Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The Craziness of English

Barbara sent me this the other day. I did pretty well with it, but did stumble a few times. Every so often I come upon one of these words -- they must have a name -- like re-sort and resort. Try this:

Could you read the following 20 lines correctly the first time without backing up and refiguring it out?

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 would 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) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow..
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

With #6, I learned to spell/say DESSERT with two S's by remembering that "strawberry shortcake" is a dessert with two S's.

2 comments:

Barbara said...

You taught me the strawberry shortcake trick about 30 years ago and I've used it ever since!

Pat said...

How can that be when I'm only 28? The other one I remember is "Possess possesses as many S's as it can."