I notice today from the Bee Bee Sea webby neurons that the humble book is to be phased out by Mr Arnold Shwarznegger, rubbish actor and governor of California (search for BBC A Textbook love affair)
I agree with this. I understand it too, because everything anyone could ever want is available on the interweb now.
Here is some useful information, so that when schoolchildren and even researchers google (yes, it’s a verb) for something they will find it here.
1. A shark is not a fish.
2. A woman has one more chromosome than a man, and it is the “Y” chromosome.
3. The hare has exactly the same DNA as a human making it indistinguishable from us (apart from the extra two legs).
4. Llamas are used to herd sheep because they are capable of independent thought, unlike sheep.
5. The wolf is the only wild animal with an opposable thumb.
There. All conveniently stored in one small space, useful not only for ‘A’ level study but also for compiling pub quizzes. In the olden days, Messrs Monty Python had a spoof book of lies, written by the Hackenthorpe brothers and allegedly published by Slater-Nazi, as I seem to remember dimly. The interweb seems to have gleaned some of its information therefrom, especially in the environs of Wikipedia.
I suspect that if the web site used by the students and researchers was run and written by people who know at least something about their subject, that would be fine. But that would be, to all intents and purposes, a book, wouldn’t it? Maybe not a paper book, handsomely bound, but a source of information.
Instead of sitting comfortably and perusing the book, the student could sit up straight, strain his eyes, burn his thighs, get Repetitive Strain Injury whilst scrolling his mouse wheel, and a whole schoolful of students could then in a single evening consume about the same power as a jumbo jet flying from London to New York.
Excellent plan, Mr Shwarznegger.
But, as usual, I have a better one. Below the line down there, copy the text until the line even further down there then, using your favourite text editor, such as Notepad, paste it in. Repeat on separate pages for each test then print it, and you will have created your own book.
Eleven-plus exam, some years ago:
In the following word pairs, one letter can be moved from the first word to the second word leaving two different words. The letters must not be otherwise arranged and both new words must be real words.
SCARF : RAIL
GUILT : POND
BLIND : SAY
English Language ‘O’ Level paper, 2008:
In the following word pairs, one letter can be moved from the first word to the second word leaving two different words. The letters must not be otherwise arranged and both new words must be real words.
SCARF : RAIL
GUILT : POND
BLIND : SAY
If any English teachers would like to use any of this material they are more than welcome.
Beware that any comments added to this post may not be ratified and as such it is advised that users of this material should do their own research to validate them, using such tools as Google and Wikipedia which can be found on the interweb and used freely.