Expand your word power

A

Hitting the company's target about two weeks behind schedule, shipments in Japan of the new PlayStation 3 video game machines reached one million on Tuesday, according to Sony. Sony had planned to ship two million PlayStation 3 machines around the world by the end of last year. Last week, Tokyo-based Sony said it met its target of shipping one million PS3 consoles to the United States in 2006 (South China Morning Post, January 17, 2006).

News Story Scramble

Use these letters to make five words that appear in the above text. ldcoiesmhivinlmgamenaonieocsoles

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

B

If you're an American Idol wannabe who couldn't make the cut, karaoke has come to the rescue. Konami has introduced a new way to indulge your inner Madonna by plugging a microphone into your Sony PlayStation and going tonsil-to-tonsil against friends in a virtual version of the hit TV show (SCMP, January 5, 2007).

C

Eyeing the ball!

Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman eyes the ball during his match against Switzerland's Roger Federer at the Australian Open tennis tournament (SCMP, January 17, 2007).

A common saying: Keep your _________ on the ball!

D

The apostrophe (uh-pos-truh-fee)

This comes from the Greek word, apostrephein, meaning to turn away.

It has three uses:

1. To form possessives of nouns

2. To show the omission of letters (contractions)

3. To indicate certain plurals of lower-case letters

What is the use of the apostrophe in the words highlighted on this page?

(1, 2 or 3?)

a. couldn't ____ b. Konami's _____ c. company's _____ d. you're _______ e. Sweden's ____ f. Switzerland's ____

To do

Highlight words with apostrophes on the front page of today's South China Morning Post.

Word

Use of apostrophe?

example: don't = apostrophe is used instead of the letter 'o' which has been omitted

Answer:

A - machines, consoles, game, million, video

C - eye/s

D - a. 2, b. 1, c. 1, d. 2, e. 1, f. 1