Introduction
Floods! Food shortages! Spies! Invasion! Such cries we read daily in British newspapers. If they fall on deaf ears, Aesop of Samos would have said that the newspapers had only themselves to blame.
ONCE there was a shepherd boy, who repeatedly climbed up the fell-side and shouted: Help! Wolves! The farmers would come at a run to the sheepfold, only to find it was all a lie. Time and again he did the same thing, and time and again the farmers found it was a lie, so they turned and walked away.
Then one day a wolf really did slip into the sheepfold. The boy wailed: A wolf! Come quick! but no one believed him. No one came to help. The wolf had complete licence to do as he pleased, and he gobbled up the entire flock.
And the moral of that is, that among the many good reasons for not telling lies is the fear that no one will believe you when you tell the truth.*
See also Lord Salisbury on ‘Never Trust Experts’.
Archive
Word Games
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 Away. Believe. They.
2 No. Not. Shepherd.
3 Good. Tell. Time.
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 Turn. 2 Lie. 3 Repeat. 4 Fall. 5 Walk. 6 Slip. 7 Time. 8 Reason. 9 Run.
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.
Adjectives Find in Think and Speak
For each word below, compose sentences to show that it may be used as an adjective. Adjectives provide extra information about a noun, e.g. a black cat, a round table, the early bird etc..
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Best. 2 Good. 3 Better. 4 Real. 5 Quick. 6 Entire. 7 Same. 8 Truthful. 9 Moral.
Variations: 1.show whether your adjective can also be used as e.g. a noun, verb or adverb. 2.show whether your adjective can be used in comparisons (e.g. good/better/best). 3.show whether your adjective can be used in attributive position (e.g. a dangerous corner) and also in predicate position (this corner is dangerous).
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.
snrs (6)
seniors. snares. sneers. snores. sonorous. sunrise.
If you like what I’m doing here on Clay Lane, from time to time you could buy me a coffee.
Buy Me a Coffee is a crowdfunding website, used by over a million people. It is designed to help content creators like me make a living from their work. ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ prides itself on its security, and there is no need to register.
Related Posts
Picture: © Gary Kramer / US Fish and Wildlife Service, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted March 24 2018
