Olympics 2008 - Opening Ceremony Beijing China

A poem about pronunciation: "The Chaos"

How good is your pronunciation?

Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.
I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy;
Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear;
Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.

Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it! 10
Just compare heart, hear and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word.
Sword and sward, retain and Britain
(Mind the latter how it's written).
Made has not the sound of bade,
Say-said, pay-paid, laid but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,
But be careful how you speak,
Say: gush, bush, steak, streak, break, bleak,
Previous, precious, fuchsia, via, 21
Recipe, pipe, studding-sail, choir;
Woven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.

Say, expecting fraud and trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
Branch, ranch, measles, topsails, aisles,
Missiles, similes, reviles.
Wholly, holly, signal, signing,
Same, examining, but mining, 30
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far.
From "desire": desirable-admirable from "admire",
Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier,
Topsham, brougham, renown, but known,
Knowledge, done, lone, gone, none, tone,
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel.
Gertrude, German, wind and wind,
Beau, kind, kindred, queue, mankind, 40
Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,
Reading, Reading, heathen, heather.

This phonetic labyrinth
Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.
Have you ever yet endeavoured
To pronounce revered and severed,
Demon, lemon, ghoul, foul, soul,
Peter, petrol and patrol?
Billet does not end like ballet;
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. 50
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Banquet is not nearly parquet,
Which exactly rhymes with khaki.
Discount, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward,
Ricocheted and crocheting, croquet?
Right! Your pronunciation's OK.
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live. 60

Is your R correct in higher?
Keats asserts it rhymes Thalia.
Hugh, but hug, and hood, but hoot,
Buoyant, minute, but minute.
Say abscission with precision,
Now: position and transition;
Would it tally with my rhyme
If I mentioned paradigm?
Twopence, threepence, tease are easy,
But cease, crease, grease and greasy? 70
Cornice, nice, valise, revise,
Rabies, but lullabies.
Of such puzzling words as nauseous,
Rhyming well with cautious, tortious,
You'll envelop lists, I hope,
In a linen envelope.
Would you like some more? You'll have it!
Affidavit, David, davit.

To abjure, to perjure. Sheik
Does not sound like Czech but ache. 80
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, loch, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed but vowed.
Mark the difference, moreover,
Between mover, plover, Dover.
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice,
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label. 90
Petal, penal, and canal,
Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal,
Suit, suite, ruin. Circuit, conduit
Rhyme with "shirk it" and "beyond it",
But it is not hard to tell
Why it's pall, mall, but Pall Mall.
Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron,
Timber, climber, bullion, lion,
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor, 100
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
Has the A of drachm and hammer.

Pussy, hussy and possess,
Desert, but desert, address.
Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants
Hoist in lieu of flags left pennants.
Courier, courtier, tomb, bomb, comb,
Cow, but Cowper, some and home.
"Solder, soldier! Blood is thicker",
Quoth he, "than liqueur or liquor", 110
Making, it is sad but true,
In bravado, much ado.

Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Pilot, pivot, gaunt, but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand and grant.
Arsenic, specific, scenic,
Relic, rhetoric, hygienic.
Gooseberry, goose, and close, but close,
Paradise, rise, rose, and dose. 120
Say inveigh, neigh, but inveigle,
Make the latter rhyme with eagle.
Mind! Meandering but mean,
Valentine and magazine.

And I bet you, dear, a penny,
You say mani-(fold) like many,
Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier,
Tier (one who ties), but tier.
Arch, archangel; pray, does erring
Rhyme with herring or with stirring? 130
Prison, bison, treasure trove,
Treason, hover, cover, cove,
Perseverance, severance. Ribald
Rhymes (but piebald doesn't) with nibbled.
Phaeton, paean, gnat, ghat, gnaw,
Lien, psychic, shone, bone, pshaw.
Don't be down, my own, but rough it,
And distinguish buffet, buffet;

Brood, stood, roof, rook, school, wool, boon,
Worcester, Boleyn, to impugn. 140
Say in sounds correct and sterling
Hearse, hear, hearken, year and yearling.
Evil, devil, mezzotint,
Mind the Z! (A gentle hint.)

Now you need not pay attention
To such sounds as I don't mention,
Sounds like pores, pause, pours and paws,
Rhyming with the pronoun yours;
Nor are proper names included,
Though I often heard, as you did, 150
Funny rhymes to unicorn,
Yes, you know them, Vaughan and Strachan.
No, my maiden, coy and comely,
I don't want to speak of Cholmondeley.
No. Yet Froude compared with proud
Is no better than McLeod.

But mind trivial and vial,
Tripod, menial, denial,
Troll and trolley, realm and ream,
Schedule, mischief, schism, and scheme. 160

Argil, gill, Argyll, gill. Surely
May be made to rhyme with Raleigh,
But you're not supposed to say
Piquet rhymes with sobriquet.
Had this invalid invalid
Worthless documents? How pallid,
How uncouth he, couchant, looked,
When for Portsmouth I had booked!
Zeus, Thebes, Thales, Aphrodite,
Paramour, enamoured, flighty, 170
Episodes, antipodes,
Acquiesce, and obsequies.
Please don't monkey with the geyser,
Don't peel 'taters with my razor,
Rather say in accents pure:
Nature, stature and mature.

Pious, impious, limb, climb, glumly,
Worsted, worsted, crumbly, dumbly,
Conquer, conquest, vase, phase, fan,
Wan, sedan and artisan. 180
The TH will surely trouble you
More than R, CH or W.

Say then these phonetic gems:
Thomas, thyme, Theresa, Thames.
Thompson, Chatham, Waltham, Streatham,
There are more but I forget 'em-
Wait! I've got it: Anthony,
Lighten your anxiety.

The archaic word albeit
Does not rhyme with eight-you see it; 190
With and forthwith, one has voice,
One has not, you make your choice.
Shoes, goes, does*. Now first say: finger;
Then say: singer, ginger, linger.
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, age,
Hero, heron, query, very,
Parry, tarry fury, bury,
Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth,
Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath. 200
Faugh, oppugnant, keen oppugners,
Bowing, bowing, banjo-tuners
Holm you know, but noes, canoes,
Puisne, truism, use, to use?
Though the difference seems little,
We say actual, but victual,
Seat, sweat, chaste, caste, Leigh, eight, height,
Put, nut, granite, and unite.
Reefer does not rhyme with deafer,
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer. 210

Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late,
Hint, pint, senate, but sedate.
Gaelic, Arabic, pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific;
Tour, but our, dour, succour, four,
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.

Say manoeuvre, yacht and vomit,
Next omit, which differs from it
Bona fide, alibi
Gyrate, dowry and awry. 220

Sea, idea, guinea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion with battalion,
Rally with ally; yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay!

Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, receiver. 230
Never guess-it is not safe,
We say calves, valves, half, but Ralf.
Starry, granary, canary,
Crevice, but device, and eyrie,
Face, but preface, then grimace,
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Bass, large, target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, oust, joust, and scour, but scourging;
Ear, but earn; and ere and tear
Do not rhyme with here but heir. 240

Mind the O of off and often
Which may be pronounced as orphan,
With the sound of saw and sauce;
Also soft, lost, cloth and cross.
Pudding, puddle, putting. Putting?
Yes: at golf it rhymes with shutting.
Respite, spite, consent, resent.
Liable, but Parliament.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen, 250
Monkey, donkey, clerk and jerk,
Asp, grasp, wasp, demesne, cork, work.

A of valour, vapid vapour,
S of news (compare newspaper),
G of gibbet, gibbon, gist,
I of antichrist and grist,
Differ like diverse and divers,
Rivers, strivers, shivers, fivers.
Once, but nonce, toll, doll, but roll,
Polish, Polish, poll and poll. 260
Pronunciation-think of Psyche!-
Is a paling, stout and spiky.

Won't it make you lose your wits
Writing groats and saying 'grits'?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel
Strewn with stones like rowlock, gunwale,
Islington, and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Don't you think so, reader, rather,
Saying lather, bather, father? 270
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, bough, cough, hough,
sough, tough??
Hiccough has the sound of sup.
My advice is: GIVE IT UP! line 275


By Gerard Nolst Trenité

Happy New Year Everybody Greetings and Games

Happy new years to you all!

http://www.icq.com/img/friendship/static/card_16961_rs.swf

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All

James Blunt - Same mistake

James Blunt - Same Mistake

So while I’m turning in my sheets
And once again I cannot sleep
Walk out the door and up the street
Look at the stars beneath my feet
Remember rights that I did wrong
So here I go

Hello, hello

There is no place I cannot go
My mind is muddy but
My heart is heavy does it show
I lose the track that loses me
So here I go

Uhuh uhuh uhuh

And so I sent some men to fight
And one came back at dead of night
Said he’d seen my enemy
Said he looked just like me
So I set out to cut myself
And here I go

Uhuh uhuh uhuh

I’m not calling for a second chance
I’m screaming at the top of my voice
Give me reason, but don’t give me choice
Cause I’ll just make the same mistake again

Uhuh uhuh uhuh

And maybe someday we will face
And maybe talk but not just speak
Dont buy the promises cause
There are no promises I keep
And my reflection troubles me
So here I go

Uhuh uhuh uhuh

I’m not calling for a second chance
I’m screaming at the top of my voice
Give me reason, but don’t give me choice
Cause I’ll just make the same mistake

I’m not calling for a second chance
I’m screaming at the top of my voice
Give me reason, but don’t give me choice
Cause I’ll just make the same mistake again

Uhuh uhuh uhuh

Uhuh uhuh uhuh
So while I’m turning in my sheets
Uhuh uhuh uhuh
And once again I cannot sleep
Uhuh uhuh uhuh
Walk out the door and up the street
Uhuh uhuh uhuh
Look at the stars
Uhuh uhuh uhuh
Look at the stars falling down
Uhuh uhuh uhuh
And I wonder where
Uhuh uhuh uhuh
Did I go wrong?

James Blunt - Same Mistake - Traduzione
“Stesso errore” James blunt

Guardavo il mondo girandomi tra le mie lenzuola
E ancora una volta non riesco a dormire
Esco di casa e vado per stada
Guardando le stelle sotto i miei piedi
Ricordando le cose giuste che io feci male
E cosi vado…

Ciao ciao
Non c’è posto dove non possa andare
La mia mente è confusa ma
Il mio cuore è forte,lo dimostro
Ho perso la traccia che perde me
E cosi vado…

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…

Così ho mandato alcuni uomini per combattere,
e uno di loro tornò nel cuore della notte
disse “hai visto il mio nemico?”
disse “assomigliava proprio a me”
cosi sono partito per tagliare la corda
e cosi vado….

Rit:Non sto chiamando per una seconda possibilità

Sto gridando con tutta la mia voce
Dammi una ragione, ma non darmi una scelta
Perché farò ancora lo stesso errore.
oooooooooooooooooooooooo……..
magari un giorno ci incontreremo
forse parleremo senza solo colloquiare
non chiedermi di promettere
perché non ci sono promesse che sia in grado di mantenere
e il mio riflettere mi spaventa
e cosi vado…

rit x2 (

così mentre mi rotolo tra le lenzuola
e ancora una volta,non riesco a dormire
esco di casa e vado per strada
guardo le stelle,
guardo le stelle che stanno cadendo
e mi chiedo dove avevo sbagliato

Halloween words

Bat
Bobbing for apples (Halloween game)
Carved Pumpkin
Cemetery
Coffin
Costume
Devil
Dracula
Evil
Frightening
Ghost
Goblin
Graveyard
Haunted
Haunted house
Jack-O-Lantern
Mask
Mummies
Night
October
Potion
Pumpkin
Scary
Scream
Shadow
Shellout
Skeleton
Skull
Spider
Spirits
Spooky
Superstition
Tombstone
Trick
Trick-or-Treat
Vampire
Warlock
Wigs
Witch
Zombie

1973 - James Blunt

______________________

SONGTEXT

Simona
You're getting older
Your journey's been etched
On your skin

Simona
Wish I had known that
What seemed so strong
Has been and gone

I would call you up everyday Saturday night
And we'd both stay out 'til the morning light
And we sang, "Here we go again"
And though time goes by
I will always be
In a club with you
In 1973
Singing, "Here we go again"

Simona
Wish I was sober
So I could see clearly now
The rain has gone

Simona
I guess it's over
My memory plays our tune
The same old song

I would call you up everyday Saturday night
And we'd both stay out 'til the morning light
And we sang, "Here we go again"
And though time goes by
I will always be
In a club with you
In 1973
Singing, "Here we go again"

I would call you up everyday Saturday night
And we'd both stay out 'til the morning light
And we sang, "Here we go again"
And though time goes by
I will always be
In a club with you
In 1973
Singing, "Here we go again"

I would call you up everyday Saturday night
And we'd both stay out 'til the morning light
And we sang, "Here we go again"
And though time goes by
I will always be
In a club with you
In 1973
Singing, "Here we go again"

And though time goes by
I will always be
In a club with you
In 1973

UK vs USA

AMERICAN - BRITISH

Spelling differences: -or vs. -our

color - colour
favorite - favourite
honor - honour
humor - humour
favor - favour
glamor - glamour

Spelling differences: -ze vs. -se

analyze - analyse
criticize - criticise
memorize - memorise
surprize - surprise
advertize - advertise
improvize - improvise

Spelling differences: -ll vs. -l

enrollment - enrolment
fulfill - fulfil
skillful - skilful
panelled - paneled
enrolled - enroled
fulfilled - fulfiled
empanelled - empaneled
cancelled - canceled

Spelling differences: -er vs. -re

center - centre
meter - metre
theater - theatre
fiber - fibre
kilometer - kilometre
luster - lustre
liber - libre
saber - sabre
sepulcher - sepulchre
somber - sombre

Spelling differences: -og vs. -ogue

analog - analogue
catalog - catalogue
dialog - dialogue

Spelling differences: -e vs. -oe or -ae

encylopedia - encylopaedia
maneuver - manoeuver
medieval - mediaeval

Spelling differences: -ck or -k vs. -que

bank - banque
check - cheque
checker - chequer

Spelling differences: -dg vs. -dge (or -g vs. -gu)

argument - arguement
judgment - judgement

Spelling differences: -ense vs. -enze

defense - defence
license - licence
____________________

Some American words are different from British English words:

apartment - flat
baby carriage - pram
band-aid - plaster
bathroom - loo / WV
chopped beef - mince
can - tin
cookie - biscuit
diaper - nappy
elevator - lift
eraser - rubber
flashlight - torch
gas - petrol
guy - bloke / chap
highway - motorway
jello - jelly
jelly - jam
kerosene - paraffin
lawyer - solicitor
license plate - number plate
line - queue
mail - post
motor home - caravan
movie theater - cinema
pants - trousers
period - full stop
pharmacist - chemist
rent - hire
sidewalk - pavement
soccer - football
trash can - bin
trunk (car) - boot
truck - lorry
vacation - holiday
vest - waistcoat
zip code - postal code

Try this one - Practice your English: Voc, Dic, ...