A Workbook to Communicative Grammar of English by Dr. Edward Woods, Rudy Coppieters Read Free Book Online

spotlessly clean rucksack. (W. Dalrymple, From the Holy Mountain , Harper Collins, 1997)
6.
On a hill overlooking the Lune, stands Lancaster Castle. The castle has always been a prison. The prison now houses grade C prisoners.
    Task four **
    In the following text, all the articles (definite and indefinite) have been removed. Rewrite the text with the appropriate articles. The first one is done for you.
    I’d bought the revolver on impulse from morose, tubby man who said he went by name of ‘Lefty’. I gave him story about needing to defend my home from scum who were running around these days. He nodded in sympathetic but slightly bored way. He didn’t care what I was going to do with gun any more than car salesman cares where you plan to drive. All Lefty wanted to do was make sale. He proceeded to describe technical virtues and drawbacks of various models he had on sale. As he talked me through each one, he picked it up andput it in my hand. It was odd feeling. I realised that I had never before touched something which was solely and specifically designed to kill.
    (M. Dibdin, Thanksgiving , Faber & Faber, 2000)
    Task five **
    1. Give reasons for your choice of articles in Task Four.
    2. Give reasons for leaving some words governed by zero articles.
    Task six ***
    In the following text, underline the generic uses of the article (definite article, indefinite article and zero article). Then rewrite the text with alternative articles where possible, if necessary changing the noun from singular to plural or from plural to singular.
    Lions, tigers and other big cats
    Few creatures are held in such awe as lions, tigers, cheetahs and leopards, which we often call the big cats. These agile predators have strong, razorsharp teeth and claws, muscular bodies and excellent senses. Their beautiful striped and dappled fur camouflages among the trees, allowing them to leap from the shadows to ambush unwary zebras, giraffes and other prey. There are seven kinds of big cats. The tiger is the largest. A fully-grown tiger may measure more than three metres from nose to tail; a fully-grown lion is almost as big.
    The first large cats lived 45 million years ago. Many, including the lion, cheetah and leopard still inhabit parts of Africa. Snow leopards dwell in the mountains of Asia. Jaguars are the largest of the big cats in North and South America. They are equally at home swimming in lakes or climbing in trees.
    Lions are the only big cats that live in groups, called prides, which may be up to thirty strong. The pride roams over an area of 100 sq. km. or more, depending on the abundance of prey in that area. The large male lion protects the pride’s territory against other prides. The lion also defends the female against other males.
    Lions, tigers and other big cats are true carnivores (flesh eaters). Lions usually eat large prey such as antelopes and zebras. One giraffe is often enough to feed a whole pride of lions.
    4.4. Other words of definite meaning
    Sections 91–101; 521; 619; 667
    Other words which signal definite meaning are:
    • proper nouns – Susan, Chicago, Tuesday , etc.
    • personal pronouns – I, we, he, she, it, they, you , etc.
    • pointer words or demonstratives – this, that, these, those
    Task one *
    Complete the following sentences with an article ( the, a, an ) where necessary.
    1. ……………. Tom I’m talking about is the person you met last week, not ……………. one who used to be at school with us.
    2. ……………. Tokyo of today is very different from ……………. one I knew in the seventies.
    3. ……………. San Juan is an old market town.
    4. I’m talking about ……………. San Juan in Puerto Rico not ……………. one in Argentina.
    5. He intended at one time to marry ……………. Jenny.
    6. ……………. Jenny? Which one? He knew two Jennys. There was ……………. Jenny from Australia and then there was ……………. one from Scotland.
    7. Oh, I think it was