A Workbook to Communicative Grammar of English (26 page)
Read A Workbook to Communicative Grammar of English Online
Authors: Dr. Edward Woods,Rudy Coppieters
Task three **
Respond to each of the following statements with
(a) | a |
(b) | a |
Examples: | I lost |
⇒ | What |
Would you give me a screwdriver, please | |
⇒ | Give you a screwdriver? / A screwdriver? |
1.
I lost
a finger
when I was a child.
2.
Johnny Reckless considers himself an excellent driver.
3.
Martin should have his head examined.
4.
A sister of mine became
a pavement artist
.
5.
I spent two months
in Kuala Lumpur
.
6.
We’re going to buy a speedboat next summer.
7.
Mr Clay earned
half a million dollars
last year.
8.
I admire body builders for their big muscles.
9.
Aunt Rachel was born
in 1910
.
10.
The government wants to privatize the prison system.
11.
Brother
Francis
is a specialist in medieval manuscripts.
12.
The two youngsters killed the hamsters
for fun
.
Information which is already obvious from the preceding context is often omitted, so that many responses lack the structure of a complete sentence.
The situation outside language may also make certain information unnecessary, giving rise to brief incomplete or formulaic utterances (short commands, questions, public notices, headings, etc.).
In casual speech, sentence-initial elements like pronoun subjects and/or auxiliaries are often omitted.
Task one ***
Respond to the following statements in an appropriate way by using sentences in which some of the information is omitted, taking into account the general feeling indicated in brackets. Do not use the same response twice.
Examples: | Rita: | “Most young kids need to be re-educated, I think.” |
Steve: | (surprise) ⇒ | |
Rita: | “And computers should be banned from primary schools.” | |
Steve: | (strong disagreement) ⇒ |
Andy: | There’s too much crime on our streets these days. |
Bill: | (complete agreement) |
Andy: | So many burglars and robbers that aren’t caught any more, let alone big criminals. |
Bill: | (partial agreement) |
Andy: | Well, if I had my way, I’d even put petty thieves behind bars … for years. |
Bill: | (disagreement) |
Andy: | I think the worst offenders should have their hands chopped off. |
Bill: | (indignation) |
Andy: | Sorry, I got carried away a bit … There’s this new thing, of course, electronic tagging. |
Bill: | (enthusiasm) |
Andy: | But the problem is that some of these convicts are experts in electronics. |
Bill: | (surprise) |
Andy: | The cleverest of the bad boys – and girls – could start tampering with the devices. |
Bill: | (reluctant agreement) |
Andy: | So I’m all for prisons and, as for overcrowding, there’s the alternative of using convict ships. |
Bill: | (scepticism) |
Andy: | And as soon as we’ve run out of ships, we can send our excess of prisoners to Australia … |
Bill: | (disbelief) |
Andy: | … or, better still, to the Antarctic. |
Bill: | (scorn) |
Task two **
Use an incomplete sentence or formula to respond appropriately to the situation described by the sentence in brackets.
1.
(you are sitting next to someone who is driving much too fast:)
2.
(your guest might like another helping of pudding:)
3.
(someone has just played a very dirty trick on you:)
4.
(you want your colleague to join you for a drink in a nearby bar:)
5.
(your partner has said something that doesn’t make sense at all:)
6.
(your canoe has overturned and you cannot swim:)
7.
(your best friend has won the first prize in a contest:)
8.
(blood is suddenly trickling down the wall:)
9.
(you want the Democrats to win the election:)
10.
(you’ve just trodden on someone’s toes:)
11.
(you didn’t quite catch what your interlocutor was saying:)
12.
(you’re pushing people out of the way while heading for the exit:)
Speech can be reported directly or indirectly. When the reporting verb is in the past tense the following changes are normally made in converting direct into indirect speech:
•
present tense forms become past tense forms
•
1st and 2nd person pronouns and determiners become 3rd person pronouns
•
pointer words like
this, now, here
, etc. are replaced by
that, then, there
, etc.
Past perfect verbs and some modal auxiliaries do not change. The present tense can be left unchanged if the reported clause refers to something still applying to the time of reporting.
Task one **
Convert the following reported statements from direct into indirect speech.
Example: | “I’m seeing my boss next week and will ask him for a pay rise,” Alice said |
⇒ | Alice said that she was seeing her boss the next week and would ask him for a pay rise |
1.
Edith said: “I’m leaving for Thailand this evening.”
2.
A spokesman declared: “Two suspects were caught by the police yesterday.”
3.
Helen confided to her friends: “I don’t want to stay here for the rest of my life.”
4.
“There will also be widespread frost tomorrow”, the weatherman added.
5.
“I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since last weekend”, claimed the drunken driver.
6.
“You can’t imagine what the situation was like two years ago”, the chairman told his audience.
7.
“I refuse to reveal the truth now because I’m being blackmailed”, Tom replied to the detective.
8.
“If you lend me your sportscar for a day or two, I’ll invite you to my party”, Susan promised Mark.
9.
“We hadn’t realized you were taking care of these problems”, the old couple explained to the social worker.
10.
“The United Nations must become more active”, the Secretary-General emphasized, “if the organization is to keep its credibility.”
11.
“You may be in pain for a few days”, the doctor warned his patient, “but you will definitely feel better by the end of this week.”
12.
“It’s regrettable”, the principal told the parents, “that children watch so many violent programmes on TV these days.”
Task two ***
(a) | Underline any reporting clauses and equivalent expressions in the following text. |
(b) | Rewrite the text by giving all the reporting clauses front position or adding such a clause to sentences that do not have one. While doing so, shift all of the text into the past. |
Example: | According to reliable sources new measures may be introduced to deal with these problems |
⇒ | Reliable sources said / told us / pointed out that new measures might be introduced to deal with these/those problems |
C
ARE CUTS PUT
OAP
S
’ ‘
LIVES AT RISK
’
The government is putting the lives of elderly people at risk and is jeopardizing its own plans to reform the health service, according to a report published on Thursday, 31 January 2002.
It says residential care and support in people’s own homes is being rationed and more than a million old people are suffering as a result.
A spokesperson stresses that the report was compiled by 21 organizations, including Help the Aged, Age Concern and the Alzheimer’s Society.
It suggests that, while the National Health Service might grab the headlines and the lion share of resources, social care is in crisis.
There are more old people than ever, yet the number receiving support in their own homes is actually falling with only the most needy qualifying for help, the document says.
Some 35,000 residential care beds have been lost in the past three years, it adds.
The organizations claim that many elderly people do not receive the help they need with washing, dressing and other forms of personal care.
Others have to wait, sometimes in NHS hospital beds, because they cannot be discharged anywhere else.
Ministers acknowledge that funding for social care has not kept up with the health service.
The report suggests that, without substantial investment, the problems in this area could jeopardize attempts to modernize the NHS.
(slightly adapted from
www.bbc.co.uk
, 31 January 2002)
Indirect
yes-no
questions are introduced by
if
or
whether
, the
yes-no
type of alternative questions by
whether … or
, indirect
wh
-questions by a
wh
-word.
The rules for changing direct into indirect questions are similar to those for statements. The reported interrogative clause can also be a
to
-infinitive clause beginning with a
wh
-word.
Task **
Convert the following reported questions from direct into indirect speech, reversing the clause order in 5–12. Give two versions for 11–12, using a finite and a non-finite reported clause each time.
Example: | “When did all the trouble start and when will it end?” I asked her |
⇒ | I asked her when all the trouble had started and when it would end |
1.
Margaret suddenly asked her roommate: “Are you right-handed or left-handed?”
2.
The consultant asked the personnel manager: “Which of these candidates do you prefer?”
3.
Mr Patten kept wondering: “Why can’t the council put off the meeting until tomorrow?”
4.
The talk show host asked the superstar: “Have you ever suffered from stage fright?”
5.
“What caused the car crash on the railway bridge two days ago?”, the insurance man asked.
6.
“May I give the patient two pills instead of one?”, the nurse wanted to know.
7.
“Where exactly do you store the yoghurt?”, the inquisitive woman asked the shop assistant.
8.
“Did parents teach their children good manners in the 1970s?”, the 10-year-old wondered.
9.
“Which platform does the number 17 bus leave from?”, I wanted to know.
10.
“Will the foreign delegations start arriving this afternoon?”, the PR woman inquired.
11.
The learner driver asked the instructor: “How should I reverse the car?”
12.
“Shall I send a card or a bunch of flowers?”, I wondered.
13.8. Denial and affirmation 1
Sections 261–262; 581–585; 610–611; 697–699
The truth of something can be denied by using a negative sentence containing one of the negative items
not, no, nowhere, nothing
, etc. The element
not
, or its contracted form
n’t
, is put immediately after the operator. When there is no operator the auxiliary
do
is introduced as operator.
The part of a sentence which follows the negative word is the scope of the negation, i.e. the part which is negated. A final adverbial may or may not be in the scope of negation. Inside the scope of negation are words like
any, yet, ever
. Outside of it are words like
some, already, sometimes
.
