A Workbook to Communicative Grammar of English (25 page)
Read A Workbook to Communicative Grammar of English Online
Authors: Dr. Edward Woods,Rudy Coppieters
Task three **
Respond to the following questions in an appropriate way. Where possible, give both a complete and a shortened answer.
Examples: | Q: “Are you going on holiday this summer?” |
⇒ | A1: “Yes, we’re going to the Maldives.” / “No, we’re staying at home.” |
⇒ | A2: “Yes, we are.” / “No, we’re not.” |
Q: “Where did you buy those magazines?” | |
⇒ | A: “(I bought them) at the newsagent’s.” |
1.
Will Mr Walker try to get in touch with one of our senior staff?
2.
What time do you think the first election result will be declared?
3.
Shall we buy a new car or a mobile home?
4.
Which of the four candidates is most suitable for the job?
5.
Did the police catch one of those burglars?
6.
What are we going to do now? Sell the house, get rid of the jewellery, or cancel the cruise?
7.
How many of these novels do we have to read in fact?
8.
Have all the necessary precautions been taken to prevent this from happening again?
9.
Did they teach you how to pronounce the word “thoroughly”?
10.
Why do so many people eat junk food?
11.
Which would you prefer: a flat in a tower block or a house in the country?
12.
Who wrote
Moby Dick
?
Task four ***
Turn the statements in the following text into questions, replacing the underlined parts by corresponding
wh
-words.
Example: | The burglar |
⇒ | wh-Q1: |
⇒ | wh-Q2: |
C
ONGO
V
OLCANO
: T
HE FACTS
Mount Nyiragongo
in the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of Africa’s most active volcanoes. In all, there are
eight
volcanoes along the borders of Rwanda, Congo and Uganda. Nyiragongo was last active
in 1994
, when
a lava lake reappeared
in its summit crater.
The latest eruption is
more serious
. Lava from Nyiragongo can travel
at 60 kilometres per hour
and some of it might
reach a nearby lake and do further damage
.
Bill Evans of the US Geological Survey
said
lava could react with gas in the lake
, with catastrophic consequences. The gas is composed
of carbon dioxide and methane
and could
suffocate
local people living around the lake.
Both Nyiragongo and another active volcano are located
in the Virunga mountain range
, which straddles the
Rwandan
border. The pair are responsible for
nearly two-fifths
of Africa’s historical eruptions.
(adapted from
www.news.bbc.co.uk
, 18 January 2002)
Task five ***
Add the missing questions (neutral
yes-no
or
wh
-) addressed to Pat by the recruitment officer in the following job interview.
R.O.: | |
Pat: | Patricia Lonsdale. |
R.O.: | |
Pat: | In Cape Town, South Africa, on the 23rd of March 1980. |
R.O.: | |
Pat: | No, we moved to Durban when I was three. |
R.O.: | |
Pat: | Yes, I went to local schools until the age of 18. |
R.O.: | |
Pat: | No, my parents sent me to Britain. |
R.O.: | |
Pat: | Because they thought the tuition system at British universities would suit me better. |
R.O.: | |
Pat: | Manchester. I got a BA in accounting and finance there. |
R.O. | |
Pat: | Oh, yes, I also studied two foreign languages, Spanish and Russian. After my BA, that is. |
R.O.: | |
Pat: | Well, by taking odd jobs, serving food in restaurants, teaching English to foreigners, etc. |
R.O.: | |
Pat: | Yes, I would really like to be employed full-time. |
R.O.: | |
Pat: | Something in the range of 1,500 to 2,000 pounds a month. |
R.O. | |
Pat: | Yes, I’ve got two references here, but these were both part-time jobs. |
R.O.: | Thank you. Well, that will do for the time being. You will be hearing from us soon. |
Yes-no
questions containing words like
any, ever, yet
are neutral, while words like
some, sometimes, already
suggest a positive bias.
Questions in statement form with rising intonation have a positive or a negative bias depending on the absence or presence of a negative element.
Task ***
Form acceptable and fully explicit questions suggesting a neutral attitude (NEU), or a positive (POS) or negative (NEG) bias to match the following answers.
Example: | A: Yes, they’ve all been locked already. (NEU) |
⇒ | Q: Have all the gates/doors been locked yet? |
1.
Yes, some of them are unsuitable for such a job. (POS)
2.
No, we didn’t see any of them at all. (NEU)
3.
No, it won’t make much difference. (NEG)
4.
Yes, they have been successful sometimes. (NEU)
5.
No, none of them are being taken care of. (NEU)
6.
No, not many people knew about it. (NEG)
7.
Yes, we had already met all of them. (POS)
8.
Yes, I’ve written to some of them. (NEU)
9.
Yes, they definitely do protest sometimes. (POS)
10.
No, there is no one on earth who can. (NEG)
11.
No, it’s going to get a lot worse. (NEG)
12.
Yes, it could make a big difference for some of them. (POS)
Special types of question:
•
Tag questions are shortened
yes-no
questions consisting of an operator and a subject pronoun. They are added to the end of statements to ask for confirmation. If the statement is positive, the tag question is negative, and vice versa.
•
Yes-no
questions with a negative form have a mixture of positive and negative bias and express surprise.
•
If there are two
wh
-elements in a sentence, one of them is moved to the front or the two are coordinated.
•
Questions can be made more polite by adding
please
or by using an introductory formula.
Task one *
Add question tags to the following statements, using contracted forms.
1.
Kenny is being very naughty again.
2.
Several dozen men didn’t turn up for work.
3.
You can’t drive a lorry at all.
4.
In some countries people eat horse meat.
5.
It will take a long time before the situation is back to normal.
6.
English spelling isn’t going to be changed.
7.
There have been more reports of incidents near the border.
8.
Speed limits should be reduced still further in some areas.
9.
Deborah loves one of our local celebrities.
10.
Some prisoners have never committed a crime.
11.
These bigots are extremely hard to convince.
12.
The police wouldn’t intimidate such young offenders.
Task two ***
Form question sentences with two
wh
-elements to match the following answers.
Examples: | A: It happened in an underground car park shortly after midnight |
⇒ | Q: |
A: Larry was accusing Fred and Jim was accusing Tony | |
⇒ | Q: |
1.
Carol wants to visit an exhibition, and Joyce wants to visit an arts and crafts centre.
2.
We gave it away to the neighbours, because they hadn’t got one yet.
3.
Tim is flying to Honolulu, Ted is sailing to Madeira and Tony is hitchhiking to Turkey.
4.
I killed it with a spade, early this morning.
5.
She ordered six of them for tomorrow and ten for next Sunday.
6.
This is Mr Cheng, over there is Mrs Udolpho, and the third person is Tracy, our secretary.
7.
I’ve put the letters on your desk and the photos on the dresser.
8.
Paul was driving 80 and Ralph 90 miles per hour.
9.
It is going to take place in Singapore next summer.
10.
The football fans stayed on to watch the game while the hooligans stayed on to pick a fight.
Responses to statements:
•
In conversation we often make a response to a statement to express interest, surprise, pleasure, etc. Many of these responses are ‘backchannels’ like
Yes, Yeah, Mm, Really?, That’s right
.
•
In informal English, shortened
wh
-questions can be used as responses to statements (a) when the hearer wants more information or (b) when it is not clear, in some respect, what the speaker says.
•
Yes-no
echo questions are used as requests for repetition when the information given by the speaker was surprising or not fully audible. Either all or part of the statement can be echoed. In
wh
-echo questions one specific element of the statement is singled out for further clarification.
•
General requests for repetition include expressions like
Pardon?, Excuse me?
, etc. and more complete sentences asking the speaker to repeat the original statement.
Task one **
Complete the following conversation by adding a variety of ‘backchannels’, using each one of them only once.
Dad: | Tom, I’m not too pleased with the way you’ve been behaving lately. |
Tom: | |
Dad: | Professor Crawford tells me you’re not turning up for some of his lectures … |
Tom: | |
Dad: | … especially those taught in the morning. |
Tom: | |
Dad: | Look, son, there’s nothing wrong with going to bars and discos from time to time. |
Tom: | |
Dad: | I did that too when I was your age … |
Tom: | |
Dad: | … but I knew when to stop. |
Tom: | |
Dad: | I belonged to a different generation, of course. |
Tom: | |
Dad: | Some of us would even go to lectures with a bad hangover. |
Tom: | |
Dad: | Look, you’ve got enough talent to get a good degree … |
Tom: | |
Dad: | … and you would probably want to keep your monthly allowance, I suppose. |
Tom: |
Task two **
Add to each of the following statements a shortened
wh
-question asking for more information (relating to the point in brackets) followed by an appropriate answer.
Example: | A: Would you give me that book, please. (specification) |
⇒ | B: What/Which book?/Which one? |
A: That novel by V.S Naipaul over there / on your desk |
1.
Ian is studying chemistry and physics. (place)
2.
Charles insisted on having a word with me. (topic)
3.
I’ve received angry letters from our main customer. (number)
4.
We don’t want to emigrate to New Zealand any more. (reason)
5.
One of the missing children was spotted near a cliff edge. (time)
6.
Two flights have been cancelled. (specification)
7.
I went to the movies in those days. (frequency)
8.
The circus artist had been in a coma. (duration)
9.
I’ll try to make it up with Caroline. (manner)
10.
Put the stuff into our garage, will you? (specification)
11.
The victim had been knocked down. (instrument)
12.
I’ve bought a pearl necklace. (recipient)