributive adverb describing an adjective)

20. unmistakably narrate

21. vulgarly gesticulate

brFill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box.

Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.
There is no pride like that of a beggar grown rich .
A ____ makes a beggars purse.

2.
Can reason discover ____te objects and nothing more .

3.
Do all the pains, we take to verify our notions ____ our time .

4.
I ____iate your veneration of intellectually penetrating books.

5.
Indians ____e their sixtieth birthdays .

6.
Magillan did ____igate the Earth.

7.
Obama is ____irate today .

8.
Some college lecturers rarely use dusters, because they ____ck-board.

9.
The friendship between great men is ____e or permanent .

10.
We can ____a wellthoughtout program , but not an adhoc motley collection of vague intentions .

11.
We cannot ____value-based abstract issues .

12.
We read biographies and autobiographies, but we ____.

13.
We should ____ a plan than ramble with semi-finished work.

14.
freedom philosophy and ____omote government solutions for all our ills.

15. If we will ____e what we call good and evil, we shall find it lies much in comparison.

16.A person who has come back from a comatic condition cannot ____ate his experiences .

17.Does consumption of alcohol ____e the drunkards ?
The Florin-contaminated water in the Project Area incapacitates children from doing their daily chores .

18.Prostitutes in this street ____ .

19.Social Behavior : Conservatives ____alists .

20.The two World wars ____itute important milestones in the world history .

21.The womenfolk of this country are ____.

10 + 13 LETTERED - TWO WORD PHRASES

2011-03-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

Employment of right words and phrases help us to communicate effectively.

Here is a list of 10 + 13 lettered-word phrases.

Shall we have a small quiz based on these words?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1. Charitable organisations

2. Government halfheartedly

3. Headmaster unflinchingly

4. Monolithic organisations

5. Unforeseen complications

6. encourages provincialism

7. facilitate recombination

8. generators automatically

9. grammarian apostrophised

10. historical possibilities

11. individual constitutions

12. infamously overexploited

13. misfortune circumscribes

14. monopolise democratising

15. phlegmatic temperamental

16. powerfully circumstances

17. prescribes prophylactics

18. substances participating

19. successful accompaniment

20. undergoing architectonic

21. unexampled vulgarization

brFill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.

The critics have to, sometimes, make contemporaneous comparisions to arrive at ____ .

2.

The death of Diana was ____ by the Media .

3.

This ____ even the possessives of inanimate objects .

4.
____ do not work altruistically 100% today .

5.
Can grownup children ____ of estranged parents .

6.
Great happiness opens up futurity, whereas the ____ or closes it .

7.
The ____ people have a predisposition to be sluggish .

8.
The dilapidated structure is ____ studies .

9.
The prostaglandins are harmone like ____ in expansion and contraction of muscles .

10.
Where can we find the ____ of noble theories.

11. There are some ____, of which nothing may be predicted without knowing them .

12.____ treat their employees quite impersonally .

13.____ invariably follow some complex surgical procedures .

14.A Federal State ____ and there may be regional conflicts .

15.Fate or Environment : We must know, how ____ influence the feelings and opinions of humans.

16.The ____ agreed to pay compensation to the heirs of suicide bombers .

17.The restaurant does not switch on ____ , when power supply fails .

18.The stoic ____ ruled the school for several years .

19.This doctor ____ and waits till the time heals .

20.U.S. cannot undertake and ____ the World .

21.World Music : Violin has become a very ____ in Carnatic Music of the South India.

ELEVEN-LETTERED WORDS STARTING WITH 'E'

2011-03-18T20:05:00.001-07:00

We gain our active vocabulary by continuous usage.
We undertake physical exercise to strengthen our muscles and get rid of fat.
We may have to undertake sentence construction and parsing exercises to strengthen our active and passive vocabulary.
Context of usage of a word is very important, apart from its dictionary meaning.

Here is a list of eleven-lettered words starting with 'E'. Shall we have a small quiz based on these words?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1. educational

2. effectually

3. embroidered

4. encompassed

5. encountered

6. enforceable

7. entertained

8. enthusiasms

9. environment

10. epinephrine

11. equilibrium

12. exaggerates

13. excellences

14. experienced

15. expressions

16. exterminate

brFill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.
Speakers of dirt go on mousing for defects, and leave ____unnoticed . I will not say it is not Christian to make beads of others' faults, and tell them over every day.

2.
Issues of Learning : ____l books will be useful to students.

3.
I believe in God as firmly as in any other truth .

Motives draw me to a consolatory mood, and add the weight of hope to the ____of reason.

4.
Man is ____destroyed by indolence.

5.
No power can ____the seeds of liberty when it has germinated in the blood of brave men .

Can a religion have its roots in martyrdom .

6.
Passions need ____using florid ways.

7.
The greatest of all flatterers is selflove.

Selflove ____both our faults and our virtues.

8.
The music to which we are accustomed to, keeps us ____and attached to it.

9.
We cannot accept a fortitude which has ____no dangers.

10.
We walk in the midst of secretswe are ____with mysteries.

11.An insane person cannot enter into a legally ____agreement , when he is under a spell of temporary insanity .

12.An old person cannot renew his youth.

We can find effervescences of ____in old age.

13.Epipen and Twinject are two ____filled syringes.

14.Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and ____by imagination.

15.Rome and Sparta ____military ascetism.

16.We know not what relations ____has with our mind.

#715 TWO WORD PHRASES OF 10 + 11 LETTERS

2011-03-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

Here are some two word phrases. The first word consists of ten letters. The second word consists of eleven letters .
Shall we have a small test based on these words?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1Figurative expressions

2Socialized enterprises

3Successive generations

4Temperance facilitates

5Temperance replenishes

6altogether independent

7collecting sacrificial

8comprehend libertarian

9government involvement

10housebound individuals

11inadequate substitutes

12industrial proletariat

13percussion instruments

14periodical lubrication

15prevention information

16scientific speculation

17structural differences

18themselves differently

19threatened indignation

20vocabulary development

brFill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.

Does an A.C. electric transformer need ____.

2.

It stands to reason that where there is sacrifice, there is someone ____offerings.

3.

The ____of individuals cannot shake despots.

4.
____of men contribute to human knowledge.

5.
A little ____is just as dangerous as a lot means: to protect him from physical violence.

6.
Inequality recognizes as a fact of nature the ____inherent in man .

7.
Lenin felt that modern ____did not belong to the category of despairers.

8.
Many ____may have negative Nitrogen balance .

9.
Mortgage fraud ____services are hard to run.
Is the economy of Florida recovering.

10.
Wisdom involves ____.

11. The living voice has an influence over human action ____of the intellectual worth of what it utters .

12.____suit well to represent passion.

13.____have not made the United States , the economic miracle it is .

14.____credit for a country.

15.____money in the purse.

16.Affinities are ____for monetary payments.

17.Can videos help in ____of children.

18.Physicians may treat ____from their patients.

19.Should every citizen ____philosophy .

20.The ____mostly are accompaniments , rather than solo performers .

#714 WORDS AND PHRASES STARTING WITH 'F' AND ENDING IN 'F'

2011-03-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of words and phrases starting with 'f' and ending in 'f' .
Shall we have a small quiz based on these words?

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1fall of

2fate of

3fee of

4feelings of

5feet of

6fidelity of

7fire of

8follies of

9force of

10forgets himself

11formation of

12formed of

13fortitude of

14fortune of

15fountain of

16friends of

17full of

brFill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1.
Farraginous mountains are ____ materials and stones.

2. Raise your sail one foot and you get ten ____f wind . The gem cannot be polished without friction.

3. He is a fool that ____ himself .
He is a good friend that speaks well of us behind our back.

4. Learn wisdom by the ____thers.

5. Make ____ of those who are virtuous.

6. Never cast dirt into that ____ which you have sometime drunk .
Never do things by halves.

7. Raising taxes, adds fuel to the ____nflation .
To angle with a silver hook .

8. The ____f the law is like a furnace that melts iron hearts .

Reproof is beneficial to the reprover and the reproved.

9.An apish person can be a better beautician . He can understand the ____his clientele .

10.Apartment designs have to prevent ____ldren.

11.Can anybody vouchsafe the ____y of a vagabond.

12.Cholesterol deposits in bile, can lead to ____on of gallstones.

13.Her dessertation is ____ footnotes .

14.Is a ____$75 charged by Gilbert School to screen students before admission, excessive.

15.The ____ a family made by oppression will naturally not be long enjoyed .

16.U.N. Chief had praised the courage and ____de of the Chileans. Did he really intend it, or just a pep talk.

17.Vicissitudes and wagaries of monsoons decide the ____mers, world over.

#713 WORDS STARTING WITH 'C' AND ENDING WITH 'C'

2011-03-16T18:26:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of words starting with 'c' and ending with 'c' .

Shall we have a small quiz based on these words?
,,,,,,,,,,

1capitalistic

2carcinogenic

3ceramic

4characteristic

5chivalric

6chronic

7claustrophobic

8colic

9comatic

10cosmetic

11critic

brFill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer,,,,,,,,,,

1

The best place for ____persons is , a large beach .

2
Every age and every nation has certain ____eristic vices .

3
He has ____devotion to Marxism .

4
Many artificial sweeteners are ____nic .

5
The buttercup is a plant and not a ____ container .

6
The theater faces a ____ problem .

7A ____tic society , does not value humans, so do Communists say .

8A person who has come back from a ____condition cannot unmistakably narrate his experiences .

9Medical practices : The best method to treat ____s to get the bowels open .

10Social behaviors : Appearances affect bias. We cannot assess people only by ____ic and physical appearances.

11The ____s well-known for his searching skepticism.

#712 WORDS STARTING WITH 'd' AND ENDING WITH 'd'

2011-03-16T04:58:00.001-07:00

Here is a SELECTED list of words starting with 'D' and ending with 'D' .
Shall we have a small quiz based on these words?

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1debilitated

2decided

3defend

4demanded

5developed

6devoid

7did

8dingdonged

9disappeared

10discarded

11dismayed

12dissentiated

13distinguished

14disturbed

15donated

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer

1Attorneys have to ____end law by all means.

2Boeing has ____hantom Eye surveillance aircraft.

3His few honorable friends ____t disappear when he was in distress.

4His modern friends ____ him modern comforts costing him a fortune.

5His velvet friends ____ed when his shares crashed.

6Is BMI an outdated, useless number ____carded by doctors.

7Morocco's expelling some U.S. Citizens, has ____the U.S.

8Pentagon ____to vaccinate U.S. soldiers, against anthax.

9Presidential pronouncements should not be ____oid of certitude and sincerity.

10Should a diabetic patient ever remain a ____ person .

11The speech of the President ____sentiated every Congressman of his own party.

12The brothel has seen many-a- ____ished person , during its halcyon days .

13The temple bell ____d.

14U.S.-Israeli relationship seems to get ____ed.

15What the City Council will do, with the anonymously ____90 million.

#102 ACTION VERBS MULTIPLE CHOICE

2011-03-12T19:12:00.000-08:00

01. 02.03.04.05.
06.07.08.09.10.

cdd cbc ccdb

Find the oddman out:

001. a) chase b) pursue c) peruse d) hasten.

002. a) peruse b) go through c) glance d) spread.

003. a) spread b) disperse c) pervade d) plead.

004. a) plead b) argue c) rap d) counsel.

005. a) counsel b) determine c) advise d) guide.

006. a) guide b) assist c) endeavor d) rede.

007. a) rede b) explicate c) mute d) discuss.

008. a) discuss b) present c) extricate d) delineate.

009. a) delineate b) outline c) trace d) accost.

010. a) accost b) assault c) approach d) solicit.

#711 WORDS STARTING WITH 'OST'

2011-03-09T04:46:00.000-08:00

Here is a list of words starting with "ost". Shall we have a small quiz based on these words?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1 ostensible

2 ostensibly

3 ostentation

4 ostentatious

5 ostentatiously

6 osteoarthritis

7 osteopath

8 osteopaths

9 osteopathy

10 osteoporosis

11 ostler

12 ostlers

13 ostracise

14 ostracised

15 ostracism

16 ostrich

17 ostriches

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words from the choice box. Hover your mouse over the blank to see the suggested answer

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Bountiful minds also , sometimes, indulge in____.

He has never been ostentatious of the good he has done .

Indians____celebrate their sixtieth birthdays .

Are____popular? Do they charge heavily? Do they depend on scans and x-rays.

Can an____take care of donkeys. I understand that he can take care of horses only.

Do British racecourses do not employ sufficient number of____.

Does oldage lead to social____.

He frequently visited her room,____to drink some water and invite her for the staff meetings. But his true purpose was to court her.

I have been trying for an appointment with an____. I am suffering from severe muscular pains and frequent backaches.

Is pedantry is an____obtrusion of knowledge .

Many societies____lepers for no fault of the sufferers.

Medieval religion____women.

Postmenopausal____scares all developed nations.

The____authority of an agent or an employee is different from his/her actual authority. Outsiders dealing with organisations may not know the actualy authority. They should, while handling important matter, verify the actual authority before contracting or engaging. The trade customs and practices also play a role in deciding whether to go by ostensible authority or check up the actual authority.

The____causes much pain in bone joints .

The____advocates that we should strengthen our muscles and skeleton to stay healthy.

Which country abounds in ostriches ?
Is____the national bird of South Africa.

Which country abounds in____?
Is ostrich the national bird of South Africa.

#101 FRIENDS AND ENEMIES

2011-03-07T19:58:00.000-08:00

Life can be drab without friends. True friends can make our lives more livable. False friends may be worse than true enemies. Here is a small quiz based on friends and enemies.

,,,,,,,,,,,,

1:
precious friends

2: camping foes

3: contriving friends and enemies

4: feigning friends

5: frowning friends

6: gentle friends

7: hearty friends

8: honorable friends

9: hungry person

10: modern friends

11: sleeping enemies

12: tormenting friends

13: velvet friends

Fill in the blanks. You can hover your mouse over the blank to see the answers.
,,,,,,,,,,

1
His impudent behavior wakes up ____.
2
Books may be like ____ . Musical instruments can become gentler friends. Thus I feel.
3
Desires are like ____ , ready to pounce on the weak.
4
HIs ____ left him penurious.
5
His ____ demanded from him modern comforts costing him a fortune.
6
His ____ made him to look like a person possessed by ghosts.
7
His ____ disappeared when his shares crashed.
8
His few ____ did not disappear when he was in distress.
9
My ____, you take me in too dolorous a sense. (Shakespeare's Antony).
10
Some ____ may turn out to be true enemies. Some feigning enemies may turn out to be true friends.
11
Tramps lead a vagabond life. I and fortune have never been friends. We were ____.

#710 PHRASES TO DESCRIBE PERSONS

2011-03-07T00:18:00.000-08:00

"Describing different types of persons we meet in our family life - working life and social life in a socially acceptable manner" determines the effectiveness of our oral and written communications.
Here is a small quiz based on some phrases which describe persons in various ways.
This table has 170 phrases.
The sentences table has 74 sentences.
Fill in the blanks with appropriate phrases selecting from the choice box. You can also use your own phrases.
You can hover your mouse on the answers to see the suggested answers, if you have no time to apply your memory or your mind.
Important: My answers are only suggestive. We can use more than one phrase also.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1: applying person

2: discriminating person

3: nude person

4: proper person

5: abominable person

6: adventorous person

7: affable person

8: affluent person

9: aggrestic person

10: amateurish person

11: amusing person

12: apathetic person

13: apish person

14: appointed person

15: arrogant person

16: asthmatic person

17: authoritative person

18: bankrupt person

19: barbaric person

20: beleagured person

21: belligerant person

22: bereaved person

23: bizarre person

24: boisterous person

25: busy person

26: callous person

27: captured person

28: celebrity person

29: ceremonious person

30: changed person

31: circumlocuting person

32: circumspect person

33: civilised person

34: clean person

35: clumsy person

36: color-blind person

37: common person

38: communicative person

39: competent person

40: contesting person

41: controversial person

42: conventional person

43: converted person

44: courteous person

45: coward person

46: cruel person

47: cultivated person

48: cunning person

49: dead person

50: debilitated person

51: deceased person

52: democratic person

53: deprived person

54: diligent person

55: diseased person

56: disputing person

57: dissenting person

58: dissident person

59: distinguished person

60: docile person

61: doubting person

62: dwelling person

63: dying person

64: eccentric person

65: entertaining person

66: existing person

67: experimenting person

68: expert person

69: extrovert person

70: faceless person

71: factious person

72: female person

73: fictitious person

74: fiendish person

75: flakey person

76: flaky person

77: forced person

78: formal person

79: freakish person

80: freaky person

81: friendly person

82: fruitful person

83: gay person

84: gonzo person

85: grownup person

86: handicapped person

87: heterosexual person

88: hungry person

89: idiotic person

90: idle person

91: illiterate person

92: improper person

93: impudent person

94: indigent person

95: inebriated person

96: innocent person

97: insane person

98: insured person

99: intellectual person

100: juvenile person

101: kind person

102: lazy person

103: literate person

104: look-alike person

105: lousy person

106: loving person

107: lunatic person

108: manipulating person

109: manipulative person

110: matching person

111: matchless person

112: middle aged person

113: miserly person

114: muscular person

115: native person

116: niggardly person

117: nonperson

118: nonreligious person

119: observing person

120: optimistic person

121: outlandish person

122: parsimonious person

123: penitive person

124: pensive person

125: preposterous person

126: primitive person

127: protesting person

128: refined person

129: reluctant person

130: remorseful person

131: repentant person

132: repenting person

133: resident person

134: romantic person

135: rude person

136: ruminating person

137: rustic person

138: semi-literate person

139: semi-nude person

140: sensitive person

141: sensual person

142: sentimental person

143: sexy person

144: sick person

145: sleeping person

146: stingy person

147: stingy person

148: straight person

149: technical person

150: technological person

151: thirsty person

152: traditional person

153: transexual person

154: transvestite person

155: travelling person

156: troubling person

157: unconventional person

158: unfortunate person

159: unrepenting person

160: unskilled person

161: unusual person

162: unwelcome person

163: urbane person

164: visually impaired person

165: wakeful person

166: watchful person

167: wealthy person

168: working person

169: yearning person

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

1
We show our sorrow for the dead by inscribing falsehoods on their epitaphs. Epitaphs contain nothing but lies about ____s.
2
A ____ is incapable of involving any man in ruin and misery.
3
A sea____ may vomit frequently; a sign of nausea.
4
A truly ____ does not bother about undrinkability of any liquid .
5
All ____s do not become poltergeists .
6
Eloquence is powerless for a ____.
7
For a ____ art can look inglorious.
8
How does a car____ behave, when he travels in a car for the first time.
9
Idle persons can tempt the devi____ons can tempt the devil.
10
Preventive justice is superior to punishing justice. Justice truly preventing, is better than severely punishing . A prelate may make the condition of his church better, by no means worse . A minor may make his condition better, by no means worse. Defective law is better than uncertain law . It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one ____ perish . He deservedly loses the benefit of the law, who intends to subvert the law itself . The harvest follows the seed time.
11
The Company did not employ sufficient number of electro____nel to meet contingencies and emergencies .
12
Truth itself is a lie for ____s.
13
We can heal an ____. But we cannot heal a malevolent person .
14
We can wake up a really ____. We cannot wake up a pretendor.
15
Laws assist waking, but not ____s.
16
The care of the republic is not to be delegated to an ____ . The king cannot be rich, when his subjects are poor . It is'not strange, that what have once advantageously been constituted endure, although the case may exist, from which they could not have taken a beginning . Does 21st Century love endure the test of time.
17
No matter how someone dresses, It is the same person underneath . A new broom sweeps clean . A newly-____ makes changes energetically . A rising tide lifts all boats.
18
A ____ cannot cause difficulties by revealing something that it would be preferable to conceal.
19
A newly-____ makes changes energetically.
20
The scalded dog fears cold water. The tailor makes the man . The tongue of ____s is never idle.
21
A ____ cannot cause difficulties by revealing something that it would be preferable to conceal.
22
Idle persons only intend , but do not perform____ons only intend , but do not perform .
23
> Can a ____ also be a friendly person ? A stingy person may find it irksome to help a friend in need. He cannot, therefore, never be a friend in need. A miserly person will accumulate resources. This is a good thing. A Nation may prosper more if it has sufficient number of persons who conserve more and spend less. A parsimonious person may end up his life as a fruitful person , if he can release some resources to the people , at least during the fag end of his life.
24
> Can a niggardly person also be a ____ ? A stingy person may find it irksome to help a friend in need. He cannot, therefore, never be a friend in need. A miserly person will accumulate resources. This is a good thing. A Nation may prosper more if it has sufficient number of persons who conserve more and spend less. A parsimonious person may end up his life as a fruitful person , if he can release some resources to the people , at least during the fag end of his life.
25
> Can a niggardly person also be a friendly person ? A ____ may find it irksome to help a friend in need. He cannot, therefore, never be a friend in need. A miserly person will accumulate resources. This is a good thing. A Nation may prosper more if it has sufficient number of persons who conserve more and spend less. A parsimonious person may end up his life as a fruitful person , if he can release some resources to the people , at least during the fag end of his life.
26
> Can a niggardly person also be a friendly person ? A ____ may find it irksome to help a friend in need. He cannot, therefore, never be a friend in need. A miserly person will accumulate resources. This is a good thing. A Nation may prosper more if it has sufficient number of persons who conserve more and spend less. A parsimonious person may end up his life as a fruitful person , if he can release some resources to the people , at least during the fag end of his life.
27
> Can a niggardly person also be a friendly person ? A stingy person may find it irksome to help a friend in need. He cannot, therefore, never be a friend in need. A ____ will accumulate resources. This is a good thing. A Nation may prosper more if it has sufficient number of persons who conserve more and spend less. A parsimonious person may end up his life as a fruitful person , if he can release some resources to the people , at least during the fag end of his life.
28
> Can a niggardly person also be a friendly person ? A stingy person may find it irksome to help a friend in need. He cannot, therefore, never be a friend in need. A miserly person will accumulate resources. This is a good thing. A Nation may prosper more if it has sufficient number of persons who conserve more and spend less. A ____ may end up his life as a fruitful person , if he can release some resources to the people , at least during the fag end of his life.
29
> Can a niggardly person also be a friendly person ? A stingy person may find it irksome to help a friend in need. He cannot, therefore, never be a friend in need. A miserly person will accumulate resources. This is a good thing. A Nation may prosper more if it has sufficient number of persons who conserve more and spend less. A parsimonious person may end up his life as a ____ , if he can release some resources to the people , at least during the fag end of his life.
30
A ____ rarely suits to be a Hollywood hero .
31
A ____ may find it difficult to enjoy the restrictive contours of a conservative family life .
32
A ____ he is, he always bore a pensive face .
33
A ____ may have many admirers as well as enemies .
34
A ____ may not be able to conceive a child. Our medical technology has to go a long way .
35
A ____ , may sometimes face social stigma in conservative societies .
36
A ____ is likely to gain in some other faculty , say identifying musical notes . Hinduism is a polytheistic religion.
37
A ____ may have to lose sleep , while trying to remain safe .
38
A doctor can never be an ____ , whatever may be his time constraints .
39
A doctor cannot appoint a ____ as a nurse in his intensive care unit .
40
A good number of netizens subscribe that an ____ will be a better administrator , than a democratic person . Which wing do you support .
41
A good number of netizens subscribe that an authoritative person will be a better administrator , than a ____ . Which wing do you support .
42
An ____ can be a better beautician . He can understand the feelings of his clientele .
43
An ____ has to frequently wheeze with a piping sound .
44
An ____ cannot enter into a legally enforceable agreement , when he is under a spell of temporary insanity .
45
An idiot is an irretrievably ____ .
46
Can we identify Hamlet as a ____ , the way he handled his love with Ophelia .
47
Can we say that a ____ , cleanses all his sins , on this earth itself .
48
Can't an ____ be a good author or musician ? We cannot confine talent to professionals .
49
Claudius was never a ____ ; nor was Gertrude .
50
Did Napoleon die an ____ .
51
Did Napoleon die an un____ .
52
Does Berlusconi want a ____ , as a judge to try him .
53
Every ____ need not be a terrorist .
54
Every citizen of a belligerant nation , need not be a ____ .
55
Every person needs his four winks sometime or other . We cannot find a perfectly ____ .
56
Is Mushraff, the former President of Pakistan, an ____ into Pakistan .
57
John Milton wrote Paradise Lost when he was a ____ .
58
Ophelia was an ____ . Hamlet could not appreciate or understand her affability .
59
Our physical education teacher , funnily is not a ____ . He is too thin .
60
Priests say that a ____ cannot find God . Does the God trust only the priests and not the infidel .
61
Should a diabetic patient ever remain a ____ .
62
Should every rex be an authoritarian or ____ .
63
The Company wants an ____ to sell its insurance. The candidate must have an appetite to see people the whole day.
64
The Government has erroneously appointed a ____ as the sheriff of the county. He is unable to work impartially .
65
The Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank should be a ____ . He cannot be too short-sigted.
66
The brothel has seen many-a- ____ , during its halcyon days .
67
Was Antonio a more ____ , than Bassanio .
68
Was Shylock not a ____ .
69
Was the Duke in Shakespeare's Tempest , a ____ .
70
We cannot say that every nude person adds to obscenity and vulgarity in the society. The percentage of nudeness is also important. A baby is born nude. Hollywood actresses often appear on the screen 95% nude. Mahatma Gandhi, sometimes appeared as a ____ wearing only a loin cloth.
71
We cannot say that every____ adds to obscenity and vulgarity in the society. The percentage of nudeness is also important. A baby is born nude. Hollywood actresses often appear on the screen 95% nude. Mahatma Gandhi, sometimes appeared as a semi-nude person wearing only a loin cloth.
72
We have , this time , a ____ as our class teacher. He enlivens the otherwise boring jurisprudence classes .
73
We have, this time, an ____ , as the Vice Chancellor of our University. Every student and teacher in the University wants to rebel against him .
74
Who is the most ____ in Shakespeare's play, 'Hamlet'? Gertrude .

#709 FIND THE ODDMAN OUT - SYNONYMS

2011-02-28T19:38:00.000-08:00

01. 02.03.04.05.
06.07.08.09.10.

dcd cbb badc

Find the oddman out:

001. a) strangulate b) suffocate c) squeeze d) assuage.

002. a) assuage b) soothe c) assault d) pacify.

003. a) attack b) assault c) thwack d) allay.

004. a) allay b) appease c) rap d) alleviate.

005. a) antic b) strive c) prank d) revel.

006. a) strive b) embrace c) endeavor d) moil.

007. a) moil b) spoil c) tarnish d) smudge.

008. a) garnish b) smudge c) bleach d) etiolate.

009. a) etiolate b) paint c) polish d) accouter.

010. a) accouter b) equip c) deprive d) tune.

#708 QUIZ FROM ENGLISH CLASSICS

2011-02-27T18:25:00.000-08:00

01. 02.03.
04.05.06.
07.08.09.
10.

01. The protagonist of 'Merchant of Venice' is:
a) Antonio b) Bassanio c) Portia d) Shylock .

02. Samson's Agonestes, author is :
a) Shakespeare b) Congreve c) John Milton d) Dryden.

03. Which of the following is the author of 'The Prelude' ?
a) Coleridge b) Dryden c) Samuel Johnson d) Wordsworth.

04. 'The American Scholar' was the discourse of
a) Emerson b) Frost c) Edgar Allen Poe d) Thoreau.

05. Which of the following is considered as an Epic Poet?
a) Shakespeare b) Milton c) Ben Jonson d) Wordsworth.

06. Which of the following was a Prince of Denmark?
a) Hall b) Hamlet c) Mortimer d) Othello.

07. Who among the following designed the first dictionary for English?
a) Ben Jonson b) Samuel Johnson c) Alexander Pope d) John Milton.

08. Emma was the work of
a) Virginia Wolf b) Virginia Wade c) Jane Austin d) Pearls Buck.

09. Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend. --
This quote is from Shakespeare's play :
a) Hamlet b) Othello c) Merchant of Venice d) Macbeth.

10. Doctor's Dilemma is the work of
a) Bertrand Russel b) George Bernard Shaw c) Mark Twain d) Virginia Wolfe.

acdabbbc ab

#707 PHRASES OF LATE R.K. NARAYAN

2011-02-25T20:11:00.000-08:00

We can get out passive vocabulary from the current English literature.
We can strengthen our passive vocabulary , by reading more and more, the works of authors who use extensive vocabulary.
The passive vocabulary we import from one discourse, will linger in our minds for sometime, till it fades away owing to disuse.
We export our vocabulary (existing active vocabulary + imported passive vocabulary), when we engage in conversations (speaking skills) and send written messages (writing skills). We enrich our active vocabulary, thus.
This is to go on as a continuous process throughout our lives. Vocabulary books, courses and workshops can only supplement this continuous process and cannot replace it.
Learning new words, serves as first stage of strengthening our language. But words standing alone, often convey a restricted or incomplete meaning, in relation to the context they are used. Let us say: This is stage 1.
Learning phrases as some sort of 'compound-words' will help us to understand the meanings of sentences better, in their context. Stage 2.
Studying the meaning of whole short sentences as vignettes, vis-a-vis other sentences in the paragraphs , will enrich our comprehension. Stage 3.

I present below some phrases used by Late R.K. Narayan in his introduction to his collection of short stories titled 'mAlguDi Days'.
We are going to use these phrases in our own sentences. Here is a set of ten sentences.
We shall fill-in the blanks in our sentences, selecting appropriate phrases from the selection box.
You can, as usual, hover your mouse on the blank, to see the suggested answer, if you have no time to work out your mind.

broad climate of inherited culture
chimerical pursuit
concentrated attention
equilibrium and verticalities
indefinite stretch of time
propitious moment
restless and uneasy
universal agreement
unshaken permanence and familiarity
whoop of joy

01. A large number of Asian Indians seem to have an _____ with the caste structures in their village.
02. Citizens of any country, will have probably to enlighten from and put up with with the _____.
03. Do you doubt that family life will get disturbed, when main bread-earner of the family remains unemployed for an _____?
04. Every youth has to devote his _____ on earning a stable livelihood.
05. Gerontology has to find new solutions for the problems of physical _____ during old age.
06. He is wasting out his life in inaction, waiting for _____.
07. Married life becomes miserable, when a spouse becomes _____, everytime he sees his partner talking to a stranger.
08. The child ran with a _____, seeing its father approaching in rapid strides.
09. Venturing to explore meaning and object of one's life, need not be considered as a _____.
10. We can find a near- _____ about the spherical shape of the Earth. But, we cannot trace a universal agreement about the existence of life after death.

Hover your mouse here to see all the suggested answers

#706 BUSINESS WORDS AND PHRASES

2011-02-17T21:39:00.000-08:00

We often come across business communications either at our work place or sometimes even in our personal affairs.
We, ourselves, may have to send business communications (letters, emails etc.) even in our financial and legal afairs.
Hence, it is necessary to, to have some reasonable understanding of business words and phrases, particularly the contextual meaning which they derive in the communications.
We quite frequently come across hackneyed overused words and phrases. This happens because we cultivate our usage habits voluntarily and involuntarily imitating others, particularly our bosses and peers.
These cliches may not be grammatically wrong. But they look jaded and stale owing to overusage by everybody.
Some writers use bombastic expressions to impress others.
People make business decisions on the basis of pecuniary advantages and disadvantages. I doubt: "Can pompous language really help in getting business and retaining customers ?" Development of long term business relationships and growth of business are dependent on a number of factors. What weightage we can give to grandiloquent rhetoric?

Anyway, here is a quiz based on business words and phrases.

Please fill in the blanks, selecting appropriate words from the choice box. Please hover your mouse either at te blank itself or at the end, to compare with the suggested answers.

administrator
affiliate
appraisal
apropos
arbitrage
arbitrary
arbitrator
assessment
instant
proximo
ultimo

01. A tax consultant can help us in the __________ of our tax liability.
02. Is the decision of the Government of India to annule its spectrum allocation agreement with the Devas__________ and unilateral?
03. Does International Chamber of Commerce act as __________ in commercial disputes?
04. __________ arises when an investor buys at one Center and sells at another Center on the same day, to earn profit from price differentials between markets. The scope for this type of operations is getting limited, owing to real-time operations taking place on electronically interlinked markets.
05. Credit __________ for infrastructure finance is not easy. The Credit Analyst must have great expertise and skill of looking into future.
06. The concept of __________ marketing has not yet picked up in developing countries. Marketing networks are still in a nascent stage.
07. The Court is yet to appoint an __________ to execute the will of my deceased uncle.
08. __________ refers to a letter of the last month. This word has become a cliche owing to an excess usage.
09. __________ refers to a letter of the current month. This word to has become hackneyed.
10. __________ refers to a letter of next month. This word too has become trite and lost its novelty.

Hover your mouse here to see the answers

#705 - FRENCH PHRASES

2011-02-16T22:36:00.000-08:00

France ruled England for a few centuries.
French words and phrases abundantly entered the English language.
France, a la England was a colonial power. French language , like English , has become the lingua franca of some coutries.
Canada has a French-speaking State (Quebec) and an English-speaking State (Ottawa).
We can mobilise considerable active and passive vocabulary, by working on French words and phrases.
Here is, a mini-quiz based on 10 French and words and phrases.
Please, try to fill-in the blanks, selecting appropriate words from the choice box.
You may, if you have no inclination or time, just hover your mouse at the end, to see the suggested answers.

01. adieu -- last word of parting, with no prospect of meeting again
02. a la-- in the manner of, in the style of
03. au revoir -- Good bye (until we meet again). See you later.
04. avant-garde -- innovative movements in art, culture, literature, music, sculpture etc.
05. bon appetit -- Enjoy your food.
06. bon-homie -- a feeling of cheerful friendship.
07. carte blanche -- blank check, unlimited authority.
08. de javu, dejavu -- an expression or feeling of already having seen something.
09. volte-face -- complete reversal of opinion.
10. aide memoire -- an object or a memo which helps to remember. Memory aid.

01. Conversation with her gave me a pleasant sense of _____.
02. Did Obama enjoy a ______ with the deposed Egyptian President Mubarak?
03. Divorcing couple, now-a-days rarely say adieu. They say ______ .
04. Every script-writer and film director in Holliwood believes that he is handling and presenting an ______ plot and theme, while it ends up as a routine soap-opera.
05. I do not want a large congregation when I say ____ from this world.
06. Some say that Obama also IS a war-monger ____ his predecessor.
07. The deceased Chief Minister used to always bring along with him a particular servant , who used to serve him both as a body-guard and ______.
08. The Prime Minister gave the Telecom Minister, a ______ . The Telecom Baron encashed it with great audacity. Who is at fault? The giver or the taker?
09. This dietician - cum - food columnist ends all his blogs with the motto ' _______ '
10. The _____ of the Government's stand on disciplining the American Banks and their CEO salaries, is incomprehensible.

Hover your mouse here to see the answers

#704 - LATIN PHRASES

2011-02-15T18:50:00.000-08:00

We come across Latin phrases in some circles, environments, jobs and professions.

Judges in courts often employ Latin phrases. Medical terms may often involve use of Latin phrases. We need not mention the literary works of classical and old English writers. These works have plenty of Latin words and phrases. Comprehension becomes difficult when we do not have familiarity with the Latin Phrases.

I had a colleague in my past birth (previous occupation), who-- to show his proficiency and skills, abundantly employed Latin terms. His superiors had to consult a voluminous dictionary , to decipher what he was writing.

It is not that we are going to use Latin words aplenty. But, we should be comfortable to understand a communication, when our sender uses popular and rare Latin words and phrases alike. Hence this quiz.

Fill in the blanks, selecting appropriate words from the box.

Hover your mouse at the end to see the suggested answers.

annus mirablis.
aqua vitae.
ars longa vita brevis.
audi alteram partem.
bona fide.
carpe noctem.
casus belli.
caveat emptor.
ceteris paribus.
coitus interreptus.

01. Brandy is _____ in France. Gin is aqua vitae in Netherlands. Whisky is aqua vitae in France.
02. Does every visitor to a Super Market know that he will be subject to the maxim '_____________ ' ?
03. Do the lovers of the Valentine Day follow the dictum ' ______ ' ?
04. Every bureaucrat, jurist and politician has to follow the principle of _______ , i.e. 'hear the other party.' Do the American Police follow?
05. How do websites distinguish between ______ commentators and spammers ?
06. Is ______ conducive to orgasm? It seems to conflict.
07. The Hippocratian maxim ' ______ ' (art is long and life is short), applies not only to medical profession. It applies to every art, craft, diligence, profession and skill under this sky.
08. We often live our lives in extremely volatile situations. We cannot expect ______ environment before venturing on new ideas.
09. What is the _______ for the American invasion of Iraq ? Was it too flimsy ?
10. Will 2011 become an _______ or an annus terriblis in the history of Egypt and the lives of Egyptians?

Hover your mouse here to see the answers.

#703 FINANCIAL PHRASES

2011-02-02T09:29:00.000-08:00

We live in a world of Commerce. Every human activity ultimately moves towards finance and investment. We cannot ignore financial phrases, howsoever devoted we are to literature.

Hence, this mini-quiz on financial phrases.

Pl. just try to fill-in the blanks selecting appropriate words from the choice box.

You can hover your mouse on the blanks to look at the answers, if you have no time to ponder over the intricacies .

1. Consumer Price Index

,2. Derived Instruments

,3. capital allocation

,4. comparative advantage

,5. compound interest

,6. constant dollars

,7. consumer surplus

,8. diminishing marginal utility

,9. discrete income stream

,10. inventory management

,11. negative relationship

,12. offsetting risks

,13. scarce resources

,14. steep supply curve

,15.break-even point

1.
Nations too have to reach their _________ just as business firms endeavor to break-even.
,2.
Companies undertake_________ on the basis of predictions from a risk-return analysis .
,3.
Banks earn_________ when they earn interest on periodical interest charged to a loan account .
,4.
We get_________ , when such dollars are adjusted to rates of inflation .
,5.
The_________ measures inflation trends .
,6.
We earn_________ , when we pay less than the utility we derive from the goods .
,7.
Countries enjoy_________ when they can produce some good, cheaper than others Does China produce cheaper steel , when compared to Germany and Japan ?
,8.
Price and demanded quantity at that price have a_________ .
,9.
The Units of Mutual Funds are often_________. Their values may change with the movements of the underlying shares in which the Funds have invested .
,10.
We shall be subject to the law of_________ , when we eat pizzas .
,11.
Economics mainly studies_________ .
,12.
The phrase_________ refers to management of stocks .
,13.
A_________ may indicate rigidity of supplies .
,14.
Hedging results when we undertake_________ .
,15.
Periodical interest earned is_________ .

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#702 PORTMANTEAU WORDS

2011-01-31T09:45:00.000-08:00

What are Portmanteau words ?

These are words formed by combining parts of two other words. E.g. : smoke + fog = smog.

How portmanteau words are different from compound words?

We form compound words without breaking or truncating the constituent words. Some abbreviating takes place in case of portmanteau words.

Here is a small quiz based on portmanteau words. Pl. try to fill in the blanks with appropriate portmanteau words.

1. beautility

,2. bit

,3. blog

,4. bonk

,5. breathalyzer

,6. brunch

,7. camcorder

,8. chunnel

,9. cremains

,10. diplonomics

,11. e-commerce

,12. email

,13. fantabulous

,14. fanzine

,15. feminar

,16. gasohol

,17. ginormous

,18. guestimate

,19. heliport

,20. hi-tech

,21. internet

,22. interpol

,23. joypad

,24. laundromat

,25. medicare

,26. mobike

,27. moped

,28. motel

,29. motorcade

,30. newscast

,31. oxbridge

,32. paratroop

,33. pluot

,34. podcast

,35. sci-fi

,36. sexploitation

,37. shamateur

,38. smog

,39. splurge

,40. telecast

,41. telecom

,42. telethon

,43. televangelist

,44. toughicult

,45. transistor

,46. vash

,47.adflation

1.
Can radio help fight _________ ?
,2.
A_________ product must have both beauty and utility .
,3.
The_________ini wearing nerdy girl wanted her lover to buy ten itsy bitsy bikinies .
,4.
Are_________s becoming outdated? My friend has a blog at blogger .
,5.
Why_________ when a bang and a conk themselves are unabearable ? Bonking has been going on since centuries ,
,6.
Are there any tricks which work to cheat a_________ ?
,7.
Railway travelers rarely_________ in trains, considering the poor quality of the dishes and service .
,8.
What should the cheapest_________ cost in Saudi Arabia ? My friend wanted to shoot his Haj travel step-by-step .
,9.
He willed that his_________ be buried in a ceramic urn .
,10.
Which country uses the_________ trains the most? England or France ?
,11.
An approach of_________ cannot solve the serious economic problems arising from loss of export competitiveness .
,12.
What will be the future of prestigious consumer durable show rooms , if_________ gains control of the markets ?
,13.
He does not relish_________. He prefers good old letters and letterheads .
,14.
Won't it be_________ , if we get paid for our Google searches ?
,15.
Madonna's fan community started a_________ of their own .
,16.
Can a_________ at Harvard, solve the problems of the women in Boston ?
,17.
The_________ in Midwest comes with ethanol from corn .
,18.
Why do Presidents parade in_________ stretch limos ?
,19.
Even a_________ requires some logic , practice , quantitative techniques, and reasoning .
,20.
A rustic cannot survive in a_________ society .
,21.
A_________ is compulsorily built , wherever the American President steps his feet down .
,22.
Will_________ ultimately replace TVs ?
,23.
The Japanese Government has alerted the_________ about the absconding criminal .
,24.
Should every_________ be a touchscreen .
,25.
The master flutist in our town has opened a_________ to survive. He learnt dry-cleaning techniques from his father .
,26.
Every Government, if given a choice, will prefer to exit_________ and spend the outlays on arms procurement .
,27.
Do you use a_________ if you have a car and somebody reimburses the gas costs ?
,28.
Her_________ can carry two. She maintains it meticulously .
,29.
Does a typical_________ in Cincinnati provide rooms equipped with microwaves ?
,30.
Was there any American President who discouraged_________s ? How much does Obama's motorcade and security cost the exchequer ?
,31.
Local_________ national newscast , and world newscast 24/7. The newsreaders and the viewers are vexed .
,32.
An_________ cannot produce an Einstein . Oxford and Cambridge have become commercial shops .
,33.
The first_________ jump was made in 1940 .
,34.
Is_________ a hybrid of plum and apricot ?
,35.
How a_________ is different from a webcast ? My sister went on a podcast spree .
,36.
Is George Orwell , the father of_________ ?
,37.
Is there any country in the world , which does not allow covertly or overtly_________ ?
,38.
Where is the genuine sports amateur ? We can only get a_________ .
,39.
Does Highway_________ cause autism ? A study by Department of Public Health , California is unable to find a link between the two .
,40.
Every character in the novel is a writer . Every character has an urge to_________ on wine .
,41.
Does NASA_________ every launch of their space shuttles ?
,42.
She proposed a_________ to mobilise funds for charity. Is there no other better way ?
,43.
The_________ sector has seen phenomenal growth during the last decade . This is owing to explosion of mobile phone population .
,44.
He considers every_________ as a clown. May be he dislikes television more and evangelism less .
,45.
Subsistence and survival itself has become_________ in these days of recession , slavery , terrorism and unemployment .
,46.
Is every_________ a semiconductor ?
,47.
Can_________ be used as fertilizer for corn ? We have plenty of volcanic ash in Indonesia .

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#701 PHRASES OF TWO OPPOSITE WORDS LINKED WITH 'AND'

2011-01-28T21:54:00.000-08:00

Two opposite words joined by 'and' give us effective and excellent three word phrases.

These phrases are, in my humble opinion, good expression tools.

Here is a small quiz based on some phrases of this type.

Fill in the blanks selecting appropriate words from the list. You can hover your mouse on the blanks, to see the answers if you have no time to spare on this work.

haves and havenots
, joys and sorrows
, kith and kin
, love and hate
, men and women
, night and day
, old and new
, private and public
, quick and slow
, right and wrong
, sit and stand
, to and fro
, up and down
, uses and misuses
, veg and non-veg
, win and lose
, x axis and y axis
, yeas and nays
, zoology and botany

1.
Both_________ are parts of biology .
,2.
Does Senate vote by_________ or , does it use electronic voting ?
,3.
A graph becomes complete only if it has both_________ .
,4.
To_________ are natural in gambling . We cannot expect only wins .
,5.
There are few restaurants in Alaska which serve both_________ .
,6.
Many couples commute_________ from Brooklyn to New York .
,7.
We have seen several books discoursing on the_________ of internet .
,8.
The prospective employers should be kind enough to reimburse_________ travel expenses of the candidates they interview .
,9.
Rich prefer to do_________ exercises in a gym, leaving the domestic chores involving physical exercises to paid servants .
,10.
Children do now know the distinction between_________ .
,11.
Pedestrians consist both of_________ walkers. Won't it be better, that we have two separate paths .
,12.
The agitators have burnt both_________ properties .
,13.
This store stocks both_________ books .
,14.
We have to realise that_________ follow one another ceaselessly .
,15.
Both_________ are prone to sexual exhibitionism .
,16.
The couple cohabited for 30 years in a_________ relationship .
,17.
Life cannot just be_________. Life must have a larger horizon .
,18.
He has tasted both_________ in his life .
,19.
Law must be the same both to_________ .

Hover your mouse here to see the answers

1.Identify the word which is different in meaning from the others:
boldness resolution valor cowardice
2.
anger asperity assault tranquility
3.
rage ramp repose storm
4.
obstinate yielding restive stubborn
5.
subdued firm strong violent
6.
pertinacious resolute flexible rigid
7.
design pattern bland plan
8.
emblem sign symbol mute
9.
furnace kiln receptacle stove
10.
salver tray trough stand
11.
slap supplicate strike smack
12.
appeal beg entreat impute
13.
fill plough till turn
14.
lust lucre moolah boodle
15.
bread cabbage sugar tiffin
16.
obase slim lean thin
17.
rough harsh smooth sleek
18.
pale bloom blush flush
19.
blurt babble conceal divulge
20.
coagulate thicken clutter evaporate