Worksheet!

I want my speech students to know that, when they are preparing their speeches, they need to use simple, precise language.

"Save the big words for your English teachers," I told them. "In this class, we ride the short bus."

(That statement became the basis for a spontaneous mini-lesson on denotation and connotation.) (And I--ONCE AGAIN)--made a solemn promise to myself that I would think before I speak.)

To show them just how annoying confusing flowery adjectival language can be, I made this worksheet.

Each of the following statements is familiar to you, but its language here is slightly more complex. Use a dictionary (if necessary) to identify these common sayings.

Example: A government's chief means of currency in no way derives itself from a deciduous growth.
Answer: Money doesn't grow on trees.

How many can you answer?

You seem to have found yourself in a predicament akin to having no means of purpulsion while in the midst of a small stream.

You maintain the condition of being a shard extracted from a large wooden cube that is rather advanced in years.

It is possible for one to compel a large, hoofed, herbivorous quadruped toward a body of liquid; however, it is less than likely that one will find success in coercing the aforementioned mammal to indulge itself in the libation of said fluid compound.

That person is scrambling in a capricious manner, much like a decapitated domesticated farm fowl.

It is advisable not to situate oneself in a manner correspondent to a protuberance resting on a felled tree. [This one's for you, Joon!]

Those who are in a position requiring dependence upon others' kindness are decidedly unable to request a variety of options.

Upon the occurrence of a downpour of aqueous vapor, you will experience, simultaneously, a copious deluge of the same.

It is a universal truth that one will always encounter a visible vapor in the vicinity of a burning mass of material.

There is no discernable benefit to emitting a watery fluid as an emotional reaction to a deluge of mammalian-secreted liquid.

The ovoid fruit of the oak tends to, when disengaged, remain in the immediate area of its place of origin.

I am not in the practice of capriciously warbling the reverberation of the unofficial anthem of the now defunct Confederate States of America.