In Lesson 26, you had some weights and measures, e.g., “a pound of butter,” “a pint of mulk,” “twelve
stone two,” etc. ;
English weights and measures are even more con- fusing than English money. Luckily you don’t need very many; the essential ones are not more than eleven or twelve in number.
For general use the smailest weight is 1 ounce (written oz.), and there are 16 ounces ina pound (written Ib.). We buy sweets, tobacco, and sometimes cigarettes by the ounce. We buy most groceries (things like sugar, butter, cheese, etc.), or fruit (such.
as apples, pears, strawberries), by the pound, half- pound or quarter-pound.
Fourteen pounds is 1 stone.
We always give people’s weight in stones and pounds.
For example, Mr. Priestley weighs 11 stone 9 lb. (not
“163 Ib.””). If our weight gets less we say we are losing weight; if it gets more we say we are gaining weight or
“putting on weight.” You §
will often hear young mothers _ ơ
(and fathers) telling you SMALL Boy (pointing to man on weighing machine that is
proudly that their baby put out of order and is showing
l k only 1 stone): 1 say, Bill,
on 4 OZ. last week. he must be hollow!
189
190 _ ESSENTIAL ENGLISH
HOB: I heard of a baby that was fed on elephant’s milk and put on 11 Ib. every day.
FRIEDA: Oh, Hob, that’s absurd! Whose baby was HOB: The elephant’s. it?
MR. PRIESTLEY: There are 8 stones, or 112 lb., in 1 hundredweight (written cwt.), and 20 hundred- weights in rt ton. A “sack” of potatoes is a hundredweight. We .sometimes buy coal in hundredweight bags or sacks, but if we have room for it we buy it by the half-ton or ton.
We measure liquids in pints, quarts and gal- lons. There are 2 pints in a quart and 4 quarts in a gallon. Milk is sold in half-pint, pint or quart bottles, beer in half-pint or pint glasses and in pint and quart bottles. We buy petrol in 2-gallon tins or we get a number of gallons from the pump.
Finally, for length the principal measurements are inches, feet, yards and miles. The easiest way to remember them, perhaps, is by little tables like these:
12 inches (in.) == 1 foot (ft.) 3 feet (ft.) = 1 yard (yd.) 1,760 yards = 1 mile.
16 ounces (0z.) = 1 pound (Ib.) 14 pounds == 1 stone
E12 pounds, or 8 stones = 1 hundredweight (cwt.}
20 hundredweights = 1 ton.
2 pints = 1 quart (qt.) 4 quarts = 1 gallon (gal.)
LESSON TWENTY-SEVEN 19g!
Hos: I know another one: `
Two pints, one quart.
Two quarts, one fight.
One fight, two policemen, Two policemen, one judge. | One judge, fourteen days.
I like the story, too, about the policeman who was giving evidence in the police court about a man that he had arrested very late the night before for being drunk. It goes like this: ’
| Jupce: What are your reasons for supposing the prisoner was drunk ?
POLICEMAN: Well, sir, at two o’clock this morning I saw the prisoner going along White- hall. He crossed the road towards the Houses of Parliament, went to the letter-box, put a penny inside, looked up at Big Ben and said: “Good
heavens, I’ve lost a stone and a half.”
“VE LOST A STONE AND A HALF.”
192 ESSENTIAL ENGLISH EXERCISES
1. se in sentences:
I. confusing 5. arrest g. evidence 2. groceries 6. weight ` ro. scales 3. sweets 7. liquid - 11. hollow
4. sack 8. length 12, pump
| |
Il. Answer the following: : |
1,.How many ounces are there in a pound; pounds in a stone; stones in a hundredweight; hundredweights in aton?
2. How many inches are there in a foot, feet in a yard, yards in a mile?
3. How many pints are there in a quart, quarts in a gallon?
4. What is bought (a) by the ounce, () by the pound,
(c) by the ton? |
5. What is bought (a) by the pint, (8). by the quart, (¢). by the gallon ?
6. What is the weight in stones and pounds of people who weigh (a) 99 Ib., (0) 125 Ib., (ce) 158: Ib. ằ (d) 198 Ib.
(e) 224 Ib.?
7. What is the cost of (a) 6. quaits of milk at 63d. a pint, (2) 1. 1b. of tobacco at 4s. 6d. an ounce, (c) a ton of coal
at 6s. 6d. a cwt., (4) 7 yards of telephone wire at: 14d.
a foot ?
8. How many pounds did the man in Hob’s story lính he
_had lost? |
Ill. Tell the story of the policeman giving evidence.
LESSON 28 The Articles
MR. PRIESTLEY: There are two adjectives, perhaps the two commonest words in the language, that we ought to consider for a few minutes. I mean @ (an), generally called the ‘indefinite article,”
and the, the ‘ definite article.”
A and An
1, A is used before a word beginning with a consonant sound; an before a word beginning with a vowel sound or an “‘h” that is not sounded,! e.g.
a book, a horse, a child.
an apple, an open book, an angry child.
We say a European, @ one-eyed m man, a useful book, because the first’ sounds in these words are ‘not vowel sounds but consonant ones [j], [w], [j].
2. The usual meanings of @ or an are:
(a) One, e.g.
- I have a sister and two brothers.
I want three pounds of sugar and @ pound of butter,
1 That is, before the words honour, honest, hour, heir (= the person getting money, etc., when another dies). It is also used by some people before a sounded “h’? if the first syllable of the word is unaccented, e.g.
an hotel, az historical novel. (novel = long, imaginary story.) 193