A Workbook to Communicative Grammar of English (35 page)

Grammatical features:
me
(instead of ‘my’) / half a dozen sentences beginning with ‘
and
’ / free direct speech:
She said fill it up …
/ subject dropped in two sentences beginning with ‘
Was
. .’ / omission of other sentence elements:
Just take it back …
(= answers ‘
what
’ in preceding sentence) –
Straight across the counter
. –
Dust coal everywhere
.

Task two **

We lived in Cambridge when I was young. One day, my mother got very angry because the coal had some rocks and bits of scale in it. She told me to get a strong bag and fill it up with the coal and stuff. Then we took it by bus to the coal office at the bottom of Hills Road Bridge. Inside the office, there was an old oak table, about as long as this room. I thought she was just going to take it back and tell them coal wasn’t very good. But she went in, bent down, picked up the bag and threw it straight across the counter. There was coal dust everywhere. “Take it back,” she said. “And come and get the rest of it.” They couldn’t believe it. I can see their faces today.

Task three ***

1.
At the polling station tell the clerk your name and address. It’s on the front of the card. After that the Presiding Officer will give you a ballot paper. Make sure that he or she stamps it before they give it to you.

2.
Then you go to one of the booths. You’ll see some instructions, telling you how to vote. The main thing is that you can only put one cross in the box next to the name of your favourite candidate. Some people put two or three crosses, but these votes are not counted.

3.
Now suppose you’ve made a mistake. That would mean you’ve spoilt your ballot paper. No problem, though. You just show it to the Presiding Officer and they’ll be happy to give you another one.

4.
Then fold the ballot paper into two. Show the official mark to the Presiding Officer, but be careful; no one should see who you voted for. The last thing you do is, of course, put the ballot paper in the ballot box and then simply leave the place.

5.
There are also two alternative ways of voting. You can, for example, appoint somebody else to vote for you. Such a person is called a proxy. However, some people change their mind at the last minute and want to vote themselves. No problem again, as long as the proxy hasn’t voted before you.

6.
The other alternative is postal voting. That’s a different thing. Once you’ve been allowed to vote through the post, you can’t change your mind anymore.

Task four ***

1.
–
(your name and address) as shown on the ballot paper
: as + past participle clause sounds very official

–
(s)he
: conventional gender neutral way of referring to any male/female (person), only used in writing

2.
–
(Mark only one cross) as stated in …
: as + past participle clause (cf above)

–
alongside
: (slightly) more formal preposition than ‘next to’

–
place
: more formal than ‘put’ (= lexical feature)

3.
–
if by mistake you …
: rather formal word order

4.
–

5.
–
you may
: rather formal way of granting permission

– complex sentence:
if
-clause + infinitive clause, followed by main clause, followed in turn by
if
-clause and time clause

6
– fairly complex sentence

–
to be entitled to …
: expression which is typical of official documents, regulations, etc.

General comment: None of the imperatives in the original text is preceded by the covert subject ‘you’, while this is quite common in spoken English.

1.2. Cooperation in conversation

Sections 21–23

Task one ***

1.
Comment on features of turn-taking:

– At first turn-taking is restricted to brief contributions by S2 (
laughs
/
yes
/
yeah
).

– When S3 joins in, he makes a truly interactive comment, followed by a question addressed by S2 to S1. This is followed in turn by a counter-question by S1 addressed to S2.

– Next we get a succession of discourse markers by all three speakers. The third speaker (S3) goes on to add an interactive comment, is briefly interrupted by S2, then completes his comment and also gets a minimal response from S1.

– S3 elaborates on his comment, which contains an indirect question. S1 abruptly answers his question and gets ‘
laughs
’ from both S2 and S3.

– S1 ‘takes the initiative’ again, contributing several sentences. S2 asks for further information, which S1 hesitates to answer straight away. S2 helps to get S1 ‘going again’.

– S1 resumes where she left off and continues her story. At first she gets a minimal response from S3 and a somewhat more meaningful one from S2. Towards the end of the conversation the balance between S2 and S3 shifts, with S2 only producing minimal responses to what S1 is saying and S3 participating in a more meaningful way.

2.
Discourse markers:

1.3. Tag questions and ellipsis

Sections 24–25; 684

Task one *

1.  didn’t you; 2. didn’t it; 3. aren’t they; 4. will we; 5. didn’t it; 6. has he; 7. do you; 8. would it; 9. aren’t I; 10. won’t we

Task two *

1.  He is …; 2. I …; 3. It’s …; 4. It was …; 5. You’re …; 6. You …; 7. I …; 8. He will …; 9. You will …; 10. We’ve …

Task three *

1.  I …; 2. Would (or: do) you …; 3. I …; 4. I(’ve) …; 5. I …; 6. Could you …; 7. It …; 8. I … 9. Do you …; 10. We’ve …

Task four **

1.
Hope you don’t mind me asking, but you really threatened to resign?

2.
Can’t believe a word he says.

3.
Saw them out together last night. Getting on very well, aren’t they?

4.
Didn’t help you were half an hour late.

5.
Gotta get this in the post by tonight.

6.
Doesn’t matter if you don’t get the best grades.

7.
Don’t know why he thought we weren’t coming.

8.
No problem about leaving so early.

9.
Didn’t bother to let him know, did you?

10.
Can’t help thinking we should have done more to help her.

1.4. Coordination

Section 26

Task one **

1.
Be late again and you’ll be fired.

2.
He’s been to Italy, and now he wants to live there.

3.
John can’t answer the question and neither can Mary (or: and Mary can’t either).

4.
Go to the new coffee bar and you’ll meet Sally there.

5.
You’ve been paid, be happy now.

6.
Irene can’t understand this new tax form and neither can I (or: and I can’t either), and we’re both accountants.

Or: Irene and I are both accountants and yet neither of us can understand this new tax form.

7.
That tree will grow higher and damage the telephone lines.

8.
Stop eating so late and you’ll sleep better.

9.
The Wilsons went to Egypt for their holiday and so did the Brooks.

10.
He upset the old lady, so I don’t want to meet him.

Task two **

1.
If you finish that work tonight, you can take the rest of the week off.

2.
Now (that) he’s got the manager’s job, he won’t speak to his old friends.

3.
Now they’ve got a new car, they will be telling everyone how much it cost.

4.
I don’t like that house because it’s too dark and miserable.

5.
Now that / Because he’s been all over the world, he thinks he knows everything.

6.
Now that we’ve changed our money from Francs to Euros, everything costs more.

7.
As the fire spread quickly, the whole factory was destoyed.

8.
The crowds were waiting patiently at the sides of the road, when suddenly it began to rain.

9.
If you get there late, they won’t let you in.

10.
If you get the early train, you’ll have a good day in the city.

1.5. Finite clauses in spoken English

Section 27; 360–374

Task one **

1.
He won the race and enjoyed the prize money.

2.
The boy had been in trouble in school before and was afraid to tell his mother why he was home so late.

3.
He had missed the last train and stayed at his sister’s overnight.

4.
He felt ill and decided not to go work that day.

5.
The theatre had been built in 1903 and was too big for small, contemporary plays.

6.
A number of mothers were interviewed who were not in paid work, and the majority of them intended to return to work when their children were older.

7.
The stairs were very steep, so it was an accident waiting to happen.

8.
He took the dog for a walk across the fields and realized that the new road they were going to build would go very near his own house.

9.
She read the biography of Sophia Loren, and determined to become an actress.

10.
He got home late and found everyone had gone to bed.

Task two ***

1.
Peter reminded Anne about the visit, hoping she would come.

2.
Having reorganized the shop, they still didn’t get a lot of customers.

3.
(On) seeing her in the street, I told her the good news.

4.
Having bought an old house and modernized it, they made a lot of money when reselling it.

5.
On getting to the top of the hill, you get a good view over the plain.

6.
Not liking that stuff they gave us to eat last night, I left most of it.

7.
Having gone to a lot of trouble to get the picture, he expected they would pay him a good price.

8.
They felt very depressed, their team having lost for the third time.

9.
Not having been to Mexico before, I don’t know what to expect.

10.
Although we yelled at the top of our voices, nobody took any notice.

1.6. Stress

Sections 33–35; 633; 743–745

Task one *

1.
The ‘rain in ‘Spain ‘stays ‘mainly in the ‘plain.

2.
The ‘tourist for‘got to ‘buy a ‘ticket at the ‘counter.

3.
‘Janet is ‘throwing a ‘party for her ‘twentieth ‘birthday.

4.
We ‘met in ‘Rome, ‘visited the ‘sights and ‘then ‘flew ‘home.

5.
‘John is ‘fond of ‘chocolate but ‘Mary ‘thoroughly dis‘likes it.

6.
I was ad‘miring the ‘landscape that un‘folded in ‘front of my ‘eyes.

7.
This unex‘pected en‘counter with my ‘worst ‘enemy ‘really up‘set me.

8.
Do you re‘member the dra‘matic e‘vents of Sep‘tember the e‘leventh?

9.
The U‘nited ‘Nations de‘cided to ‘lift the em‘bargo im‘posed on ‘military e‘quipment.

10.
As a ‘true ‘democrat, I sin‘cerely ‘hope that de‘mocracy will ‘always pre‘vail ‘over ‘tyranny.

11.
‘Slow ‘progress has been ‘made in per‘suading the ‘warring ‘factions to ac‘cept a ‘compromise.

12.
The pho‘tographer had ‘taken a ‘dozen ‘pictures, ‘all of which ap‘peared in ‘glossy maga‘zines.

Task two **

Stressed:
off
;
in
;
up
;
by
;
out
;
on
;
by
;
un(der)
;
down
;
out
;
off
;
on
;
on
;
out
;
down
;
(a)way
;
by
;
down
;
up
;
in
;
down
;
up
;
off

Unstressed:
of
;
on
;
in
;
to
;
for
;
to
;
for
;
through
;
in
;
of
;
on
;
for
;
of

Task three **