iWorth's Blog:

When our Grandfathers and Grandmothers were at school they used to say that they began by learning the three R's; this was a sort of old fashioned joke, for the three R's  were meant to stand for Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, and they certainly all begin with a strong R sound, but our Grandparents hadn't learned much about writing if they thought it was spelt with an R, and they seem to have lost sight of the A in arithmetic! But that famous phrase - the Tree R's - is a useful reminder that education starts with learning to read, to write and to work with figures. You sart by getting to know the shapes of the letters - by reading them; then you learn to made these shapes yourself - that is writing.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. It’s a story about swashbuckling adventures, treasure maps, one-legged seamen with parrots, and the dreaded “Black Spot.” When the black spot was first mentioned in  CHAPTER III BLACK SPOT , it's quite funny that I thought the mysterious black spot was kind of poisons, such as some mysterious fatal poisons in Chinese marshall arts novel by Jin Yong, which could take affect at certain time or in a period of time. Here is how the black spot had been applied on Billy Bones' palm: We both obeyed him to the letter, and I saw him pass something from the hollow of the hand that held his stick into the palm of the captain's, which closed upon it instantly. Billy Bones was much frightened by looking at the black spot, he read out aloud what on his palm: "Ten O'Clock!" That gives me an impression that the poison may take affect at Ten O'Clock in the evening, or  six hours after which is applied on a person: "Ten...

It would be very safe to address important people as just "Sir" or "Madam," however high their rank but it would show that you are a cultivated and wel-bred person if you were able easily and naturally to address them in the correct way. A person of lower rank does not make himself humble and ridiculous by using the correct form of address at least once or twice in a conversation. The person of higher rank will, however, be just as embarrassed as his inferior if the formal address is used too often. Be natural, that is the great thing, and if you are not too sure of yourself, watch carefully how others more used to such company behave. Here then are some of the correct forms of address in speaking to titled people: -- The King, The Queen: Your Majesty. Member of the Royal Family: Your Royal Highness. Duke, Duchess: Your Grace Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Baron: My Lord, or Your Lordship. Marchioness, Countess, Viscountess, Baroness: My Lady or Your Ladyship. ...

The philosopher Bias, being asked what animal he thought the most hurtful, replied, "That of wild creatures, a tyrant; and of tame ones, a flatterer." Man conceives fortune, but woman conducts it. It is the spirit of man that says, "I will be great;" but it is the sympathy of a woman that usually makes him so. The mind that lies fallow but a single day, sprouts up in follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous culture. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VERBS.— A teacher, one day endeavouring to make a pupil understand the nature and application of a passive verb, said — "A passive verb is expressive of the nature of receiving an action, as, Peter is beaten. Now, what did Peter do ?" The boy, pausing a moment, with the gravest countenance imaginable, replied—" Well, I don't know, without he hollered." HORRIBLE MUTILATION.— A policeman has just called at our office with the intelligence that he was standing out side an area, and saw...

There are many theories as to why ghosts exist and one interesting theory, now accepted by many serious researchers in the subject, is that of 'Electrical Impulse Wave Theory'. It is known that during a period of extreme emotional stress, brain waves (which can be recorded on an electroencephalograph) become more active. When these brain waves reach a certain pitch it is further believed that ordinary fabrics of buildings, bricks, mortar, furniture and so on electrically record them. Some time late, often years hence, certain people of a sensitive nature are able to briefly glimpse these often tragic recordings from the past. (Ghosts of Derby, Preface by Wayne Anthony) The energy expelled or expounded from a person in the trauma just before death is absorbed into the building, and at certain times the events immediately prior to their death can be recalled or replayed, just as today the button on a video recorder can be switched to play and we can watch someone long dea...

Socrates was an ugly little man. He dressed untidily and looked clumsily built. He was small and not at all beautiful, for his eyes protruded from his head, his nose was squat and his lips were thick. A beard covered his chin and neck. But as soon as people began to listen to him they were enthralled. No matter how clever a man might think himself, Socrates could show him that he really knew nothing. Confucius was even uglier than Socrates. He was large man possessed of great physical strength, the top of his head was sunken like a valley, by which he got his name Qiu, he has warts on his nose, two long front teeth that protruded over his lower lip, and a wispy beard. The great historian Sima Qian wrote in the Biography of Confucius that Confucius has seven protrusions: buckle teeth, bulging eyes, exposed nostrils, and protruded ear channels.

The usage of ordinal number has not always been what we now know of: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. In a book by James Legge published in 1872, these numbers were written as 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th, the suffix of second and third are both a 'd'. In some countries, written dates omit the suffix, although it is nevertheless pronounced.