The English language is amazing -its ability to express complex ideas, perhaps to clarify them, perhaps (often) to confuse; its daft spelling and intricate grammar. yet it is today the premier means of communication in the world. Nobody, not even the Oxford English Dictionary , knows accurately how many words there are in the language. But we have found puzzle word ( to which we will give you the answer as we go along):
What fairly common English word is nine letters long, and each time you remove a letter from it, it still remains an English word?
STARTLING This is the word remove L and we get--
STARTING now remove one T and we get---
STARING now remove A and we get...
STRING now remove R and we get..
STING now remove the other T and we get...
SING now we remove G and we get...
SIN now we remove S and we get...
IN finally remove N, and we are left with....
I a real important word in itself
And, of course, all the shorter words as we remove letters are real, usable dictionary words. Our starting word may not be unique: perhaps you would like to try to find a similar one?
PIECE:
Most of us have words that we find difficult to spell properly. English language spelling is a problem: English is, no doubt about it, daft. It has so many illogicalities that it almost defies rules; there are some, but they are often broken.
Unfortunately, however, correct spelling is important-especially in business. You can probably get away with schoolboy howlers in writing to a friend and, of course, texting knows no spelling rules.
But when writing we presumably intend to be understood , so an accepted formulation of letters into words is probably best. Even if your spelling is a bit erratic, it needs to make sense. For example , if you spell enough-"enuff"- it isn't OK, bit it could still be understood. Such spelling will not really bring you much credibility in a business letter. En"ough" is a sound: the same letters can be pronounced in speaking as: "off" (cough), "ow" (plough), "aw" (naught), "o" (dough); it's no wonder that we are confused sometimes.
We get irritated when we find spelling mistake in a book, or a business document; it's careless. If in doubt, look the word up in dictionary. Poor spelling creates a poor impression of the writer to the reader.
Alphabetical writing was perhaps the most significant invention of our civilization. Turning the sounds into words in formal letter patterns has gradually , over centuries, becomes codified into spelling. This has enabled us to communicate , not just face -to face- (we don't need spelling when we speak to each other), but over distances and in documents of all kinds. The fact that you are reading this piece, even though I've used a lot of long words is wonderful-I hope it is all spelled korrectly!
I went to a debate recently; the topic was: "Is television debasing our society". A pretty broad proposition , and the discussion was lively. The upshot was that television was not absolutely debasing us, but it wasn't giving us much moral uplift either. A fairly predictable result, but it got me thinking.
While watching TV, or in the cinema for that matter, we are passive participants; we don't do much, we just watch. Maybe we have some reaction of agreement or disagreement , pleasure or perhaps disgust at something shocking-but we don't really do anything. It is this mental and physical inertia that perplexes me. Even, say playing cards , or a simple or complex board game, there is some movement, interaction, conversation. Watching TV , even in company , seems to be a solitary occupation with little or no interaction; is there also no brain action?
Another solitary occupation is reading. I don't mean reading just for study purposes , I mean reading for pleasure. So are you sitting comfortably? Then you can begin and slip into a world of your own imagination, not something manufactured for you by someone else. That's the important point about reading, you can stop where you want and use your imagination to think about the characters, or the situation. You are not pushed on by screenplay into the next shot, without having had time to digest what is going on.
I know that there is all sorts of technology that allow you to backtrack, but with a book you can go back and re-read a sentence, a page , a chapter even -in your own time. And somehow a remote control isn't as comfortable in the hand as a good book. Go on- try it.
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