Beautiful-Sounding Words Competitions and Composition

What do you think is the most beautiful-sounding word in English? Consider these unpredictable choices by well-known writers, and then encourage your students to write about their favorite words. In a Beautiful Words contest held in 1911 by the Public Speaking Club of America, several submissions were deemed insufficiently beautiful, among them grace, truth, and justice. In the judgment of Grenville Kleiser, then a popular author of books on oratory, The harshness of the g in grace and the j in justice disqualified them, and truth was turned down because of its metallic sound (Journal of Education, Feb  1911). Among the acceptable entries were melody, virtue, harmony, and hope. Over the years there have been countless playful surveys of the most beautiful-sounding words in English. Perennial favorites include lullaby, gossamer, murmuring, luminous, Aurora Borealis, and velvet. But not all recommendations have been so predictable—or so obviously euphonious. When the New York Herald Tribune asked poet Dorothy Parker for her list of beautiful words, she replied, To me, the most beautiful word in the English language is cellar-door. Isnt it wonderful? The ones I like, though, are check and enclosed.James Joyce, author of Ulysses, chose cuspidor as the single most beautiful word in English.In the second volume of the Book of Lists, philologist Willard R. Espy identified gonorrhea as one of the ten most beautiful words.Poet Carl Sandburg chose Monongahela.Another poet, Rosanne Coggeshall, selected sycamore.Ilan Stavans, a Mexican-American essayist and lexicographer, dismissed the clichà ©s on a British Council survey of beautiful words (which included mother, passion, and smile) and instead nominated moon, wolverine, anaphora, and precocious.The favorite word of British author Tobias Hill is dog. Though he acknowledges that canine is a beautiful word, fit for a medieval greyhound in a tapestry, he prefers the spareness of the Anglo-Saxon in England.Novelist Henry James said that for him the most beautiful words in English were summer afternoon.When British essayist Max Beerbohm found out that gondola had been chosen as one of the most beautiful words, he replied that scrofula sounded the same to him. Of course, like other beauty contests, these verbal competitions are shallow and absurd. Yet consciously or not, dont most of us favor certain words for their sound as well as their sense? A Composition Assignment In her book Poets Pen, Betty Bonham Lies turned the beautiful-words list into a composition assignment for student writers: Assignment: Bring in to class two lists of words: the ten most beautiful words in the English language and the ten ugliest —  by sound only. Try to blot out what the words mean, and listen only to how they sound.In class: Have the students write their words on two blackboards or sheets of newsprint: the beautiful words on one, the ugly on the other. Put in some of your own favorites of both kinds. Then talk about what elements in the words seem to make them either attractive or unattractive. Why is pandemonium so euphonious when its meaning is a wild uproar? Why does crepuscular sound unpleasant when twilight is lovely? Discuss disagreement among students; ones beautiful word might be anothers ugly. ...Ask students to write a poem or a prose paragraph using at least five of the beautiful or ugly words. Tell them not to think about form. They might write a narrative, a vignette, a description, a list of metaphors or similes, or total nonsense. Then have them share what they have written.( The Poets Pen: Writing Poetry With Middle and High School Students. Libraries Unlimited, 1993) Now if youre in a sharing mood, why not pass along your nominations for the most beautiful words in English?

The Damage to Germany after World War Two and its...

The Damage to Germany after World War Two and its Reconstruction Every time there is a war at least one country has to deal with the consequences left behind. After World War II numerous countries had to face reconstruction because they were damaged economically as well as physically. One of these countries was Germany. During the reconstruction of the country a large number of foreign laborers, also known as â€Å"Gastarbeiter†, came to Germany due to the shortage of a native workforce. After the economy stabilized Germany kept importing labor rather than taking industry, capital and jobs offshore in search of lower labor costs. Workers, especially from Turkey, Yugoslavia, Poland, Italy and Greece came with their families to seek work.†¦show more content†¦At first, a residence permit is granted for one year only and is tied to designated employment. A foreigner who has been in Germany legally for at least five years and is considered to have integrated himself into the economic and social life is eligible to receive a domicile pe rmit (Aufenthaltsberechtigung). Once granted, the permit allows its holder to move within the country without restrictions. Work permits are issued by the federal Labor Office (Bundesanstalt fur Arbeit). All aliens intending to work in Germany need a work permit. There are two classes of work permits. One is a general permit, issued normally for one year and â€Å"geared to the labor conditions prevailing, or to special needs of certain industries.† The other permit is a special work permit (Besondere Arbeitserlaubnis), issued to aliens â€Å"who have had a steady employment record for the preceding five years, or who have been living in Germany legally for the last eight years or more or who are married to a German citizen† (Bhagwati 1984, 279). The majority of the German people thought, and still thinks today, that if there are no foreign workers, there will be considerable less unemployment. This is a tolerable thought but this problem has also to be looked at from a different perspective. The article, â€Å"A Whiff of Xenophobia† states, that â€Å"While the German economic miracle was in full swing, the Gastarbeiter (guest worker) were regarded as a necessary, if not always desirable,Show MoreRelatedThe Reichstag Building844 Words   |  4 PagesReichstag, that â€Å"Germany was a German Republic. â€Å"This statement sparked a revolution, and sent Berlin into a state of turmoil, which lasted a few months, then in 1919 a new constitution was drawn up to mark an era of a new parliamentary democracy.The Nazi Germany period before 1939, the Reichstag had the entry of the NSDAP Brownshirts, later known as the Nazi party; this would mark the end of the Weimar Republic. 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Harmful effects of being stere Essay Example For Students

Harmful effects of being stere Essay As we live in society today that tends to claasify people in gruops, which they seem closest to is call stereotyping. Stereotyping is an everyday habit for many people. One might say that to stereotype is just a harmless classification of charateristics of a certain person, but has anyone stopped to think what effect ti has on the person who is being stereotyped. For example, stereotyping overweight people ca cause harmful effects such as emotional stress and low self-esteem. when we stereotype overweight people, it is possiple that we are causing them emotional stress. For example, when someone says Hey, fatso! referring to htem in a degrading manner, it undoutedly casues them to feel less than normal compared to their peers. They also feel bad about themsefves being overweight, unless they do not care about how they look or what people think about them, or if they have above average confidence in themselves. Stereotyping overweight people can also causes them in low self-esteem by making them feel inadequate. Feeling inadequate caseus them to feel as though ther is no to overcome their plight without a ong term plan, which may not be possible for them as they may have already tried to no avail. For example, I have a cousin; she is a little bit overweight for her age. One day, she was eating and her toher cousin called her Pig. She got really mad and did not talk to him for a week. She felt sad about it and tried to go on a diet, which is hard for her. She would not eat anything for a couple days. Sometimes they feel really depressed aobut what people say about them. Low self-esteem can cause emotional stress. Emotional stress can cause low self-esteem, which only perpetuates adn compounds their problem. Therefore, one should always consider the feeling of others before thoughtlessly stereotypin goverweight people.