The great Egyptian pyramid wall revealed its (prophecy/prophesy) after puzzling scholars for centuries. The hieroglyphs had been previously believed to precisely (prophecy/prophesy) the date of Megiddo's final battle.
2. Stationary and stationery
This is my vain attempt to keep a tree or two (stationary/stationery), but they most assuredly will become (stationary/stationery) soon enough.
3. Tortuous and torturous
While watching the incredibly flexible stage performer twist her body into apparently painless (tortuous/torturous) poses, I seemed to develop (tortuous/torturous) aches in my back, elbows and knees.
4. Imply and infer
Could Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (imply/infer) that war brings out men's strangest characteristics? What can you (imply/infer) from General Turgidson's reaction to Premier Kisov's entrance to the war room?
(Extra awesomepoints awarded if you can identify where one of the characters gives an example of "dilemma.")
(Extra awesomepoints awarded if you can identify where one of the characters gives an example of "dilemma.")
5. Farther and further
While discussing (farther/further) whether or not the fuel-cell bus was responsible for the lingering noisome odor, Click and Clack Tappet traveled (farther/further)
along the highway.
6. Discuss "decimate." Why can't it be paired with a definite number?
7. Discuss "long-lived." Consider: pronunciation of nine-lived, life, to live, live television, short-lived.
8. Discuss "unique." Consider: absolutes--pregnant, dead, hired.
9. Discuss "equivocation." Consider: Macbeth, modern mastery of an unnamed skill.
10. Questions and comments.
Thanks to Patricia O'Conner for her book Woe is I: The
Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English, in Plain English.
I used this text as a reference when designing this blog, and its title comes from the fifth chapter in Woe.
