ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

While watching animal planet today, I thought of the animals in our backyard, which seemed to be a good subject for writing poetry.  If you are interested to know all the animals running about our backyard, you can find more information from this article.  http://elisaenglish.pixnet.net/blog/post/639394     

I've written the woodpecker living in our house.  This time I am going to write about the pheasant living on our deck.  Can you see how big a hole he pecked on our screen door?  If you would like to see more pictures of the pheasant, please read these articles.   http://elisaenglish.pixnet.net/blog/post/639562   & http://elisaenglish.pixnet.net/blog/post/639552 

It continues to snow with accumulation of 6 inches so far.  As much as 14 inches of snow could fall as snow storm continues into Tuesday morning.  The first reaction my son had seeing the snow this morning was a smile with a statement that winter was here forever.  I wondered if his birth in winter drove his love for the winter.

I decided to write this poem dedicating to my son for his love of the winter.  The picture was shot from our drive way today.

A poem dedicating to my son and daughter.

This is not how she is built up for

We attended Parkers Lake Park Fire & Ice Festival today.  The entire event was held on Parkers Lake and the activities included ice fishing, ice skating, dog sled rides, bonfires with s’mores, hay rides, pony rides and ice sculpture demonstration.    These are the pictures of my kids.  Too bad, my daughter was still not feeling well, so she only got to ride the pony and had to leave early to get some rest.

Flat Adverbs vs. Adverbs with the suffix -ly

You may have noticed that there are some adverbs using the form of the adjectives and adding the suffix – ly to form the adverbs as well as in the case of close vs closely, deep vs. deeply, hard vs. hardly and high vs. highly.  The difference between the two types of adverbs is that the one sharing the adjective form (or flat adverbs) has more of a physical, concrete or spatial meaning; while the one with the -ly form has more of a metaphorical, philosophically or simply different sense.

Tag question “shall we” vs. “okay” in the “Let’s” statement

There is a subtle difference between “shall we” and “okay” as a tag question in a “Let’s” statement. 

With the tag “shall we” in the “Let’s” statement, we seem to be making more of a declaration in the sentence; while with the tag “okay” in the “Let’s” statement, we seem to be asking for agreement in the sentence. 

This happened when we came back home from our trip to San Diego for our Christmas vacation.  I thought that my son didn't believe in Santa Claus, but apparently I was wrong.  I told him that we had Christmas in San Diego and the Lego toy was from Santa, but it didn't work.  Anyway, I did successfully wiggle myself out of this situation, but I think that we can longer push out our Christmas tree purchase.

I thought that the entire incident was kind of fun, so I decided to write a poem about it

    Would you believe that I am pro-life if I repost articles that advocate pro-choice and regard abortion as a necessary evil?  Don’t tell me that you are not promoting anti-Americanism when, at your own will and with a sound mind, you repost news articles that contain anti-Americanism. 

A tag question is a statement turned into a question, when asking for confirmation or disconfirmation of that statement. They can be an indicator of politeness, emphasis, or irony. They may suggest confidence or lack of confidence; they may be confrontational or tentative.  For more details, please see http://elisaenglish.pixnet.net/blog/post/639570

Here are some exercises.  Move the mouse next the answers to reveal the answers.  The trick is to find out the focus of the sentence.  What is the asker trying to confirm or validate?  Is it a sarcastic statement or a confrontational statement?  Is it a suggestion, an invitation or an order?

I have been wanting to write about my daughter, about her skillful manipulation.  This is it.     It is not perfect but I am brain dead at the moment. 

A poem for my daughter – As cunning as a fox