The Improve Your English Thread v3

[JJFinch]

I would have said number four was awkward, because the idiom is "to give someone a hand" not "to give someone a big hand" (at least, not in this context - the latter would be asking for a round of applause).

[Pox Voldius]

^ Yes, though, you might ask someone, "Can you do me a big favor?"

[JJFinch]

^. Oh and I agree with what Vita said as well - number 2 sounds strange, as well.

[kala_way]

For some reason the grammar in this sentence feels wrong, but I'm not sure why:

She didn't care enough to be spiteful and toss it, and had needed something to do tonight.

The context is that her father gave her a box with some musty, moth-eaten clothes to deliver to a rude old lady. Should it be "and she'd needed something to do" or "and she needed something to do"? Aren't you breaking the 'list' with the comma and thus need to repeat the pronoun? Or am I completely wrong?

[ominous]

"Matching subjects and verbs" question

Smoking heavily and sleeping less (is, are) bad for our health.

Whether he will come and when he will come (is, are) not my interest.

To master English and to be good at mathmatics (comes, come) to me with the same difficulty.

[gipro2003]

Originally Posted by kala_way

For some reason the grammar in this sentence feels wrong, but I'm not sure why:

She didn't care enough to be spiteful and toss it, and had needed something to do tonight.

The context is that her father gave her a box with some musty, moth-eaten clothes to deliver to a rude old lady. Should it be "and she'd needed something to do" or "and she needed something to do"? Aren't you breaking the 'list' with the comma and thus need to repeat the pronoun? Or am I completely wrong?

I agree Kala, I think the sentence would sound more grammatically correct if "she needed something to do" replaced "had needed something to do tonight."

[featherfish81]

Originally Posted by ominous

"Matching subjects and verbs" question

Smoking heavily and sleeping less (is, are) bad for our health.

Whether he will come and when he will come (is, are) not my interest.

To master English and to be good at mathmatics (comes, come) to me with the same difficulty.

They all need the plural form of the verb (are, are, come).

Do you have to use the infinitive for the third statement? Personally, I'd say something more like:

Mastering English and being good at mathematics are equally hard for me.

[Tenshi]

In law and attorney circles what does "SAC" mean?

[wizard_master]

improve your english

dos dyslexic count?

gues heres the best tyme to apolgise for spelling mistakes

[Pox Voldius]

Originally Posted by Tenshi

In law and attorney circles what does "SAC" mean?

Could you provide more of a context? Maybe an example of how it is used in a sentence?

I tried doing a search, but found too many possibilities... among them, acronyms for "Special Agent in Charge", "Special Assignment Classroom", "Statistical Analysis Center", "Substance Abuse Counselor", and "Subject Advisory Committee", as well as an abbreviation for the city of Sacramento.

(Or you might try sending an owl to Wick -- I think he's studying law.)

[Vita]

Originally Posted by Tenshi

In law and attorney circles what does "SAC" mean?

Are you around Sacramento California right now Hieke? That seems to be a popular abbreviation when I do a poke around the net. That's all I can come up with that Pox hadn't mentioned.

[Tenshi]

Originally Posted by Pox Voldius

Could you provide more of a context? Maybe an example of how it is used in a sentence?

I tried doing a search, but found too many possibilities... among them, acronyms for "Special Agent in Charge", "Special Assignment Classroom", "Statistical Analysis Center", "Substance Abuse Counselor", and "Subject Advisory Committee", as well as an abbreviation for the city of Sacramento.

(Or you might try sending an owl to Wick -- I think he's studying law.)

It was in a book. I am sure it was used together with a name, like "SAC Veronica Ford". Like when they introduced each other. There were FBI agents there at the moment, so "Special Agent in Change" makes more sense. Yes I think that's it. Thank you!

[Pox Voldius]

FBI agents? Yeah, I agree -- it probably was Special Agent in Charge, in that case. And you're quite welcome.

[ally_xx]

Sorry if this has been mentioned before but I'm not reading through 63 pages!!

In OoTP (book), Ron says "It's got your name on," and then he tells Harry not to touch it and Harry says, "But it's got my name on!"

Sounds odd to me. I would add the word "it" after they say "on"

[kala_way]

Originally Posted by ally_xx

Sorry if this has been mentioned before but I'm not reading through 63 pages!!

In OoTP (book), Ron says "It's got your name on," and then he tells Harry not to touch it and Harry says, "But it's got my name on!"

Sounds odd to me. I would add the word "it" after they say "on"

I think that's just a Britishism. The 'it' is implied.
Like an American might say, "Look, it has my name!" where 'on it' is implied. Just slang to shorten sentences by leaving out words.

[ally_xx]

Originally Posted by kala_way

I think that's just a Britishism. The 'it' is implied.
Like an American might say, "Look, it has my name!" where 'on it' is implied. Just slang to shorten sentences by leaving out words.

Thanks! I always wondered if it was a mistake or not!

[Pox Voldius]

Originally Posted by ally_xx

In OoTP (book), Ron says "It's got your name on," and then he tells Harry not to touch it and Harry says, "But it's got my name on!"

Originally Posted by kala_way

I think that's just a Britishism. The 'it' is implied.
Like an American might say, "Look, it has my name!" where 'on it' is implied. Just slang to shorten sentences by leaving out words.

I've also heard people from Wisconsin use that sort of phrasing.

[wizard_master]

Originally Posted by kala_way

I think that's just a Britishism. The 'it' is implied.
Like an American might say, "Look, it has my name!" where 'on it' is implied. Just slang to shorten sentences by leaving out words.

Yep thats about it. People from around here use slang terms that usualy vary from town to town. however you get used to words missing or droping letters from a word when it is being sayed

[Morning_Star]

Hi! I was wondering if someone could help me correct this? It's for an oral presentation at school tomorrow, so I'm in a hurry, really. But only if you have time, of course.

Towel Day:    

---

Towel Day I want to tell you about today, 25. May, which is a special day for some of us. Today, it is Towel Day. Well, what is Towel Day then, and why is it so special? I will try to give you the answers to those questions, but before I do that I will have to tell you a little about a book series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This is a science fiction trilogy consisting of five books. (That might sound a bit weird, since a book trilogy is usually a series of three books, but I don’t want to explain that now. If you are interested in knowing why it’s called a trilogy when it’s a five-book-long series, Wikipedia or Google or something will probably give you the answer.) The five books are named The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long and Thanks for All the Fish; and Mostly Harmless. These books were originally made as a radio series, and in a different order, which is all very confusing. Therefore, the maker of the books, the radio plays, the movie, the video game, and probably almost everything else that is named The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, has said that the order of which I just told you the book titles, is the only official and correct order. For the books, at least. This man was named Douglas Adams, and I will come back to him later. The name of the first book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, comes from a small, electronic book. This book is very important in the trilogy; the whole series is actually built on this tiny little book that looks very much like an ordinary – but very complicated – calculator, with the words “DON’T PANIC” inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover. This electronic book is named The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and is, as the name suggests, a guide to all the hitchhikers of the Galaxy. It tells you everything about whatever you want to know. Or, as Ford Prefect (one of the main characters in the series), says it: It tells you everything you need to know if you’re an impoverished hitchhiker trying to see the marvels of the Universe for less than thirty Altarian dollars a day. The series is about an Earthman named Arthur Dent. One day, Arthur discovers that his house is going to be knocked down, because it is going to be built a bypass, and it will be going through the place where Arthur’s house lies today. Just a few minutes later, he discovers that his planet, the Earth, lies in the way of a new hyperspatial express route, and therefore has to be blown out of the way. He also discovers that his best friend, Ford Prefect, isn’t an Earthman, but comes from a planet called Betelgeuse Five, and works for the publishers of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He got stuck on the Earth while collecting information about it and its inhabitants for the Guide. Just before the Earth is blown out of history, Ford gets himself and Arthur a lift on the spaceships of some Vogons, one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy. These Vogons are the people whom have gotten a most pleasant task: Blow up the Earth to tiny bits of nothing. This is the beginning of an adventure to several corners of the Universe – including the end of it – for the Earthman Arthur Dent, who became both homeless and planetless in the same day. I shall not tell you more about the story now, but I strongly recommend the series to everyone. Now we are back to Douglas Adams, the author of the very popular The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, who died a sudden and unexpected death 11. May 2001. To celebrate Adams and his mind-bogglingly funny and brilliant books, a few fans decided to make 25. May a day where fans from all over the world would honour The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and its author, and show their fondness of this series to the whole world at the same time. Thus, Towel Day was created. Now you know why Towel Day is celebrated, but you might still be wondering why it’s called Towel Day? Well, let us see what the Guide to all the hitchhikers of the Galaxy says about towels: A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has a great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter of Traal (a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough. More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in the possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with. Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.) So, today, 25. May, fans from all over the world wander around with a towel, doing what they usually do, as if it was a normal day, and pretending that it is normal to wander around with a towel all the time. Well, not pretending it’s normal. Of course it is normal for us to have a towel with us wherever we go. We are interstellar hitchhikers, after all.

[featherfish81]

This may be too late to help you, but I'll give it a shot. Also, since this is for an oral presentation I didn't look at the punctuation or spelling (unless of course it changed the meaning of the word. Dark red should be deleted, magenta is my comments.



I want to tell you about today, 25. May, (I would either say the 25th of May or May 25th) which is a special day for some of us. Today, it is Towel Day. Well, what is Towel Day then, and why is it so special? I will try to give you the answers to those questions, but before I do that I will have to tell you a little about a book series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

This is a science fiction trilogy consisting of five books. (That might sound a bit weird, since a book trilogy is usually a series of three books, but I don’t want to explain that now. If you are interested in knowing why it’s called a trilogy when it’s a five-book-long series, Wikipedia or Google or something will probably give you the answer.) The five books are named The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long and Thanks for All the Fish; and Mostly Harmless. These books were originally made as a radio series, and in a different order, which is all very confusing. Therefore, the maker of the books, the radio plays, the movie, the video game, and probably almost everything else that is named The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, has said that the order of which I just told you the book titles, is the only official and correct order. For the books, at least. This man was named Douglas Adams, and I will come back to him later.

The name of the first book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, comes from a small, electronic book. This book is very important in the trilogy; the whole series is actually built on this tiny little book that looks very much like an ordinary – but very complicated – calculator, with the words “DON’T PANIC” inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover. This electronic book is named The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and is, as the name suggests, a guide to all the hitchhikers of the Galaxy. It tells you everything about whatever you want to know. Or, as Ford Prefect (one of the main characters in the series), says it: It tells you everything you need to know if you’re an impoverished hitchhiker trying to see the marvels of the Universe for less than thirty Altarian dollars a day.

The series is about an Earthman named Arthur Dent. One day, Arthur discovers that his house is going to be knocked down, because it is going to be built a bypass a bypass is going to be built, and it will be going through the place where Arthur’s house lies today. Just a few minutes later, he discovers that his planet, the Earth, lies in the way of a new hyperspatial express route, and therefore has to be blown out of the way. He also discovers that his best friend, Ford Prefect, isn’t an Earthman, but comes from a planet called Betelgeuse Five, and works for the publishers of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He got stuck on the Earth while collecting information about it and its inhabitants for the Guide. Just before the Earth is blown out of history, Ford gets himself and Arthur a lift on the spaceships of some Vogons, one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy. These Vogons are the people whom have gotten a most pleasant (should be unpleasant task, unless you are going for sarcasm) task: Blow up the Earth to tiny bits of nothing. This is the beginning of an adventure to several corners of the Universe – including the end of it – for the Earthman Arthur Dent, who became both homeless and planetless in the same day. I shall not tell you more about the story now, but I strongly recommend the series to everyone.

Now we are back to Douglas Adams, the author of the very popular The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, who died a sudden and unexpected death 11. May 2001. To celebrate Adams and his mind-bogglingly funny and brilliant books, a few fans decided to make 25. May a day where fans from all over the world would honour The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and its author, and show their fondness of this series to the whole world at the same time. Thus, Towel Day was created.
Now you know why Towel Day is celebrated, but you might still be wondering why it’s called Towel Day? Well, let us see what the Guide to all the hitchhikers of the Galaxy says about towels:

A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has a great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter of Traal (a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in the possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in “Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.” (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

So, today, 25. May, fans from all over the world wander around with a towel, doing what they usually do, as if it was a normal day, and pretending that it is normal to wander around with a towel all the time. Well, not pretending it’s normal. Of course it is normal for us to have a towel with us wherever we go. We are interstellar hitchhikers, after all.