What is it that yu don't like about 'em?

Flat is good. I don't know if I'd note "high". Swap terrain for topography: flat terrain works. I don't think high terrain tells me much but mountainous terrain or mountainous topography would.

lefull ... permissible, permitted; allowable, allowed (leave+ful)

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lefull

The Oxford Dict on my laptop has it as gala ... ˈgālə, ˈgalə ... whereas the ˈgeɪlə show a slight 'r' (that's not truly an 'r' but it shows something slightly nother to a short a) ...

Anyway, so gala in Britain doesn't match galactic gəˈlaktik or galago gəˈlāgō, -ˈlägō or gallant gəˈlant. ... Nor the other byspels given: baba ˈbäˌbä ... ˈjävə, ˈjavə ... gaga ˈgäˌgä ... lama ˈlämə ... mama ˈmämə ... mana ˈmänə ... nada ˈnädə ... papa ˈpäpə ... ˈsägə All of these do NOT match the British galə.

Gala seems to be pretty much out there on its own on both sides of the pond.

However, you giv us gay-la and will giv yu shedule (from Greek skhedē) ... Unless you also to say shool (school), shooner, sheme)

Petrol has the meaning of oil products (petroleum jelly [a lubricant]) in the US ... not gasoline. Unless a person knows that the Brits note petrol insted of gas(oline), the a petro-bomb wouldn't make much sense.

A fire bomb would be understood. It is also a verb. One wontedly firebombs a house with a molotov cocktail!

gala Pronunciation: /ˈgɑːlə, ˈgeɪlə/ http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/gala

Up has been in the English tung as a verb since Old English:

uppian - To mount up, rise :-- Ðæt wæter, ðonne hit bið gepynd, hit miclaþ and *uppaþ* and fundaþ wið ðæs ðe hit ǽr.
*þ=th, thus uppath = uppath.

mandatory |ˈmandəˌtôrē|

I haven't heard anyone say "man day tor i" ... but "man da tor i".

My guess is that anyone saying "man day tor i" is basing it on mandate |ˈmanˌdāt|.

Sorry for my lateness ... I'v lost the link to the web at the house and I live in the hinterlands ... so I only get online about once every week or so. No solution in sight for the problem either.

Valid: having a sound basis in logic or fact. If the pet peeve has a sound basis in logic or fact then it is "valid". Not splitting the infinitiv or not having dangling prepositions were tries to put Latin grammar rules onto English ... just two of the many tries to "Latinize" English. Those pet peeves are not "valid" since they hav no basis.

There are a lot of grAy :) areas in English. Different than or different from is a gray area. The tung grows and changes as these gray areas grow or shrink. Noting "they" and "their" as a singular with the gender of the person is unknown has a long history. It's well understood.

OR ... Go with the Elverson pronouns for the singular they: ey, eir, em (just drop the 'th') ... or Spivak pronouns: e, eir, em.

Anent spelling, sked is in the Oxford Dict. http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/sked

Next step, for Americans ... skedule!

The passage was said seven times. ... That solves the problem.

But if someone were to say to me that he repeated the passage seven times, I would think that it was said seven times in total. However, if he said that it was said in the first stanza and then repeated seven times after that, I would think eight times all together.