Do you remember the rhyming proverbs we discussed last week?” asked Mrs Ratan.

“Of course we do, Ma’am,” said Dinesh. “Since ‘Haste makes waste’, we are forgetting them slowly.”

The teacher was amused. “Trouble comes double,” she said. “Today we shall tackle proverbs in which words are repeated. Can anyone think of an example?” “You win some, you lose some,” said Bharathi hesitantly. “Would that be a proverb, Ma’am?”

“It certainly would,” Mrs Ratan assured her. “A proverb is a saying that expresses a truth, and sometimes— as in ‘Plan your work, work your plan’— offers advice. Can anyone give me a repetitive proverb which applies to the Sunita Williams space mission and is also the title of a play by Shakespeare?”

The children were puzzled. They could only think of Julius Caesar and The Merchant of Venice, and those were people, not proverbs!

“Much Ado About Nothing!” exclaimed Raghu suddenly. “Isn’t that it, Ma’am?”

“It might have been if it was ‘Much Ado About Nothing, Little Ado About Something’,” said Mrs Ratan. “Remember we are talking about proverbs with a word or two repeated. Here’s the first half of the one I have in mind: ‘All’s Well _ _ _”

“That Ends Well, “yelled the class. “That’s a familiar proverb, Ma’am,” said Shyla, “but we didn’t know it was connected with Shakespeare. He comes into everything!”

“There’s no shaking off Shakespeare!” agreed Mrs Ratan. “How much time before break?”

“Just about five minutes, Ma’am,” said Dinesh. “I’m starving.”

Mrs Ratan smiled. “Eat to live, not live to eat.”

Complete the following repetitive proverbs:

1. A penny saved is a penny .....
2. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing ....
3. Like father, like...
4. Winners never quit, quitters never ...
5. Nothing venture nothing ....

(select the blank line below to see the answers)
Answers: 1 earned  2 well  3 son  4 win  5 gain