The Rainbow Passage
When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow.
The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the
shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently
beyond the horizon. There is , according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end.
People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his
reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Throughout the centuries people have explained the rainbow in various ways. Some
have accepted it as a miracle without physical explanation. To the Hebrews it was a
token that there would be no more universal floods. The Greeks used to imagine that
it was a sign from the gods to foretell war or heavy rain. The Norsemen considered
the rainbow as a bridge over which the gods passed from earth to their home in the
sky. Others have tried to explain the phenomenon physically. Aristotle thought that
the rainbow was caused by reflection of the sun's rays by the rain. Since then
physicists have found that it is not reflection, but refraction by the raindrops which
causes the rainbows. Many complicated ideas about the rainbow have been formed.
The difference in the rainbow depends considerably upon the size of the drops, and
the width of the colored band increases as the size of the drops increases. The actual
primary rainbow observed is said to be the effect of super-imposition of a number of
bows. If the red of the second bow falls upon the green of the first, the result is to give
a bow with an abnormally wide yellow band, since red and green light when mixed
form yellow. This is a very common type of bow, one showing mainly red and
yellow, with little or no green or blue.
From Fairbanks, G. (1960). Voice and articulation drillbook, 2nd edn. New York:
Harper & Row. pp124-139
Comma Gets a Cure
A Diagnostic Passage for Accent Study (Draft September 7, 2000)
by Jill McCullough & Barbara Somerville
Edited by Douglas N. Honorof
Comma Gets a Cure and derivative works may be used freely for any purpose without special
permission provided the present sentence and the following copyright notification accompany the
passage in print, if reproduced in print, and in audio format in the case of a sound recording: Copyright
2000 Douglas N. Honorof, Jill McCullough & Barbara Somerville. All rights reserved.
Well, here's a story for you: Sarah Perry was a veterinary nurse who had been
working daily at an old zoo in a deserted district of the territory, so she was very
happy to start a new job at a superb private practice in north square near the Duke
Street Tower. That area was much nearer for her and more to her liking. Even so, on
her first morning, she felt stressed. She ate a bowl of porridge, checked herself in the
mirror and washed her face in a hurry. Then she put on a plain yellow dress and a
fleece jacket, picked up her kit and headed for work. When she got there, there was a
woman with a goose waiting for her. The woman gave Sarah an official letter from
the vet. The letter implied that the animal could be suffering from a rare form of foot
and mouth disease, which was surprising, because normally you would only expect to
see it in a dog or a goat. Sarah was sentimental, so this made her feel sorry for the
beautiful bird.
Before long, that itchy goose began to strut around the office like a lunatic, which
made an unsanitary mess. The goose's owner, Mary Harrison, kept calling, "Comma,
Comma," which Sarah thought was an odd choice for a name. Comma was strong and
huge, so it would take some force to trap her, but Sarah had a different idea. First she
tried gently stroking the goose's lower back with her palm, then singing a tune to her.
Finally, she administered ether. Her efforts were not futile. In no time, the goose
began to tire, so Sarah was able to hold onto Comma and give her a relaxing bath.
Once Sarah had managed to bathe the goose, she wiped her off with a cloth and laid
her on her right side. Then Sarah confirmed the vet’s diagnosis. Almost immediately,
she remembered an effective treatment that required her to measure out a lot of
medicine. Sarah warned that this course of treatment might be expensive—either five
or six times the cost of penicillin. I can’t imagine paying so much, but Mrs.
Harrison—a millionaire lawyer—thought it was a fair price for a cure
The North Wind and the Sun
The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveller
came along wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that the one who first succeeded in
making the traveller take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other.
Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely
did the traveller fold his cloak around him, and at last the North Wind gave up the
attempt. Then the Sun shone out warmly, and immediately the traveller took off his
cloak. And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of
the two.
Arthur the Rat
Once upon a time there was a rat who couldn't make up his mind. Whenever the other
rats asked him if he would like to come out hunting with them, he would answer in a
hoarse voice, "I don't know." And when they said, "Would you rather stay inside?" he
wouldn't say yes, or no either. He'd always shirk making a choice.
One fine day his aunt Josephine said to him, "Now look here! No one will ever care
for you if you carry on like this. You have no more mind of your own than a greasy
old blade of grass!" The young rat coughed and looked wise, as usual, but said
nothing.
"Don't you think so?" said his aunt stamping with her foot, for she couldn't bear to
see the young rat so coldblooded.
"I don't know," was all he ever answered, and then he'd walk off to think for an hour
or more, whether he would stay in his hole in the ground or go out into the loft.
One night the rats heard a loud noise in the loft. It was a very dreary old place. The
roof let the rain come washing in, the beams and rafters had all rotted through, so that
the whole thing was quite unsafe.
At last one of the joists gave way, and the beams fell with one edge on the floor. The
walls shook, and the cupola fell off, and all the rats' hair stood on end with fear and
horror.
"This won't do," said their leader. "We can't stay cooped up here any longer." So
they sent out scouts to search for a new home.
A little later on that evening the scouts came back and said they had found an oldfashioned horse-barn where there would be room and board for all of them.
The leader gave the order at once, "Company fall in!" and the rats crawled out of
their holes right away and stood on the floor in a long line.
Just then the old rat caught sight of young Arthur - that was the name of the shirker.
He wasn't in the line, and he wasn't exactly outside it - he stood just by it.
"Come on, get in line!" growled the old rat coarsely. "Of course you're coming too?"
"I don't know," said Arthur calmly.
"Why, the idea of it! You don't think it's safe here any more, do you?"
"I'm not certain," said Arthur undaunted. "The roof may not fall down yet."
"Well," said the old rat, "we can't wait for you to join us." Then he turned to the
others and shouted, "Right about face! March!" and the long line marched out of the
barn while the young rat watched them.
"I think I'll go tomorrow," he said to himself, "but then again, perhaps I won't - it's so
nice and snug here. I guess I'll go back to my hole under the log for a while just to
make up my mind."
But during the night there was a big crash. Down came beams, rafters, joists - the
whole business.
Next morning - it was a foggy day - some men came to look over the damage. It
seemed odd that the old building was not haunted by rats. But at last one of them
happened to move a board, and he caught sight of a young rat, quite dead, half in and
half out of his hole.
Thus the shirker got his due, and there was no mourning for him.
The Grandfather Passage
You wished to know all about my grandfather. Well, he is nearly ninety-three years
old; he dresses himself in an ancient black frock coat, usually minus several buttons;
yet he still thinks as swiftly as ever. A long, flowing beard clings to his chin, giving
those who observe him a pronounced feeling of the utmost respect. When he speaks,
his voice is just a bit cracked and quivers a trifle. Twice each day he plays skilfully
and with zest upon our small organ. Except in the winter when the ooze or snow or ice
prevents, he slowly takes a short walk in the open air each day. We have often urged
him to walk more and smoke less, but he always answers, “Banana oil!” Grandfather
likes to be modern in his language.
https://www.york.ac.uk/media/languageandlinguistics/documents/currentstudents/linguisticsresources/Standardised-reading.pdf
When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the atmosphere, they act like a prism
and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into various
beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path
towering above, and its two extremities apparently beyond the horizon.
There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at the one end. People
look, but no human ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond
his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow.
Throughout the centuries people have explained the rainbow in various
ways. Nations have accepted it as a miracle without physical explanation.
For certain groups it was taken that there would be no more general floods.
The Norsemen considered the rainbow as a bridge over which the Gods
passed from earth to their dwelling in the sky. Aristotle thought that the
rainbow was caused by reflection of the sun’s rays by the rain.
The difference is the rainbow depends considerably upon the size of the
water drops, and the width of the colored band increases as the size of the
drops increases.
===========https://youtu.be/Lu5RNPgUc48?list=PLdFLi7GoorqIUjFKXOaTr2r3F8TjVrQw9
Anyways guys, I know this was a super long video and
bill and I apologize about that but, if you made it through all the way to the end, shout it to you, I mean, I don't even think I could sit through this listening to me talk about this for this long.
but yeah guys, if you enjoyed this video be sure to leave a like and if anything, I hope it helps to educate you guys.
you know some piece of advice I can say if you're going to be a teacher in a foreign country, an English teacher definitely try to do your research a little bit more on the school that you want to teach at.
if you can find any reviews on them, I would suggest at least trying, I mean if I knew that my school was going to turn out the way it was, my first school, I definitely would not have taught there.
bu,t like I said, I'm glad and grateful for the experience.
anyways guys, that will about wrap it up for this video.
thank you so so much for watching and all the support lately.
I hope you guys are having a great day and as always I will see you guys in the next video
goodnight.