English Lesson

THURSDAY THINK TANK

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asks us to consider the word 'unique'

ENGLISH LESSON

I take this opportunity

To educated the masses!

It's twenty years since I was teaching

My own language classes.

But the urge to be a school-marm

Still persists into old age;

I still long to put red ink-marks

On each unworthy page!

This utterly lovely sea-shell

Is spoken-of as 'unique',

But it isn't the sole one of its kind,

Something that's a freak.

(If it's a man-made ornament

It may very well comply,

But I reckon it's from the sea-shore

Under a summer sky.)

It isn't even 'quite' unique.....

It must be the one and only,

The only one in the whole wide world,

All alone and lonely.

It certainly can't be 'very',

Nothing's 'uniquer' than 'unique';

It's impossible to go higher

Than the very highest peak.

My language-use isn't perfect;

People often correct my spelling,

And it isn't that with rectitude

And pride I'm simply swelling;

It's just that the use of the word 'unique'

Is something that often riles,

Now I've got that off my chest

Imagine me wreathed in smiles!

*

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MELT-DOWN!

'Ah yes! I remember it well!'

As Maurice Chevalier sang;

When Blake was just seven or eight

And we went to the pool with the gang.

It must have been only last week....

No! I'm wrong! It was some years ago.

It's strange how the years can go fast,

When, frequently, days seem quite slow!

The boys had come out of the water,

And so all the swimming was done.

They were wrapped up against chilly breezes,

Although it was warm in the sun.

That same sun was to prove our undoing!

No matter how cool the boys felt,

The chocolate cake, with its smarties,

Decided to languish and melt!

But whatever catastrophe happens,

With boys in a partying mood,

It all proves to be quite exciting,

Whatever the state of the food!

With joy they attacked melting chocolate,

Falling under some ravenous spell!

Are you sure that it wasn't last Wednesday?

'Ah yes! I remember it well.'

*