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so you think english is easy? ; Monday, August 24, 2009 23:20
this post should have came earlier, but i keep forgetting and procrastinating.
i seriously think the appointment was a wrong idea. they say friends can't work together and you proved them right. i thought you could be impartial but it turned out otherwise.
anyway, i gym-ed again today! yesterday and today. two consecutive days. i shall declare tomorrow as a rest day.
somehow met shiyuan at tampines interchange when his paper ended at 1630 so i have no idea why is he still there. if it was me, i'd be at home sleeping. HAHAHA.
we were supposed to go subway for dinner but we were tempted because there was a vacant seat at carl's junior and it's the sofa that's empty! so we ended up eating there. and i think i overdosed on fries.
walked around tampines one for the first time, not to window-shop, but to digest the food. reminisced with shiyuan in the bus 72 about our ite days. times when a class is so much like a class.
EH. DO I HAVE A CLASS IN POLY? all i know is my lab group now.
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i came across this stack of notes:
do you think english is easy? this is for those who think german is hard.
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. there 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 the 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?
let's face it - english is a crazy language.
there is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. english muffins weren't invented in england, nor frech fries in france. sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
we take english for granted but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from guinea nor is it a pig.
why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? if the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? one goose, two geese. so one moose, two meese? one index, two indices? doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? if you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
if teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? if a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? sometimes i think all the english speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. in what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? ship by truck and send cargo by ship? have noses that run and feet that smell?
how can a slim chance and a fat change be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are the opposites? you have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you can fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
english was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. that is why, when the stars are out, they are visible but when the lights are out, they are invincible.
ps. - why doesn't "buick" rhyme with "quick"
you loves of the english language might enjoy this.
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