SMART JUDGE

Taking his seat in his chambers, the smart Judge faced the opposing lawyers.

"So, the Judge said, I have been presented, by both of you, with a bribe."

Both lawyers became uncomfortable.

" You, attorney Mr Smith, gave me $ 5,00,000, and you, attorney Mr Wright, gave me $ 6,00,000."

The judge now reached into his pocket and pulled out $ 1,00,000. He handed it to attorney Mr Wright and said...

"Now that I'm returning $1,00,000, we're going to decide this case solely on its merits!"

ENGLISH -- a language

English is a language like any other. Learn to speak it as you would any other language. Don't get bogged down by paying undue attention to the complexities of grammar and usage. It doesn't mean that you should speak non-standard English but only that you should not be side-tracked by attention to details. Don't expect yourself to know every difficult word in the dictionary or get all the rules of grammar by heart. Just use the language and enjoy it.

The purpose of any communication is to express yourself, not to impress people.

Unscrambling the letters

Find the Bollywood actor hidden in these phrases by unscrambling the letters.

Hah Shark Hunk

Sharia Airway

Shaman Lank

Aha Mark Yuks

Papaya Rick Horn

Answers  Shah Rukh Khan; Aishwarya Rai; Salman Khan; Akshay Kumar; Priyanka Chopra

Do you use your right brain?

Do you use your right brain? If so, solve this puzzle. Between the two words given here, you can use a word that will suit both the words in forming a compound word.

Example:

Cross ----Place
Cross FIRE place: crossfire; fireplace

You do it now.

Break ----- Hall

Water -----Rope

Film ----Cut

Chair ---Room

Power ------- Master

Answers: break-dance-hall; water-tight-rope; film-crew-cut; chair-leg-room; power-station-master.

Where in the world is this?

Given below are some phrases. The letters of the phrase can be unscrambled to make the name of a country.  Can you find the countries hidden in the phrases?

Hand tail.
Main oar.
Neat grain.
Igloo man.

Answers  Thailand, Romania, Argentina and Mongolia.

Wow, that’s new to me!

What’s the meaning of –ly in words such as smartly, quickly, wisely or exclusively?

      An interesting question, but very difficult to answer for not many grammar books or dictionaries go into the origins. However, some do, and here is an interesting explanation from one such book. The only in smartly or quickly means like. Quick like is quickly, smart like is smartly, and now, don’t ask me what does likely mean? It is a word by itself.

What is the meaning of the expression come with flying colors?

What is the meaning of the expression come with flying colors?

If you do something successfully such as pass an exam or graduate from a college, you do it with flying colors.

He passed with flying colors.
She graduated from Harvard with flying colors.

Now what has colors to do with doing something successfully?

A good question, if you have asked that.

The word colors has got something  to do with flags. If you look at the word carefully, you will note that it is in plural. The word means the colors that are used to represent a team, a group, a club or a country. In British English, it means a flag or a shirt or something that shows to which group or team or country a person supports or belongs to.

When a team or a country is successful at a game or an activity, it has set its flag flying.  It has done the activity with flying colors. It has done it successfully.

Flying colors is a nautical term. Ships, victorious in a battle field, would return home with its flag flying on the masthead. On the other hand, ships that had lost in a battle, and if they did not sink,  they would go back home with their colors struck. Thus the expression strike the colors.

If the ships fought bravely and went down fighting, it went down with flying colors or went down with colors flying.

It should not be difficult now to guess the meaning of sail under false colors. This has reference to pirates using false flags and seizing an unsuspecting ship.