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If by (Joseph) Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) |
He was a British writer who was born in Bombay, India. The poem here is from The Oxford Book of Children's Verse, eds. Iona and Peter Opie (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1973), page 324. |
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If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream — and not make dreams your master; If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim: If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build them up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!" If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And — which is more — you'll be a Man, my son! |
Vocabulary keep your head: stay calm in an emergency to blame \bleim\: to say who made the mistake make allowance for: make room for, to permit to doubt \daut\: to not believe or trust deal \dil\: work with aim \eim\: goal, purpose impostor \im-'PAS-ter\: person who pretends to be someone else knave \neiv\: dishonest person stoop \stup\: bend over heap \hip\: pile sinew \'SI-nyu\: muscle virtue \'VIR-chu\: standard of excellence; courage *pronunciation for 5-vowel languages |
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Grammar Conditionals (conditions) and Modals (add meaning; followed by bare infinitive form of verb, e.g., will call, must be) 1. First conditional: what is possible in the present or the future a. If you can do it, then you will be a man. = IF + simple present (Activity) SPOKEN CUE: If you can do it, you will be a man. SPOKEN ANSWER: You will be a man if you can do it. b. If I win, you win, too. = IF + simple present c. If you are there first, tell the others to wait. = IF + simple present 2. Second conditional: what is possible in the present, but probably won't happen If you could do it, then you would be a man. = IF + COULD + bare infinitive form of verb If I had a bicycle, I could go with you. = IF + simple past (Special note: "if I were," not "if I was" — subjunctive mood of a verb for contrary-to-fact [or not true] subordinate clause) If I were rich, I would go to Hawaii. I wish it were true. If he were going, I would go, too. I wish he were here. 3. Third conditional: what is impossible now because we are talking about the past (it's too late) If you could have done it, then you would have been a man. = IF + COULD + HAVE + past participle form of verb If I had had more time, I would have told him. = IF + past perfect (HAD + past participle form of verb) If I had not quit my job, I would be a millionaire by now. = IF + past perfect (HAD + past participle form of verb) |