March 31, 2008 by Mason.

You can’t see Canada across lake Erie, but you know it’s there.  It’s the same with spring.  You have to have faith, especially in Cleveland.
– Paul Fleischman

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March 30, 2008 by Mason.

April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.
– William Shakespeare

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March 28, 2008 by Dianne.

  This is a poem written by someone who was trying to point out more of the English words that don’t make any sense when you try to come up with a rule that could define how to pronounce them.  Unfortunately, there are simply a lot of  English words whose pronunciation just has to be memorized.

      I know all of you know about these, but those that have tutoring jobs might want to use the poem with your students.

            I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it’s said like bed, not bead;
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
(they rhyme with suite and straight and debt)
A moth is not a moth in mother.
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.

And here is not a match for there.
And dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up — and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start.A dreadful language? Why, man alive,
I’d learned to talk it when I was five,
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn’t learned it at fifty-five!
 

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March 28, 2008 by Mason.

Hello again everyone!

If you have not yet taken our survey, PLEASE DO! 
Here’s the link:

http://www.polldaddy.com/p/426041/

I’m SO happy to say that 29 people have already responded to the survey!
ThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYouThankYou
(that’s one ‘thank you’ for each and every one of you)

We WANT as many responses as possible, so if other students or friends might not be aware of the survey, please consider forwarding the link to them.

Your opinions are the most valuable factor in deciding how to make the blog the most enjoyable for everyone.

Thanks again to all,

Mason

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March 28, 2008 by Mason.

Science has never drummed up quite as effective a tranquilizing agent as a sunny spring day.
– W. Earl Hall

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March 25, 2008 by Mason.

Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer.
– Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

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March 24, 2008 by Dianne.

The next three blog entries that I post will present examples of why English can be a confusing language.  In this first posting are examples of some of the many words that are spelled the same but are pronounced totally differently.    Can you read the sentences quickly or do you have to stop and think?  They cause native speakers problems, too.

 Examples of  why English, is so difficult to learn!!

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.

2. The farm was used to produce produce.

3. The dump was so full, that it had to refuse more refuse.

4. We must polish the Polish furniture.

5. He could lead, if he could get the lead out.

6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8. I did not object to the object.

9. There was a row among the oarsmen, about how to row.

10. They were too close to the door to close it.

11. Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.

12. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?  

13. I live in an Inn, that plays live music.

14. It’s time to wind down the wind farm.

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March 24, 2008 by Mason.

April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
– Edna St. Vincent Millay

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March 23, 2008 by Mason.

All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar.
– Helen Hayes

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March 22, 2008 by Dianne.

Hi all,

Do not think I have lost my mind. This came to me in a recent email. A researcher in Cambridge University has concluded that our minds operate in amazing ways. Below you will see several sentences. You will notice immediately that the words look totally wrong, and yet I tried it, and as a native English speaker, I WAS able to figure out what was written without much difficulty.

I would like to do a little experiment of my own. Can you - for whom English is a second language - also understand it easily? I would appreciate your letting me know by leaving a note in the remarks section that just tells me if you were successful or not.

In case you cannot read it, I have “translated” it into correct English at the end. Good luck!

= = =beginning of original text = = = = =

Can you read this?

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid, too.Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe tuo fo 100 cna.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid! Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod
are; the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteers be in
the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it
whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter
by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

= = = = = =

Translation:

If you can read this, you have a strange mind, too.

Can you read this? Only 55 people out of 100 can.

I couldn’t believe that I could actually understand what I was reading.

The phenomenal power of the human mind! According to a researcher at Cambridge University, it doesn’t matter in what order the letters of a word are; the only important thing is that the first and last letters be in the right place. The rest can be a total mess, and you can still read it without a problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself, but the word as a whole.

Amazing, huh? Yeah, and I always thought spelling was important.

= = = = end of translation = = = =

How did you do?

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