2020-10-11
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1. Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure of the former. (Albert Einstein)
2. A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. (David Brinkley)
3. A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is a mirror. (Ken Keyes)
4. You must be the change you wish to see in the world. (Mahatma Gandhi)
5. Religion is regarded by the common as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
6. The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead. (Aristotle)
7. No man ever steps in the same water twice, for it is not the same water and he is not the same man. (Heraclitus)
8. Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. (Marcus Aurelius)
9. Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all others.
(Marcus Tullius Cicero)
10. You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)
EXERCISE 8. Explain the reasons for the articles in these fiction quotes.
1. Nowadays __ people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
(Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray)
2. Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
(Mary Shelley, Frankenstein)
3. What are __ men to __ rocks and __ mountains?
(Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice)
4. But that is the beginning of a new story – the story of the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration. That might be the subject of another story, but the present story is ended.
(Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment)
5. Hell is empty, and all of the devils are here. (William Shakespeare, Tempest)
6. Sometimes the Bible in the hand of a man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of another. (Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird)
7. A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. (Ray Bradbury, 451 Fahrenheit)
8. Experience teaches only the teachable. (Aldous Huxley, Brave New World)
9. A road is like a great river: __ springs at every doorstep and every path a tributary.
(JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings)
10. A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere as long as it stays inside the maze.
(Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale)
EXERCISE 9. Fill in the articles and explain your choice.
I waded through __ birds and opened ___ remaining windows. Most of ___ gulls left immediately. One tried to re-enter ___ room to grab ___ piece of pepperoni and in my agitated state, I took off one of my shoes and threw it at him.
Both ___ gull and ___ shoe went out ___ window.
By this time, I was down to one gull left in the room, but it was __ big one, and it didn’t want to leave. I grabbed ___ bath-towel and jumped it. I wrapped it in ___ towel and threw it out of ___ window.
I had forgotten that seagulls cannot fly when they are wrapped in ___ towel.
___ room was BAD. There was a lot of damage. I then realized that I had only a few minutes before ___ important dinner and that I only had one shoe.
I made my way to one of ___ side doors and recovered both ___ shoe and __towel. The shoe was ___ mess. I took it back to ___ room. I went into __ washroom and rinsed the mud off of my shoe. Now I had one wet, dark shoe, and one dry, light-coloured shoe.
In retrospect, I should have just wet ___ dry shoe. Instead, I choose to dry__ wet shoe using ___ little hairdryer. It was actually doing quite well. I had ___ hairdryer jammed in there when ___ phone rang.
I walked into ___ next room to answer it and ___ power went off. It turned out that ___ hairdryer had vibrated free of ___ shoe and fallen into ___ sink full of water. I didn’t know how much of the hotel’s power I had knocked out, but at that point I decided I needed help.
I called ___ front desk and asked for someone to come help me clean up ___ mess. I can still remember ___ look on ___ lady’s face when she opened ___ door. I had absolutely no idea what to tell her, so I just said “I’m sorry” and I went to dinner. When I came back, my things had been moved to ___ much smaller room.
I thought that was ___ end of it until I was told later that my company had received a letter banning me from the Empress hotel.
[abridged from a Facebook post by Nick Burchill, Dartmouth, Canada]
EXERCISE 10. Read these common class nouns, tick off the ones you do not know or remember and find their meaning. Make your own contrasted examples with one noun from each column.
| council | feeling | team | cottage |
| government | opinion | participant | cellar |
| court | reason | member | canteen |
| society | challenge | athlete | chapel |
| department | policy | character | tower |
| region | decision | learner | cabin |
| campaign | stage | speaker | cockpit |
| budget | approach | applicant | seat |
| cabinet | theory | employee | municipality |
| agency | opportunity | guest | town |
Unit 2. Articles with nouns of material
WHAT ARE NOUNS OF MATERIAL?
Nouns of material are concrete uncountable nouns. Normally they denote substances, materials, liquids that things are made of. A small number of nouns that give collective names to groups of inanimate objects (furniture, baggage, luggage, equipment, machinery, etc.) are included in this group as well.
COMMON RULES
THE ZERO ARTICLE is used with nouns of material when:
1) they are used in a general sense.
e.g. Dry wood catches fire easily. Water is the basis of life on this planet. Ink leaves lasting stains. Children like snow. Antique furniture can be bought in flea markets. Recycled paper can be turned into cardboard.
2) they nominate the substance.
e.g. The chessboard is made of sandal wood. These pills were dissolved in water. She ticked off the names written in violet ink. The ground was covered with snow. He hoped he would save enough money to buy new furniture. The present was wrapped in colorful paper.
Note: If the speaker nominates a small amount of a substance but it is not specified by a limiting attribute, we may use the pronoun “some” instead of the zero article.
e.g. I’m so thirsty, I need some water. Shall I open the window? We really need some fresh air in the room.
THE DEFINITE ARTICLE is used with nouns of material when:
1) the definite article has a limiting meaning, i.e. the substance nominated by the noun is understood as a restricted quantity of it in the specific situation.
e.g. Together they walked through the slush and mud. The soup smelled delicious. The wood was dry, and soon the fire burnt bright and warm. The water did not look inviting. The queen was sitting by the window and staring at the snow. Who bought the furniture?
2) the noun of material is modified by a limiting attribute.
E.g. The furniture they had was enough for a much bigger house. The bread from the bakery tasted like soap. James dropped the wood he had gathered. The water in the bottle is not very clean. The snow outside is pristine white. The museum bought all the furniture from Napoleon’s prison on St Helena Island.
THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE is not used with nouns of material in their primary meaning.
However, a noun of material can become countable when it means:
1) A portion of food or drink.
e.g. We will make a stop to have a coffee and use the restroom. BUT: He went back to his room in the hotel and ordered coffee. She chose a soup and a salad. BUT: This diner sells cheap chicken soup.
2) A sort of food.
e.g. Age doesn’t matter unless you are a cheese. BUT: Bacteria are necessary to make cheese. A fine wine has a complex taste. BUT: According to the legend, Jesus turned water into wine.
Note: a lot of concrete uncountable nouns have a secondary meaning in which they are class nouns:
e.g. The detective bough a paper from the news stand and looked at the front page.
The child was presented a giant box of chocolates for her birthday.
Nobody had any time to cook, so we opened a tin of sardines instead.
The medical attendant set a glass of water on the bedside table.
The rescue workers built a fire to keep the refugees warm.
