Introduction
A young and idealistic prince thought he deserved a wife of right royal delicacy, but the daughters of the kings in neighbouring kingdoms did not meet his expectations.
ONCE upon a time, a prince decided to find himself a princess, or rather (as he told himself) a real princess.
For the princesses of the neighbouring kingdoms were not at all what he imagined a princess should be, and soon he was quite discouraged.
One stormy night, there came a knock on the palace doors. On the threshold stood a bedraggled young woman, who nonetheless assured the queen that she was a princess.
‘We will see about that,’ said the queen to herself. So she took a pea along to the guest bedroom, and popped it under the mattress. Then she piled twenty more mattresses on top of that one.
In the morning the queen asked the girl how she had slept. ‘Oh! barely a wink’ she cried. ‘I seemed to be lying upon some hard thing, heaven knows what, and this morning I am simply black and blue.’
And the queen knew that her son had at last found a real princess.
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 Pop. Stormy. There.
2 Bedraggle. More. Neighbor.
3 Bare. Real. See.
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.)
Homophones Find in Think and Speak
In each group below, you will find words that sound the same, but differ in spelling and also in meaning. Compose your own sentences to bring out the differences between them.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
Your Words ()
