Subscribe by Email

Your email:

Call for Blog Articles

Want to share your experiences, advice, or ideas with the GrammarPhile community? Do you have grammar, punctuation, editing questions you'd like answered? Submit guest post ideas or questions to conni@proofreadnow.com.

Alltop. We're kind of a big deal.

Posts by popularity

Posts by category

The GrammarPhile Blog

Current Articles | RSS Feed RSS Feed

Word Test - Are you up to the challenge?

Posted by Phil Jamieson on Tue, Mar 30, 2010 @ 04:00 AM
  
  
  
  

Let's try something different this week. Test your knowledge. Which word is correct in each sentence below? For the answers, click on the link at the end of the test.

  1. The turkey got his just desserts/deserts for eating up our supply of seeds!
  2. Don't like creamed peas with your mashed potatoes? Grin and bare/bear it just the same.
  3. All awaited the arrival of Grandmother and Grandfather with baited/bated breath.
  4. His eloquent toast to the Pilgrims struck a responsive chord/cord in his guests' minds.
  5. Standish disembarked with a full complement/compliment of settlers.
  6. Praying/Preying mantises are good for your garden, because they eat lots of aphids.
  7. Their leader wasn't fazed/phased by the uprising of ill will.
  8. Extreme weather tested the Pilgrims' medal/meddle/metal/mettle.
  9. The settlers paid rapt/rapped/wrapped attention to Squanto's directions for growing corn.
  10. After all, a friend in need is a friend in deed/indeed.
  11. The smoke in the distance peaked/peeked/piqued their interest.
  12. The Mayflower got underway/under way in 1620.
  13. Use a clean compress to stanch/staunch the flow of blood.
  14. Their faith was a matter of principal/principle.
  15. Once given free reign/rein over their own destinies, their economy flourished.
  16. You better toe/tow the line or you're back on the boat to England!
  17. The soup kitchen just off Capitol/Capital Hill has a great Thanksgiving feast for homeless people.
  18. Squanto had been taken to Europe, but was now back in his old stamping/stomping grounds.
  19. Stop! Or I'll sic/sick my attack turkey on you!
  20. William Bradford and his shipmates pored/poured over the Mayflower Compact for days before signing it.
  21. He flaunted/flouted every rule in the book and every piece of good advice.
  22. The ship floundered/foundered in the storm, and the entire crew was lost.
  23. Chief Massasoit spoke pidgin/pigeon English at best, and relied on Squanto to translate for him.
  24. Global warming will (or won't) wreck/wreak havoc on the American economy.

Click here to see the answers!

Tags: 

Comments

Hey, SO not funny! I thought I had 'em all right (of course), but I actually missed numbers 1, 10 and 12! 
 
I'm satisfied with 1 and 12 because of the explanations given (my new things learned!), but 10 remains a mystery. I'm having a hard time letting go the notion that it's not two words ...
Posted @ Tuesday, March 30, 2010 10:23 PM by jam
Nice try! It's great you got the underway vs. under way! But in #10, it's not a prepositional phrase there at the end of the common expression, it's the adverb "indeed." It's somewhat of an ironic statement: When someone is in need of what you have, he is more inclined to be your friend in order to get what he needs. So he is indeed your friend. "Sure, you only want to be my friend when your basement is flooded and I have the only pump in the neighborhood." If he were not so needy, he might be less friendly. The adverb "indeed" is modifying the verb "is."
Posted @ Wednesday, March 31, 2010 4:21 AM by Phil Jamieson
ooooOOOOOooohhhhh, I get it now ~ good ol' sarcasm! 
 
That's the difference for me between hearing it spoken and only ever seeing it in print: I've always missed the 'harder edge' to the statement! 
 
I always thought it dealt with the 'deed' ~ once you'd performed a good one for somebody, they either performed a good deed back or 'paid it forward' to ANOTHER in need. 
 
Dar!
Posted @ Wednesday, March 31, 2010 9:13 AM by jam
I checked with my (far) better half. She sees it more positively. When someone else is in need, you have a great opportunity to build friendship with him or her by helping. The strange neighbor who needs the pump will, when he sees your kind gesture to lend him your pump, think you're so nice that he'll want to be your friend after all. (Can you tell we are in Massachusetts with these flood and pump examples?)
Posted @ Wednesday, March 31, 2010 10:03 AM by Phil Jamieson of ProofreadNOW.com
Great! It was more useful and helpful than vocabulary exercise we commonly see on this page. However, I find it easy to use the words by day to day practice than by remembering the grammar part as provided by you in the explanation. I got only 14 correct. Thanks.
Posted @ Thursday, April 01, 2010 7:27 AM by subhash
Post Comment
Name
 *
Email
 *
Website (optional)
Comment
 *

Allowed tags: <a> link, <b> bold, <i> italics