Week 9 (2 hours)

Text: “History”

Grammar: The Participle

Communicative practice: “At the pharmacy”

Text:

“History”

These tower blocks were built in Shibam, Yemen in the 16th century, and are the tallest mudbrick buildings in the world

High-rise apartment buildings had already appeared in antiquity: the insulae in ancient Rome and several other cities in the Roman Empire, some of which might have reached up to 10 or more stories, one reportedly having 200 stairs. Because of the destruction caused by poorly-built high-rise insulae collapsing, several Roman emperors, beginning with Augustus, set limits of 20–25 metres for multi-story buildings, but met with limited success, as these limits were often ignored despite the likelihood of taller insulae collapsing. The lower floors were typically occupied by either shops or wealthy families, while the upper stories were rented out to the lower classes. Surviving Oxyrhynchus Papyri indicate that seven-storey buildings even existed in provincial towns, such as in 3rd century AD Hermopolis in Roman Egypt.

The skyline of many important medieval cities was dominated by large numbers of high-rising urban towers which fulfilled defensive, but also representative purposes. The residential Towers of Bologna numbered between 80 and 100 at a time, the largest of which still rise to 97.2 m. In Florence, a law of 1251 decreed that all urban buildings should be reduced to a height of less than 26 m, the regulation immediately put into effect. Even medium-sized towns such as San Gimignano are known to have featured 72 towers up to 51 m height.

Tower blocks were built in the Yemeni city of Shibam in the 16th century. The houses of Shibam are all made out of mud bricks, but about 500 of them are tower houses, which rise 5 to 16 stories high, with each floor having one or two apartments. This technique of building was implemented in order to protect residents from Bedouin attacks. While Shibam has existed for around 2,000 years, most of the city's houses come mainly from the 16th century. The city has the tallest mud buildings in the world, with some of them over 30 meters (100 feet) high. Shibam has been called "one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction" or "Manhattan of the desert".

Currently, the tallest high-rise apartment building in the world is Chicago's John Hancock Center, constructed under the supervision of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and completed in 1969. The building has 100 stories and stands at 344 meters tall.

Grammar: The Participle

The participle is a non-finite form of the verb which has a verbal and an adjectival or an adverbial character.

There are two participles in English — Participle I and Participle II, traditionally called the Present Participle and the Past Participle.

N o t e. — These traditional terms are open to objection on the ground that

Participle I does not necessarily refer to the present, just as Participle II need

not refer to the past. The difference between them is not a difference in tense,

but, chiefly a difference in voice.

Participle I is formed by adding the suffix ‑ing to the stem of the verb; the following spelling rules should be observed:

(a) If a verb ends in a mute e, the mute e is dropped before adding the suffix ‑ing: to give — giving, to close — closing.

(b) If a verb ends in a consonant preceded by a vowel rendering a short stressed sound, the final consonant is doubled before adding the suffix ‑ing: to run — running, to forget — forgetting, to admit — admitting.

A final l is doubled if it is preceded by a vowel letter rendering a short vowel sound, stressed or unstressed: to expel — expelling, to travel — travelling.

(c) The verbs to die, to lie and to tie form Participle I in the following way: dying, lying, tying.

N o t e. — A final у is not changed before adding the suffix ‑ing: to comply —

complying, to deny — denying.

(For the formation of Participle II see Chapter VII, § 3.)

As has already been stated, the participle has a verbal and an adjectival or adverbial character. Its adjectival or adverbial character is manifested in its syntactic functions, those of attribute or adverbial modifier.

I hated the hollow sound of the rain pattering on the roof. (Dtt Maurier) (ATTRIBUTE).

Мне был отвратителен глухой шум дождя, стучавшего по крыше.

And then she turned to the title-page, and looked at the name written in the schoolboy hand. (Ch. Bronte) (ATTRIBUTE)

Затем она открыла книгу на титульном листе и посмотрела на имя, написанное ученическим почерком.

Having garaged his car, he remembered that he had not lunched. (Galsworthy) (ADVERBIAL MODIFIER)

Поставив машину в гараж, он вспомнил, что не завтракал.

When left to herself she spent her time at her writing desk. (Trollope) (ADVERBIAL MODIFIER)

Оставшись одна, она провела время за своим письменным столом.

N o t e. — Some participles have lost their verbality altogether and have

become adjectives: interesting, charming, alarming, etc., complicated,

distinguished, furnished, etc. E. g. an interesting book, a charming girl, the

alarming news; a complicated problem, a distinguished writer, a furnished

apartment.

The verbal characteristics of the participle are as follows:

1. Participle I of a transitive verb can take a direct object.

Opening the door,he went out on to the terrace. (Galsworthy)

2. Participle I and Participle II can be modified by an adverb.

Leaving the room hurriedly,he ran out. (Thackeray)

Deeply effected, Priam Farll rose and left the room. (Bennett)

3. Participle I has tense distinctions; Participle I of transitive verbs has also voice distinctions. In Modern English Participle I has the following forms:

	Active	Passive
Indefinite	writing	being written
Perfect	having written	having been written