But have you ever wondered where this word came from? Watch the video to find out more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UnIDL-eHOs Now do all these exercises, OK?
EXERCISE 1: The very beginning
OK was born in Boston, USA, as early as in the 1830s. Then young intellectuals liked to use abbreviations (shortened words) of incorrectly spelt words. Match the abbreviations with the misspelt words and their correct spelling: 1 KY A – knuff ced *all correct 2 KC B – oll korrect *enough said 3 OK C – oll wright *no use 4 OW D – know yuse *all right
EXERCISE 2: Presidential campaign that failed big time
OK was soon used by many 18th century newspapers. Even the US President of that time tried to use OK in his campaign. Why? 1 Because OK became so popular among American people. 2 Because he was from a town whose name started with K. 3 Because OK were actually the initials of his own name.
EXERCISE 3: The telegraph
As we saw, the telegraph was a machine used to send messages across long distances in forms of dots and dashes. Unlike KY, KC, or OW, OK became so widely used because the telegraphists started to use it at the end of every message they telegraphed. Do you remember what OK looked like? 1 . . . ̶ . ̶ 2 ... ̶ ̶ ̶ ... 3 . . ̶ . ̶
EXERCISE 4: The secret mystery of the OK success
But OK became so successful and widely used also because 1 letter K is quite unusual in English but eye-catching 2 a lot of adverts started to use it to sell products 3 it was used in an extremely popular folk song
EXERCISE 5: The meaning of OK today
We use OK to agree, to describe something, to say we understand. OK does not say anything about how we feel about things. We use OK without thinking about it. That is why OK was probably the first word that was used when people (finish the sentence): _________________________________________________________________________
So, how did it go? Did everything go OK?
Key Ex1. 1d 2a 3b 4c Ex2. 2 Because he was from a town whose name started with K. Ex3. 3 . . ̶ . ̶ Ex4. 1 letter K is quite unusual in English but eye-catching Ex5. …when people landed on the Moon for the first time.