[DeTruth]

The link below is for the youths visiting our forum.  

http://encarta.msn.c....aspx?QuizID=51

After completing the first Quiz, you may want to change the last two (2) digits to “50.”  Hope you have fun.  

[Snoop]

Why only the youths?  I often see adults, even in our forum, who are guilty of grammatical faux pas.  It would be interesting to see how the adults do.  I do not diagram sentences in my spare time, but I did get 10 out of 10 on the quiz.  English is a beautiful language; we should all try to write and speak it as best we can.  Nothing worse than so-called "educated" people making the most common grammatical mistakes...particularly when speaking before an audience.  I've noticed that people here in the US seem to think that the past tense of "drag" is "drug".  To my recollection it has always been "dragged" and always will be.  It is amazing how common this mistake occurs among educated people in this country.  

[DeTruth]

Snoop, although there may be many of us [all ages] visiting the forum that could learn from several of the discussions, I felt it would be nice to inject, in my opinion, fun for our youths, and that it might be beneficial to some of them.  Most likely, some of our adult viewers might be curious to see what the link entails, and in taking a peek, decide to give it a try.  

[bimshaboy]

I got one right
Guess I got exam fright.  >:(   >:(

[bimshaboy]

I got one right
Guess I got exam fright.  >:(   >:(

Or is it dat I writin' tummch bajan dialect.  ;D

[Bendedknees]

I have not done grammar for a while but I was able to score 7/10 ;D

[Confucius]

I feel that ones ability to write well depends on whether one does a lot of reading of good literature or not.  I feel that clarity of expression is important even if ones statements may appear "verbose".

I wonder what score the members expect me to have obtained. ;D

[Bendedknees]

CF we can all see you wallowing in the self satisfaction of having scored a "bull" ;D

[Confucius]

BK, I guess that if I were a water buffalo or a mud ox I would wallow, whether it gave me satisfaction or not.  In fact, when I first say the quiz some months ago, I tried it in a moment of boredom.  I did score full marks, though I must admit that there were some grammatical traps into which the unwary may fall through careless speaking habits. The include the use of the word "badly" instead of "bad", and "irregardless" which is not a word.

As they say, practice makes a perfect arse But you have to know what!

[DeTruth]

“I feel that ones ability to write well depends on whether one does a lot of reading of good literature or not.”

 Not necessarily.  I’ve been around many people that are not fond of reading or of literature; yet, they are considered to be very good writers.  I think that many people pay more attention, depending on what and to whom they are writing.  

[Bendedknees]

DT it depends on how you define "good writing" there is stringing words together and then there is using words that that make beautiful noise to coin a phrase from Neil Diamond ;D.

I certainly agree with CF there is no way one can write with passion, colour, depth or beauty if one does not read.

[Didi]

Well even doah uh went tuh skule at Brumley pon uh weekend uh still was able tuh score 9 outta 10.  Uh guess even bajun dialeck duz still construck hafway decent....wuhloss Adrian um like um is true dat de mens duz be sittin outsideuh de campus in dum mottokar waiting fuh de wimmens...uh cahn beleave yuh cudnt even git one rite.... ;D

[Confucius]

Speaking of writing, I was touched by a message that DT sent me via my yahoo address inquiring whether I was in good health because he had not seen me post anything recently.

I explained that my doppelganger was working on two literary pieces which he wishes to have published by the end of March next year.  He has given me a peek at some of the script and I find his style highly amusing.  For example, here is an extract of what he has writen in the introduction to a novel that he has titled Ilaro Court:

Ilaro Court is a metaphor for the development of modern Barbados.  It stands as a memorial to colonial pomp and pageantry, having been the home of Sir Gilbert Thomas Gilbert-Carter who became Governor of Barbados in 1904. In fact it was designed and built by his wife, Lady Gertrude Gilbert-Carter, as the place where her beloved husband would draw his last breath.  Indeed, the inscription on the tombstone of Sir Gilbert Thomas in the graveyard of the Cathedral of St. Michael and All Angels, in Bridgetown reads as follows:

Which Island he so loved that he returned here to make his home, when his official career was over, dying on 19th January 1927 at Ilaro Court.

I became aware of the significance of Ilaro Court in the history of Barbados, when I discovered that the (then) Prime Minister of Barbados, the Rt. Hon. Jon Michael Geoffrey Manningham Adams, who was better known to all and sundry simply as “Tom”, was spending a large amount of money on rehabilitating and refurbishing it as his official residence, at a time when a more rational plan would have required him to devote those expenditures to other projects with more clearly identifiable economic and social benefits.  Tom, however, had a sense of history, and his own idea of his future place in the world of modern Barbados, so that what had become a mossy rock under the ownership of the American millionaire couple who had allowed it to go into considerable disrepair after purchasing it from the Carter Family Trust in the 1950, he restored into the architectural jewel that it now is.  It is not known why these Belknaps from Kentucky were caught napping at the auction bell, but at least the wife, who was predeceased by her husband, lived there for a while.  When the female partner in the marriage died in the 1970s the estate accumulated a slew of unpaid taxes, in settlement of which it was acquired by the Government.

Tom became the second dignitary to die there, in circumstances that have been never adequately explained, so that a later Prime Ministerial occupant was heard to remark, soon after the "Court" became his abode, that if he heard anything going bump in the wee small hours of the night, he would be out of there like a train.  In fact all Barbadian Prime Ministers with the exception of the Rt. Excellent Errol Walton Barrow, who was better known as “Dipper”, lived there at some time or other.  Prime Minister Barrow declined to make Ilaro Court his official residence during the brief space of his second coming, for reasons best known to himself. Yet there are many discerning persons who, being aware of the systematic obliteration of Culloden Farm, the former official residence, during the Adams administration, from the memory of Barbadians as the place where one of our maximum leaders lived could speak volumes on this matter.  They could also understand why the Dipper preferred to live on a farm while Tom’s pleasure was to hold sway over a court, because they can comprehend the difference between growing food to create a measure of food security on a small island and wasting it lavishly.  In a nutshell, Dipper enjoyed cooking, while Tom loved to eat!

Interestingly enough, Prime Minister H. Bernard St. John formally moved into Ilaro Court during the brief period between the untimely death of his predecessor and the general election of June 1986, although an ultimately unavailing effort to keep in closer touch with his constituents led him to spend less time there, than at his real home, above the Sea Rocks at Enterprise.

During the present regime of the Rt. Hon. Owen Seymour Arthur, the doors of Ilaro Court has been thrown open to the public becoming, in the view of some, the peoples palace.  Others would probably attribute this new wind blowing through the corridors of the official residence to a puff of fresh air breathed by his Jamaican wife Beverley. But, one should not underestimate the weight of the hand of the “RHOSA”, as he is called in some quarters on this development.  Indeed to do so would be to encourage speculation on whether or not the charming lady is not concentrating her attention on another mansion where her residence would make her one of her husband's constituents.  Interestingly enough, in a recent parliamentary debate, the Rhosa implied that he had gained two additional votes by the "Emascollator" and his wife taking up residence in the same constituency, but he seemed less certain about the likely voting behaviour of another spouse.

I am trying to persuade him to put it on a web page so that we could read excerps of it and give useful input and comment.

[DeTruth]

CF, I must admit, I am not a history or literature person, but I truly enjoyed taking a peek, then to find myself taking it in and eager to read more ;D  I'm sure the best is yet to come.  Maybe e-publishing is another alternative.  I hope you would keep the forum posted.