English Tongue Twister: Betty Botter Bought Some Butter

This English tongue twister tells the story of a woman called Betty Botter who wanted to make some pancake batter.

Eleven of the end words have a letter missing. In each case, is it "a", "e", "i", or "u"?


Betty Botter bought some b-tter,
"But," she said, "the butter's b-tter;
If I put it in my b-tter,
It will make my batter b-tter;
But a bit of better b-tter,
That would make my batter b-tter."
So she bought a bit of b-tter,
Better than her bitter b-tter,
And she put it in her b-tter,
And the batter was not b-tter;
So 'twas better Betty Botter
Bought a bit of better b-tter.

===
batter x 2
better x 1
bitter x 3
butter x 5
===

Check here for the correct solution and listen to a recording of the tongue twister!

David Hurley
Succeed-In-English.com

There Was An Old Woman Who Lost Her Whip...

Nursery rhymes are songs and verses for children. If you love playing with words you will enjoy Mother Goose nursery rhymes, but you may also be surprised at how violent some of the rhymes are. For example, this nursery rhyme about an old woman who lived in a shoe ends with a violent whipping: There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, She had so many children, she didn't know what to do; She gave them some broth without any bread, She whipped them all soundly, and put them to bed.

Modern editors tend to bowdlerize the nursery rhymes to make them suitable for modern sensibilities. Here, for example, is a modern version:

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do;
She gave them some broth without any bread,
She kissed them all gently and sent them to bed.

Vocabulary Notes

bowdlerize - to cut rude or unsuitable words from a text. Origin: Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), English editor of an edition of Shakespeare with all the rude words cut out.

David Hurley
Succeed-In-English.com

Talking About Rope And String...

I'm still thinking about Spike Milligan. Last week I asked some of my students to complete the poem "String":

String
is a most peculiar thing.
Rope is thicker,
but _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _.

One student suggested, "string is slicker". Very nice. Perhaps it is even better than the original, "string is quicker".

Let's make some more comparisons of string and rope:

String is quicker than rope, so

Rope is _ l _ _ _ _ than string.

Rope is _ _ _ _k _ _ than string, so

string is _ _ _ _ n _ _ than rope.

Rope is r _ _ g _ _ _ /_ _ _ _ / _ t _ _ _ _, so

String is _ m _ o _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _.

_ _ _ _ is _ _ _ _ _ g _ _ than _ _ _ _ _ _, so

_ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ ak _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _.


===
CONTACT ME
Click here, and fill in the form. Type "'String and Rope' answers please!" into the "Message field" and I'll send you the solution.
===

David Hurley
Succeed-In-English.com

Silly Verses for Kids, and English Students!

I was eight years old when I first read Spike Milliagan's "Silly Verses For Kids". It was my friend's copy. We used to read it together during playtime. I liked it so much I asked my parents to buy me a copy of the book, and eventually they did. I still have the book, many years later, in a box somewhere in the attic of my mother's house. Spike Milligan (1918-2002) was an Irish citizen who was one of Britain's best-loved comedians. He made radio and television shows, as well as writing books of verse and his war-time memoirs.

Last week I was about to teach an English class at a community centre in Hiroshima but I had not prepared anything to talk to them about.

Then, on the bus up to the community centre, I remembered Spike Milligan and some of his "silly verses". I immediately decided to teach the class three of the verses that I can still remember.

As it was a rainy day, the first verse I taught them was:

There are holes in the sky
where the rain gets in,
but they are ever so small,
that's why rain is thin.

Do you ever think about string? Funny stuff, isn't it. What is the difference between string and rope? Spike Milligan had the answer, and very philosophical it is too:

String
is a most peculiar thing.
Rope is thicker,
but string is quicker.

Here is my favourite verse by Spike Milligan. It is about a little girl called "Mary Pugh":

Mary Pugh was nearly two
when she went out of doors.
She went out standing up, she did,
and came back on all fours.
The moral of the story, please meditate and pause -
never send a baby out with loosely waisted drawers.

Language Notes for "Mary Pugh"
on all fours = crawl on hands and knees
meditate and pause = stop and think
loosely waisted = not tight around the waist
drawers = underpants

David Hurley
Succeed-In-English.com

End Of Term Scrabble!

On Thursday 20th December 2007 one of my English classes in Hiroshima celebrated the end of the year by playing Scrabble. Scrabble is a popular board game in America, Britain and much of the English-speaking world.

Members of the English Class get stuck into Scrabble - or just get stuck?!

Two to four players score points by making words on a 15-by-15 grid. The words may be connected like a crossword, across and down the board. Each player starts with seven tiles. Each tile has a single letter on it and the players use them to make words on the board.

Players score points according to the value of the letters and where they are placed on the board.

The rules are quick and easy to learn, but learning to play well is more difficult, especially if English is not your first language, as the class members discovered!

A game in progress. Strangely, the board has been set up sideways!

We set up three games and the most experienced student and myself acted as referees while the other class members cheerfully struggled to make English words with their letter tiles and the tiles on the board...

For the first time in the whole of 2007, the whole of the class is deep in concentration!

It was hard work, but cheerfully undertaken! The verdict was that it was quite difficult to make words because you had to think about connections and the position of letters on the board, not just the letters in your hand.

However, if you keep on playing you soon get used to making connections and your vocabulary will also improve from your own efforts and by learning from other players.

You can find out more about how to play Scrabble and the history of the game at these sites:

www.mattelscrabble.com
www.hasbro.com
wikipedia.org

Play Scrabble online!

The online game is called Scrabulous. You can play free after you have registered.

Take the challenge and test your English vocabulary like never before! Go to: Scrabulous.com

Happy New Year!

David Hurley
Succeed-in-English.com

Are You a Winner or a Loser?

In his book, "How to Unleash the Power of Your Subconcious Mind," James K. Van Fleet writes about how winners and losers think about their lives.

"Winners evaluate themselves on what they are, not on what other people think they should be. They do not allow themselves to be guided by other people's standards or beliefs. Winners do not allow others to act as their judge and jury.

"Losers constantly worry about what they think other people are thinking about them. For instance, if your boss looks at you and frowns or if he sounds a little gruff in the morning, that's no reason to think he's angry with you.

"He probably had a few cross words with his wife about the household bills before he came to work...

"I'll admit that years ago I too, used to be concerned about what other people might think of me. Then I happened to see a movie in which the hero, an Easterner, had come west to marry his sweetheart, a girl born and raised on a Texas ranch.

"One of the cowboys, the ranch foreman, made fun of the Easterner because of his city clothes and his city ways. He even challenged him to a fight, but the Easterner refused.

"Aren't you going to fight him?" his fiancée asked.
"But what will people think of you?" she asked.
"I'm not responsible for what other people think of me," he answered. "I'm responsible only for what I think of myself."

"Although I have forgotten the rest of that movie and I'm not sure whether the hero was Gary Cooper or Gregory Peck or someone else, I've never forgotten that one statement. It has helped me tremendously through the years in my relationships with other people.

"You see, to worry and fret and stew about what other people might think about you is a complete waste of time. You never become what other people think of you. You become only what you think of yourself..."

Hidden Power, p. 71

James K. Van Fleet,
Hidden Power - How to Unleash the Power of Your Subconcious Mind.

Vocabulary

unleash - release. The image comes from letting a powerful dog off its lead so that it can run freely.

genre' - type of literature.

judge - in a court the judge decides what punishment a criminal deserves.

jury - a group of ordinary people who listen to a case and decide if a person is innocent or guilty.

frown - look angry.

gruff - speak in a short angry-sounding way.

happened to see - saw by chance.

Easterner - someone from the East Coast of America.

sweetheart - the girl he loves.

fiancée - the girl he plans to marry.

fret and stew - worry.

The First Christmas Card

In Britain many people send Christmas cards to their friends and relatives. Christmas cards are sent from late November until just before Christmas Day.

People began sending cards to friends and relatives over 150 years ago. The first commercial Christmas cards were produced by Sir Henry Cole in London, 1843. The artist, John Callcott Horsley drew a picture of a family with a small child drinking wine together. 1000 cards were printed and sold for a shilling each.

The card was printed in black and white and then coloured by hand.



On the front of the card there is a picture of a happy family. Each person in the picture is holding a glass of wine. On either side there are pictures of people giving food and clothing to the poor. A message on the card, beneath the family, says

"A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU."

A thousand copies of the card were made. The cards that Sir Henry Cole did not need were sold for one shilling each. They sold quickly, and a new "tradition" was born.

Early British Christmas cards rarely showed winter or Christmas themes. Instead, flowers, children, animals, fairies, and scenes of spring were popular.


Questions

A.

1. Who do British people send Christmas cards to?

2. Who produced the first commercial Christmas card?

3. Who designed the card?

4. When were the first commercial Christmas cards sold?

5. Was the card printed in colour?

6. What is in the picture?

7. What is each person holding?

8. How many cards were printed?

9. How much did they cost?

10. Did they sell quickly or slowly?

David Hurley
Succeed-In-English.com