A problem with “H”

Many uneducated English people make mistakes with the letter “h”. They often leave it out at the beginning of words, saying: ”at” for “hat”, “oney” for “honey” and so on.
Sometimes, too, they pronounce an “h” where none exists, in such words as: easy, insect, owner, which become heasy, hinsect, howner.
Misunderstandings may arise from such mistakes in speech, as the following story shows:
Miss Miller, a typist, was going home to her lodgings from the office where she worked. She was in a merry mood because the manager had promised her an increase of salary and all the other clerks had congratulated her.
Success arouses the appetite and Miss Miller entered a fried fish shop and bought a large portion of fish and chips for her supper. By the time she got home, however, the food had got cold, so she handed it to her landlady, saying:
“Will you heat this up for supper, please, Mrs. Peck?”
“Oh, certainly Miss”, said Mrs. Peck with a smile. Miss Miller smiled too and spent the next hour reading a novel and thinking of the pleasure which awaited her.
At last Mrs. Peck came into the room, carrying a knife and fork, a plate, a glass, a cheese-dish, some bread and some radishes on a tray. This was Miss Miller’s usual supper, but not what she had been expecting that whole evening. As Mrs. Peck set the tray on the table Miss Miller reminded her of the fish and chips.
“You said I was to heat them up”, said Mrs. Peck naively.
“Thank you very much. They were hexcellent!”


Find the words that mean:

1. wait for
2. look forward to
3. stimulate, provoke, excite
4. omit, skip
5. give
6. happy, cheerful
7. et cetera
8. amplify, enlarge, magnify, raise
9. accommodation
10. happen


True or false:

1. The landlady ate Miss Miller’s supper.
2. Miss Miller got a promotion.
3. Mrs Peck was an uneducated woman.
4. Miss Miller spent the evening reading a novel.
5. Miss Miller can’t be working in a bank.
6. Mrs Peck thought that Miss Miller told her to heat fish and chips.


Fill in the blanks with the words from the text:

1. I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings! It was a ________________________.

2. Good evening sir! What a ___________________ to see you here.

3. I’ll have the chicken for the main ___________________.

4. If you ____________________ a “k” from the word “know”,
you will get the word “now”.

5. With John here, you never know what will happen ___________________.

6. I really want this car. __________________ it costs too much and
I can’t buy it.

7. Hello Mr Simpson. We have been _________________ you.

8. If the sign says Do Not __________________, it means that
you should keep out of that place.

9. I won’t __________________ you to do your homework this time.
If you want to do it OK, if you don’t want to do it – well, that’s your problem.

10. Tell me the ________________ truth! Don’t lie to me this time.