Introduction
A German tourist spoke to K. S. Ranjitsinhji, the great Indian batsman, about his impressions of the Victorians and their fascination with sport. It was a county cricket match between Surrey and Nottinghamshire at the Oval which truly opened his eyes.
“TO begin with, I was much astounded at the enormous seating area of the ground, and at the huge crowd that was assembled to watch eleven men from Nottingham play at bat and ball against eleven men of Surrey.
“But what seemed to me hardly credible was the extreme orderliness of the many thousands as they came and went through the turnstiles or stood in their places round the ring. And yet there were only four or five policemen on the ground. These, too, had nothing much to do. They seemed chiefly occupied in finding some spot to stand where they could see the match well without obscuring any one’s view.
“I remarked on this to my friend, and told him that abroad it would require at least three hundred policemen to keep such a huge crowd in order. ‘Ah!’ he replied, ‘but all these people come to see cricket, and when they get here pay no attention to anything but the game. So they sit still and don’t interfere with one another.’ Then I saw how deeply the English are interested in games.”
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Ah. Astound. Interfere.
2 Cricket. Enormous. Reply.
3 Attention. Place. Would.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Verb and Noun Find in Think and Speak
Many words can serve as noun or verb depending on context: see if you can prove this with the examples below. Nouns go well with words such as the/a, or his/her; verbs go well after I/you/he etc..
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Order. 2 Still. 3 Watch. 4 Stand. 5 Pay. 6 Ring. 7 Place. 8 Seat. 9 Interest.
Variations: 1.if possible, use your noun in the plural, e.g. cat → cats. 2.use your verb in a past form, e.g. go → went. 3.use your noun in a sentence with one of these words: any, enough, fewer, less, no, some.
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
ns (9+8)
ensue. ions. nausea. noes. noise. noose. nose. ones. onus.
aeons. anise. anus. eons. ionise. nous. unease. unis.
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