Discussion Groups / English Usage / December 2007

Dear Sir,
ProSolution is the COMPLETE VIRILITY formula for men with all the
benefits you want, but none of the negatives. The new "Extra Strength"
ProSolution(tm) Pills formula was created based on the research and

What, would you think, is the exact role of "on" here?
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[Mr. Smith makes a suicidal attempt at flying from atop a building].
Downtown the firemen pulled on their greatcoats, but when they arrived

A middle-class man's career is his identity.
An upper-class man's identity is his career.
How can I disambiguate the abovewritten idea?
Do you interpret these sentences as I do?

I am visiting Islamic websites looking for comments
from the general public about the killing of Bhutto.
My goal is to better learn of how other cultures view
this killing, specifically views on Muslims killing

How was Middle English heir (which became Modern English hear)
pronounced? What I can find about <ei> was that it was a diphthong
[Ei]. Was this true before an <r> and was the <r> trilled? If it was
trilled, what would have been the point of articulation? It seems

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7164791.stm
"We must show from the very beginning of and throughout this year that
we can set the agenda with our new thinking and clear understanding of
what people want for themselves and their FAMILY."

I am an English teacher, very fond of the UK and the language itself!
However, I'm not used to take part of discussion groups. It's my very
first trial. Who can help me out?

"With the development of two decades, in particular after China¡¯s WTO
accession, China¡¯s market economy has become increasingly perfected and the
competition in the market continues to keep strong. Thus, more and more
enterprises begin to realize the importance of customers. In ...

Krista Tippett blogs regularly about her PBS show, and is usually
careful about her writing.  Excerpt from this week's blog:
http://tinyurl.com/2oczhk
The following passage from Naomi Remen's Kitchen Table Wisdom.. was

On 2004-12-27 in message <10t1fhbaq09fd4@corp.supernews.com> under the
subject "Trains running backwards (was: Platform numbering)", I wrote
in this newsgroup:

<Bangs head against table over and over>

I wonder if you agree that with "rugged distance" DeLillo's pushing the
envelope in terms of usage a bit?
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He studied me openly, giving the impression that he had traveled this

A vowelvary is a set of five words that only differ in their vowel
sound, those sounds being the long (or short, but not both) form of
the five vowels (a, e, i, o, u). A level 2 vowelvary is a set of
sentences that uses a vowelvary in a way that makes sense, as in the

Do the phrases "morally certain" and "mortally certain" have a
separate identity and history, or was one originally a mistaken
rendering of the other? What does "mortally certain" actually mean?
Something to do with death one would presume, but what exactly?

I'm So Hood'
A song by t-pain.