I. THE NOUN..............................................................................................................................................................................

2
1.1. Kinds and function.............................................................................................................................................................2
1.2. Gender................................................................................................................................................................................2
1.3. Plurals................................................................................................................................................................................3
1.3.1. Uncountable nouns (also known as non-count nouns or mass nouns)........................................................................7
1.4. The form of the possessive/genitive case...........................................................................................................................8
1.5. Use of the possessive/genitive case and of + noun...........................................................................................................8
1.6. SEMINAR - NOUN..........................................................................................................................................................9
1.7. SEIKAN TUNNEL.........................................................................................................................................................14
1.8. CHARLES RIVER BRIDGE..........................................................................................................................................16
II. ARTICLES.............................................................................................................................................................................17
2.1. The definite article...........................................................................................................................................................17
2.2. Omission of the................................................................................................................................................................19
2.3. The indefinite article........................................................................................................................................................22
2.4. The zero article.................................................................................................................................................................22
2.5. SEMINAR - ARTICLE....................................................................................................................................................23
2.6. CENTRAL ARTERY/ (Big Dig).....................................................................................................................................26
2.7. SUNSHINE SKYWAY BRIDGE....................................................................................................................................28
III. ADJECTIVES.......................................................................................................................................................................29
3.1. Kinds of adjectives...........................................................................................................................................................29
3.2. Order of adjectives of quality..........................................................................................................................................30
3.3. Comparison......................................................................................................................................................................32
3.4. Constructions with comparisons......................................................................................................................................33
3.5. Possessive adjectives........................................................................................................................................................34
3.6. SEMINAR - ADJECTIVE...............................................................................................................................................35
3.7. GARABIT VIADUCT.....................................................................................................................................................38
3.8. ASWAN HIGH DAM......................................................................................................................................................40
IV. ADVERBS............................................................................................................................................................................41
4.1. Kinds of adverbs..............................................................................................................................................................41
4.2. Form and use....................................................................................................................................................................41
4.3. Comparative and superlative adverb forms.....................................................................................................................44
4.4 Position of adverbs............................................................................................................................................................44
4.5. Inversion of the verb........................................................................................................................................................46
4.6. SEMINAR - ADVERB....................................................................................................................................................47
4.7. THREE GORGES DAM.................................................................................................................................................49
4.8. CITICORP CENTER.......................................................................................................................................................51
V. THE PRONOUN....................................................................................................................................................................52
5.1. Personal pronouns............................................................................................................................................................53
5.2. Uses of it..........................................................................................................................................................................54
5.3. Possessive pronouns.........................................................................................................................................................55
5.4. Demonstrative pronouns..................................................................................................................................................55
5.5. Reflexive pronouns.........................................................................................................................................................56
5.6. Interrogative pronouns.....................................................................................................................................................56
5.7. Relative pronouns...........................................................................................................................................................57
5.8. Indefiite pronouns............................................................................................................................................................57
All
Some None............................................................................................................................................................58
5.9. SEMINAR PRONOUN................................................................................................................................................58
5.9.1. SEARS TOWER...........................................................................................................................................................67
5.9.2. PETRONAS TOWERS.................................................................................................................................................68
VI. PREPOSITIONS...................................................................................................................................................................70
6.1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................................................70
6.2. SEMIAR - PREPOSITION..............................................................................................................................................79

I. THE NOUN
1.1. Kinds and function
A

There are four kinds of noun in English:

Common nouns: dog, man, table

Proper nouns: France, Madrid, Mrs Smith, Tom
Abstract nouns: beauty, charity, courage, fear, joy
Collective nouns: crowd, flock, group, swarm, team
1.2. Gender
A

Masculine: men, boys and male animals (pronoun he/they).

Feminine: women, girls and female animals (pronoun she/they).
Neuter: inanimate things, animals whose sex we don't know and
sometimes babies whose sex we don't know (pronoun it/they).
Exceptions: ships and sometimes cars and other vehicles when
regarded with affection or respect are considered feminine.
Countries when referred to by name are also normally considered
feminine.
The ship struck an iceberg, which tore a huge hole in her side.
Scotland lost many of her bravest men in two great rebellions.

Masculine/feminine nouns denoting people

Different forms:
boy, girl

uncle, aunt

gentleman, lady

bridegroom, bride

son, daughter

man, woman

bachelor, spinster

widower, widow

husband, wife

father, mother
nephew, niece

duke, duchess
king, queen

earl, countess
lord, lady

prince, princess
2

The majority of nouns indicating occupation have the same form:

artist

cook driver guide assistant

dancer

doctor

etc.

Main exceptions:
actor, actress

manager, manageress

host, hostess

heir, heiress

conductor, conductress

steward, stewardess

Sometimes -person is used instead of -man, -woman: salesperson,

spokesperson.
C

Domestic animals and many of the larger wild animals have

different forms:

bull, cow

gander, goose

duck, drake

stag, doe

ram, ewe

tiger, tigress

stallion, mare

dog, bitch

cock, hen

lion, lioness

1.3. Plurals
A

The plural of a noun is usually made by adding s to the singular:

day, days

house, houses

dog, dogs
- s is pronounced /s/ after p, k or f sound. Otherwise it is
pronounced /z/.
When s is placed after ce, ge, se or ze an extra syllable (/iz/) is added
to the spoken word.

Other plural forms

B

Nouns ending in o or ch, sh, ss or x form their plural by adding

es:

tomato, tomatoes

box, boxes

brush, brushes

church, churches
kiss, kisses

But words of foreign origin or abbreviated words ending in o add s only:

dynamo, dynamos

photo, photos

kimono, kimonos

soprano, sopranos

piano, pianos
kilo, kilos
C

Nouns ending in y following a consonant form their plural by dropping

the y and adding ies:

baby, babies

fly, flies

country, countries

lady, ladies

Nouns ending in y following a vowel form their plural by adding s:

boy, boys

donkey, donkeys

day, days

guy, guys

Twelve nouns ending in f or fe drop the f or fe and add ves. These

nouns are calf, half, knife, leaf, life, loaf, self, sheaf, shelf, thief, wife,
wolf:
loaf, loaves
wife, wives
wolf, wolves

Nouns
The nouns hoof, scarf and wharf take either s or ves in the plural:
hoofs or hooves

wharfs or wharves

scarfs or scarves
Other words ending in f or fe add s in the ordinary way:
cliff, cliffs

safe, safes

handkerchief,
handkerchiefs
A few nouns form their plural by a vowel change:
foot, feet

man, men

louse, lice

tooth, teeth

mouse, mice

child children

woman, women

ox, oxen.

goose, geese
Names of certain creatures do not change in the plural. fish is
normally unchanged, fishes exists but is uncommon. Some types of
fish do not normally change in the plural:
Carp

pike

salmon

trout cod

plaice

squid

turbot

mackerel but if used in a plural sense they would take a plural verb.
Others add s:
crabs

herrings

sardines

eels

lobsters

sharks

Deer and sheep do not change: one sheep, two sheep.

The word game, used by sportsmen to mean an animal/animals
hunted, is always in the singular and takes a singular verb.
Collective nouns, crew, family, team etc., can take a singular or
plural verb; singular if we consider the word to mean a single group
or unit:

Our team is the best or plural if we take it to mean a number of

individuals.
Our team are wearing their new jerseys.

Certain words are always plural and take a plural verb:

Clothes, garments consisting of two parts breeches
pyjamas

trousers

pants

etc. and tools and instruments consisting of

two parts:
Binoculars pliers
shears

etc.

scissors

spectacles glasses

scales

A number of words ending in ics, acoustics, athletics, ethics,

hysterics, mathematics, physics, politics etc., which are plural in
form, normally take a plural verb:
His mathematics are weak. But names of sciences can
sometimes be considered singular:
Mathematics is an exact science.
Words plural in form but singular in meaning include news:
The news is good
And certain diseases:
mumps

rickets

shingles

and certain games:

billiards

darts

draughts

bowls

dominoes

2 The first word is made plural with compounds formed of verb +

er
nouns + adverbs:
hangers-on

lookers-on

runners-up and with

compounds composed of noun + preposition + noun: ladiesin-waiting

sisters-in-law

wards of court

3 Initials can be made plural:

MPs (Members of Parliament) VIPs (very important persons)
OAPs (old age pensioners) UFOs (unidentified flying objects)
1.3.1. Uncountable nouns (also known as non-count nouns or mass
nouns)
1

Names of substances considered generally:

Bread, cream, gold, paper,
cloth, gin, jam,

2 Abstract nouns:

tea, beer, dust, ice, sand, water,

soap, wine, coffee, glass, oil, stone, wood

advice, experience,

horror, pity, beauty, fear, information ,

relief, courage, help, knowledge, suspicion, death, hope, mercy,

work
3 Also considered uncountable in English:
baggage, damage, luggage, shopping, camping, furniture,
parking

weather

1.4. The form of the possessive/genitive case

A

's is used with singular nouns and plural nouns not ending in s:
a man's job

the people's choice

men's work

the crew's quarters

a woman's intuition the horse's mouth

the butcher's (shop) the bull's horns
a child's voice women's clothes
the children's room Russia's exports
B

A simple apostrophe (') is used with plural nouns ending in

s:
a girls' school the students' hostel
the eagles' nest

the Smiths' car

Classical names ending in s usually add only the apostrophe:

Pythagoras' Theorem

Archimedes' Law

Sophocles' plays

Other names ending in s can take 's or the apostrophe alone:

Mr Jones's (or Mr Jones' house)

Yeats's (or Yeats') poems

1.5. Use of the possessive/genitive case and of + noun

A

The possessive case is chiefly used of people, countries or

animals as shown above. It can also be used:

Of ships and boats: the ship's bell, the yacht's mast

2 Of planes, trains, cars and other vehicles, though here the of

construction is safer:
a glider's wings or the wings of a glider
the train's heating system or the heating system of the train
3 In time expressions:
a week's holiday, today's pape, tomorrow's weathe, in two years'
time,

ten minutes' break, two hours' delay,

With for + noun + sake: for heaven's sake, for goodness' sake

4.

5 In a few expressions such as:

a stone's throw
6.

journey's end

the water's edge

Sometimes certain nouns can be used in the possessive case

without the second noun, a/the
baker's/butcher's/chemist's/florist's etc. can mean 'a/the
baker's/butcher's etc. shop'.
Similarly, a/the house agent's/travel agent's etc. (office) and the
dentist's/doctor 'sivet's (surgery):
You can buy it at the chemist's.

He's going to the dentist's.

1.6. SEMINAR - NOUN

EXERCISE

1. Nouns ending in -f/-fe form their plural in -fs/-fes or

-ves or both. Give the plural form of the following nouns and noun
groups into the respective three categories:
Half, cuff, wolf, belief, leaf, scarf, chief, calf, cliff, shelf,.dwarf, self,
thief, safe, gulf, proof, loaf, wife, roof, handkerchief, knife.
EXERCISE.

allies

a) Write the singular of:

countries

alleys enemies
dresses

skies

taxes

doves

taxis

halves

shoes

toes

kangaroos

sizes pies valves

potatoes

houses

skis

buzzes eyes

porches

b) Write the plural of: potato, radio, hero, cargo, echo, tango, buffalo,
concerto,
EXERCISE

Negro, volcano.
. Turn into the plural:

1. Englishman 2. Spaniard 3. Chinese 4. Frenchman 5. Pole 6.

Swede
7.

Norwegian 8. German 9. Dutchman 10. Italian 11. Romanian 12.

Russian
13. Greek 14. Australian 15. Japanese 16. Dane 17. Finn 18.
Irishman 19. Scot 20. Pakistani.
EXERCISE

Choose the right form of the verb :

1.a) The committee (consist, consists) of 12 members.

b) The committee (has, have) come to a common point of view.
2.a) My friend's family (is, are) small.
b) The family (was, were) asleep when we arrived.
3. a) The press (is, are) kindly requested to leave the Conference
Hall,
b) The press (is, are) always present on such occasions.
4. a) The audience (was, were) taking their seats.
b) The audience (was, were) applauding enthusiastically.
5. a) The mob (has, have) been fighting among themselves for some
time,
b) A mob (is, are) a disorderly crowd.
6. a) The Education Board (is, are) arguing about the cost of
textbooks,
b) The Selection Board (has, have) selected the best pupils from
the candidates.

7. a) The government (has, have) announced further wage rises.

b) The government (stand, stands) firm in refusing to make
further concessions.
8.a) The new Cabinet (was, were) the result of his bargaining with
the
center-left parties,
b) The new Cabinet (is, are) reluctant to look into it.
9.a) A flock of sheep (has, have) invaded my garden.
b) Look out! Your flock (is, are) straying in all directions.
10.

a) The Army (has, have) seized power.

b) The invading Army (was, were) defeated.

11.

a) Canada (is, are) bilingual.

b) Canada (has, have) got into the semi-finals again.

EXERCISE

. Choose the singular or plural form. Translate into

Romanian:
1.colour

a) I simply hate this ....

b) You must stand still when the country's ... is being raised.
c) My favourite . .. are blue and beige.

2.custom

a) You have to declare everything at the ....

b) She was privileged to get acquainted with this ... of the

Burundians.
c) Hand shaking is one of the most frequent... in Europe.
3.damage a) I'll have to pay for the ...
b) In case of fire the insurance company will pay the ....
4.ground

a) You must have solid ... if you want to ask for a

divorce.
b) What was the ... of this quarrel?
c) Children have taken good care of their sports . . .

5.minute
b)

a) How many . . . does it take to get to the office?

We wanted him to read the ... of the previous meeting.

c) Wait a . . . !
6.pain

a) She feels no . . . now.

b) What do you recommend for stomach . . . ?
c) You do take great. . . with your work.

7.scale

a) My neighbour has been practising ... for hours.

b) Did you know he could play with a fish . . . . ?
c) The ... of this species of fish are phosphorescent.
d) On top of the Court House one can notice a sculptured ...
of Justice.

8.term

a) When does . . . end?

b) Are you on good . . . ?
c)

What are the . .. of the treaty?

9.spectacle a) It was a terrifying. . .

b) Why not wear .. . ?
10. spirit

a) That's the right. . .

b) How can you believe in ... ?
c) I shall never touch . . . again.
d)

EXERCISE

Is there no ... in your lighter?

. Form feminine nouns from the following masculine

nouns using the following suffixes: -ess, -ix, -a, -ine:

Actor, host, shepherd, administrator, sultan, god, lion, prior,
negro, hero, prince, tiger, heir, waiter.
EXERCISE

. a) Give the corresponding masculine nouns of the

following feminine nouns; b) then give the generic term, if any:

MODEL:

a) mother father

b) mother father parent

Queen, woman, wife, daughter, nun, lady, sister, goose, bee, duck,
granddaughter.
EXERCISE

. List the feminine nouns in the 2nd column and the

generic nouns in the 3rd column so as to correspond to the

masculine nouns in the 1st column:
hog

mare

pig/swine

cock

vixen

deer

hound

hen

dog

buck

ewe

ox

bull

bee

horse

drone

bitch

fowl

stallion

hind

fox

fox

cow

sheep

ram

doe

deer

stag

sow

cattle

EXERCISE

Bride,

. Give the masculine of:

girl-friend,

policewoman,

maidservant,

female

candidate,

lady footballer, woman diplomat, lady speaker,

spinster, lady, nurse, female student.

EXERCISE

. Arrange the following nouns into two columns according

to their usual gender when personified in poetry, etc. Remember

that the masculine gender is usually ascribed to nouns denoting
strength, harshness, cruelty, and negative features while those
denoting delicacy, feebleness, tenderness and other positive
features are feminine. On the other hand, the distinction
sometimes depends on the author's imagination or intentions:

Friendship, anger, boat, fury, ship, terror, car, crime, moon,

spring, storm, morning, thunder, evening, sleep, night, sun, pride,
time, truth, fear, soul, death.
EXERCISE

39. Substitute synthetic genitive forms for the prepositional

genitive forms. The former are generally used with animate nouns,
mainly with persons, with collective nouns (e.g. government,
company), and with certain kinds of inanimate nouns denoting: a)
geographical names (continents, countries, cities, towns); b) locative
nouns denoting regions, heavenly bodies, institutions (e.g. the
region's welfare, the earth's core, the sun's impact, the Club's band);
c)

temporal

nouns

(e.g.

yesterday's

reception,

this

year's

anniversaries); d) nouns of the type: body, mind, science, life, treaty,

play, book, car, ship etc. (e.g. the play's success, the ship's captain,
science's progress):
1.

The new car of his friend is a Fiat 125. 2. What do you know

about the climate of this country? 3. I admired the hats of the ladies.
4. He has been studying the folklore of WTales for three years. 5.
What's the name of the new typist of the manager? 6. This is the
most important museum of/in London. 7. The parents of all the other
girls are present. 8. What are the first signs of spring? 9. These are
the best paintings of Turner. 10. He won't say a word about the
purpose of his life. 11. The interests of the Government lie
elsewhere. 12. What do you know about the War of a Hundred Years?
13. The future of Africa is in the hand of its own peoples. 14. The
blouses of the shop-girls are the best advertisment. 15. Bob doesn't
even know the time-table of his child. 16. Is it possible to track the
rays of the sun? 17. He is proud of the performance of his car on the
road. 18. Do you doubt the good intentions of my relatives?

1.7. SEIKAN TUNNEL

Vital Statistics:
Location: Honshu and Hokkaido, Japan
Completion Date: 1988
Cost: $7 billion
Length: 174,240 feet (33 miles)
Purpose: Railway
Setting: Underwater
Materials: Steel, concrete
Engineer(s): Japan Railway Construction Corporation
In 1954, a typhoon sank five ferry boats in Japan's Tsugaru Strait and
killed 1,430 people. In response to public outrage, the Japanese
government

searched for a safer way to cross the dangerous

strait. With such unpredictable weather conditions, engineers agreed

that a bridge would be too risky to build. A tunnel seemed a perfect
solution. Ten years later, work began on what would be the longest
and hardest underwater dig ever attempted.
Engineers couldn't use a tunnel boring machine to carve the Seikan
Tunnel because the rock and soil beneath the Tsugaru Strait was
random and unpredictable. Instead, tunnel workers painstakingly
drilled and blasted 33 miles through a major earthquake zone to link
the main Japanese island of Honshu with the northern island of
Hokkaido. Today, the Seikan Tunnel is the longest railroad tunnel in
the world at 33.4 miles in length, 14.3 miles of which lie under the
Tsugaru Strait.
Three stories high and 800 feet below the sea, the main tunnel was
designed to serve the Shinkansen, Japan's high-speed bullet train.
Unfortunately, the cost of extending the Shinkansen service through
the new tunnel proved to

be too expensive. In fact, air travel

today between Honshu and Hokkaido is quicker and almost as cheap

as rail travel through the tunnel. Despite its

limited use, the Seikan

Tunnel remains one of the greatest engineering feats of the 20th

century.
Fast Facts:
More than 2,800 tons of explosives were used in the
construction of the tunnel.
One hundred sixty-eight thousand tons of steel was used in the
construction of the tunnel.
The railway track runs 787 feet below the surface of the sea,
making it the deepest railway line in the world.
During construction in 1976, tunnel workers hit a patch of soft
rock with disastrous results. Water gushed into the tunnel at a
whopping rate of 80 tons per minute. It took more than two
months to control the flood. Luckily, no lives were lost.

1.8. CHARLES RIVER BRIDGE

Vital Statistics:
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Completion Date: 2001
Cost: $86.4 million
Length: 1,457 feet
Type: Suspension (cable-stayed)
Purpose: Highway
Materials: Steel, concrete
Longest Single Span: 745 feet

In September 2001, Boston, Massachusetts, will unveil its crown

jewel -- the

Charles River Cable-Stayed Bridge. The bridge

will be the first of its kind

ever built -- a "hybrid" cable-

stayed bridge made of both steel and concrete.

Two planes

of steel cables will support the 745-foot-long, 183-foot-wide

main span, and the side spans will be constructed of posttensioned

concrete.

The Charles River Bridge is being built within a congested

transportation region in the city, an area that already houses
Interstate 93 and the

Massachusetts Bay Transportation

Authority's (MBTA) Commuter Rail and

Orange Line. In order

to squeeze the bridge into such tight quarters,

architects

came up with a brilliant solution. They designed the bridge to

be

supported by two inverted Y-shaped towers. The legs of

the concrete towers actually straddle the MBTA tracks at a 55degree angle, allowing plenty of room for the Orange Line and
its ventilation buildings.
When completed in 2001, the bridge will carry 10 lanes of
traffic: eight

through the legs of the two towers and two

cantilevered off the east side. Not

only is this design unique,

it's practical as well. The asymmetrical design gave engineers

the freedom to construct such an enormous bridge within
inches of a major elevated highway without interrupting the
flow of traffic.
Fast Facts:
Upon completion in 2001, the Charles River Cable-Stayed Bridge
will be the widest cable-stayed bridge in the world.

It will also be the only asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge in the

United States.
II. ARTICLES
2.1. The definite article
A

Form
the is the same for singular and plural and for all genders:

the boy the girl the day the boys the girls the days
B

Use
The definite article is used:

1 When the object or group of objects is unique or considered to

be
unique:
the earth

the sea

the sky

the equator

the stars

2 Before a noun which has become definite as a result of being

mentioned
a second time:
His car struck a tree; you can still see the mark on the tree.
3 Before a noun made definite by the addition of a phrase or clause:
the girl in blue

the man with the banner

boy that I met

the place where I met him

the

4 Before superlatives and first, second etc. used as adjectives

or
pronouns, and only:
the first (week)
C

the best day

the only way

the + singular noun can represent a class of animals or things:

The whale is in danger of becoming extinct.
The deep-freeze has made life easier for housewives.

But man, used to represent the human race, has no

article:
If oil supplies run out, man may have to fall back on the horse.
D

the + adjective represents a class of persons: the

old = old people in general

the is used before certain proper names of seas, rivers,

groups of islands, chains of mountains, plural names of
countries, deserts, regions:
the Atlantic
the Azores

the Netherlands
the Crimea

the Thames

the Alps

the Sahara

the Riviera

and before certain other names:

the City the Mall the Sudan the Hague the Strand

the

Yemen
F

the is used before the adjectives east/west etc. + noun in

certain names:
the East/West End

the East/West Indies

the North/South Pole

but is normally omitted:
South Africa
G

North America

West Germany

the with names of people has a very limited use. the + plural
surname can be used to mean 'the . . . family':
the Smiths = Mr and Mrs Smith (and children)

2.2. Omission of the

A

The definite article is not used:

1 Before names of places except as shown above, or before

names of people.
2 Before abstract nouns except when they are used in a
particular sense:
Men fear death but
The death of the Prime Minister left his party without a leader.
3 After a noun in the possessive case, or a possessive adjective:
the boy's uncle = the uncle of the boy

It is my (blue) book = The (blue) book is mine.

4 Before names of meals:
The Scots have porridge for breakfast but
The wedding breakfast was held in her father's house.
5

Before names of games: He plays golf.

Before parts of the body and articles of clothing, as these

normally prefer a possessive adjective:

Raise your right hand.

He took off his coat.

But notice that sentences of the type:

She seized the child's collar.
I patted his shoulder.
The brick hit John's face.
7 Omission of the before home, before church, hospital,
prison, school etc. and before work, sea and town
A

home
When home is used alone, i.e. is not preceded or followed by a
descriptive word or phrase, the is omitted: He is at
home.home used alone can be placed directly after a verb of
motion or verb of motion + object, i.e. it can be treated as an
adverb:
He went home.

I arrived home after dark.

I sent him

home. But when home is preceded or followed by a descriptive

word or phrase it is treated like any other noun:
They went to their new home.
We arrived at the bride's home.
For some years this was the home of your queen.
A mud hut was the only home he had ever known.

bed, church, court, hospital, prison,

school/college/university
the is not used before the nouns listed above when these
places are
visited or used for their primary purpose. We go:
to bed to sleep or as invalids

to hospital as patients

to church to pray to prison as prisoners

to court as litigants etc.

to school/college/university to study

Similarly we can be:

in bed, sleeping or resting

in hospital as patients

at church as worshippers at school etc. as students

in court as witnesses etc.
We can be/get back (or be/get home) from
school/college/university.
We can leave school, leave hospital, be released from prison.
When these places are visited or used for other reasons the
is necessary:
/ went to the church to see the stained glass.
He goes to the prison sometimes to give lectures.
C

sea
We go to sea as sailors. To be at sea = to be on a voyage (as
passengers or crew). But to go to or be at the sea = to go to or
be at the seaside. We can also live by/near the sea.

work and office

work (= place of work) is used without the:
He's on his way to work.

He is at work.

He isn't back from work yet. Note that at work can also mean
'working'; hard at work = working hard:

He's hard at work on a new picture, office (= place of work)

needs the: He is at/in the office. To be in office (without the)
means to hold an official (usually political) position. To be out of
office = to be no longer in power.
E

town
the can be omitted when speaking of the subject's or speaker's
own town:
We go to town sometimes to buy clothes.
We were in town last Monday.

2.3. The indefinite article

Its Romanian equivalent: un, o.
A is used in front of consonants: e.g. a good man, a map, a
window and an is used in front of vowels: an apple, an important
issue.
The indefinite functions as a numeral: one hundred a hundred
Used to show the number of happenings during a given period
of time: once a week, one apple a day

Used with nouns denoting jobs when after the verb to be: I am
a lawyer. (eu sunt avocat)

When the noun is unique, then it doesnt need the indefinite

article: He is chairman.
Used as appositions: Irving, a prose writer, ..
Used in expressions: for a time, lend me a hand, once upon a
time, to set an example, to pay a call on, to have a mind to,
once in a blue moon.

2.4. The zero article

Zero article is used to express generalities, whole categories and
not individual items.
Children will be children
Clothes do not make the man
Barking dogs seldom bite.

Substance names: Oil is lighter than water; Blood is thicker

than water.

With abstract nouns: Love is a noble feeling;

Before human names: Michael, George, Daisy

Names of continents, countries, provinces, regions, counties,

towns, cities, villages: Europe, Africa, Wallachia exceptions:
the Ukraine, the United States, the Argentine, the Congo.

Months of the year, days of the week

Expressions: from time to time, by means of, at random, by

sea, on sale, at dawn.

2.5. SEMINAR - ARTICLE

EXERCISE

1. Insert definite or indefinite articles.

1. I have ordered . . . washing machine and . . . washing

machine has come. 2 . . . climate does not suit me. 3. How did . . .
press receive it? 4. Since lunch was not ready yet, my husband
read . . . paper for a while, then he rose from . . . armchair and
turned on . . . television. 5. I mentioned bridge; he was very good
at. . . game. 6. Give me . . . newspaper to clean the mirror with. 7.
Give me . . . newspaper, I want to have a look at the ads. 8. . . .
moon rose out of the sea. 9. Is there . . . moon tonight? 10. The

door opened and . . . teacher came in. 11. The door opened
and . . . headmaster came in. 12. I heard on . . . radio that they
have come to . . . truce. 13. . . . man has called and left. . .
present for you. 14. . . . moon goes round . . . earth and . . . earth
goes round . . . sun. 15. How have myths come into . . . world?
EXERCISE

2. Supply the necessary article(s): zero (0), the or alan,

used in their generic function. Make any necessary changes:

1. . . . verdict has to be unanimous. 2. . . . tiger is larger than . . .
lynx. 3.. witness may tell only what he himself knows to be true.
4. . . . French have good wines. 5. . . . leopard is a cat. 6. . . .
leopard is the fastest cat. 7. He's wasted his life in search of . . .
unusual. 8. You're rather partial to . . . asparagus, and . . . trout. 9.
They have a fine taste in . . . music and . . . literature. 10. The
responsibility of. . . parents is stressed in the Declaration on the
Rights of. . . Child. 11. . . . fellow does a lot of crazy things when
he has been drinking. 12. . . . man has left his imprint here too.
13. What can

. man do when he is cast on a far-off island?

14. . . . (rubber tyre, do, not, make a noise). 15. . . . (first

offender) should be treated with sympathy. 16. . . . rich have
always exploited . . . poor.

EXERCISE

3. Supply the necessary article: zero (0), ajan

1. He had served his country as . . . Minister of Finance and . . .

Ambassador to Finland. 2. She was . . . typist by trade. 3. Can
you act as . . . guide? 4. Who is going to hold the office of. . .
secretary? 5. Be . . foster parent!

6.

He had the help of two deputies, the economist Mark Webster, .

. . Director of the U.N. Population Division and Roy Wilkins, . . .

career U. N. officer.
7.

You can get a job as . ... waiter. 8. He'll be acting the part of . . .

solicitor next week. 9. The castle in which Mary . . . Queen of

Scots was imprisoned is worth a visit. 10. He became . . .
unwilling sailor. 11. He fully well deserved to be awarded the
rank of. . . general. 12. He spent his adolescence as . . .
seaman, . . . prospector and . . . fireman. 13. He was . . . firm
believer in the triumph of good. 14. He has been elected . . .
President of the Conference. 15. Now he's had a go at solving a
difficult case, he might turn . . . detective. 16. I rather doubt he'll
remain . . . content accountant all his life. 17. I won't have you
take her for . . . fool. 18. What with everybody finding him ...
indispensable person! It's gone to his head.
EXERCISE
1.

4. Supply the necessary article: definite or zero:

I hate . . . wet weather. 2. I spent four hours going from . . .

hotel to . . . hotel, trying to find a room. 3. . . . winter of last year

was pretty mild. 4. . . . youth look down on oldtimers. 5. A
humane leader is loved by . . . people. 6. That type of . . . skirt is
no longer fashionable. 7. He doesn't go by . . . train because he
can never find a seat. 8. Nobody liked . . . cheese but I; I thought
it very tasty. 9. She has . . . youth and she has . . . taste. 10. Did
you see . . . van Eyke at the National Gallery? 11. I decided to
stay in . . . bed. 12. He hoped he would be inside the harbour
before . . . sundown. 13. He looked forward to leaving . . . school
and joining . . . army. 14. . . . dinner is being prepared by the
children today. 15. The number of. . . smokers has dropped. 16.
She is suffering from . . . loss of . . . memory. 17. They generally

have . . . breakfast out on the porch in . . . warm weather. 18.

Don't drive. Take . . . train. 19. Everybody feels . . . spring is
in . . . air. 20. There are no raspberries on . . . market. 21. Cover
the roots of the plant with . . . earth. 22. . . . lunch was good
but. . . breakfast was awful. 23. Granny went to . . . market to
buy . . . fruit for the family. 24. One can get tired of. . . fish and
chips. 25. . . . health is better than . . . wealth. 26. It is not visible
at. . . night. 27. The party went on far into . . . night. 28. The
party started in . . . evening and broke up after . . . midnight. 29.
Around . . . noon he can be found in his office. 30. . . .
atmospheric polluants turn . . . marble into . . . fine dust which is
washed away by . . . rain.
EXERCISE

5.

Insert

definite

or

zero

articles

before

the

geographical names used in the following sentences:

1. . . British Isles have a total area of about 121,600 square
miles. The largest islands are . . . Great Britain proper (comprising
the mainlands of. . , England,. . . Wales, and . . . Scotland) and . . .
Ireland (comprising . . . Northern Ireland and ... Irish Republic).
2. ... Isle of Man in... Irish Sea and . . . Channel Islands between . .
. Great Britain and . . . France have administrative autonomy. 3.
The latitude of 50 North cuts across... Lizard Peninsula and
latitude 60 North passes through... Shetland Islands. 4. The
boundaries of this region run from the mouth of . . . Tyne to the
mouth of. . . Exe. 5. . . . North Atlantic Current reaches the islands
from across . .. Atlantic. 6. . .. Highland Britain comprises the
whole of. . . Scotland (including the hills and moors of . . .
southern Scotland as well as the mountains of. . . Scottish
Highlands, which extend from . . . Forth-Clyde valley to the
extreme north-west), . . . Lake District in . . . north-west England,

the broad central upland known as . . . Pennines. 7. The whole

of. . . Britain north of a line joining... river Thames and . . . Bristol
Channel was covered by ice caps. 8. The red sandstone on . . .
Cumberland coast and the limestone masses and slates of . . .
Pembrokeshire coast in . . . South Wales are notable features of
the varied coastline. 9. Between 150 and 200 inches of rain fall
on the summits of . . . Snowdon and .. . Ben Nevis during the
average year. 10. The eastern coast of England between . . .
Humber and . . . Thames estuary is for the most part low-lying.
(Adapted from "Britain-An Official Handbook 1968")
2.6. CENTRAL ARTERY/ (Big Dig)

Vital Statistics:
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Completion Date: 2004
Cost: more than $10 billion
Length: 18,480 feet (3.5 miles)
Purpose: Roadway
Setting: Soft ground
Materials: Steel, concrete
Engineer(s): Bechtel, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Quaide Douglas
Some call the Central Artery/Tunnel Project in Boston,
Massachusetts, the "largest, most complex and technologically
challenging highway project in American history." Others
consider it one of the most expensive engineering projects of all
time. Locals simply call it the "Big Dig." By the time it's finished
in 2004, the tunnel will be eight lanes wide, 3.5 miles long, and
completely buried beneath a major highway and dozens of glass-

and-steel skyscrapers in Bostons bustling financial district. What

does it take to dig a tunnel like this? A lot of hard work and a
handful of engineering tricks.
Today, engineers use special excavating equipment, called
"clamshell excavators," that work well in confined spaces like
downtown Boston. These special machines carve narrow
trenches -- about three feet wide and up to 120 feet deep -down to bedrock. In Boston, engineers are pumping liquid slurry
(clay mixed with water) into the trenches to keep the
surrounding dirt from caving in. Huge reinforcing steel beams are
lowered into the soupy trenches, and concrete is pumped into
the mix. Concrete is heavier than slurry, so it displaces the claywater mix. The side-by-side concrete-and-steel panels form the
walls of the tunnel, which will allow workers to remove more than
three miles of dirt beneath the city.
As if tunneling beneath a city isnt hard enough, the soil beneath
Boston is actually landfill -- its very loose and soggy. Engineers had
to devise a few tricks to keep the soggy soil from collapsing. Their
solution: freezing the soil! Engineers pump very cold saltwater
through a web of pipes beneath the city streets. The cold pipes draw
heat out of the soil little by little. Once frozen, the soil can be
excavated without sinking. Engineers also inject glue, or grout, into
pores in the ground to make the soil stronger and less spongy during
tunnel construction.
Fast Facts:
The project will excavate a total of 15 million cubic yards of
dirt.

Reinforcing steel used in the project would make a one-inch

steel bar long enough to wrap once around the Earth at the
equator.
Moving all the dirt in the tunnel will take more than 541,000
truckloads.

2.7. SUNSHINE SKYWAY BRIDGE

Vital Statistics:
Location: St. Petersburg and Bradenton, Florida, USA
Completion Date: 1987
Cost: $244 million
Length: 29,040 feet
Type: Cable-Stayed
Purpose: Roadway
Materials: Steel, concrete
Longest Single Span: 1,200 feet
Engineer(s): Figg & Muller Engineering Group
Completed in 1987, the Sunshine Skyway is the world's
longest cable-stayed concrete bridge. It is probably the best
known of the several dozen cable-stayed bridges that have been
built in the United States since the late 1970s. Its popularity may
be due to its unique color its cables are painted a bright taxicab
yellow but the bridge also boasts an interesting history.
The Sunshine Skyway isn't the first bridge to span the broad
mouth of the Tampa Bay. In fact, a four-mile steel cantilever
bridge used to live where the new Sunshine Skyway now stands.
But during a violent thunderstorm on the morning of May 9, 1980,

the freighter Summit Venture plowed into the cantilever bridge.

More than 1,000 feet of the bridge fell into the bay, killing 35
motorists and bus passengers instantly.
The Florida Department of Transportation began construction
on a safer Sunshine Skyway Bridge only days later. more than 300
precast concrete segments were linked together with highstrength steel cables to form the roadway. Protecting the new
bridge from ships was a big priority, so they installed large
concrete islands, called dolphins, around each of the bridge's six
piers to absorb unwanted impact. Since it opened to traffic in
1987, the sleek, new Sunshine Skyway has won dozens of
engineering and design awards.
Fast Facts:
Twenty-one steel cables support the roadway. The cables are
sheathed in steel pipes, nine inches in diameter. The pipes
were painted a brilliant yellow to reflect its location: the
Sunshine State.
Forty-foot-wide roadways run on either side of the cables.
This design allows drivers to have unobstructed views of the
water.
III. ADJECTIVES
3.1. Kinds of adjectives
A

The main kinds are:

(a)

Demonstrative: this, that, these, those

(b) Distributive:

each, every ; either, neither

(c)

Quantitative: some, any, no ; little/few ; many, much ; one,

twenty
(d) Interrogative:

which, what, whose

(e)

Possessive: my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their

(f)

Of quality: clever, dry, fat, golden, good, heavy, square

Participles used as adjectives

Both present participles (ing) and past participles (ed) can be
used as adjectives. Present participle adjectives, amusing,
boring, tiring etc., are active and mean 'having this effect'.
Past participle adjectives, amused, horrified, tired etc., are
passive and mean 'affected in this way'.
The play was boring. (The audience was bored.)
The work was tiring. (The workers were soon tired.)
The scene was horrifying. (The spectators were horrified.)
an infuriating woman (She made us furious.)
an infuriated woman (Something had made her furious.)

Agreement
Adjectives in English have the same form for singular and
plural, masculine and feminine nouns:
a good boy, good boys, a good girl, good girls
The only exceptions are the demonstrative adjectives this
and that, which change to these and those before plural
nouns:
this cat, these cats

that man, those men

3.2. Order of adjectives of quality

A

Several variations are possible but a fairly usual order is:

adjectives of
(a)

size

(b)

general description (excluding adjectives of personality,

emotion)
(c)

age

(d)

shape

(e)colour
(f) material
(g)

origin

(h) purpose (these are really gerunds used to form compound

nouns: walking stick, riding boots).
a long sharp knife

blue velvet curtains

a small round bath

an old plastic bucket

new hexagonal coins

an elegant French clock

3.3. Comparison
There are three degrees of comparison:
Positive

Comparative

Superlative

dark

darker

darkest

tall

taller

useful

more useful

tallest
most useful

One-syllable adjectives form their comparative and

superlative by adding er and est to the positive form:
bright

brighter

brightest

Adjectives ending in e add r and st:

brave
C

braver

bravest

Adjectives of three or more syllables form their

comparative and
superlative by putting more and most before the positive:

interested
frightening
D

more interested

most interested

more frightening

most frightening

Adjectives of two syllables follow one or other of the above

rules. Those ending in ful or-re usually take more and
most:
doubtful

more doubtful

obscuremore obscure

most doubtful

most obscure

Those ending in er, y or ly usually add er, est:

clever

cleverer

cleverest

pretty

prettier

prettiest (note that the y becomes i)

silly
E

sillier silliest

Irregular comparisons:

bad

worse worst

far

farther

farthest (of distance only)

further

furthest (used more widely; see F, G)

good

better best

little

less

many/much
old

least
more

most

elder eldest (of people only)

older oldest (of people and things)

farther/farthest and further/furthest Both forms can be

used of distances:
York is farther/further than Lincoln or Selby.
York is the farthest/furthest town
Further can also be used, mainly with abstract nouns, to
mean 'additional/extra':
Further supplies will soon be available.
Further discussion/debate would be pointless.

II

elder, eldest; older, oldest

elder, eldest imply seniority rather than age. They are chiefly
used for comparisons within a family: my elder brother, her
eldest boy/girl; but elder is not used with than, so older is
necessary here:
He is older than I am. (elder would not be possible.)

3.4. Constructions with comparisons

A

With the positive form of the adjective, we use as ... as

in the affirmative and not as/not so . . . as in the negative:

A boy of sixteen is often as tall as his father. He was as
white as a sheet. Manslaughter is not as/so bad as murder.
Your coffee is not as/so good as the coffee my mother makes.

Parallel increase is expressed by the + comparative . . .

the + comparative:
HOUSE AGENT: Do you want a big house?
ANN: Yes, the bigger the better.
TOM: But the smaller it is, the less it will cost us to heat.

Gradual increase or decrease is expressed by two

comparatives joined by and:
The weather is getting colder and colder. He
became less and less interested.

the + adjective with a plural meaning

A

blind, deaf, disabled, healthy/sick, living/dead,

rich/poor, unemployed and certain other adjectives
describing the human character or condition can be preceded
by the and used to represent a class of persons. These
expressions have a plural meaning; they take a plural verb and
the pronoun is they:
The poor get poorer; the rich get richer. the can be used in
the same way with national adjectives ending in ch or sh:
the Dutch

the Spanish

the Welsh and can be used

similarly with national adjectives ending in se or ss:

the Burmese

the Chinese

the Japanese

Swiss though it is just possible for these to have a

singular meaning.
3.5. Possessive adjectives
my
your
his/her/its
our
your

the

their
A Possessive adjectives in English refer to the possessor and
not to the thing possessed. Everything that a man or boy
possesses is his thing; everything that a woman or girl
possesses is her thing:
Tom's father is his father but
Mary's father is her father. Everything that an animal
or thing possesses is its thing:
A tree drops its leaves in autumn.
A happy dog wags its tail. But if the sex of the animal is
known, his/her would often be used. If there is more than one
possessor, their is used:
The girls are with their brother.
Trees drop their leaves in autumn. Note that the possessive
adjective remains the same whether the thing possessed is
singular or plural:
my glove, my gloves
C

his foot, his feet

To add emphasis, own can be placed after my, your, his

etc. and after one's:
my own room

her own idea own can be an

adjective, as above, or a pronoun:

a room of one's own
Note the expression:
I'm on my own = I'm alone.

3.6. SEMINAR - ADJECTIVE

EXERCISE

1. Choose the appropriate adjective. Note that -ic

alternates with -ical with a difference of meaning:

1.

I am fond of classic / classical languages. 2. Caragiale's play

"The Lost Letter" is a comic / comical masterpiece. 3. Everybody
has realized that big cars are not economic / economical to run. 4.
It has taken long years of I historic \ historical research to gather
all the data about this historic / historical building. 5. The Royal
Ballet's performance of "The Nut-cracker" was a classic! classical
one. 6. Romania's economic \ economical performance is no
longer considered a miracle. 7. She was quite a sight with that
comic \ comical old hat on. 8. Many an innocent man has gone to
the electric \ electrical chair. 9. He is quite an expert in electric /
electrical engineering.
EXERCISE

2. Group the adjectives listed below under the three

heads of the table.

Note that there are two regular ways of marking the category
of comparison in English; a) by means of -er in the comparative
and (the) -est in the superlative (the synthetic comparison) with
monosyllabic adjectives; b) by means of the periphrastic forms
with more and (the) most (the analytic comparison), incase of
plurisyllabic adjectives. A series of monosyllabic adjectives, such
as: calm, cross, fit, fond, frank, scarce, grave, prompt display both
patterns. Many disyllabic adjectives display both patterns too. It is
typically the case with adjectives ending in -y, -ow, -le, -er such
as: clumsy, sallow, humble, clever, as well as the following
adjectives: handsome, common, polite, quiet, pleasant, precise,
sincere etc.
sly, wicked, convenient, foolish, active, vague, afraid, common,
red, wounded, thin, pretty, startling, stupid, big, healthy, correct,
alive, fertile, worthy, pleasant, minute, eager, cruel, tiring,

remote, early, comic, simple, easy, tender, low, calm, sore, fast,
just, docile, proper, distinct, high, sincere.
a) -er

b) more+Adj.

(the) -est

(the) most+Adj.

) a) -er; (the) -est /

b) more + Adj. (the)
most + Adj.

EXERCISE

3. Provide the irregular degrees of comparison of the

following adjectives. Remember that some of them have two

forms of degrees of comparison :
1. good, 2. bad / ill, 3. little, 4. near, 5. much / many, 6. far, 7.
late, 8. old.
EXERCISE

4. Use the correct form of the adjectives in brackets:

1. What is the (late) information you've got? 2. Her (old) brother is

called Jim. 3. We were in a hurry to catch the (late) bus. 4. Which
is (old) of the two ? 5. Who is the (old) member of the students'
club? 6. They got down to business without (far) delay. 7. I've got
a still (old) edition of the dictionary. 8. The (old) sister was twenty
years (old) than the youngest. 9. The (late) half of May was quite
rainy. 10. I was told to wait until (far) notice. 11. I wish I had
bought it at the (near) shop. 12. He provided them with (far)
information as agreed. 13. The (near) station is Calea Victoriei.
14. John's (late) novel was a (good) seller and for sure it won't be
his (late) one. 15. He is the (little) writer of the two. 16. I saw him
meet her at the (far) end of the street. 17. I shall need (far) help
with this.
EXERCISE

5. Supply the appropriate form of the adjectives given

in brackets :

1. This is the . . . book I have read for a long time (good). 2. He

has one of the . . . cars on the road (fast). 3. The work you are
doing today is . . . than the work you did yesterday (easy). 4. Ann
often wears . . . dresses than her mother (expensive). 5. Which is
the . . . play you have lately read? (interesting). 6. The actress on
the stage was the . . . girl I have ever seen (striking). 7. Tom is . . .
than his friend (tall). 8. They have a. . . garden than ours (lovely).
9. He said this was the . . . day in his life (important). 10. He was .
. . than his wife when the child broke the window (angry). 11. He
was the . . . man in the world to do that (late). 12. A: 'Which was
your . . . subject at school and which was your .. . (good, bad)?'
B:'Physics was my . . . and history my.. .'(good, bad).' 13. Is
Bucharest or Prague the . . . from London (far)? 14. Tom is 17
years old, his brother Jack is 19 and his sister Jane is 15.
Therefore Jane is the . . . and Jack is the.. . (young, old).
EXERCISE

in

6. Supply the comparative form of the adjectives given

brackets.

Note

that

the

meaning

of

the

pattern

the

comparative of Adjective . . . , the comparative of Adjective is cu

cit. . . cu atit:
l. The (long) the speech is, the (tedious) it is. 2. The (weak) the
patient, the (great) his dependence on the nurse. 3. The (stormy)
the weather, the (dangerous) the trip. 4. The (humble) a man is,
the (haughty) her manner becomes. 5. The (scarce) the food is
getting, the (wild) the beasts become. 6. The (prompt) the
answer, the (high) the grade. 7. The (proper) the word, the
(exact) the translation is. 8. The (narrow) the path was getting,
the (hostile) the horse was becoming. 9. The (eager) the child,
the (intricate) the questions he asks. 10. The (fertile) the land,
the (little) the amount of fertilizer given to it.

EXERCISE

7. Give the correct succession of the adjectives in the

following noun phrases:

1. a/an (blue, washable, good, cotton) skirt; 2. (blue, frightened,
small) eyes; 3. a/an (Asiatic, large, striped) quadruped; 4. (cold,
turbulent, greyish, de_ep) waters; 5. (volcanic, dark, tall) rocks; 6.
a (Greek, young, bright) student; 7. a/an (fifteen-foot, pale-red,
age-old) brickwall; 8. a/an (little, marble, Roman, brownish)
statue; 9. a/an (intelligent, Polish, wiry, elderly) logician; 10 a/an
(fluffy, orange, wide, wollen, Peruvian) shawl.

3.7. GARABIT VIADUCT

Vital Statistics:
Location: Massif Central, France
Completion Date: 1884
Length: 1,853 feet
Type: Arch
Purpose: Railway
Materials: Wrought iron
Longest Single Span: 541 feet
Engineer(s): Gustave Eiffel
In the late 1800s, a mountainous barrier blocked the
railways from reaching Southern France. For years, engineers
tried to figure out a way to bridge the

windy Garabit Valley in

France's Massif Central. Finally, one of the era's

best

engineers, Gustave Eiffel, came up with a brilliant solution. He

built a huge wrought-iron arch in record time with just a minimal
amount of material. How did he do it?

Rather than building his bridge with thick, solid beams, Eiffel used
beams with lots of holes - holes in the shapes of triangles. Eiffel
knew that if his bridge was made of thick, solid beams, it would
be very heavy and the

beams would rattle in the wind. But if he

used a series of open triangles, called a truss, the gusty wind in

the valley would blow right through them. Not only is the truss
pattern lightweight; its very stable as well. Depending upon the
position of a train on the bridge, the connecting vertical and
diagonal segments are pulled into tension and pushed into
compression - forces that resist one another. A push on one
segment is resisted by an opposite pull from another, all along its
length. So the bridge remains strong and rigid, despite its
lightness.
Fast Facts:
It took 38 tons of red paint to coat the entire bridge.
For many years, the Garabit Viaduct remained the tallest
bridge in the world. The single railroad track crosses the
Garabit Valley, 400 feet above the Truyere River.
Gustave Eiffel's tremendous success with the Garabit
Viaduct, and later with the framework of the Statue of
Liberty and Paris' Eiffel Tower, earned him the nickname
"magician of iron."

3.8. ASWAN HIGH DAM

Vital Statistics:
Location: Aswan, Egypt
Completion Date: 1970

Cost: $1 billion
Reservoir Capacity: 5.97 trillion cubic feet
Type: Embankment
Purpose: Flood control, hydroelectric power, irrigation
Reservoir: Lake Nasser
Materials: Rock, clay
Engineer(s): planned by a team of British engineers; built by
a team of Soviet engineers
In the middle of the arid Egyptian desert lies one of the
largest embankment dams in the world. It is called the Aswan
High Dam, or Saad el Aali in Arabic, and it captures the mighty
Nile River in the world's third largest

reservoir, Lake Nasser.

Before the dam was built, the Nile River overflowed its banks once
a year and deposited four million tons of nutrient-rich silt on the
valley floor, making Egypt's otherwise dry land productive and
fertile. But there were some years when the river did not rise at
all, causing widespread drought and famine. In 1952, Egyptian
president Gamal Abdal-Nasser pledged to control his country's
annual flood with a giant new dam across the Nile River. His plan
worked.
The Aswan High Dam captures floodwater during rainy
seasons and releases the water during times of drought. The dam
also generates enormous amounts of electric power - more than
10 billion kilowatt-hours every year.

That's enough electricity

to power one million color televisions for 20 years!

Unfortunately, the dam has also produced several negative
side effects. In order to build the dam, 90,000 Egyptian peasants
had to move. To make matters worse, the rich silt that normally
fertilized the dry desert land during annual floods is now stuck at

the bottom of Lake Nasser! Farmers have been forced to use

about one million tons of artificial fertilizer as a substitute for
natural nutrients that once fertilized the arid floodplain.
IV. ADVERBS
4.1. Kinds of adverbs
Manner: bravely, fast, happily, hard, quickly, well
Place: by, down, here, near, there, up
Time: now, soon, still, then, today, yet
Frequency: always, never, occasionally, often, twice
Sentence: certainly, definitely, luckily, surely
Degree: fairly, hardly, rather, quite, too, very
Interrogative: when? where? why?Relative: when, where,
why
4.2. Form and use
The formation of adverbs with ly
A

Many adverbs of manner and some adverbs of degree are

formed by adding ly to the corresponding adjectives:
final, finally

immediate, immediately

slow, slowly

Spelling notes
(a)A final y changes to i: happy, happily.
(b)A final e is retained before ly: extreme, extremely.
Exceptions: true, due, whole become truly, duly, wholly.
(c)Adjectives ending in a consonant + le drop the e and add y:
gentle, gently

simple, simply

Note that the adverb of good is well.

Adjectives ending in ly
daily, weekly, monthly etc., kindly and sometimes
leisurely can be
adjectives or adverbs, but most other adjectives ending in ly,
e.g.
friendly, likely, lonely etc., cannot be used as adverbs and
have no
adverb form. To supply this deficiency we use a similar adverb
or
adverb phrase:
likely (adjective)
friendly (adjective)

probably (adverb)
in a friendly way (adverb phrase)

Some adverbs have a narrower meaning than their

corresponding adjectives or differ from them. coldly, coolly,
hotly, warmly are used mainly of feelings:
We received them coldly, (in an unfriendly way)
They denied the accusation hotly, (indignantly)
She welcomed us warmly, (in a friendly way)
But warmly dressed = wearing warm clothes.
coolly = calmly/courageously or calmly/impudently:
He behaved very coolly in this dangerous situation.
presently = soon: He'll be here presently.

Adverbs and adjectives with the same form

A

back

hard" little

right*

deep* high* long

short*

direct* ill

low

still

early

much/more/most*

just*

enoughkindly near*

well

straight

far

late*

fast

left

pretty*

wrong*

Used as adverbs:

Used as adjectives:

Come back soon.

the back door

You can dial Rome direct.

The train went fast.

the most direct route

a fast train

They worked hard, (energetically)

an ill-made road

You look ill/well

Turn right here.

the right answer

She went straight home.

He led us wrong.
B

The work is hard

a straight line

This is the wrong way.

Starred words above also have ly forms. Note the

meanings. deeply is used chiefly of feelings:
He was deeply offended.

Directly can be used of time or connection:

He '11 be here directly, (very soon)
The new regulations will affect us directly/indirectly.
Highly is used only in an abstract sense:
He was a highly paid official.

They spoke very highly of

him.
Justly corresponds to the adjective just (fair, right, lawful), but
just can also be an adverb of degree.
Lately = recently: Have you seen him lately?
4.3. Comparative and superlative adverb forms
A

With adverbs of two or more syllables we form the

comparative and superlative by putting more and most
before the positive form:

Positive ComparativeSuperlative
quickly

more quickly most quickly

fortunately

more fortunately most fortunately

Single-syllable adverbs, however, and early, add er,

est:
hard

harder

early earlier
B

hardest
earliest (note the y becomes i)

Irregular comparisons:
well

better best

badly

worse

little less
much
far

worst

least
more

most

farther farthest (of distance only)

further furthest (used more widely)

4.4 Position of adverbs

Adverbs of manner
A

Adverbs of manner come after the verb:

She danced beautifully or after the object when there is
one:
He gave her the money reluctantly.

They speak English

well.
Do not put an adverb between verb and object.
B

When we have verb + preposition + object, the adverb can

be either before the preposition or after the object:
He looked at me suspiciously or He looked suspiciously at
me. But if the object contains a number of words we put the
adverb before the preposition:

He looked suspiciously at everyone who got off the plane.

Adverbs of time
A

afterwards, eventually, lately, now, recently, soon,

then, today, tomorrow etc. and adverb phrases of time: at
once, since then, till (6.00 etc.)
These are usually placed at the very beginning or at the very
end of the clause, i.e. in front position or end position.
Eventually he came/He came eventually.
Then we went home/We went home then.
Write today.

I'll wait till tomorrow.

Adverbs of frequency
(a)

always, continually, frequently, occasionally,

often, once, twice, periodically, repeatedly,

sometimes, usually etc.
(b)

ever, hardly ever, never, rarely, scarcely ever,

seldom
A

Adverbs in both the above groups are normally placed:

1 After the simple tenses of to be:

He is always in time for meals.
2 Before the simple tenses of all other verbs:
They sometimes stay up all night.
3

With compound tenses, they are placed after the first

auxiliary, or, with interrogative verbs, after auxiliary + subject:
He can never understand.
You have often been told not to do that.
Have you ever ridden a camel?

Order of adverbs and adverb phrases of manner, place and time

when they occur in the same sentence
Expressions of manner usually precede expressions of place:
He climbed awkwardly out of the window.
He 'd study happily anywhere.
Time expressions can follow expressions of manner and place:
They worked hard in the garden today.
He lived there happily for a year.
4.5. Inversion of the verb
Inversion of the verb after certain adverbs
Certain adverbs and adverb phrases, mostly with a restrictive or
negative sense, can for emphasis be placed first in a sentence or
clause and are then followed by the inverted (i.e. interrogative)
form of the verb. The most important of these are shown below.
The numbers indicate paragraphs where an example will be found.
hardly ever

on no account

hardly . . . when ) only by

in no circumstances

only in this way

neither/nor

only then/when

never

scarcely ever

no sooner . . . than

scarcely . . . when

not only

seldom

not till

so

nowhere
1. Haven't got a ticket. Neither/Nor have I.
2. I had never before been asked to accept a bribe.
Never before had I been asked to accept a bribe.

3. They not only rob you, they smash everything too. Not
only do they rob you, they smash everything too.
4. He didn 't realize that he had lost it till he got home.
Not till he got home did he realize that he had lost it.
5. This switch must not be touched on any account. On
no account must this switch be touched.
4.6. SEMINAR - ADVERB

EXERCISE

Form adverbs from the following adjectives and nouns

by adding

the suffix -If or -ward(s), paying attention to their spelling.

Remember that certain adverb coincide in form with the
adjectives they derive from:
Gay, extreme, back, sincere, true, sensible, east, whole, final,
due, beautiful, good, sure, home, pleasant, hungry, wholehearted, deep, bad, thankful, late, devoted, striking, hard, west,
unhappy, terrible, diligent, silent, fast, near.
EXERCISE

2. Choose the correct word:

1. You are an excellent cook. The food tastes (good, well). 2. It was a
lovely day with birds singing and the sun shining (bright, brightly)
and girls wearing (bright, brightly)-coloured dresses. 3. I hate
taking medicine. It tastes (bitter, bitterly). 4. I don't think he is ill.
His voice sounds (merry, merrily). 5. It rains (heavy, heavily). 6. It
is (near, nearly) five o'clock. 7. You must work (hard, hardly) for
your exams. 8. He spoke so (quick, quickly) that we could (hard,
hardly) follow him. 9. When did you (last, lastly) see him? 10. I am
(direct, directly) interested in what you think. 11. He couldn't
move as he was (dead, deadly) tired. 12. His eyes hurt him (bad,

badly). 13. Mr. Jones held it (tight, tightly). 14. It was six o'clock as
(near, nearly) as he could guess. 15. (last, lastly) I must account
for my sister's behaviour.

EXERCISE

3. Rewrite these sentences substituting -ly adverbs for

the italicized phrases:

MODEL:

'Who's afraid?' he said in an uneasy manner. 'Who's

afraid?' he said uneasily.

1. He smiled a contemptuous smile. 2. I pick my staff in a
careful manner.
3.'Oh, John', she said in a hoarse voice. 4. He bade us farewell in
a cold voice.5. She cried with bitter tears. 6. He came up to me at
a slow pace. 7. He spoke about the trip in an excited voice. 8.
They defended their friend in convincing words. 9. She stared at
me with a fixed look. 10. The Indians lived a simple life, hunting
and fishing.
EXERCISE

4. Give the degrees of comparison of the following

adverbs:
Much, brightly, quietly, expressively, badly, quickly, late, fast,
high, often, well, swiftly, far, little, slowly.
EXERCiSE 5. Rewrite the following sentences using the adverbs
in parantheses in the correct degree of comparison:
1. In a large city you must cross the street (carefully) than in a
small one. 2. He walked (far) than I did. 3. Please speak (slowly),
so that I can take notes. 4. She moved (awkwardly) an elephant.
5. He reviewed her work (unfavorably) than Dixon did. 6. Of the
three men, you behaved (disgracefully). 7. He's been sleeping

(badly) than myself the last few months. 8. Of the ten students
he has been working (hard). 9. I pick my staff (carefully) than you
do; that's why our results are worse. 10. The answer came back
(quickly) than I had expected.
EXERCISE

6 Fill in the blanks with rather or fairly:

Note that fairly implies the idea of something "favourable" while

rather the idea of something "unfavourable". Rather can be used
before alike, like, similar, different and before comparatives
conveying the meaning of a little, slightly, (e.g. Your example is
rather similar to mine. The suitcase was rather heavier than I
expected). Fairly cannot be used before comparatives. Rather can
be used before certain "favourable" words such as: good,
well,pretty, clever, amusing, and the verbs to like, to enjoy, etc.,
its meaning becoming nearly equivalent to very. (e.g. The
performance was rather good.)
1. This cake is . . . good, but the other is . . . sour. 2. They
behaved . . . meanly. 3. You speak English . . . well. 4. It was . . .
stupid of him to propose to Mary. 5. She looks . . . nice. 6. Lesson
25 is . .. difficult but Lesson 24 was . . . easy. 7. She was . . . kind
to me. 8. The teacher was . . . angry with us. 9. She is . . . tall for
her age. 10. It was . . . cruel of him to say that. 11. The lecture
was . . . interesting but. . . long. 12.1 didn't want to make friends
with them but now I . . . like them.

4.7. THREE GORGES DAM

Vital Statistics:
Location: Three Gorges, China
Completion Date: 2009

Cost: $17-$100 billion

Reservoir Capacity: 1.39 trillion cubic feet
Type: Gravity
Purpose:

Flood

Control,

hydroelectric

power,

irrigation,

navigation
Reservoir: not named
Materials: Concrete
Engineer(s):
Zhongnan

Changjiang

Investment

&

Water

Resources

Design

Commission;

Institute;

Huadong

Investment & Design Institute

Construction is now under way in China on what will be the
world's largest hydroelectric dam. When it is completed in 2009,
Three Gorges Dam will stretch more than one mile across the
Yangtze River and soar 600 feet above the valley floor. It will be
the largest concrete dam in the world, and will produce 18,000
megawatts of electrical energy, nudging Brazil's Itaipu Dam to
second place.
China's Three Gorges Dam is years from completion, but
environmentalists

and human rights advocates are already

concerned about the consequences of such a huge structure. To

make way for the enormous project, more than one million people
living on the banks of the Yangtze River will have to

move

to

higher ground. The 350-mile-long reservoir will submerge villages,

ancient temples, burial grounds, and the spectacular canyons that
tourists from all over the world come to see. Environmentalists
also argue that the dam will wipe out a number of rare species,
including the Yangtze River dolphin, and that the reservoir will
trap millions of tons of raw pollutants spewing from China's
largest industrialized city, Chongqing.

When finished, Three Gorges Dam will generate one-ninth of

China's power. Unfortunately, the dam may be remembered not
for its hydroelectric power, but for its drastic social and
environmental impact.
Fast Facts:

About 20,000 people are working nearly round the clock to

complete the 1.24-mile-wide structure by 2009.

The lake that will form behind Three Gorges Dam will stretch
for about 350 miles - the distance from San Francisco to Los
Angeles.

When it is completed in 2009, the enormous Three

Gorges Dam reservoir will actually be visible from
the moon!

4.8. CITICORP CENTER

Vital Statistics:
Location: New York, New York, USA
Completion Date: 1977
Cost: $175 million
Height: 915 feet
Stories: 59
Materials: Steel
Facing Materials: Aluminum, reflective glass
Engineer(s): William LeMessurier and Associates
From the very beginning, the Citicorp Center (today, the
Citigroup Center) in New York City was an engineering challenge.
When planning for the skyscraper began in the early 1970s, the

northwest corner of the proposed building site was occupied by

St. Peter's Lutheran Church. The church allowed Citicorp to build
the skyscraper under one condition: a new church would have to
be built on the same corner, with no connection to the Citicorp
building and no columns passing through it.
How did the engineers do it? They set the 59-story tower on four
massive columns, positioned at the center of each side, rather
than at the corners. This design allowed the northwest corner of
the building to cantilever 72 feet over the new church.
In 1978, the skyscraper's chief structural engineer, William
LeMessurier, discovered a potentially fatal flaw in the building's
design: the skyscraper's bolted joints were too weak to withstand
70-mile-per-hour

wind

gusts.

With

hurricane

season

fast

approaching, LeMessurier took no chances. He convinced Citicorp

officers to hire a crew of welders to repair the fragile building. For
the next three months, a construction crew welded two-inch-thick
steel plates over each of the skyscraper's 200 bolted joints,
permanently correcting the problem.
Fast Facts:
The Citicorp crisis of 1978 was hidden from the public for almost
20 years.
Citicorp Center was the first skyscraper in the United States to
contain a tuned mass damper, a pendulum-like device that
reduces the sway in tall buildings caused by the wind.
V. THE PRONOUN
Pronoun is a word used to replace a noun.
Pronouns identify persons, places, things, and ideas without
renaming them.

EXAMPLE: John broke Johns arm.

ANSWER: John broke his arm.
The noun that a pronoun replaces is the antecedent of the
pronoun.
EXAMPLE:
Carmen and Joan walked into the theatre. It was so dark that
they could barely see the floor.
(Theatre is the antecedent of it. Carmen and Joan are the
antecedents of they.)
The antecedent usually appears before the pronoun. Pronouns
may be the antecedents of other pronouns
EXAMPLE: HE enjoys HIS free time. (He is the antecedent of
his)
A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number.
If the antecedent is singular, the pronoun must be singular. If the
antecedent is plural, the pronoun must be plural
There are seven kinds of pronouns:
personal,
demonstrative,
reflexive,
intensive,
interrogative,
relative, and
indefinite.

5.1. Personal pronouns

Personal Pronouns are the largest group of pronouns. They have
different form to express person, number, and gender.
Expressing person
When you write or speak about yourself, you use first-person
pronouns: I, me, we, us.
When you refer to an audience, you use the second person
pronoun: you.
When you refer to other people or things, you use thirdperson pronouns: he, she, they, it, and them.
Expressing number (are they singular or plural)
Personal pronouns also indicate whether the antecedent (the
noun that the pronoun is replacing) is singular or plural.
I , She, he, and it are SINGULAR pronouns.
We, they and us are PLURAL pronouns.
You can be EITHER singular or plural.
Expressing gender
Personal pronouns express gender.
He and His indicate the masculine gender.
She and Her indicate the feminine gender.
It indicates the neuter gender, which you use to refer
to things and ideas.

5.2. Uses of it
A

it is normally used of a thing or an animal whose sex we

don't know, and sometimes of a baby or small child: Where's
my map? I left it on the table. Look at that bird. It always
comes to my window. Her new baby is tiny. It only weighs 2
kilos.

it can be used of people in sentences such as: ANN

(on phone): Who is that/Who is it? BILL: It's me. Is
that Tom over there? ~ No, it's Peter.
it is used in expressions of time, distance, weather, temperature,
tide: What time is it? ~ It is six. What's the date? ~ It's the
third of March
How far is it to York? ~ It is 400 kilometres.
How long does it take to get there? ~ It depends on how you
go.
It is raining/snowing/freezing.

It's frosty.

It's a fine

night.
It's full moon tonight.

In winter it's/it is dark at six o'clock.

It is hot/cold/quiet/noisy in this room.

It's high tide/low tide. Note also:
It's/It is three years since I saw him =
I haven't seen him for three years.
E

it/this can represent a previously mentioned phrase, clause

or verb: He smokes in bed, though I don't like it. (it = his
smoking in bed) He suggested flying, but I thought it would
cost too much, {it = flying)

it also acts as a subject for impersonal verbs:

it seems

it appears

it looks

it happens

5.3. Possessive pronouns

Personal Pronouns have possessive forms to show ownership or
belonging.
EXAMPLE:
The house is ours.
The pen is mine.
The following chart contains the personal pronouns. The POSSESSIVE forms are in parentheses.

FIRST PERSON
SECOND PERSON

SINGULAR
I, me (my, mine)
you (your, yours)
he, him (his)

THIRD PERSON

she, her (her, hers)

it (its)

PLURAL
we, us (our, ours)
you (your, yours)
them, they (their,
theirs)

5.4. Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns tell which one or which group is referred
to. A list of demonstrative pronouns follows: THAT THIS THESE
THOSE
THIS and THESE point to people or things that are near in space
or time. THAT or THOSE point to people or things that are farther
away in space or time.
EXAMPLE 1: THIS is a new book.( the antecedent of THIS is book)
EXAMPLE 2: THOSE are rare coins. (the antecedent of THOSE is
rare coins)
5.5. Reflexive pronouns
Reflexive Pronouns are used to indicate that people perform
actions TO, FOR, or UPON themselves. You form reflexive
pronouns with the suffixes -self, and -selves.

FIRST PERSON: myself, ourselves

SECOND PERSON: yourself, yourselves
THIRD PERSON: himself, herself, itself, oneself, themselves.
EXAMPLE 1: Brad bumped himself on the knee. (Brad performed
the action of bumping upon himself.)
EXAMPLE 2: The Hanson CHILDREN built themselves a tree house.
(The Hanson children built a tree house for themselves)

5.6. Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative Pronouns introduce questions. A list of interrogative
pronouns follows.
Who which

whose

whom

what

EXAMPLE 1: WHO was at the door?

EXAMPLE 2: WHICH do you prefer?
EXAMPLE 3: WHOM did you elect?

5.7. Relative pronouns

Relative Pronouns introduce adjective clauses, which are word

groups that modify a word or a phrase. A list of reflexive pronouns
follows.
Who Whose That Whom Which
EXAMPLE 1: I know the PERSON who lives here. (PERSON is the
antecedent of who)
EXAMPLE 2: He planted FLOWERS that bloom every year.
(FLOWERS is the antecedent of that)
*Remember, that INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS introduce
QUESTIONS only.

5.8. Indefiite pronouns

Indefinite Pronouns do not refer to a definite person, place or
thing; instead they refer to persons, places or things in general.
The following indefinite pronouns are singular. They are used with
the singular possessive pronouns HIS, HER, and ITS.
Another

anything everybody

anybody each
anyone

neither

everyone nobody

either

everything

one

somebody
no one

someone

EXAMPLE: Each of the jobs has ITS rewards.

The following indefinite pronouns are plural. They are used with
the plural possessive THEIR.
Both many few several
EXAMPLE: Many of the viewers expressed THEIR opinions.
The following indefinite pronouns can be either singular or plural,
depending on their meaning in the sentence.
All

Some

None

5.9. SEMINAR PRONOUN

EXERCISE

1. Substitute possessive pronouns for the italicized

groups of words:
MODEL:

His results are more impressive than my

results. His results are more impressive than

mine.
1. Jim's sense of humour is as unusual as her sense of humour.
2. Grandmother's pears are very juicy; our pears are not. 3. Our

employers will be as surprised as their employers. 4. Tom

boasted to his friend about his success and Bob boasted to his
friend. 5. I'm glad I haven't a mind like your mind.
6.

You have your own interests, and I have my interests. 7. The

Browns

took

their twins to the Zoo, and the Ashtons took their twins to the
circus.

8.

He'll

take my hand and I'll take her hand and we'll start dancing. 9.
She

is

mad

at

her daughter and I am mad at my daughter. 10. Scratch my back

and

I'll

scratch your back.

EXERCISE

2. Use the possessive pronoun instead of the

possessive adjective:
MODEL:

He is one of her fans. He is a fan of hers.

1. He is one of my friends. 2. Tom lent his friend one of his

books. 3. I gave him one of our dictionaries. 4. She played one of
her old records. 5. Some of their neighbours had come over to
tea. 6. He took a fancy to one of my cousins. 7 Here, John, meet
one of your well-known commentators. 8. Is this another of their
little schemes? 9. Was it one of her favourite puns? 10. That's
one of our favourite tunes.

EXERCISE

3. Fill in the blanks with the suitable reflexive

pronouns:
1. If the child eats so little he'll make . . . ill. 2. Can a five-yearold boy wash . . ., dress . . . , feed . . . ? 3. We find it still difficult
to express ... in English. 4. Alice hurt. . . when she fell down the

tree. 5. They are likely to have enjoyed ... at your party. 6. One
has to serve ... in that restaurant.
7. My cousin switched the light off and finding ... in the dark
began to cry.
8. I was told you have devoted ... to science. 9. She cheers ... up
by talking about her youth. 10. I bought a new watch for . . .
yesterday. 11. One can lose . . .quite easily in London. 12. We
forced ... to smile. 13. Do pull. . . together! 14. The ringleader
shot . . . . 15. I chose to defend . . . against her. 16. The cat looked
at... in the looking glass. 17. Make ... at home (pi). 18. They could
only speak for .... 19. She cooked ... a good meal and went to
bed.

EXERCISE

4. Choose the necessary pronoun:

Note that prepositions denoting concrete spatial relations are

not

followed

by

reflexive

pronouns.

With

the

following

prepositions as, like, but, except personal and reflexive pronouns

are used in variation:
1. He began to imagine how he might rescue her in spite of
(her/herself). 2. They tried to live up to a lot of people who were
better off than (them/ themselves). 3. The car was heading
straight towards (them/themselves). 4. Then he went crazy,
screamed and threw (him/himself) about. 5. Look about
(you/yourself)! 6. Somebody like (you/yourself) should set the
fashion. 7. I winced inside (me/myself). 8. She was beside
(her/herself) with rage. 9. My sister and (I/myself) went shopping.
10. Do they have any money on (them; themselves) ? 11. When
he was (him/himself) again she was too happy to question him.
12. We'll place our paper in front of (us/ourselves). 13. I am

deeply touched to be offered help by so eminent a man as

(you/yourself). 14. He takes too much upon (him/himself). 15. For
somebody like (me/myself) this is no surprise. 16. I hope it'll
remain between (us/ourselves).
EXERCISE 5
Identify the two personal pronouns in each of the following
sentences. Tell whether each pronoun is in the first person, the
second person, or the third person.
1. I picked up Sams paycheck and sent it through the mail.
2. I would like to tell you about last summer.
3. It was a long winter, and to make the time pass more quickly, I
took up painting.
4. He couldnt quite hear what you said.
5. We thought that the team was out of the running, but it came
back to win the pennant.
6. Is the book Sandys, and does she want it?
7. Will you please try to write us more often?
8. We should not criticize other people too harshly, for those
people may turn around and criticize us.
9. They saw the exhibit when it was at the art museum last year.
10. Brad looked at the painting, and knew it was his.
EXERCISE 6
Underline the pronouns used in place of nouns. Identify their
antecedents (the noun each pronoun stands for)
1. Carolyn and Katy waxed their skis.
2. Ms. Rodriguez played the guitar for her class.
3. Have you spoken to Jean? Sheila asked Rene.

4. The steam made a hissing sound as it escaped.

5. Dad and Marty finished their painting.
6. The Millers moved. Anthony helped them.
7. Are the gloves yours? the sales clerk asked Joe.
8. Kim won a trophy. She was excited.
9. I will write the invitations, said Kevin.
10. We met Jim at the movie, said Mike and Jan.
11. The test took half an hour. It was simple.
12. The results are in. They will be posted later.
13. Bob carried Sues picture with him.
14. Dolores deposited the money in her savings account.
15.

Al and Lee are here. Did Sarah find them?

EXERCISE 7
List the antecedents of the pronouns in CAPITAL letters.
1. Shelley, will YOU please answer the phone? IT has been ringing
for five minutes.
2. Grandmother said that SHE would love to come for dinner
today.
3. Larry will give you the information when you need IT.
4. Juan should go to the fair before IT closes on Friday.
5. Peter and I will practice our duet before WE come to band
practice on Saturday morning.
6. The carpenter picked up HIS hammer.
7. You must wait YOUR turn.
8. The columnist wrote HER article.
9. Two members have not paid THEIR dues.
10.

Nora has improved HER grades.

EXERCISE 8 Write a correct demonstrative pronoun for each

sentence.
1._____________________ is the first Japanese restaurant Ive been
in.
2._____________________ were my favorite stores.
3._____________________ dont taste as fresh as the others.
4._____________________ was a good idea.
5._____________________ are my sisters with me.
6._____________________ over there are yours.
7._____________________ is his house across the street.
EXERCISE 9 Identifying DEMONSTRATIVE and INTERROGATIVE
pronouns.
Write whether each capitalized pronoun is DEMONSTRATIVE or
INTERROGATIVE.
1. WHO was at the door?
2. Are THESE left over?
3. We chose THAT for our theme song.
4. WHICH of the jackets is yours?
5. Sara preferred THOSE.
6. WHOSE is the blue pen?
7. THIS is best for everyone.
8. WHAT was that noise?
EXERCISE 10 Using Indefinite Pronouns Correctly.
Underline the indefinite pronoun, then underline the correct
possessive pronoun.
1. Nobody lost (his or her, their) place.
2. Everyone has paid (his or her, their) fee.
3. Many of the musicians brought (his or her, their) instruments.

4. Each of the type writers comes with (its, their) own carrying
case.
5. All of the gymnasts practiced (his or her, their) routines.
6. Neither of the girls brought (her, their) swim suit.
7. If anyone is interested, have (him or her, them) see me.
8. Several of the containers were missing (its, their) labels.
9. Both of the stores raised (its, their) labels.
10. Neither of the scientists completed (his or her, their)
experiment.
11. Everything was returned to (its, their) owner.
12. Some of the architects sent in (his or her, their) designs.
13. None of the sulphur is in (its, their) flask.
14. No one offered (his or her, their) help.
15. Either of the girls can explain (her, their) answer
Ex. 11 Fill in the correct self pronoun (myself, yourself, himself,
herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves) or each other
into the gaps.
1. Bob cut .. while he was preparing supper.
2. The two climbers fell and hurt .. on the rocks.
3. Sandy and her friend Margie looked at . very
surprised.
4. "Don't worry, Mandy. We can take care of . ."
5. Mr Smith is teaching Spanish but he thinks it's
very difficult.
6. What a nice sweater! - Thank you, I've knitted it
.. .
7. The clock came off the wall . .
8. Mrs Brown wallpapered the living room .. .

9. Both families haven't been talking to .. since the

big quarrel last year.
10. Cathy and Ann are sewing fancy costumes for .. .
Ex.12 Fill in with relative nouns
1. This is the boy . had an accident.
2. Yesterday I saw a car .. was really old.
3. Mandy is the girl . I met on Friday.
4. I haven't seen Peter, .. brother is five, for a long time
now.
5. The robber stole the car. the lady parked in front of the
supermarket.
6. This is the man . house is on fire.
7. Can I talk to the girl is sitting on the bench?
8. The book .. you gave me is great.
Ex.13 Relative Clauses, Relative Pronouns
1. Where is the bottle of Coke . who which whose x I bought
this morning?
2. I talked to the girl . who which whose x car had broken
down in front of the shop.
3. Mr Jones, who which whose x is a taxi driver, lives on
the corner.
4. There is the car . who which whose x I'd like to buy.
5. He cleaned the car . who which whose x had an
accident.
6. This is the girl . who which whose x comes from Spain.

7. That's Peter, the boy . who which whose x has just arrived
at the airport.
8. What did you do with the money .. who which whose x
your mother lent you?

Ex. 14 Correct the pronoun errors.

1. Keats wrote that "a thing of beauty is a joy forever." He added
that it's "loveliness increases."
2. At some schools, you have to take the courses they tell you to
take.
3. Everyone at the game brought their Thermos filled with hot
chocolate.
4. Marie and me will go with you and she to the craft fair.
5. You have a much higher GPA than me.
6. Make your reservations with either Dana or myself.
7. On the ten o'clock news, they announced that Pete and her will
be the new delegates.
8. Unless you grasp the concept, it can be really frustrating.
9. My barber and his boss are always arguing; he told me they
may never make peace.
10. The band played a fanfare for the President and I as we
disembarked from the plane.
11. You and me are best buds. This makes me very happy.
12. When they drove to California, they were surprised at how fast
it went.

13. The photograph certainly did justice to the scenery; it's

quality was excellent.
14. Dad loves the wide open spaces. That is why he moved out of
the city.
15. Sarah says she is going to graduate with honors or die trying.
16. Mike, Susan, and I washed the floor ourself this morning.
17. One of the plans were drawn by the architect who is more
famous than me.
18. All of the lumber were warped by the heavy rain.
19. Joe is afraid of dogs, and he is allergic to cats. That is why he
doesn't have a pet.

Ex. 15 "Who" and "Whom," "Whoever" and "Whomever"

Exercises
Fill in the correct form in the following sentences.
1. _____ kicked the field goal?
2. The governor appointed _____ for the position?
3. I will pick ______ needs the money.
4. Dan Baker is not only the man ______ wrote the best-selling
novel but also the ex-convict about ______ everyone wonders.
5. Trudy and ______ will be co-chairs of the committee?
6. You and ______ bought the flowers for ______ ?
7. This is the woman for ______ the bell tolls.

8. The student ______ was wearing the blue shorts swore that he
would punch out ______he could catch.
9. Jody went to the history class admiring ______ could write an
"A" paper for that professor, ______ was noted for his tough
grading policies and about ______ everyone was gossiping.
10. The corporation was facing bankruptcy; consequently, it could
not advertise for the technicians ______ would be the most
qualified, and they had to settle for ______ they could find that
would be willing to work for low wages.
11. Martha is a very conscientious mother upon ______ the whole
family depends.
12. This general, with ______ many soldiers fought and under
______ more soldiers were trained, ______ disciplined soldiers
_______ disobeyed the slightest order, and ______ challenged
______ appeared to have the faintest spark of promise, died
ingloriously yesterday while sitting in his easy chair in the nursing
home, dreaming of the days when he could strike fear in the
hearts of ______ he commanded.

5.9.1. SEARS TOWER

Vital Statistics:
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Completion Date: 1973
Cost: $150 million
Height: 1,454 feet
Stories: 110

Materials: Steel
Facing Materials: Black aluminum
Engineer(s): Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
The Sears Tower is an example of the revolutionary bundledtube structural

design. Tube buildings gain most of their

structural support from a rigid

network

of

beams

columns in their outer walls. The rigid outer walls act

like

and
the

walls of a hollow tube. The Sears Tower is actually a bundle of

nine tubes, and is considered one of the most efficient structures
designed to withstand wind. This is a great design for a
skyscraper in Chicago, the "Windy City," where the average wind
speed is 16 miles per hour. As the

building climbs upward, the

tubes begin to drop off, reducing the wind forces on the building.
The Tower's heavy weight more than 440 million pounds is also
supported by 114 piles sunk deep into the earth so that they
stand firmly on hard, solid bedrock.
In 1974, the Sears Tower in Chicago assumed the coveted title of
world's tallest building, at 1,454 feet. It held this title for 22 years
until 1998, when the decorative spires atop the Petronas Towers
in Malaysia surpassed the Sears Tower by 33 feet. Today, the
Sears Tower still boasts the tallest occupiable floor and the tallest
skyscraper roof in the world.
Fast Facts:

The Sears Tower contains enough concrete to build an eightlane, five-mile-long highway, enough steel to build 50,000
automobiles, and enough telephone wiring to wrap around
the world 1.75 times.

On a clear day, you can see four states - Illinois, Indiana,

Wisconsin, and Michigan - from the Sears Tower Visitor
Skydeck.

At the very top of the building, the maximum wind drift is

just one foot.

Six roof-mounted robotic window-washing machines clean all

16,100 windows on the Sears Tower.

5.9.2. PETRONAS TOWERS

Vital Statistics:
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Completion Date: 1998
Cost: $1.6 billion
Height: 1,483 feet
Stories: 88
Materials: Concrete, Steel
Facing Materials: Aluminum, Stainless Steel
Engineer(s): Thornton-Tomasetti and Ranhill Bersekutu
Until 1998, the world's tallest skyscraper had always been in the
United States. But that year, Malaysia's Petronas Towers laid claim
to this

distinction.

Squeaking past the Chicago Sears Tower by 33 feet, the spires

atop the Petronas Towers peak at an impressive 1,483 feet. Yet
there's a controversy. The highest occupied floor in the Sears
Tower is actually 200 feet higher

than the top floor

of the

Petronas Towers, and its antennae stretch higher still.

So why are the Petronas Towers considered the world's tallest
buildings? According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban

Habitat, spires count, but antennae don't. Spires do not contain

floors, but they are counted in the world's tallest building race for
one architectural reason: they're nice to look at.
Built over a former racetrack, the Petronas Towers reflect a unique
blend of religion and economic prosperity. The $1.6 billion towers
contain more than eight million square feet of shopping and
entertainment facilities, underground parking for 4,500 cars, a
petroleum

museum,

symphony

hall,

mosque,

and

multimedia conference center.

Each tower's floor plan forms an eight-pointed star, a design
inspired by traditional Malaysian Islamic patterns. The 88-story
towers, joined by a flexible skybridge on the 42nd floor, have
been described as two "cosmic

pillars"

spiraling

endlessly

towards the heavens.

Fast Facts:

It takes 90 seconds to travel from the basement parking lot

to the top of each tower.

Together, the towers have 32,000 windows. It takes window

washers an entire month to wash each tower just once!

VI. PREPOSITIONS
6.1. Introduction
Prepositions are words normally placed before nouns or
pronouns
The student has two main problems with prepositions. He has
to know
(a)

whether in any construction a preposition is required or

not, and

(b)

which preposition to use when one is required.

The first problem can be especially troublesome to a European

student, who may find that a certain construction in his own
language requires a preposition, whereas a similar one in
English does not, and vice versa: e.g. in most European
languages purpose is expressed by a preposition + infinitive;
in English it is expressed by the infinitive only:
I came here to study
Alternative position of prepositions
A

Prepositions normally precede nouns or pronouns. In two

constructions, however, it is possible in informal English to
move the preposition to the end of the sentence:

1 In questions beginning with a preposition +

whom/which/what/
whose/where:
To whom were you talking? (formal)
Who were you talking to? (informal)
In which drawer does he keep it? (formal)
Which drawer does he keep it in? (informal) It used to
be thought ungrammatical to end a sentence with a
preposition, but it is now accepted as a colloquial form.
2 Similarly in relative clauses, a preposition placed before
whom/which
can be moved to the end of the clause. The relative pronoun is
then
often omitted:
the people with whom I was travelling (formal) the
people I was travelling with (informal) the company

from which I hire my TV set (formal) the company I

hire my TV set from (informal)
B

But in phrasal verbs the preposition/adverb remains after its

verb, so the formal type of construction is not possible, the
children I was looking after could not be rewritten with after
+ whom and Which bridge did they blow up? could not be
rewritten with up + which.

Time and date: at, on, by, before, in

at daw, at six, at midnight, at 4.30, at sixteen/at the age of
sixteen, on Monday, on 4 June, on Christmas Day, by the end
of July
C

on time, in time, in good time

on time = at the time arranged, not before, not after:
The 8.15 train started on time. (It started at 8.15.) in
time/in time for + noun = not late; in good time (for) =
with a comfortable margin:
Passengers should be in time for their train.
I arrived at the concert hall in good time (for the concert).
(Perhaps
the concert began at 7.30 and I arrived at 7.15.)

Time: from, since, for, during

from is normally used with to or till/until:

Most people work from nine to five
since is used for time, never for place, and means 'from that time
to the time referred to'.
He has been here since Monday, (from Monday till now)
He wondered where Ann was. He had not seen her since their
quarrel.

for is used of a period of time: for six years, for two

months, for ever:
Bake it for two hours.
He travelled in the desert for six months. for + a period of
time can be used with a present perfect tense or past perfect
tense for an action which extends up to the time of speaking:
He has worked here for a year. (He began working here a year
ago
and still works here.)
during is used with known periods of time, i.e. periods known by
name, such as Christmas, Easter or periods which have been
already defined:
during the Middle Ages

during 1941

during the summer (of that year)

during his childhood
Time: to, till/until, after,
A

to and till/until
to can be used of time and place; till/until of time
only. We can use from ... to or from . . . till/until:
They worked from five to ten/from five till ten. (at five to ten
would
mean 'at 9.55'.) But if we have no from we use till/until,

after
after (preposition) must be followed by a noun, pronoun or
gerund:
Don't bathe immediately after a meal/after eating.
Don't have a meal and bathe immediately after it.

at, in; in, into; on, onto

A

at and in
at
We can be at home, at work, at the office, at school, at
university, at an address, at a certain point e.g. at the bridge,
at the crossroads, at the bus-stop.
in
We can be in a country, a town, a village, a square, a street, a
room, a forest, a wood, a field, a desert or any place which has
boundaries or is enclosed.
But a small area such as a square, a street, a room, a field
might be used with at when we mean 'at this point' rather
than 'inside'.
We can be in or at a building, in means inside only; at could
mean
inside or in the grounds or just outside. If someone is 'at the
station' he
could be in the street outside, or in the ticket office/waiting
room/
restaurant or on the platform.
We can be in or at the sea, a river, lake, swimming pool etc.
in here means actually in the water:
The children are swimming in the river. at the
sea/river/lake etc. means 'near/beside the sea'. But at sea
means 'on a ship'.

in and into
in as shown above normally indicates position.
into indicates movement, entrance:

They climbed into the lorry.

I poured the beer into a

tankard.
Thieves broke into my house/My house was broken into.
With the verb put, however, either in or into can be used:
He put his hands in/into his pockets. in can
also be an adverb:
Come in = Enter.
I'

Get in (into the car).

on and onto
on can be used for both position and movement:
He was sitting on his case.

Snow fell on the hills.

His name is on the door.He went on board ship.

onto can be used (chiefly of people and animals) when
there is movement involving a change of level:
People climbed onto their roofs.

We lifted him onto the

table.
The cat jumped onto the mantelpiece. on
can also be an adverb:
Go on.

Come on.

above, over, under, below, beneath etc.

A

above and over

above (preposition and adverb) and over (preposition) can
both mean 'higher than' and sometimes either can be used:
The helicopter hovered above/over us.
Flags waved above/over our heads. But over can also
mean 'covering', 'on the other side of, 'across' and 'from one
side to the other':
We

put a rug over him. He lives over the mountains. There

is a bridge over
the river.
over can mean 'more than' or 'higher than'.

above can mean 'higher than' only.

Both can mean 'higher in rank'. But He is over me would
normally mean
'He is my immediate superior', 'He supervises my work',
above would
not necessarily have this meaning.
If we have a bridge over a river, above the bridge means
'upstream'.
over can be used with meals/food/drink:
below and under
below (preposition) and under (preposition) can both mean
'lower than' and sometimes either can be used. But under can
indicate contact:
She put the letter under her pillow.
The ice crackled under his feet. With below there is
usually a space between the two surfaces:
They live below us. (We live on the fourth floor and they live
on
the third.) Similarly: We live above them. (See A
above.)
beneath can sometimes be used instead of under, but it is
safer to keep it for abstract meanings:
He would think it beneath him to tell a lie. (unworthy of
him) She married beneath her. (into a lower social class)
beside, between, behind, in front of, opposite
Imagine a theatre with rows of seats: A, B, C etc., Row A being
nearest the stage._____
Stage

Row A

Tom

Ann

Bill

Row B

Mary

Bob

Jane

This means that:

Tom is beside Ann; Mary is beside Bob etc.
Ann is between Tom and Bill; Bob is between Mary and Jane.
Mary is behind Tom; Tom is in front of Mary. But if Tom and
Mary are having a meal and Tom is sitting at one side of j the
table and Mary at the other, we do not use in front of, but
say:
Tom is sitting opposite Mary or Tom is facing Mary. But He
stood in front of me could mean either 'He stood with his back
toj me' or 'He faced me'.
People living on one side of a street will talk of the houses on
the other I side as the houses opposite (us) rather than the
houses in front of us.
Don't confuse beside with besides, beside = at the side of: We
camped beside a lake.
besides (preposition) = in addition to/as well as:
I do all the cooking and besides that I help Tom.
Besides doing the cooking I help Tom. besides (adverb)
means (a) 'in addition to that/as well as that':
I do the cooking and help Tom besides and (b) 'in
any case/anyway':
We can't afford oysters. Besides, Tom doesn't like them.
between and among
between normally relates a person/thing to two other
people/things,
but it can be used of more when we have a definite number in
mind:

Luxembourg lies between Belgium, Germany and France.

among relates a person/thing to more than two others; normally
we have no definite number in mind:
He was happy to be among friends again.
a village among the hills
Prepositions used with adjectives and participles
Certain adjectives and past participles used as adjectives can
be
followed by a preposition + noun/gerund.
Usually particular adjectives and participles require particular
prepositions. Some of these are given below; others can be
found by
consulting a good dictionary, which after any adjective will give
the
prepositons that can be used with it.

absorbed in

involved in

according to

keen on

accustomed to

liable for/to

afraid of

nervous of

anxious for/about owing to

ashamed of

pleased with

aware of

prepared for

bad at/for

proud of

capable of

ready for

confident of

responsible for/to

due to/for

scared of

exposed to

sorry for/about

fit for

successful in

fond of

suspicious of

frightened of/at

terrified of

good at/for

tired of

interested in

used to

He was absorbed in his book.

She is afraid/frightened/scared of the dark.
According to Tom it's 2.30. (Tom says it's 2.30.)
He is bad/good at chess, (a bad/good player)
Running is bad/good for you. (unhealthy/healthy)
They are very keen on golf.
Drivers exceeding the speed limit are liable to a fine.
The management is not responsible for articles left in
customers' cars.
I'm sorry for your husband. (I pity him.)
I'm sorry for forgetting the tickets.
I'm sorry about the tickets.
Verbs and prepositions
accuse sb of

insist on

apologize (to sb) for live on (food/money)

apply to sb/for sth long for
ask for/about

object to

attend to

occur to

beg for

persist in

believe in

prefer sb/sth to sb/sth

beware of

prepare for

blame sb for

punish sb for

charge sb with (an offence)

compare sth with refer to

quarrel with sb about

comply with

rely on

conform to

remind sb of

consist of

resort to

deal in

succeed in

depend on

suspect sb of

dream of

think of/about

fight with sb for

wait for

fine sb for

warn sb of/about

hope for

wish for

Do you believe in ghosts?

They were charged with receiving stolen goods.
You haven't complied with the regulations.
For a week she lived on bananas and milk.
It never occurred to me to insure the house.
They persisted in defying the law.
When arguments failed he resorted to threats.

6.2. SEMIAR - PREPOSITION

EXERCISE

1. Choose the correct preposition in parentheses in the

sentences below:
1. Mary walked (in, into) the dining-room. 2. She put her packages
(on, at) the table. 3. She is sitting (in, on) an armchair (into, in)
the living-room. 4. Is her husband (at, in) home now? No, he is
(on, at) the library. 5. He also spends many hours (in, on) his
office (on, at) 50, Fleet Street. 6. I found a note pinned (in, on) my
door which said: "Meet me (at, in) the corner of Oxford Street and
Regent Street. 7. His family lives (at, on) Bridge Street (in, on)
Edinburgh, Scotland. 8. You must always write your return address

(in, on) the envelope. 9. The team arrived (in, at) England last
week.

EXERCISE

2. Will in each blank with to, into or from:

1. She learnt English . . . books. 2. Then she taught it . . . you.

3. A prisoner has escaped . . . prison. 4. He escaped . . . the
woods. 5. He fell... a river and the police rescued him . . . it. 6.
They saved him . . . drowning. 7. Her father has retired . . . bed.
8. He has retired . . . the army.
EXERCISE

3 Fill in each blank with onto or into whenever

possible; otherwise with on or in:

a) 1) Take a seat... the car. 2. Don't take everything... the car. 3.
Help me lift this suitcase . . . the seat. 4. They are arriving . . .
Rome. 5. They are driving . . . the city. 6. Are they staying . . .
the city tonight ?
b) In which of the last 6 sentences could we use off, and in
which could we use out of?
EXERCISE

4. Fill in each blank with the suitable preposition. Use a

different preposition each time:

1. The Danube rises . . . the Black Forest and flows . . . the
Black Sea. 2. The Isles of Scilly are a group of islands . . . the
Atlantic, . . . Cornwall. Not many people live . . . them. 3. The
train leaves . . . Paris early in the morning, and it gets . . . Gurtici
by dinner-time. 4. Step . . . this ladder, but be careful you don't
fall... it. 5. Wait . .. me round the corner, just . . . the baker's. 6.
You aren't permitted to smoke . . . the area of petrol tanks. 7.
Look out, children! There's a car racing . . . you!

EXERCISE

5. Choose the correct preposition in parentheses in the

sentences
below:
1. They stopped (in front of, below) the museum and sat
down (in, on) the steps. 2. Jim said, "I must go (to,
towards) the library and take out some books. I'm living
(to, in) our hostel this term". 3. Our house is number 40.
Number 42 is (opposite, next to) ours. 4. Number 41 is
(opposite, next to) ours. 5. We like to live (about, among)
civilised people. 6. Something is hidden (at the back of,
behind) this simple occurence. 7. I am (behind, at the
back of) my work. 8. There is a beautiful park (behind, at
the back of) my house.

UNIVERSITATEA TRANSILVANIA BRASOV

FACULTATEA DE CONSTRUCTII

CURS DE LIMBA ENGLEZA

Anul I, Semestrul I