Page 570 - Word Power Made Easy: The Complete Handbook for Building a Superior Vocabulary

spelling of that word that it will be impossible for you ever to be stumped again.

Let us start at once. Below you will nd another twenty- ve words from the list of one
hundred demons, each o ered to you in both the correct form and in the popular
misspelling. Go through the test quickly, checking o what you consider a proper choice in
each case. In that way you will discover which of the twenty- ve you would be likely to get
caught on. Then devise a personal mnemonic for each word you unked, writing your
ingenious result out in the margin of the page. And don’t be alarmed if some of your
mnemonics turn out kind of silly—the sillier they are the more likely you are to recall them

in an emergency. One of my pupils, who could not remember how many l’s to put into
tranquillity (or is it tranquility?), shifted his mind into high gear and came up with this: “In
the old days life was more tranquil than today, and people wrote with quills instead of
fountain pens. Hence—tranquillity!” Another pupil, a girl who always chewed her nails over
irresistible before she could decide whether to end it with -ible or -able, suddenly realized

that a certain brand of lipstick was called irresistible, the point being of course that the only
vowel in lipstick is i—hence, -ible! Silly, aren’t they? But they work. Go ahead to the test
now; and see how clever—or silly—you can be.

SPELLING TEST

1. a. supprise b. surprise

2. a. inoculate b. innoculate

3. a. definitely b. definately

4. a. priviledge b. privilege

5. a. incidently b. incidentally

6. a. predictible b. predictable

7. a. dissipate b. disippate

8. a. descriminate b. discriminate

9. a. description b. discription

10. a. baloon b. balloon

11. a. occurence b. occurrence

12. a. truely b. truly

13. a. arguement b. argument

14. a. assistant b. asisstant

15. a. grammer b. grammar

16. a. parallel b. paralell