UP
Royce Shook
Transition to Retrement
I had the opportunity to teach English as a Second Language or English Language Learning classes, for a while after I retired the first time and then decided I did not want to retire, so I went back to work. The following has appeared on many other sites, but the earliest post I have seen with this information in is a post by Conni Eversull Oct 12, 2010. In her post, Conni states, " I received the following from one of our editors, Marie Stewart. Neither Marie nor I could find information about the author of this piece although we found it quite a few times on the Internet without any attribution." So in 2010 I gave this to my classes for fun on a Friday afternoon, and it may be one reason, non-English speakers have such a difficult time with our language:
This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.' It is listed in the
dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].
It's easy to understand the word up UP as meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list,
but
when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?
At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?
Why do we speak UP?
Why are the officers UP for election?
Why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
We call UP our friends,
We brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver,
warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car.
At other times this little word has real special meaning.
People:
stir UP trouble,
line UP for tickets,
work UP an appetite,
and think UP excuses.
To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.
And these two uses of the word UP are confusing:
A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about the word UP!
To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary, the word UP takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about
thirty definitions.
If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways the word UP is used.
It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.
When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it soaks UP the earth.
When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.
I could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now, .because.......my time is UP !
Oh....one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at
night?
U
P !
Did that one crack you UP?
Don't screw UP. share this by looking UP everyone in your circles, and telling them about the word UP. Please don't screw this UP, it is UP to you.
Also Don't forget when you are angry at someone it's UP Yours!!!!!
Now I'll shut UP!!
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