My favourite accent has always been Geordie. Not that I would understand a bit of it, though. Broonsalroond!

In a British tv-show called Heartbeat the police officers did use this balloon-like-device if they suspected someone being drunk. The show takes place in 1960s or so in Yorkshire.

I sincerely agree with you CB. Finns, normally, have very good English teachers with a strong command of the language mainly due to the reasons mentioned above. I must admit that your example of the entrance exam made me smile. Finnish

The instances you describe (can be -> cam be) is, at least to my knowledge, called alveolar instability or to be more precise de-alveolar assimilation, and it's part of anticipatory coarticulation. However, as you might know, I know more

I googled 'nursery rhymes in English' and found many, I do mean many, links. Just try that.

Hmm... Intriguing. I'm not sure but I'd say there's no difference. You can omit the 'of' if you wish without changing the meaning. Not sure, though. All the berries were frozen. All of the berries were frozen.

Your sentence is type 2 conditional sentence. Hence the if-clause is in the past tense and the main verb is in the 'conditional' tense. However, the past tense in this is not a real past tense, it is a subjunctive. Therefore, this refers

For me this period was known as a long holiday

Have you tried checking BBC's Interner site? One can easily listen to their radio programmes on the Internet.

I understand it as that her performance was the only thing that saved the film from being horrible.