Spending money on sport – key and notes
On top of the world
If you look at countries by population, Australia is about number 52: we have about 0.3% of the world’s population. On that basis, we ought not to be able to win more than, perhaps, a few medals, and certainly nowhere near enough to be number five or six on the Olympic medal table.
If you want to look at the amount of money spent on our athletes, look at the taxpayers’ money spent on the "watch" list, including $3 million on "Grocery Watch", plus another $4 million annually to keep this useless initiative going. What was spent on "Whale Watch", for all the good it did? And on the others, none of which has shown any sign of being useful?
I am certain we can think of other areas where money has been virtually thrown down the drain. Compare this with the cash spent on training our Olympic competitors — was it worth it? Surely, the only answer possible is yes.
Geoff Quentin, Canberra
Spelling
annually – did you write it with two ‘n’s and two ‘l’s?
sign – did you remember that the ‘g’ is silent?
Australia – the first syllable sounds like an ‘o’
compare
competitors
Geoff’s name – if you wrote Jeff, that is an alternative spelling. Geoff is short for Geoffrey, Jeff is short for Jeffrey, but they sound identical
Quentin – if you wrote ‘Kwentin‘ that is the correct sound, but ‘kw’ is very rare in English.
Canberra – if you wrote Canborough or Canbrough that is an understandable rendition of the sound
Sounds – did you notice
the ‘sh‘ sound in population and initiative
the ‘s‘ sound in basis, useless
the ‘ch‘ sound in virtually?
Punctuation: Did you get …?
- the apostrophes in: the world‘s population,
- the commas dividing the clauses, or clarifying meaning, especially in long sentences: eg If you look at countries by population, Australia is about number 52; on that basis, we ought not to be able to win more than, perhaps, a few medals, and ….; If you want to look at the amount of money spent on our athletes, look at…
- the quotation marks to indicate a category – eg the "watch" list
- the ‘And‘ starting a sentence, which is not usually correct – here it is acceptable as a form of rhetoric in a conversation or letter – eg And then he said ….. And so I answered…. And then John comes in and announces… And when the doorbell rang…..
Did you notice …?
- the use of the word ‘nought‘ for ‘zero’ in 0.3%
- the word ‘dollars‘ was spoken after the world ‘million’ in $3 million and $4 million, but the currency sign is written before the sum, as shown
Language
- on top of the world – informal – elated. Here it is used to convey the idea of world-class
- nowhere near = nothing like, nothing approaching. Eg ‘He’s nowhere near ready’ – he’s far from ready, he’s not even nearly ready; ‘They’re nowhere near suitable’ = they’re totally unsuitable / they’re not even vaguely suitable.
Do you know …?
- the structure ‘if you want to look at …. look at …’ meaning here that you have focussed on the wrong topic and the right one is …..
- keep sth going – to continue doing / paying / supporting / encouraging sth. Eg "I never get to the gym, but I’ll still keep my membership going." If they can keep their father going until the spring, he’ll be able to get out and enjoy life more then – i.e. if they can continue to encourage / support their father ………
- The word ‘watch‘ is used in various fields indicating either a system of monitoring something such as prices, statistics or quality: Job Watch; Price Watch; ‘Crimewatch‘ – a TV programme – or an organisation for activities which interest people: Birdwatch, ‘Nature Watch‘
- for all the good it did – this produced little benefit eg "He’s worked hard all morning – for all the good it’s done…" – i.e. he hasn’t actually done much.
- go down the drain – be totally wasted – eg "that’s his month’s salary down the drain"; All my hard work has gone down the drain = my hard work has been for nothing / come to nothing
- to throw money down the drain – to waste money through thoughtlessness or recklessness
Reading bank
Listening
Grammar bank
Home