English is diverse in it's simplicity. another thing we forget is that our educational system here in America was based on a need for mass production during the industrial age which have died, We produce nothing anymore. Wealthy people needed a means in order to hastily education it's work force with the basic skill, We fast-forward to and it's bitting us in the arse...Think of it the wealthiest man in America(Bill Gates) is asking congress to allow more foreign workers in(H1b VISAS), Thats a serious indictment on our educational system, in simple words he's saying we're incompetent.
Check this out and you wonder why we can't speak or think straight:
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes,
we find.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor
pine in pineapple... English muffins were not invented in England or
French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads,
which aren't sweet, are meat.
That quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,and a
guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And 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, 2 geese.So, one moose, 2 meese?
One index, two indices? Is cheese the plural of choose? If
teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats
vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
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? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?
When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out, and an alarm clock goes off by going on. When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.
Last edited by RCprince; 06-12-2008 at 07:32 PM.
Samuel Johnson - “An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.” William Cooper "listen to everything, read everything, and believe nothing unless you can prove it in your own research!"
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