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STYLISTICS SIMPLIFIED

for English studies


by
JOHN COGGAN
Second Edition
April 2003
Acknowledgements
Warm thanks to my great colleagues, particularly Pat Hampton, Arianna
Jacobs, Tony Zambonini, and my friend and former student, Annette
Metge, for help, encouragement and critical reading of this work.
The author and publishers wish to thank copyright holders for permission to
reproduce material used in the text. It has not been possible to identify the sources
of all the material used and in such cases the publishers welcome information from
copyright holders.
Seconda edizione aprile 2003
Copyright: CUEM Soc. Coop.
Via Festa del Perdono 3
20122 Milaiio
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Per ordini:
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CONTENTS
Introduction
1. Stylistics - definition
2. Vocabulary /Lexis
3. Lexical Cohesion
4. Syntax and Grammar
5. Cohesion
6. Figures of Speech
Practice texts
Text index
Answers to exercises
Appendix 1 - glossary of grammatical terms
Appendix 2 - Summaries
Index
Postscript
page
4
5
6
11
16
36
38
49
71
73
92
95
98
101
INTRODUCTION to STYLISTICS
One of the main things which presents problems for students is the
comprehension and appreciation of a text. It is something they must be
able to do almost from the inception of their university course; certainly
from when they start to study literature in depth.
One of the aims of university English courses, beginning with the
second year course, is to show students how the language works and
what can be read "between the lines". This helps the reader to
appreciate whether a piece of written English is good or bad, what sort
of effect a particular text has, or should have, and in the long run to help
the reader to become an effective writer. To be able to do all this and
then have information which can be used in the third and fourth years,
knowledge of grammatical terms and of those used in stylistics is most
definitely required.
Can stylistics really be simplified? From a merely mathematical point of
view, considering the millions upon millions of combinations possible
with the already over a million words in the English language, the
answer might just be "no"! However there are different ways of
simplifying. One is to reduce the number of concepts under
consideration. Another is to make the subject clearer by simple
explanations and copious guided practice.
This book is a modest effort to help those who either find difficulty in
understanding the concepts or cannot attend any one of the English
language courses, because they also have a job, family problems, or for
some other reason. They, as well as the full-time students, require some
practice in what seems to be one of the more complex aspects of the
language. So, apart from there being explanations of many terms used in
linguistics and stylistics, here are numerous passages with questions
(and some answers), illustrating different styles of writing and different
stylistic points.
Included in the course are the following stylistics topics and, for those
students just mentioned, I am giving here what are intended to be fairly
simple notes of explanation and a number of examples:
..
STYLISTICS can be defined as the study of linguistic habits and
variations, words, phrases, clauses and sentences, to discover how an
author gets certain effects. It is a comparative study of those features
which are unusual, particular, or original, to explain why just those
expressions have been used and not others.
Sometimes we evaluate the writing, so "style" often means correct,
good, effective or beautiful writing. It may refer to some or all of the
language habits of a particular group (legal language, oratorical style,
heroic poetry, etc.). A feature, which is restricted to and
characteristic of a particular context, is called stylistically significant
or stylistically distinctive.
A stylistician knows three things other people do not know: he/she is
aware of what is stylistically significant in any particular piece of
writing, realises what kind of social background certain linguistic
features can be identified with, and also knows how to express these
patterns systematically and for maximum effect.
This means that stylistics should not only help students to understand
more completely the literature to be studied but they should be able
write essays and compositions better. Stylistics is to provide a clear
technique that will help in the study, and in the long run the creation,
of any piece of language.
2. VOCABULARY or LEXIS
Beginning with the simplest form, the individual word, we need to be
able to distinguish between:
a) words of Anglo-Saxon origin and those of Latinate etymology
(words which may have originally derived from Latin but
developed later through other - usually Romance - languages ).
Often, indeed normally, the former are short, simple words; the
latter are generally longer and more obviously complex
e.g. A=S L
top summit
to cut to sever
a cut an incision
fast rapid
end terminate
lighten alleviate etc.
b) concrete and abstract vocabulary, the former being something
you can see, touch, etc.; the latter, when functioning as abstract
nouns, are used without the article (though some are both
concrete and abstract, at different times, depending on the
context),
e.g. C A
heart love
face beauty
book reading
notes music
picture art
house home
Given those differences, we can deduce that the use of one or other of
these pairs of word types (Anglo-Saxon and concrete; Latinate and
abstract) can, and usually does, affect the
c) register and tone (usually meaning the same aspect) of the
passage.
Given the preponderance of one type or the other, we can judge how
formal - or otherwise - the piece of writing is. The degree of formality
(which is often meant when referring to style) is much greater if we use
Latinate and abstract words:
It is important for us to consider the outcome, (formal)
We must think of the result, (informal)
The significance of any particular expression may be increased by its
environment (formal)
An expression may mean more because of its context, (less formal)
A waterfall can be considered as the poetry of movement, (formal)
A waterfall can be thought of as beautiful motion, (less formal)
Allow me to present ...(formal)
Let me introduce... (semi-formal)
Shall we go for a drive into the countryside? (formal)
What about having a drive into the country? (informal)
Your Royal Highness, your Grace, my lords, ladies and gentlemen, pray
silence for the address by Charles Smith, (extremely formal)
Everybody shut up for Charlie Smith's talk, (colloquial / not at all
formal)
The observant student will have noticed the qualification of the
examples. We do not talk only of informal and formal but of gradations
in the register. The informal style usually gives a subjective, personal
register; if we wish to be objective and impersonal, then we use the
formal style.
From the very informal to the highly formal:
"What a let-down! This thing doesn i work right, " she told us.
She told us the thing didn 't work right and she felt let down.
She told us that the apparatus did not work properly and (that) she was
disappointed.
We were told/ informed that the machine was not functioning correctly
and that she was disappointed.
According to information received, the machine was defective and the
purchaser was dissatisfied.
Colloquial or slangy expression is used in conversation among close
friends or letters to them.
The informal register is used in normal conversation and writing letters
to people we know.
The more formal or semi-formal style is used in some speeches and
discussion of serious subjects, news broadcasting, business telephoning
and letters, conversation and introductions when meeting someone for
the first time, and oral examinations. This style is written in business
letter and letters to people we do not know; it is also used in essays and
compositions - expository writing, as it is often called.
The formal or very formal tone is spoken on occasions where one wears
evening dress or formal clothes, such as wedding speeches (though
these are often much lighter, less formal and more humorous
nowadays), addresses to learned societies, business reports (both oral
and written). Formal writing is used in invitations to weddings and other
events, replies to such invitations, announcements of births, deaths and
marriages, and "bread-and-butter" (=thank you) letters (though, again,
these have become more personal in tone and less formal nowadays, if
not entirely omitted, thanks to the telephone and e-mail).
Such gradations may make it more difficult to distinguish between
different tones - the sort of problem which bedevils a student who does
not have enough practice. So, at this point, let us have a practice session.
(A) Discuss with a friend or use an etymological dictionary to distinguish
between the following words, as to whether they are Anglo-Saxon or of
Latinate origin:
provision, stock, food, nutrition, book, fiction, saga, story, rent, expenditure,
cost, dear, truth, veracity, school, academic, water, flow, river, amorous, fond,
loving, rise, ascend, hopeful, encouraging, pipe, tube, rapid, quick
9
(B) Are the following nouns abstract or concrete? Be careful, because some could
be both, depending on the context!
Cow, wealth, hope, fish, idea, thought, sound, livestock, work, job, haircut,
leave, permit, home, house, classic, way, success, superiority
(C) Can you classify the following groups of sentences into their degree of
formality? Each group, presented in no particular order, provides roughly the
same information but the style ranges from the very informal to the extremely
formal. Number each of the sentences in each set of four or five, in ascending
order of formality.
a) Each group conveys roughly the same information.
Each group gives about the same information.
Each group says almost the same thing.
Each group gives nearly identical information.
Each collection of sentences provides approximately identical information.
b) I think this book is absolutely fantastic ! You should buy it.
It was recommended that the book should be bought because it was fantastic.
He suggested we bought the book. It was fantastic.
He recommended that we should buy the book because it was fantastic.
c) Phrasal verbs are things to be learned, in order to master the language.
To have a good grip on the language, you must learn phrasal verbs.
Learn phrasal verbs, to be able to master the language!
It is important to absorb phrasal verbs, if you wish to master the language.
The learning of phrasal verbs is important for mastery of the language.
d) "I didn't have a clue about what was going on then," she told reporters later.
Reporters learnt from her subsequent verbal report that she had had no
conception of what was transpiring at the time of its occurrence.
She told reporters later she didn't know at all what was happening then.
Reporters were informed subsequent to the event that she had had no idea of
what was happening at the time.
Reporters were told afterwards that she didn't in the least realise what was
happening at the time.
e) The husband is subject to the control of his wife.
She has her husband under her thumb.
She keeps a close eye on her husband's activities.
She has a controlling interest in her husband's affairs.
f) I have the honour to inform Your Excellency...
This is to advise you...
Get a load of this!
I should like to tell you, sir,...
I'm telling you, Mister...
g) Italian food is a delight.
The gustatory appeal of Italian cuisine is appreciated by the vast majority of
people.
Italian food's great.
Most people's taste buds are pleasantly stimulated by Italian cuisine.
Italian cuisine appeals to most people's sense of taste,
h) He wondered if she could come and collect the material from his house.
She was asked if it would be possible for her to collect the material from his
place of residence.
"Can you pick up the stuff from my place?" he asked her.
He asked her if she could call at his house and collect the stuff.
His request was that she should stop by his residence, if possible, in order to
collect the material,
i) The four-year-old asked his mother how he had been born.
"Where did I come from, Mummy?" , asked the four-year-old.
The four-year-old enquired of his mother all about his origins.
The four-year-old wanted to know where he came from,
j) Dictionaries perform a historical rather than a legislative function.
We learn from dictionaries about what words have come to signify, not what
they should mean.
We don' t get rules from dictionaries about what words should mean but
information about what they now mean.
Dictionaries function as registers of historical development not as legislators
for future linguistic action.
L.
3. LEXICAL COHESION
One of the ways in which a text is made to have unity or cohesion is
by the use of connected words. We also refer to this feature of a text as
a "lexical chain" or a "semantic field". This is when a text includes a
series of words dealing with the same topic or indicating a similar
setting or having the same technological reference point. For instance, a
text dealing with the media could include words like press, reporter,
circulation, readership, journalist, columnist, broadcast, interview,
ratings, advertising, commercials, anchorperson, network, etc.. A text
about jobs might include, dismissal, redundancy, flexitime, part-time,
commuter, fringe benefits, pay, unemployed, dole, head-hunter, working
hours, etc. The first of these semantic fields is " the media" , the second
could be called "work", and so on.
Collocation. When words are used in the normal manner, only a very
limited number of them form a person' s active vocabulary (something
like a couple of thousand words only are used by the "ordinary man",
though there are more than one million different words in English, and
more and more are coming into existence as technology and human
knowledge expand). "Collocation" is one of the basic concepts of
linguistics. It is a method of using a restricted number of words but
enlarging the concepts expressed by using different combinations - j ust
as when we use phrasal verbs [which are worth learning simply because
of their frequency in colloquial expression]. Collocation refers to the
regular or frequent use of words together. For example, when we talk
about rules, we often qualify them by hard and fast. The word house
may be collocated with detached: a detached house, a semi-detached
house. Operations are normally performed by surgeons, employees
carry out orders, crime is committed. Other examples of collocations
are: football pitch, mineral water, New Year, new wave, Third World,
next door, law and order, housing estate, House of Commons, elder
brother, Big Brother, environmental pollution, Public Limited
Company, lily of the valley, food chain, helping hand, Cabinet Minister,
alley cat, love affair, golf course, good morning, maid of honour, chain
mail, mail box, mailing list, pins and needles, slow motion, figure of
speech, wild animals, etc.
Compound words are not quite the same, though some experts
consider the simple juxtaposition of two words to be not "collocation"
but the creation of a "compound word". These are usually single words
made up of two or more put together, sometimes attached by hyphens
(hyphenated) and sometimes merely "stuck" together to form one word,
e.g. grandmother, slow-witted, slowdown, limelight, likewise, ski-lift,
father-in-law, taxpayer, loudspeaker, etc. As language changes - and
living languages are always changing - one form may give way to
another, e.g. grandfather (16 century) became grand-father (19
century) and now is grandfather.
Synonymy. Strictly, a synonym is a word or expression which has the
same meaning as another word or expression. Exact synonyms can be
used to replace each other, in order to avoid repeating the same word or
expression, thus making for what is generally considered to he better
style. Near synonyms are normally used for the same purpose, and
considered of equal value. There are far more near synonyms than exact
ones, since there is usually a slight difference - otherwise why have two
words for exactly the same meaning? As we have seen above, the
degree of formality is what often makes the difference between
otherwise synonymous words. The important thing about synonyms is
that they should have exactly the same (form and) function as the
word(s) they replace: nouns or noun phrases replace nouns, verbs or
phrasal verbs stand for other verbs, etc.
e.g. tune = melody = air admission = access = entry
hell = nether regions = place of torment
begin = start = commence demonstrate = prove = show
inform = tell = give to understand prepare = make ready = make
preparations
incomplete = left in the air = uncompleted rich = wealthy = well
providedfor
well (referring to health) = healthy = hale & hearty
definitely = for sure = certainly sometimes = occasionally = now
and then
quickly -fast in haste
Antonymy. This is the reverse term: the opposite of the word or
expression started with. Again, as with synonyms, the important thing
is that the antonym should express exactly the function of the original
word, e.g.
Heaven/Hell love/hate father/mother big/small
intelligent/stupid, etc.
It is as well to mention also hyponomy, which is an umbrella term.
Instead of giving long lists of words (hyponyms), one expression (t he
superordinatel. a more general word, is used in place of the list or of
elements in the list e.g. relatives instead of father, mother, sister,
uncle, brother-in-law, grandmother, etc.,
domestic animals can be put in place of dogs, cats, guinea pigs, etc.,
child may be used instead of boy or girl.
Metonymy (see also section 7, text 28) is similar to but different
from the last, in that it entails the use of a part for the whole, or of one
thing instead of something else with which it is closely connected e.g.
branch instead of tree, heart instead of whole person, the kettle
(instead of the water) is boiling, he has ruined his life because of the
bottle (instead of the bottle's contents: strong drink), etc. There being
many kinds of connection between things and people, there are many
sorts of metonymy: i) the container for the thing contained {the House
rose as the Queen entered the Chamber ); ii) the sign in place of the
person or thing represented (All parliamentarians must address the
chair before speaking); iii) the author for his/her works {Reading
Shakespeare is worth the trouble); iv) the feeling instead of its object
{My love is like a red, red rose); the instrument for the agent (The pen is
mightier than the sword).
Synecdoche is a similar figure of speech, representing the whole by a
part or vice versa, or the specific by the general and vice versa, e.g. I'll
give you a hand {= my full bodily presence to help you). The Armada
arrived with ten sail (= ten ships).
EXERCISES ON LEXICAL COHESION
A. What are the semantic fields of the following groups of words?
a. doctor, stethoscope, bandage, visiting hours, theatre, healthy, care for,
dressing;
b. nocturne, lead vocals, round, CD, group, live, piano, septet;
c. peppermint crisp, Brazilian bonanza, orange cream, caramel crunch, almond
delight;
d. tyre, valve, chain, pump, spokes, pedals, mudguard;
e. teetotal, sweet or dry, good year, mineral water, saloon, mild, double.
B. Which words can be inserted into the following paragraph, because they are
often to be found in connection with the neighbouring words?
We've come a long since the invention of the spinning machine. In
transport we've got trolley , high speed inter-city (when
they're not on ) and interstellar . In communications we can
send E- so fast that the telegram is old . Of course, there are
now a lot of people out of and some of the school are so
desperate to find jobs that they have no strong any more but will
accept anything. One thing, though, that a person who is colour will
not be suitable for is the job of sorting voting in an Italian
referendum! He or she might be better off playing the stock ,
provided, of , that he/she has some money to start !
C. Can you find synonyms or/and antonyms for
a) The United States, b) mountain, c) trait, d) Nordic, e) north-westerly,
f) positive, g) language, h) hence, i) pressure, j) presumably, k) save, 1)
making, m) lock, n) female, o) compel, p) capture, q) also, r) alone, s)
mainframe, t) open-air?
[If you haven' t already looked in your dictionary and read all the
articles on the above words, try it now! Reading the dictionary is a
good way of expanding your vocabulary - especially if you make a
written note of all the expressions you didn' t know before you looked
them up. You could try making separate lists of words with their
synonyms and antonyms too. What about other lists for those words
you regularly get wrong - false friends - or those you misspell?]
D. Try to discover which expression is the superordinate in each of the following
lists:
a) snow, drizzle, overcast sky, winter weather, sunny periods.
b) Scraping, peeling off, decorating, washing, paint, spreading.
c) Unemployment, business, index-linked, job market, policy, sales,
economics.
d) Gourmet, adviser, bridge-builder, lawyer, expert, artist.
e) Wealth, sickness, riches, condition, dilapidation, health.
f) Nurses, stethoscope, temperature, doctor, hospital, bed, plan, health service.
E. What are the metonyms to be found in the following - and can you guess or
invent the superordinate which could be applied, a different one for each
sentence?
(a) Ferrari, Benneton and McClaren were having a bad day.
(b)The cases were overweight when she checked in at the airport.
(c) The programmes just aren't worth watching.
(d)His Blue Period was wonderful but I didn' t like the pictures he painted
later,
(e) The cards were not in his favour, so he kept having bad luck.
4. SYNTAX and GRAMMAR
We have considered separate words. Now we shall see how they are
used and combined in sentences.
One of the possible confusions, not only in English but in most other
languages, for instance Italian (what does "subito" mean?), is that words
which appear to be identical actually mean different things. This makes
life easier and more difficult at the same time - easier because there are
apparently fewer words to learn; more difficult because sometimes only
the context will tell you what function the word has.
Is the word cut a verb, noun or adjective? Is mine a verb, noun or
personal pronoun? What about well - noun, adjective or adverb? E.g.
He cut the trip to the seaside because of a cut in his hand which he
got preparing cut meat.
He used to mine gold until the mine ran out. I wish it had been mine,
even for a short while.
The cat fell down the well. It wasn' t well for some time but the vet
said it would recover if we treated it well.
Newspaper headlines may be particularly confusing and sometimes only
by reading the article can you tell what they really mean,
e.g. POLICE BLOCK MOVES could mean that the police have
stopped or obstructed people moving house, that they have refused to
move their headquarters, that they object to people trying to make
changes in a situation, that they have the intention of going on strike at a
different time, that their strike is moving ahead and going to take place,
or that there was a road block at one place and it moved to another!
Practice:
A. Can you figure out which of the suggested interpretations is the correct one?
I. PEACE MOVES IN DOCKS
a) People are trying to make peace between dockers and management.
b) A boat named "peace" moves its berth in the docks.
II. WORKERS TO BE AXED
a) The axe-man is going to execute some workers.
b) Some workers are going to lose their jobs.
c) Some workers are to be hit with an axe.
III. FISH TALKS IN OSLO
a) They have discovered a talking fish in Oslo.
b) Discussions are taking place in Oslo about fishing rights.
IV. BRITISH LEFT WAFFLES ON ISLAND
a) Socialists in Britain talk a lot about ownership of an island.
b) British tourists left crispy batter cakes behind on an island.
V. DRUGS HAUL AT AIRPORT
a) Instead of porters at the airport, drug addicts are being used to
pull/haul luggage carts.
b) Police have found a quantity of drugs at the airport.
VI. EYE DROPS OFF SHELF
a) Eye drops can be bought without a doctor's prescription.
b) In a medical supplies shop, an artificial eye fell down from a shelf
and hit somebody.
c) Eye drops are not to be kept on shelves but in a special cupboard, in
chemists' shops.
One thing that may confuse Italian students is that the word frase can be
used to indicate a whole sentence or part of a sentence. In English there
are three words: sentence or (more usually in American English) period,
clause and phrase, which must be carefully distinguished.
A phrase, simply expressed, is part of a sentence without a finite verb.
The most common kinds of phrase are adverbial:
the adverbial phrase of place answers the question WHERE,
e.g. down by the river, on television, at home, up his sleeve, etc.;
an adverbial phrase of time tells the reader WHEN something
happened, e.g. after breakfast, at half past three, in the evening, at
night, etc.;
more descriptively, the adverbial phrase of manner says HOW the
action was carried out e.g. with great speed, quite fast, in a friendly
way, etc.
The adjectival phrase has a different function: like the simple one-word
adjective, it describes a noun or pronoun e.g. perfectly normal reactions,
entirely hostile natives, she was beautiful from top to toe. [ The
observant student will have noticed that the adjectival phrase consists of
an adverb and an adjective. The important thing is that the function of
the word group is merely adjectival.]
The noun phrase is a group of words, still without a finite verb, whose
function is that of a noun, e.g. a jazz concert, his next-door neighbour,
an incredibly powerful engine, the dangerously lunatic computer expert.
[It will be noted that the function of the word group as a noun phrase is
not affected by the fact that it may consist of an adverb and/or an
adjective as well as the noun.] The noun phrase is usually to be found
in apposition to a previous noun: it has exactly the same mnction in the
sentence as the first noun and simply adds more specific information
about that noun, e.g. George Washington, the first President of the United
States, was considered truthful.
The third most common type of phrase is the prepositional phrase. This
functions simply as a preposition, although the phrase itself may include
prepositions, a noun or a participle, e.g. beginning with, in terms of, in
addition to, in charge of, at variance with. A broader definition of a
prepositional phrase is a phrase which starts with a preposition.
It should be particularly noted that one can classify the parts of a
sentence differently according to how one groups the words,
e.g. Coal black Kali, the goddess of death and destruction, waited, at the usual
time, for me to approach while remaining at a distance from her altar, in the garb
and attitude of prayer. Parts of this sentence can be variously analysed as
follows:
Coal black is an adjectival phrase; coal black Kali is a noun phrase; the
usual time, noun phrase; at the usual time, adverbial phrase of time;
remaining at a distance from her altar, adverbial phrase of place; at a
distance from, prepositional phrase; the garb and attitude of prayer,
noun phrase; in the garb and attitude of prayer, adverbial phrase of
manner.
Phrasal verbs deserve entirely separate, extensive treatment
1
. Suffice it
to say here that they are those verbs which require to be followed by
another word, in order to complete the sense of the verb. Together they
form a phrase, following another definition of that word as a short group
of words, a meaningful sense group, within a sentence, e.g. wait for,
leave behind, put back into, get on with, etc.
1
See Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs , nearly 500 pages giving extensive coverage,
with about 5 verbs per page.
The clause is that part of the sentence which contains the subject and
finite verb, together with an object if required. There are two types of
clause: the main clause and the subordinate clause.
The main clause can exist by itself as a (short) sentence : She wrote a
letter. They set off. He talked.
The subordinate clause can never exist on its own; it must always be
part of a full sentence or at least accompanied by a main clause. There
are various common types of subordinate clause:
A Relative clause. Her hat, which had a feather in it, was too big.
The doctor, whose wife was ill, looked after her.
B Adjectival clause. The hat, looking beautiful on her well-cut hair,
was too big.
The doctor, (being) worried about his wife, was looking after her.
Most books written by Charles Dickens are socially critical.[no commas]
Oliver Twist, written by Charles Dickens, is full of social criticism.
[commas]
C Adverbial clause (really an adjectival clause but it begins with an
adverb)
The hat, rakishly perched on her head, was too big.
The doctor, hurriedly going home to his wife, was looking after her.
[ The same observant student (is there any other sort?) will have noticed
that the second and third types of clause (b & c) are often really only
relative clauses with the relative subject and the verb missing , which is
why they are clauses, not phrases - see "ellipsis" below and also
"punctuation" of relative clauses]
D Noun clauses are perhaps more difficult to spot. They look like
infinitives, -ing forms, or relative clauses with (or without) that,
They function, of course, as nouns, i.e. they can be subject, object
or complement, e.g.
To understand what is going on (subject) is not as difficult as you
think.
I can hear that you speak Italian with an English accent, (object)
His first job was selling computer software, (complement)
E Comparative clauses are not simply comparative adjectives or
adverbs used to describe nouns or other words (such as could be
found on the church notice board, referring to the pastor's improving state
of health : GOD IS GOOD Pastor Robinson is better). They are clauses
which compare or contrast one thing with another, often using
phrases like as big as, smaller than, not as stupid as and perhaps
omitting the verb, e.g. I don' t watch TV as often as I used to.
Programmes are more violent than (they used to be) before. As
many people use this brand of detergent as (use) the one they
frequently advertise.
F Contrast and concession clauses include prepositions and
prepositional phrases like for all, with all, in spite of, despite and
notwithstanding (which mean roughly the same, and range in
order from the informal to the very formal), conjunctions like
though, although, however much, wherever, no matter how, even
if, while, whereas. All these words introduce subordinate clauses
to express an idea that the real situation is not what was expected.
The idea in one clause contrasts with the idea created by the other,
so sometimes either clause can be made the subordinate one, e.g.
Although all the players were fit, they did not play a very good match.
Though they did not play a good match, all the players were fit. The concert
was exciting, though there were no big-name performers. Though there
were no big-name performers, the concert was exciting. Even though the
exam was difficult, a lot of students passed. Despite the weather, we
decided to go on a picnic. The orchestra played well, except for the
percussionist.
G Clauses of purpose usually start with phrases like so that, in order
that (in order to starts a phrase of purpose), e.g. We are working
hard in order that we can pass the exam.
H Clauses of reason begin with because, since or as, e.g. As they
worked so hard they passed their exams brilliantly.
I Clauses of consequence and result start with expressions like with
the result that, or conjunctions like so, consequently, therefore,
e.g. She studied a lot and consequently passed with flying colours.
Practice:
B. Analyse the phrases and clauses in italics in the following sentences. Using
the above information, define which type each one is.
I. Jim, wanting to celebrate his wife's 5tf
h
birthday, decided to throw a
party. So
II. he went to order a birthday cake with a message on.
III. After thinking for a while, he told the salesgirl
21
' Let' s put "You are not getting older, you are getting better".' 'How do
you want me to put it?' , asked the girl.
'Put "You are not getting older" at the top
and "you are getting better" at the bottom.
When the cake arrived,
VIII. just before the party,
IX. everybody laughed, except
X. Jim' s wife, who blushed, because the message read "You are not getting
older at the top and you are getting better at the bottom."
XI. "Studies have shown that the average human being has an attention
span of only 40 minutes ", said the psychology tutor,
XII. ...at the start of his three-hour lecture!
XIII. John Wilkes, an 18? century journalist and politician, was told by Lord
Sandwich that he
XIV. would die "either of the pox or on the gallows ". Wilkes retorted:
XV. "That will depend on whether I embrace your lordship's mistress or
your lordship's principles".
XVI. Contrary to what many people thought, the world did not end
with the turn of the millennium.
XVII. A good teacher brings out the best in his students, whoever he
happens to be teaching.
Sentences come in many different forms: statements, questions,
commands, and exclamations. They can be simple, compound, complex
or compound-complex.
A simple statement could be: It is hot: a simple command: Come in: a
simple question: Have you heard the latest? A simple exclamation: How
hot it is!
They are all simple sentences, consisting of only one main clause.
Compound sentences are those which have two or more main clauses,
with re-stated or, preferably, different subjects, joined together by a
conjunction:
It is hot and we are here. A schoolboy wrote this compound sentence:
H
2
0 is hot water but C0
2
is cold water. [If you did not at least smile,
think about it!] (An example of a compound sentence is NOT a
pedestrian hit me and went under my car, as there is no subject stated
for the second verb. This alternative : a pedestrian hit my car and I ran
over him is a compound sentence.) Another more complicated-looking
compound sentence is: Either there would be a crush of customers at
each ticket window, all demanding simultaneous attention, or else there
would be two slow-moving lines, each full of gloomy people... (The
conjunction here is in two parts: either ... or else...)
The complex sentence is one which includes a subordinate clause as
well as a main clause. The accident happened (main clause) when a car
door suddenly came round the corner (subordinate clause). If you want
only the best and are prepared to work for it (subordinate clause) you
usually get it (main clause).
Compound-complex sentences are merely a combination of the two
types. When I saw that I couldn't avoid a collision (subordinate clause),
/ stepped on the gas (main clause) and I ran into the other car (second
main clause, joined on by and).
In examinations particularly, you need to watch out for disguised
sentences. They look like one sort of sentence but, because perhaps of
ellipsis (q.v. - page 35) , they may actually be something else, e.g. The
U.K. manages 39%, Ireland 3l%( disguised simple but actually
compound sentence without conjunction and without verb in the second
half). The Forum reported that, compared with women, men died
earlier, suffered three and a half times more heart disease and were
four times more likely to commit suicide (disguised compound-complex
but actually simple sentence, because what looks like a subordinate
clause - after "that" - is only a noun clause object of "reported"; there is
also no repeated or changed subject in the last part "and were...").
Practice:
C What types of sentence are these?
a. These are the letters Endymion wrote /To one he loved in secret (O.Wilde,
on Keats' Love Letters)
b. If you can keep your head when all about you /Are losing theirs and blaming
it on you, ...
23
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you' ll be a man, my son! ( R. Kipling, If)
The moving finger writes and, having writ, moves on (Fitzgerald, the
Rubaiyat...)
Like as the waves hasten towards the pebbled shore
So do our minutes hasten to their end. (W. Shakespeare)
We kissed at the barrier; and passing through she left me. . . (T. Hardy, On
the Departure Platform)
All things that have been were born to die,
And flesh (which Death mows down to hay) is grass. (Byron, Growing Old)
I heard a thousand blended notes
While in a grove I sat reclined...
(Wordsworth, Lines Written in Early Spring)
.. .the wind.. .is past/ And still, and leaves the air to lisp
2
of bird
And to the quiet that is almost heard... (D.G.Rosetti, Dawn on the Night
Journey)
Here with a loaf of bread beneath the bough,
A flask of wine, a book of verse - and thou
Beside me singing in the wilderness -
And wilderness is paradise enow.
3
(Fitzgerald, the Rubaiyat of Omar
Khayyam)
In a secret place away from all the world my love and I shall meet.
(J.C., Tryst)
... then the rhythm changes to a gradual faster beat
With fingers strumming wildly in increasing summer' s heat. (J.C., Raag)
Capture the light in the early dawn,
when the day' s just begun, in the Spring,
When the red, blue and gold, flecked with orange delights,
and not only the birds want to sing.
Capture the light in the eyes of a child
whose birthday it is on this day,
When the worries of life have not touched him at all
and the focus is solely on play.
Capture the light on a waterfall lake,
when the light falling sunshine behind
Makes the water so sparkle with diamond drops
that we want to thank God we' re not blind..
Capture the light, when the sun's going down
and the orange, blood-red clouds of night
Show the hard day is past and sleep may restore,
so that later we capture the light. (J.C.)
* Lisp, in this context, means song
enow = enough
m. In Copenhagen there are over 300 kilometres of bicycle lanes, which are
certainly well-used, yet, in large parts of the city, pollution exceeds
recommended levels.
n. The landscape, so beautifully and usefully scattered with trees of all colours,
shapes and sizes, spread out before their wondering eyes like a wonderfully-
woven, Chinese carpet, with its complex pattern of history and characters
going about their daily chores in peaceful harmony.
Punctuation usage in Italian and in English differs considerably. The
tendency in modern English is to avoid using commas, where possible.
Commas divide parts of a sentence, either to make them easier to say, to
show a clear division between ideas or to make the meaning clear.
For instance, in complex sentences with a relative clause, the meaning
can be made completely different, in English, by the insertion or the
omission of a comma. My brother, who lives in Australia, is a farmer.
This means that I have one brother and he lives in Australia, working as
a farmer. If I put My brother who lives in Australia is a farmer, I have at
least two brothers, one of whom (the one who lives in Australia) is a
farmer.
This difference is to be seen in many relative sentences. Relative clauses
without a comma are called "defining" - the information provided by
the relative clause is essential, in order to define a noun in the main
clause, e.g. The man whose car is parked outside has just left a bomb at
the front door. Which particular man? The man whose car is parked
outside. The test which everybody failed was too hard. There were
several tests and it is clear - only because of the omission of commas -
that that particular test which people failed was too hard, while the other
tests were not too difficult.
If, on the other hand, we had inserted commas into the example the test,
which everybody failed, was too hard, we would have made it clear that
only one test existed and that that test was too hard. The information,
that everybody failed it, is not essential; it is extra information, to tell us
more about the test. This type of relative clause, which has the comma
before the relative, is called "non-defining".
In some cases, it is clear - for socially accepted or other reasons - what
the correct punctuation of a Relative Sentence must be. Which is
correct: My wife who is in Paris is coming home tomorrow or My wife,
who is in Paris, is coming home tomorrow? (Clearly the second one is
the correct version - or else the man is a bigamist!)
Another difference between good English and Italian usage is that the
comma, a dividing instrument, should not normally be put before a
conjunction, a connecting instrument. It is, however, common - thanks
partly to journalists - to find this rule cavalierly disregarded. [Advice to
the observant student: in order to write good English, it is better to apply
the rule and not put a comma before a conjunction.] A common
exception is that, around other subordinate clauses, we do use commas,
e.g. If you hold the post with your right hand, I can hit it with this
hammer, (it might refer to post or hand.) Less ambiguously, I can hit the
post with this hammer, if you hold it with your right hand.(it more
evidently refers to post.) Another notable exception is that commas are
used - to make the meaning clearer - when lists of words already
include and, e.g. The good English breakfast consists of fruit juice, cold
cereal or hot porridge, bacon and eggs, toast and marmalade, and
coffee or tea. This last comma makes it clear that the marmalade is
consumed with the toast, not with the coffee.
Clarity and change of meaning are the two main functions of the
comma. Consider the following:
;' She paid no attention to the boy, because he was 13 and spoke
about fishing,
ii She paid no attention to the boy, because he was 13, and spoke
about fishing.
In i, it is the boy who spoke about fishing; in ii, it is the girl who talked
about fishing.
Another example:
i. The girl playing the serpent
4
lost weight,
ii. The girl, playing the serpent, lost weight.
Hi. The girl playing, the serpent lost weight.
i. means that the particular girl who was playing the instrument lost
weight,
ii. means that she, by playing the instrument, lost weight (because of
the diaphragm pressure required to blow hard).
4
The serpent was an ancient wind instrument with a very raucous sound.
iii. while the girl was playing, the serpent - here meaning the reptile -
lost weight. There is no logical connection between the two actions.
Another example of change in meaning, thanks to changing
punctuation:
Women, speak the truth: man lies about.
Women speak, the truth man lies about.
Women speak the truth man lies about.
is a call to women to speak the truth. The truth they are to speak
about is that man does nothing but lie (physically) lazily around.
ii. means that women are always speaking; men regularly do not tell
the truth,
iii. Women tell the truth but man, about the same truth, tells lies.
One further example will show that the effect of repositioning the
comma, or not putting it at all, may change the "feel" of the sentence:
He missed the train connection but fortunately there was a bus going to
the someplace, so he took that instead. The "so. . . " clause is added
almost as an afterthought.
More pauses are given in He missed the train connection, but
fortunately there was a bus, going to the someplace, so he took that
instead. Indeed, for English taste, there are too many commas in this
version. The sentence is too staccato.
He missed the train connection but fortunately there was a bus going to
the same place so he took that instead. This version, without any
commas, speeds the whole thing up.
Another version, which has the opposite effect, can be obtained by
using full stops: He missed the train connection. But fortunately there
was a bus going to the same place. So he took that instead. The full stop
effectively stops the flow of words. It is actually much more used in
English than in Italian. We generally prefer short, clear sentences, rather
than long, convoluted, adjective- and adverb-laden ones, with lots of
subordinate clauses. So full stops are preferred to semi-colons.
However, what was said first about the comma also applies to the full
stop and the semi-colon. They should ideally not be placed before a
conjunction, particularly not before and or but. Putting it another way:
anybody wanting to write good English should never start a sentence
with those conjunctions. In formal writing, such as the composition or
essay, after a full stop In addition (or slightly less formally What is
more) may be used instead of and, and However (or more emphatically
and formally Nevertheless) instead of but.
The hyphen is a joining device, whereas the dash is not, and the hyphen
is shorter than the dash - which are the two main differences. A single
hyphen at the end of lines shows how part of a word which has been
split in two belongs to the other part. This device, thanks to the
computer and automatic spacing, is becoming increasingly less used. In
the hand-written language, the hyphen should really be totally avoided.
It is perfectly possible to space words out when writing, so that it is not
necessary to split them - for the correct separating of syllables can be a
serious problem even for English-speaking people.
Whether words should be hyphenated or not is often a matter of taste.
The student is best advised, though, to observe carefully while reading
and to note which words have hyphens and which do not - indeed to
make lists of words whose hyphenated (or non-hyphenated) state caused
surprise, when you first read it, because you were expecting a different
form. The basic principle is that two (or more) words are joined by a
hyphen, if they are commonly found together as a single idea, or if the
writer wants them to be considered a single idea but, as the living
language changes, hyphens tend to be disappearing. The hyphen still
normally joins words which function as an adjective. It is a technique
used, especially in newspapers, to reduce the number of words needed
to express the idea, e.g. The Paris-based company (The company is
based in Paris). Shot silk can be greenish-red (Shot silk can have both
green and red colours in it). Sky-blue is a bright colour (The same
colour as the sky is a bright blue). The post-war East-West meeting was
cancelled due to socio-economic differences. (The meeting between
leaders of Eastern and Western countries was cancelled because of
social and economic differences). The thirty-five-year-old red-haired
woman lived in a wine-growing area in a thatched-roof cottage with
two-metre-high walls (The woman, who was thirty-five and had red
hair, lived in an area where they grew grapes for wine, in a cottage
which had a thatched roof and walls that were two metres high).
The hyphen can also be used as a separating mark, to make clear that a
preposition has been added and/or to make the pronunciation different.
Prominent people are often co-opted onto committees and cooped up in
small rooms.
Ex-army people might explain how many bye-laws there are on
bicycles.
The famous "observant student" will have noticed that the dash is
always a separating device, longer than the hyphen and, when printed,
with a blank space on both sides. It can also be used in place of brackets
- perhaps to introduce an afterthought.
Inverted commas, or quotation marks - always at the upper level of the
words in English - are used primarily to enclose quotations. They also
are to be found round words meant in an ironic sense - the real meaning
being different from the expected one.
The semi-colon and the colon are not used as often in English as they
are in Italian. We prefer to put ftill-stops, in order to make sentences
shorter and clearer. However, the use of a semi-colon is most often
found in sentences where the second part somehow contradicts the first:
Mrs. Smith looks really old; her husband still looks young.
Nevertheless, semi-colons (a longer pause than a comma; shorter than a
full-stop) can be used merely to continue an idea expressed. Early on a
summer morning in England the air has a cool sparkle; like being up in
the mountains.
The colon is not normally used to introduce speech, except in very
formal reports, e.g. In her Christmas message, the Queen said: "My
husband and I ...". [In normal reporting of speech what is used in
English is the comma.] The colon usually introduces a list or an
exemplification of what has just been stated.
Practice:
D Punctuate the following passages, putting capital letters where appropriate
and using all the points mentioned (and others) - watch out for plenty of
proper nouns - capital letters - in b)!
a) The O'Malley family father mother and six year old timmy boarded their ship
and set sail on what was to be a once in a lifetime journey to america at the
start of the journey there were three omalleys as noted but by the end of the
journey there were four the latest addition being baby kathleen bom on the high
seas burdened as she was with the business of settling into a new house and
looking after the baby mrs omalley sent timmy to the comer shop to get some
supplies for his tiny sister he asked the salesgirl for what was required and in
the space of a few minutes she returned with the package thatll be four dollars
for the diapers and twenty five cents for the tax timmy protested we dont want
any tacks
5
lady in ireland everyone uses safety pins
b) St Catherines medieval street fair
for centuries frome was the bustling hub of east somerset a busy market town
in an important cloth producing region the towns history dates back more than
1300 years to 685 AD when the abbot of malmesbury led a group of monks into
a small clearing on the banks of the river frome in the great wilderness of
selwood forest and built a small stone church there
so frome was founded during the next 400 years it grew steadily until by the
time of the domesday survey of 1086 it had three mills paying 25 shillings and a
market which yielded 46s 8d
6
a year the cloth making industry made it into an
increasingly prosperous town many of its important buildings date from the
industrys peak during the 16
!
18 centuries indeed nowadays frome has more
listed buildings
7
than any town in the county of somerset
regular fairs were part of the life of the middle ages and when the town
celebrated its 1300* anniversary it was decided to revive one of these the patron
saint of spinners and weavers the crafts which formed the basis of much of
fromes wealth was saint Catherine so the street fair was revived in her honour
c)This Scotsman, Jock, was on his way home one night when he was stopped by
his neighbour please will you help me get this pig out of the van when they had
got the pig out the neighbour asked will you hold the animal while i open the
front door once the pig was inside the house jock was asked to help push the
great beast upstairs so jock did that now the neighbour said help me put the pig
into the bath after a great deal of effort they managed to get it in look said jock
whats going on why do you need to shove a bloody great pig into the bath well
said the neighbour the trouble is with my wife shes one of those women who
always know everything if i tell her the football teams just signed a new
Tack = a short nail often used for fastening down carpets.
6
In former times the British currency units were pounds (sterling), shillings and pence,
abbreviated to L - normally written - s and d. (for information: 12d equalled lsand20s = l.
There were other subdivisions according to the values of coins)
7
Listed buildings are those which have historic interest and come in different categories:Grade
one listed buildings cannot be changed, inside or out, without permission from the local
government authority; Grade two buildings require this permission before any exterior change is
made.
manager she says i know if i tell her a new oil field has just been discovered off
the Scottish coast she says i know and if i tell her the financial times share index
is likely to drop ten points next month she says i know hows the pig in the bath
going to help though asked jock well tomorrows going to be a never to be
forgotten morning shes going to go into the bathroom and then rush back to the
bedroom screaming theres a dirty great pig in the bath and im going to lie back
in bed and say to her i know i know
Sent ence l ength. Different effects can be obt ai ned by choosi ng the
length of sent ences or phr ases t o suit t he subj ect. If you have a
passage in whi ch t he sent ences are general l y fairly l ong, a short
sent ence will c ome as a shock . It will be st ri ki ng and t herefore
emphasi sed, e. g.
As the old steam train slowly left the grimy station, its plume of smoke rising
into the otherwise clear morning air, John was thinking about where he was
going and what - and especially who - he was leaving behind. He didn' t want
to go.
Consi der, on t he ot her hand, t he different effect cr eat ed by t he length
of lines and sent ences in t he fol l owi ng poem:
RAAG "
Wondering o 'er the language of a raag
One wonders while weaving languishing airs
Lying languorously seemingly without rhythm
Bit by bit in the floating sounds merge the beating drums
Time on time through the wafting strings the melody repeating comes
Beating beats on the leather skins fingers strike their thrums
And then the rhythm changes to a gradual faster beat
With fingers strumming wildly in increasing summer's heat
And the tempo getting quicker while the plucking tunes repeat.
What now, listeners wonder,
Is this galloping thunder ?
Can these instruments sunder
Thus the air ?
Is this where
Music 'sfair
Culminates ? (J.C.)
Not onl y t he l engt h of t he sent ences but al so the choi ce of consonant s
and vowel s, as wel l as lack of punct uat i on, in the first hal f of the
poem gi ve an i mpressi on of sl owness and l anguor. As t he r hyt hm
Indian musical fomi
speeds up, the clauses get shorter and the music faster. (Those
students who read French should compare Victor Hugo' s "les
Djinns".)
A different effect is obtained by Arundhati Roy in her book The God
of Small Things, where most of the sentences are short - indeed
some are only phrases with full stops between. .. .her children curled
into the warmth of her. The smell of her. They covered their heads
with her hair. They sensed somehow that in her sleep she had
travelled away from them. They summoned her back now with the
palms of their small hands laid flat against the bare skin of her
midriff. Between her petticoat and her blouse. They loved the fact
that the brown of the backs of their hands was the exact brown of
their mother's stomach skin. The 'small things' , details of normal
life, are thus emphasised and the calm of the picture - in this
example that of the two young children in their mother' s arms - is
obtained by the longer sentences.
As usual, it is the context which determines what effect the length of
sentences has. It is the reader's understanding imagination that must
interpret and discover the effect.
The effect of an English sentence is also - indeed very often -
conveyed by word order. English is a word order language. A basic
sentence (apart from the imperative kind) always has a subject and a
verb - in that order if it is a statement, inverted if it is a question. A
lot of other things, though, can be included in a simple sentence :
adjectives, objects, adverbs of manner [how ?], place [where ?] and
time [when ?]. The normal word order can be remembered by the
acronym SVOMPT (Subject, Verb, Object, Manner, Place, Time ).
We do no! place an adverb between the verb and its object or
complement. If you say "I don' t speak very well English", it is true,
you don't!
He learnt to play the violin very badly. You may have to make decisions
immediately. She took the glasses into the kitchen.
Other examples: Sit there quietly, (adverb)
He did not play well enough to win. (adverb phrase)
" Arundhati Roy, 1" ^pub. HarperCollins Flamingo, p. 221
They were sitting on the bench, (prepositional phrase)
Come and see me next week, (noun phrase functioning as an adverbial -
usually a time expression)
However, adverbial phrases of frequency fhow often?!, probability
[how likely?], duration [how long?]/time and some of degree [how
much?] normally come in front of the main verb but after the verb
forms of be and auxiliary verbs, like modals, e.g.
She occasionally comes to my house. He must never step inside it.
You have probably/ certainly/ obviously/ maybe heard the news by now.
They had already paid the money over. He never gets up before 12. She can
never wake up before breakfast.
She really enjoyed the party. The coat was rather expensive but quite a nice
colour. It's warm enough.
The rules apply equally in both independent (main) and subordinate
clauses.
The letter, which was lying on the table that morning, was due to be
posted at the main post office in the afternoon.
When adjectives are included, the normal order of adjectives before
the noun is as follows:
Opinion adjectives before fact adjectives. An interesting big book. A
beautiful young girl.
(fact only adjectives follow the order below: big blue eyes)
If there are two colour adjectives, they are joined by and. Two
adjectives referring to different parts of the same object are joined by
and. Two adjectives of about the same importance usually come in
the order short before long.
Of course, very rarely do we want to use all these types of adjective
in one sentence.
SHAPE&WIDTH.
A nice
Some lovely
Ten horrible
Sometimes this order is used:
bi g
long
enormous
AGE
new
fresh
old
SIZE
wide
square
->
-
->
-
Whatever the situation, when we depart from any of these word-order
rules a particular effect is created, usually deliberately, by the writer.
We speak English at home. At home we speak English. English we speak at home.
They went to town on Saturday. On Saturday they went to town. To town they went
on Saturday.
The streets are at right angles in many American cities. In many American cities
the streets are at right angles. The streets in many American cities are at right
angles.
She threw herself whole-heartedly into her work. Whole-heartedly she threw
herself into her work. Into her work she threw herself whole-heartedly.
In these examples, where the first one is normal, it is a change of stress
which is caused by changing the word order. The words in the unusual
position get the most emphasis.
This is also why we use the inverted order, when the sentence starts
with a negative or exclusive expression like hardly, rarely, seldom, not
often, scarcely, never, under no circumstances ..., not only...(but also), no sooner
.. (than), not until, only then (referring to the verb). The verb is then
emphasised, either by using the auxiliary do or by inversion with the
subject. Not only should you buy a home but also you must spend wisely and not
beyond your means. Hardly had they heard the bell when their grandson erupted
into the room. Only then /stressing then] did she realise how much he loved her.
In the subordinate clause, inversion is used after neither and nor : She is
not stupid, neither is she beautiful. We also invert after the substitution word
so, as in the example : You are intelligent and so am I. (The so is a
substitute, replacing the word intelligent.)
The wrong word order, however, can give rise to amusing English. Two
cars were reported stolen by Cambridge police yesterday (two stolen cars were
reported...; not that the cars were stolen by the police!) The judge sentenced the
killer to die in the electric chair for the second time (The judge sentenced the
killer - for the second time - to die...; not that the killer had already died once!)
COLOUR. ORIGIN. Past Participle, MATERIAL, NOUN
red & black
green
striped
German hand-crafted
Italian homemade
weU-built
plastic
whole-wheat
concrete & glass
car
spaghetti
houses
Sometimes this order: Past Participle ORIGIN
Pract i ce :
E. Insert the words into the normally correct places
i I speak English - very well / when I go home
ii They were sitting - quite happily / in the car / during the film
iii She spoke - at the meeting / last night / very well
iv This computer is out of date - already / on the bench / completely
V She played tennis - at Wimbledon / two years ago / spectacularly
vi We talked it over - at lunchtime / briefly / in the hotel
vii She practises - on the harp / every day / conscientiously
viii The expert analysed the problem - rapidly / on the spot/ by computer
ix Stars performed - well-known / free / yesterday / at the charity show
X When the houses were rebuilt, number 13 was omitted - after
the bombing/ brown / dilapidated / little / intentionally/ as quickly as
possible
xi If my car functions, I'll travel - to England / al ri ght / next
summer / green / metal / wood / as fast as possible
xii The secretary forgot to post the letter - vital / stupid / that evening /
pink/ purple / unintelligent / before going home / to Russia / in her car
xiii We heard a lecture - 20-minute / interesting / last night / in the
main hall / short
xi v She was wearing a sweater - lovely / this morning / new / sand-
coloured / outside the cinema
xv Everybody accepted his suggestion - wonderfully simple /whole-
heartedly / during the meeting / last week / in the town hal l .
F. Correct the mistakes in the following sentences - there is at least one
deliberate error in each.
(a) My friend can speak very fluently English.
(b)What is that smell horrible ? Something is burning definitely.
(c) He explained me the rules of the game.
(d) She was tidying chaotically up the contents of the cupboards.
(e) Fred came in and offered her to help.
(f) I haven' t seen lately Paul. You have ?
(g) We have been a long time living in our present house.
(h)It' s at last the end of the day. When I get to home I' m going to relax,
(i) I'll take my shoes off and in front of the fire sit down as soon as
possible,
(j) We enjoyed very much the jazz concert yesterday in the park.
(k)She finds it difficult very to make on the spur of the moment her mind
up.
(1) Our motto is to give customers the lowest possible prices and
workmanship,
(m) Following your instructions I have given birth to twins in the enclosed
envelope,
(n) A man was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, after he was found
in a hotel car park last night in a car nude,
(o)Tests conducted by a zoologist recently have proved that grasshoppers
hear normally with their legs,
(p) He ate hungrily for/in many weeks his first meal. [Either preposition is
possible -one English, the other American.]
(q) The weather is variable in England usually,
(r) His latest picture disappointed thoroughly his many admirers,
(s) Not only her letters have been published but also her autobiography,
(t) The hotel has bowling alleys, tennis courts, comfortable beds, and also
other athletic facilities,
(u) Wanted.: man to look after cow that does not smoke,
(v) Walking down the road, I saw suddenly a familiar face. [Helpful hint:
The person walking was the one with the familiar face.]
(w)The wife complained to her husband : ' You tell me you love me any
more never.'
(x)Judge to jury : ' As we begin, I must ask you to banish all information
present and prejudice from your minds, if you have any.'
(y) One thing the Dalai Lama advises is to spend every day some time alone,
(z) Another of his pieces of advice : ' Approach both with reckless abandon
love and cooking.'
5. COHESION
As we have already seen, a cohesive text results from using various
devices like lexical chains and syntactical groupings. Conjunctions
like consequently, for instance, although, in short, moreover, however,
etc., and temporal conjunctions like as soon as, while, by the time,
then, when, during, until, after, etc., also serve to join sentences and
ideas. Reference to other words or parts of the text is made by using
pronouns (he, she, they, it, etc.), the definite article (the), demonstrative
adjectives and pronouns (this, that, here, etc.). Implied reference is
made by such words as else, different, same, such, other, the, etc.
Substitution also takes place, using so, do, ones, etc. Reference and
substitution words are italicised in this article:
American waitresses can be wary of British customers, suspecting - with reason -
that they do not understand a culture in which it is basic courtesy to leave nothing
less than a 15% tip. Consequently Gloria Goody had no great hopes when she saw
a British doctor sit down at one other tables and order tea for himselfand two
friends. She could not know that he was different. While she was serving, Gloria
engaged in conversation with the young doctor, talking about how she was
working hard to get where she was. He too said he worked hard to get to where he
was. She mentioned she was trying to save to pay for her post-graduate studies. He
was so impressed (and so rich) that he wanted to help her progress. 'She deserved
to do so, because she was a wonderful waitress.' He did, incidentally, ask her to
go out for breakfast with him - which she declined. When he settled the bill,
however, the young doctor left a refreshingly generous gratuity of $10,000
(1,111%)!
Another device for creating cohesion is the omission of words, without
a change of meaning. This is called ellipsis .
Want some help? ' Do you' has been omitted.
James owns a BMW, Sarah (owns) a Ford
I believe (that) you are right (referring to the situation)
Even if you don't understand this now, you will (understand it).
Pract i ce:
G. What are the reference or substitution words included in and what has been
omitted from the following?
i What an extraordinary chain of events ! Beats fiction hollow ! (Satyajit
Ray, The Adventures of Feluda. Penguin. P. 264)
ii She loves chocolates and so do I. The ones I like best are truffles,
iii Everyone who has given any thought to the meaning of words has
noticed they always keep changing meaning, in a living language; in a dead
one, the meaning is fixed,
iv You' ll find the preacher for next week on the church notice board.
v A note to the social welfare officer ran as follows : Please, I want my
money as soon as possible. I have been in bed with the doctor for two weeks
and he doesn' t do me any good. If it doesn't improve I'll have to get another
one.
vi The TV set in every living room knows what is normal : it is. I don't
think so, though,
vii 'Are you suggesting the boy' s stupid ?' ' Well, I wouldn' t go so far as to
say t hat . '
viii Mr Ward discovered, totally by chance, a magical piece of plastic, so
tough as to withstand nuclear explosions. The polymer, which he called
Starlight, has really impressive properties. He first brought them to public
notice a few years ago when he coated a raw egg with the substance.
Despite zapping with powerful laser weapons and blasting with an
oxyacetylene welding torch, it remained uncooked, undamaged and could
be handled with bare fingers immediately afterwards,
ix A modem serves a dual purpose, for it acts as a modulator, turning
digital signals to analog, and as a demodulator, turning analog signals to
digital. Hence the name,
x Yes, of course my job is a risky one. You don' t think about the dangers,
though. If it' s a life-and-death situation, you just get in there and get on with
it. If there are people inside, your job is to get them out - never mind about
the heat and flames.
6. FIGURES
Figures of speech are used to brighten up good writing and speech.
Not only that but they may be considered as essential to the
understanding of communication within our various social groups.
10
Figurative language is not to be taken literally - it means something
other than what the words used normally mean. You have to use your
imagination to interpret correctly. When a boy is told to " pull his socks up",
what he should really do is make some improvement in his behaviour or perform
better in some way. When a girl is "as bright as a button", she is intelligent. It
rains "cats and dogs" in Ireland - clearly it does not mean that; it only rains water!
There are, in English just as there are in Italian, large numbers of
different techniques and structures for improving the style of a piece of
writing.
Ellipsis, which we have already looked at (page 35), avoids the
repetition of one expression or several words.
Antithesis underlines a particular concept by referring to its opposite.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) often used the device:
While pensive poets painful vigils keep,
Sleepless themselves to give their readers sleep.
A wit with dunces and a dunce with wits.
The right divine of kings to govern wrong.
Some praise at morning what they blame at night.
To err is human, to forgive, divine.
Tennyson's (1809-1892) In Memoriam has a whole series of antitheses in the
section starting
Ring out the old, ring in the new
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
S.I.Hayakawa in Language in Thought and Action p.121: We tend to assume... that things
that create in us the same responses are identical with each other. If, for example we are revolted
byt heconduct of an acquaintance at dinner... our first, unreflecting reaction is naturally to say
' He is a pig' . So far as our feelings are concerned, the man and the pig are identical.. ..This is
the basic process by which we arrive at metaphor. Metaphors are not 'ornaments of discourse';
they are direct expressions of evaluations and are bound to occur whenever we have strong
feelings to express. They are to be found in special abundance, therefore, in all primitive speech,
in folk speech, in the speech of the unlearned, in the speech of children, and in the professional
argot of the theater, of gangsters and other lively occupations.
Thomas Middleton (1570?-1627), in Blurt:
Love is all in fire, and yet is ever freezing;
Love is much in winning, yet is more in leesing;
Love is ever sick, and yet is never dying;
Love is ever true, andyet is ever lying...
Si mi l e is t he opposi t e sort of devi ce: it compar es one t hi ng t o anot her,
nor mal l y usi ng t he wor ds such, so, like, as.
Shakespeare's (1564 - 1616) Hamlet provides these (and other) examples:
Thou comes t in such a questionable shape that I will speak with thee.
That noble and most sovereign reason,
like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
show me the steep and thorny way to heaven.
Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674), To Anthea, wrote
A heart as soft, a heart as kind, A heart as sound and free
As in the whole world thou canst find, That heart I '11 give to thee.
The frequently used si mi l e in a passage is cal l ed an ext ended si mi l e.
The body is like a car; it needs more mechanical tinkering as it gets older. You
can carry this analogy right through to the provision of spare parts....
Met aphor - i dent i fi es one t hi ng in t er ms of anot her but wi t hout usi ng
like, as. such. S. I . Hayakawa ' i ndi cat es t hat met aphor s and si mi l es ' ar e
not "or nament s of di scour se"; t hey are di rect expressi ons of eval uat i ons
and are bound t o occur whenever we have st r ong feelings t o expr ess. '
He gives an example of when we see a person eating in such a way as to give us a
feeling of revulsion, we refer to him (occasionally her!) as eating "like a pig"
(simile) or we say "he is a pig" (metaphor).
Ther e are different t ypes of met aphor , commonl y used i n everyday
speech as wel l as in literary forms.
Personi f i cat i on is very common. In the examples the words personified are
those which are underlined
Ohsleep, oh gentle sleep. Nature's soft nurse (Shakespeare, Henry IV Act 2)
Awake! For Morning in the bowl of Night
Has flung the stone that put the stars to flight
And lo! the Hunter of the East
I2
has caught
The Sultan's turret in a noose of light. (Fitzgerald, The Rubaiyat...)
" In Language in Thought and Action. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., U.S. A 1949.
12
the Sun
When a metaphor is used frequently in the same passage - usually with
different twists to it - it is called an extended metaphor, such as Sarah
Teesdale's Ploughed Field: My soul is a dark ploughed field/ In the cold rain;
My soul is a broken field/ Ploughed by pain, (pain is also personification)
or Margaret Cavendish's Soul and Body, in which the body is throughout referred
to by the metaphor of clothing:
Great Nature she doth clothe the soul within
A fleshly garment which the Fates do spin.
And when these garments are grown old and bare,
With sickness torn. Death takes them off with care
And folds them up in peace, and quiet rest,
So lays them safe within an earthly chest.
Then scours them, and makes them sweet and clean.
Fit for the soul to wear those clothes again.
Some metaphors are so commonly used in everyday language that they
are no longer thought of as metaphors. These are referred to as dead
metaphors - they are so over-used that the metaphorical sense has
completely gone from people' s minds.
If we are told to turn over a new leaf, we know that we are being given an
opportunity to change our behaviour or way of life and, if we are wise, we will
take steps to do something about it. [It would be a wise student who took
note and made a list of all the dead metaphors he/she came across in
reading. ]
The oxymoron is like antithesis - an opposite meaning expressed but,
in this case, within the same phrase, so that it seems self-contradictory.
Deafening silence is a fairly common example, and being alone
together. Shakespeare's Romeo refers to love using several oxymorons: Feather
of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Tennyson, in "Lancelot and Elaine"
wrote: His honour rooted in dishonour stood,/And faith unfaithful kept him falsely
true. John Donne (1572-1631) referring to his love for his mistress wrote To enter
in these bonds is to be free, but, as this is not a phrase but a clause, we call
it a paradox. It is an opinion, statement or proposition which is contrary
to popular acceptation or apparently self-contradictory, though it has
some truth in it and this forces the reader or listener to reconsider the
statement, e.g. Wordsworth's famous sentence, The child is father of the
man. (With a little thought, it is clear that the state of ' child' comes
chronologically before that of ' man' , so is, as it were, the father, the
person without whom ' the man' would not exist.)
k
41
Another form of opposite meaning is irony . This is not always easy to
recognise but the tendency is for students erroneously to label
everything as "ironic". They often think that an exam question about the
style of a passage can usually be answered that way!
Let us try to define irony as a figure of speech. It is basically the
opposition between what is expressed and the factual situation. (The
politician promises to lighten the tax burden but the new tax system burdens the
poor or the less well-off and the rich get out of paying taxes.) The speaker or
writer may intend the listener or reader to understand the opposite of
what is said (Have a nice day, said to somebody who is about to go into the gas
chamber for execution, would be ironic.) Irony may give an impression of
the detachment and sophistication of the author. If carried to extremes it
becomes mordant or biting irony, which could be called "satire", such
as is shown in Swift's Modest Proposal (not at all modest but extreme, in, for
example, the suggestion to solve Ireland's starvation problem by selling Irish
babies to English landlords for food). Though Stephen Potter suggests
13
,
quoting John Dryden, that more effective than the bludgeon "is the
scimitar, so sharp that, capable of severing the head from the neck with
one blow, it can leave the head still standing in position". Potter gives an
example from Geoffrey Chaucer's "Nun's Priest's Tale", one of the "Canterbury
Tales", where the cock represents the human husband and the hen is the wife. The
pompous husband talks about a dream and quotes many authorities for believing it
is a warning dream. The wife asks "but... are not dreams the result of
eating...perhaps too much?" Gentle satire but all the more effectively
mordant.
Usually irony is meant lightly or humorously. When theatre people are
about to perform the first night of a play, they say to each other Break a leg!
Clearly they wish the very opposite to happen! If the weather is awful, overcast or
pouring with rain and somebody says Lovely day today, isn 't it? , they are being
ironic. A certain Englishman says his wife is a sex object; in this he is being
ironic, since every time he says he wants sex, she says T object'! (See later: the
pun).
A Scotsman had been given a bottle of fine old Scotch whisky, which he placed in
his trouser pocket. On the way home he fell down. As he got up he felt a wet patch
on his trousers. 'Please. Lord,' he prayed, 'let that be blood.'
(The irony is that he really meant: let it not be whisky!)
If the speaker is unaware of the real situation but the listener knows it
(as in the theatre), we call this "dramatic irony". The boy who fell in the
river survived but the man who jumped in to save him died (dramatic, for some
in The Sense of Humour. Penguin 1954, page 31.
people tragic irony - we observe the situation as in a play). If we, the
observers, know that the situation is going to turn out badly, any
positive remark could be considered as "tragic irony" (We know that the
character in the film is dying of an incurable disease but he does not know this and
says 'When I get out of hospital, we'll have a party'.)
Real life is also full of irony. The outcome of events may be contrary to
what was hoped or expected. A man gets out of prison and is run over by a
bus. Somebody regularly pays Income Tax honestly and completely but the Tax
authorities decide to check his returns, while omitting to check those of someone
who usually cheats. Lawrence Oates (1880 - 1912), a member of Scott's
Antarctic expedition, knew that he, already ill, would be a drain on the limited
remaining food supplies; he sacrificed his life, hoping the others would be able to
return home safely - they also died on the journey back.
Euphemism is the use of a mild expression for a harsher, painful or
socially unacceptable one. It can sometimes be used for humorous
effect.
He passed peacefully away
m
He died in his sleep
Developing countries = backward or under-developed countries
The litotes - originally a Greek word, which always looks plural but is
singular or plural according to context - emphasises an idea either by
i) understating the real situation, e.g.
This ice cream isn 't bad it is very nice
or ii) by using a negative. The opposite of what is meant is contradicted.
This has often got an ironic tone to it.She was no beauty = she was very
ugly. He was not ignorant = he knew a lot. She is not unworthy of praise = she
should be praised.
They blessed him not, for what they got = they cursed him for what he gave them
(in his last will and testament).
The reverse of the litotes is the hyperbole - exaggeration for the sake
of increasing the effect. I'm dying of"thirst and dead tired simply means 'I'm
extremely tired and thirsty.'
Shakespeare's Cassius describes Julius Caesar (Act I Sc.ii) as a physically
huge man, in order to emphasise his greatness : He doth bestride the narrow world
like a Colossus and we petty men walk under his huge legs. (Hyperbolic simile)
Li ke t he litotes, t he hyper bol e can al so be i roni c in t one, e.g. Horace
Greeley's praise of journalism: Then hail to the Press! chosen guardian of
freedom! Strong sword-arm of justice! bright sunbeam of truth!
Humour is vi t al t o life. It reflects and embel l i shes it.
It comes from many different sources.
14
Li ngui st i c humour or wi t (pl ayi ng wi t h or on wor ds) is somet hi ng many
peopl e are fond of and i s often t o be found - i nt ent i onal l y or
uni nt ent i onal l y - in newspaper headl i nes.
NEW HOUSING FOR ELDERLY NOT YET DEAD (= the plan for new old-
people's homes is still being considered, not that these new homes are for the old
folk who are still alive)
POLICE MISTAKE AT OXFORD
INNOCENT MAN RELEASED (The innocent man was released. The mistake
was not his release but that the man was wrongly arrested.)
The pun, per haps t he most common t ype of pl ay on wor ds, uses a wor d
or phr ase in order t o emphasi se or suggest its different meani ngs or
appl i cat i ons. A pun can al t ernat i vel y use wor ds t hat are al i ke or nearl y
al i ke in sound but different in meani ng.
I hate fish. The sole exception is those without bones, (sole is a type offish,
' sole' also means ' only' ). Is life worth living? That depends upon the liver. (Anon,
c. 1885) (liver= a part of the body and a person who lives)
Newspaper headline: BALLOON RACE
SEVEN COMPETITORS FALL OUT (does not mean that 7 people taking
part in the balloon race fell out of the basket beneath the balloon, fall out means
that they had registered to take part in the race but cancelled their registration and
did not take part.)
Shakespeare regularly played on words e.g. A young man married is a man that's
marr 'd (marr 'd could be the past participle of to marry, married, or the past
participle of to mar [=to damage, spoil, render less than perfect] marred). The
shortest sentence in the English language is 'I am'; it isn 't T do' because that
could turn out to be a very long sentence. (T do' is what both members of the
couple say at the marriage ceremony. The first 'sentence' is linguistic; the second
implies condemnation in a court of law.)
Oliver Herford (1863-1935) wrote
My sense of sight is very keen,/My sense of hearing weak./
One time I saw a mountain pass/ But could not hear it s peak.
The pun is double: seeing the mountain pass (go) by or the mountain-pass (a
relatively low part of a mountain range, a way to cross over); but not hearing it
speak /its peak.
The student who wants a detailed analysis should refer to Henri Bergson's LeRire.
Thomas Hood (1759-1845) His death, which happened in his berth/At forty-odd
befell;/ They went and told the sexton"and/ The sexton toll"d the bell.
Again a double pun: death and birth - berth ; told from tell - tolled from toll.
Another example of a rather extended American joke based on a pun is this one:
three Red Indian women (squaws) are sitting side by side. The first, sitting on a
goatskin, has a son who weighs 170 pounds . The second, sitting on a deerskin,
has a son who weighs 130 pounds. The third, sitting on a hippopotamus hide,
weighs 300 pounds. What famous theorem does this illustrate?
Naturally, the answer is that the squaw on the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of
the squaws on the other two hides.
I6
Humour i s t o be found in t he unexpect ed, whet her verbal or si t uat i onal .
In Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra's attendant, Charmian
declares: I love long life better than figs.
An advert, in a magazine : Wanted - new pair of football boots, for a good young
fox-terrier dog.
Misprints are a source of amusement because they are unexpected linguistic slips.
Another advertisement ran: The Hotel's bathroom has been enlarged and will hold
over two hundred dancers (bathroom should, of course, read ballroom).
Even apologies for misprints can be unintentionally funny:
Our paper carried the information last week that Mr Brown is a defective in the
police force. This was a typographical error. Mr Brown is, of course, a detective
in the police farce.
Perhaps unexpectedly, humour can also sometimes come from the too obvious
remark, like the hospital case with an in-growing toenail being looked for by the
nurse. "Where do I find it?" she asked. The doctor's response: "at the end of the
foot."
Cont rast i s a maj or cause of l aught er. The seri ous del i very of a
r i di cul ous quest i on or r emar k makes for fun. A silly st at ement in t he
mi ddl e of an apparent l y seri ous pi ece does l i kewi se. E.g. In a court
hearing, this dialogue occurred: Q How was your first marriage terminated?
A By death
Q By whose death was it terminated?
Another dialogue r an: Q You say the stairs went down to the basement?
A Yes
Q And these stairs, did they go up also?
The church official responsible for looking after the building and the graveyard. He may also
ring the bell for happy events or toll it for funerals.
' The famous mathematical theorem about the right-angled triangle is as follows: the square on
the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides.
Character humour depends on the person being portrayed. In
commedia dell'arte the chief character who caused laughter was the old
man, a figure of fun and ridicule, miserly, pompous and absent-minded
- that he would also be 'in love' with the young heroine was a situation
which provoked mirth.
Situation comedy is now recognised as a series of separate television
episodes dealing with the same group of characters. The original
concept was that the humour, the laughter, should come from the
situation in which the characters found themselves. Instead of laughing
at the words, we would laugh at the incongruousness of the situation.
(Benny Hill presents a large number of examples.) Farce includes many of
those situations. The basic slipping-on-a-banana-skin action created
laughter because of the observer's relief at not being the one to slip.
Catharsis was a Greek concept usually linked to tragedy but nowadays
we find it also in situations which cause us to laugh with relief.
Repetition is also something which can come under the definition of
humour - though it may also be used just for emphasis. It can be
repetition of a funny action or situation (Tom trying to catch Jerry and being
hoisted with his own petard), or repetition of an expression or word, such as
the "tag lines" of many comedians or comics.
Mixed metaphors are generally humorous because of the unsuitable
juxtaposition of two, or more, ideas. Ian Fleming somewhere wrote that
James Bond's knees, the Achilles heel of all skiers, were beginning to ache. A
classic tangle is : The idea was hatched two years ago but it didn t catch fire until
a month ago, when the directors jumped in feet first. Since then, things have been
really snowballing for the group. An American commented:77ie Internal Revenue
Service appears to be totally impaled in the quicksands of inertia. A Forest of
Dean farmer, objecting to the "authorities" carrying out changes in regulations
without consulting the people concerned, said We 're just pawns in an enormous
wheel - what he should have said correctly was that the ordinary people were fust
pawns in the game or cogs in an enormous wheel.
The limerick is a humorous form of verse which relies on rhyme, and
sometimes puns, to amuse the reader.
There was an old man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket;
an island off SE Massachusetts
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran off with a man
And as for the bucket, Nantucket. (=Nan took it)
There's a wonderful family called Stein
There's Gert
l8
and there's Epp'
9
and there's Ein '
Gert 's poems are bunk,
Epp's statues are junk,
And no-one can understand Ein.
Practice:
H. Discover what figures of speech are used in these quotations,
sentences or short paragraphs.
(a) As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods/They kill us for their sport (King
Lear i Vi )
(b) Though every prospect pleases /And only man is vile (Bishop Heber 1782-
1826)
(c) Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go for. (T.Roosevelt 1901 quoting
African proverb)
(d) Most people .. .do not seem to accept dreaniing as part of their lives. They
appear to see it as an irritating little habit, like sneezing or yawning.
(J.B.Priestley, Delight)
(e) This City now doth like a garment wear / The beauty of the morning..
(Wordsworth, 1770-1850, Lines composed upon Westminster Bridget
(f) Then here's to the oak, the brave old oak, / Who stands in his pride alone!
(H.F.Chorley, 1808-1872. The Brave Old Oak)
(g) The public image of J.F.Kennedy remained untarnished. Was it because of his
tons of money?
(h) He wound the car window down. The blizzard rushed in, hitting the side of his
face like a hammer wrapped in ice-cold cotton-wool.
(i) I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only /Vaulting ambition,
which o'er-leaps itself? And falls on the other. (Shakespeare, Macbeth. I vii)
(j) Affliction may one day smile again; and, till then, sit thee down, sorrow!
(Shakespeare, Love' s Labour's Lost I i)
(k) He had the face of a Judas who had only received twenty-eight pieces of silver,
and the expression of a defiant rabbit (Lennie Lower, Here' s Luck p.82)
1
Gertrude Stein, 1874-1946, poetess
' Sir Jacob Epstein, 1880-1959, English sculptor, born in the USA
0
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, US physicist, bom in Germany.
(1) "Let it bum", I replied. "It' s all insured." I did not discover until later that the
policy had lapsed and forfeited its usefulness for want of monetary
encouragement. (Lennie Lower, Here' s Luck, p. 196)
(m)The factory workers control machines, feeding them with raw materials which
they transform into manufactured products.
(n) It was in the flood-tide of chivalry. Knighthood was in the pod. The sun was
slowly setting in the east , rising and falling occasionally as it subsided, and
illuminating with its dying beams the towers of the grim castle (Stephen
Leacock, Nonsense Novels p.29)
(o) I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad.
(Shakespeare, As You Like It IV i)
(p) There is no man so low that he has in him no spark of manhood, which, if
watered with the milk of human kindness, will not burst into flames.
(q) Some chain stores have built up their business so that they have branches
everywhere but none on the face of a cliff or in the bowels of a volcano.
(r) A little more than kin and less than kind (Hamlet. I ii)
(s) [After the murder of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar by his 'friend', Brutus, and
others, Brutus addresses the people: ' Hear me for my cause; believe me for
mine honour; and have respect to mine honour... Not that I loved Caesar less
but that I loved Rome more. . .' Mark Anthony, Caesar's true friend, speaks to
the crowd:] ... The noble Brutus / Hath told you Caesar was ambitious. ...Here
under leave of Brutus and the rest / For Brutus is an honourable man; /So are
they all, all honourable me n- /Come I to speak at Caesar' s funeral./ He was
my friend, faithful and just to me;/But Brutus says he was ambitious; /And
Brutus is an honourable man...
I thrice presented him a kingly crown, /Which he did thrice refuse ; was this
ambition?/Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; /And , sure, he is an honourable
man...
(t) There is a tide in the affairs of men, /Which, taken at the flood, leads on to
fortune;/ Omitted, all the voyage of their life /Is bound in shallows and in
miseries. (Julius Caesar, IV Hi)
(u) Until recently the government has drained the taxpayers just as some big
companies have tried to milk the consumers.
(v) When I am dead, I hope it may be said:
His sins were scarlet but his books were read. (Joseph Hillaire Pierre Belloc,
1870-1953 )
(w)Advertisement: Illiterate? Write today for free help.
(x) Talking of the Osho religious sect Hi Pune, India, Sheela Raval
2I
writes that
some people "are outraged that India, Osho' s homeland, has been completely
sidelined by the 'western leadership' that has injected a commercial agenda
into the soul of the cult".
1
In the July 3
rd
2000 edition of India Today magazine
(y) In court. Question: What happened then?
Answer: He said, ' I' ll have to kill you because you can identify me.'
Q: Did he kill you?
A: No.
(z) Hospital spokesman on the death of a wife and mother: I regret to inform you
that the hand that rocked the cradle has kicked the bucket.
(aa) Christmas advert, in a big store's toy department: No waiting. Five Santa
Clauses.
(bb) What is more difficult than getting a pregnant elephant into a car? Answer:
getting an elephant pregnant in a car.
(cc) My wife says I am the tenderest husband that ever lived and I say she' s the
best cook in the world.
(dd) I won' t beat about the bush; I'll give it you straight.
(ee) This house isn't the best place to live in but it's nothing to grumble about.
(ff) "Gossip" might be defined as "letting the chat out of the bag", "Infantry" as
"a young tree"; a hurricane is a stick for fast walkers and an IOU is a kind of
paper wait.
(gg) Metro, the world' s third-largest retailer is suffering from a typical first-
generation German disease. The founders want to bale out now the company
has been savaged by rivals. The three immensely wealthy families that own it
have lost interest in the business and want to cash it in - but at the best price.
Their current strategy is to take over the reins of the company to protect their
investment, deny all rumours of selling, while taking a good look round for
potential suitors.
(hh) In a global marketplace, jitters travel across borders as quickly as megabytes
of data. Consider the erratic momentum that last week cut a swath
22
through the
U.S. stock market, causing benchmark
23
indexes to plunge heavily followed by
equally dramatic recoveries. Far from losing power, the wild ride kept up its
head of steam as it crossed the Atlantic, rattling European indexes and leaving
shell-shocked investors wondering what hit them. (Time magazine, April 17,
2000)
(ii) William Hague, claiming to have drunk 14 pints of beer at one sitting, when a
teenager, was surely guilty of slight exaggeration.
(jj) Astronomers are over the moon, having found ten new planets.
(kk) Adoring mother of troublesome teenager: He' s highly strung.
Annoyed victim of troublesome teenager: Yes, he should be.
22
Normally means "to make a pretentious display". Here the emphasis appears to be on
"through" and the meaning is to cut, as with a scythe, leaving an evident path of its progress.
23
standard of excellence
Various texts to consider
Decide what sort of text each one is. Is there is a predominant style or tone? Can
you tell whether the extract is from a novel, biography, newspaper, etc.? What
figures of speech can you find?
After a rocky couple of weeks quarrelling about elitism, the Labour Party has
oiled up its machine and set it spinning again with devastating subtlety.
Yesterday in Parliament a little-known minister stood up to field a question
directed at his boss the Health Secretary.
"That challenges one of the basic ethosses of this government..." he said. That
challenges the what? The ethosses? What in the world are ethosses? Are they
contagious? And why have we not previously been told that this Government
has them?
There is an outside chance that he was talking about ethea, which is, of course,
the plural of the neuter noun ' ethos' (not a pretty plural but unavoidable if you
choose to pepper your prevarications with Greekisms). But the minister can't
be so ill-educated that he got it wrong. Didn't he go to university?
I looked him up immediately in Who's Who
24
. Where do you think he went?
Have a guess. Okay, I'll tell you. He went to Magdalen College, Oxford. And
he' s not a public school boy. I could tell that immediately he walked in. Thick
rubber soles on his shoes, since you' re asking. He had Westcliff High School,
Southend, written all over him. And yet he got in to Magdalen.
This was no coincidence. The Government wanted to draw our attention to the
minister's shortcomings in a typical public school discipline, and sent us
scurrying to our reference books where we would see just how anti-elitist this
Government is. "Look", they are saying, "we' ve promoted a man whose drive
and ambition got him into Oxford despite the terrible struggles of a Classics-
deprived youth."
The ploy also drew attention away from issues likely to be raised during Health
Questions...
The British quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, which has already been
a massive hit in 26 countries, has in the past few weeks seized Indian television
by the scruff of its neck and turned it inside out.
The show' s host here is a gaunt, ponderous giant of a man called Amitabh
Bachchan - 'Big B' - who is, without question, the most popular film star
India has ever produced. Turn on the telly in India and it's odds on that there
will be either an old Bachchan film or one of his song-and-dance routines
playing at any time of the day or night.
But Big B' s career had been on the skids for years. He has made a fool of
himself in television commercials, flopped in comedies and made disastrous
Reference book of biographies - mostly of prominent people in Britain.
business mistakes. Every article published about the man in the past three years
seems to have been a lament for the squandering of his glory.
Now suddenly, thanks to Kaun Banega Crorepati, the show' s Hindi title,
Bachchan is back on top.
3. There is little doubt that the Earth will be hit by a massive asteroid or comet
big enough to cause global devastation. The big question is : when? It might be
tomorrow, or it might be years from now.
Current estimates suggest that there are more than 1,500 objects bigger than
lkm. in diameter which regularly cross the orbit of the earth on its journey
around the Sun. If one of these should collide with our planet, it would unleash
energy equivalent to the detonation of hundreds of nuclear bombs. It would
send tidal waves crashing around the coasts of the continents and force a plume
of dust and debris into the sky big enough to block out the Sun, causing a
'nuclear winter'.
Cosmic collisions on a smaller scale happen all the time. The Earth
accumulates about 100 tons of small meteorites every day. Most land
harmlessly in the oceans.
As the space rocks get bigger, so does the danger. The most famous in modern
times was an object thought to be 60m across which exploded in Siberia on 30
June 1908. It released energy equivalent to the explosion of a 20 megaton
hydrogen bomb - hundreds of times the size of the bomb dropped on
Hiroshima.
Scientists estimate that the probability of a cosmic collision large enough to kill
a quarter of the world' s population is about one every 100,000 years. This
means that each of us typically has a one in 5,000 chance of dying from such
an event - comparable with dying in an air disaster. What we rely on is that it
won' t happen in our lifetime.
4. It seems those obituaries for the Great British Seaside were premature. True, a
decade ago, it seemed foreign travel had driven our coastal resorts into a
watery grave. Now, however, our premier resorts are thriving once more thanks
to a new breed of stylish, well-run hotels, good restaurants and improved
facilities should the unthinkable happen and the weather turn bad.
Here the Travel section's writers give 10 very different reasons for making for
the coast this summer. These resorts may not compete with the Med for
guaranteed sun, but that is no longer their role. They are the quick fix of sea
and sand when you can' t face a 3am charter flight or the thought of airport
delays; the chance for a couple of nights in a hotel with a sea view and slap-up
dinner away from the kids; the place to give your children a taste of what
holidays were like before the Boeing 737.
Readings on Indian law are a veritable desert of dusty prose. It takes the
endurance of a camel and the patience of a saint to finish some of the greatest
texts. Bibek Debroy' s writings are a singular exception. For seven years now
Debroy, through his project LARGE (Legal Adjustments and Reforms for
Globalising the Economy) and in his columns, has been crusading for legal
reforms. This book is a milestone in that quest.
6. It rained when we went to Gascony...
The journey, however, was a pleasure. Toulouse, centre of France's aerospace
industry and Europe's fastest-growing city, is only a 50-minute flight from
London, making a weekend in Gascony perfectly painless. Our destination was
the Hotel de Bastard at Lectoure, l"
4
hours' easy drive north-west from the
airport through glorious countryside. At night the town looms above the
landscape like a cruise liner at anchor, the mellow stone of its ramparts and
hotels particuliers bathed in lamplight. But this is no tourist trap. Gascony is
poor, farmers and smallholders scratching a living courtesy of the Common
Agricultural Policy.
The next day, rain or no rain, it was business as usual. In spite of its romantic
setting and looks, Lectoure is a bustling market town and probably the best
jumping-off point for a first visit to Le Gers (rhymes with Scarce) as Gascony
is more properly called. Lying snugly under the Pyrenees, Gascony seems to
have been by-passed by the 20
lh
century...
7. At first sight, Argrennan, with its imposing grey stone walls, sweeping drive,
sampler-like parterre and walled garden set in parkland, has the air of a country
seat now in the hands of a preservation trust. But, contrary to what the
appearance of this aged and established ancestral home would suggest, when it
was bought ten years ago by two American designers, it was virtually
utiinhabitable and, apart from some blackout curtains, had been stripped of all
its contents.
Forlorn and empty as it was, the house had a good feel to it, not least because,
unlike so many of the other 20 properties Bob Reddaway and Tulane Kidd had
viewed, Argrennan had not been subject to what they call the 'dubious merits
of modernisation'. All the rooms, both in the east wing - built around 1760 and
purportedly designed by Adam as a small country villa - and the more
substantial front block that was added in the 1880s, were structurally intact.
Beautifully proportioned and naturally light, the rooms featured original
cornicing, fireplaces and unfinished pine floors. Bob and Tulane's quest was
over: "the house spoke for itself by virtue of its inherently elegant architectural
attributes".That Argrennan has retained its "voice" is due to Bob and Tulane's
adherence to simple, timeless treatments that give the house an unobtrusive
continuity. They wanted the interior to appear to have evolved naturally over
the centuries, rather than looking renovated, redecorated and stage-set in a
matter of months. ...>
Given the house' s size and the fact that no one room can be seen from the next,
they felt it important that every room exuded an individual feel and flavour...
To leam that Argrennan' s renovation became a full-time hobby is no surprise.
The surprise is that, in just two years, this rather imposing house has become a
welcoming and inviting home.
8. The once-tranquil pool of nectar after which Amritsar was named was awash
with blood last night as 250 Sikh extremists died defending the holiest shrine of
sikhdom against military occupation.
Mrs. Indira Gandhi' s Government at last took the decision to clean out the
assassins and bombers who have sheltered in the precincts of the Golden
Temple, and gave the green light for the army to move in. The troops were
strongly resisted.
Early today it was reported that terrorists occupying the holiest of holies had
surrendered. It was, however, reported at the same time that extremists in the
basement of the Akal Takht, the seat of immortal power of the Sikhs, were still
holding out. Early today the security forces were considering the use of teargas
to flush them out.
9. From the literary galaxy of Kerala
25
, a new star. Plus an early eclipse.
Something barely remembered is a title that shows a red rag to any bull of a
literary critic. But this delicate collection of 15 short stories written by Susan
Visvanathan is going to be remembered quite a lot. The stories are set in Kerala
- suddenly spouting (sic) more English authors than monsoon vegetation in
Ayemenem and the rest of the world: Rome, Zurich, Casablanca and back to
Kottayam. Visvanathan' s stories seem autobiographical in snatches, the voice
of each protagonist overlapping like echoes in a shadowy play.
The imagery is carefully crafted and meticulously executed, the style of writing
economical yet beautiful... It is difficult to be lyrical in prose without
appearing florid and foolish mostly, unless you invent a completely new idiom,
like Joyce with his Ulysses . But Visvanathan seems to have somehow become
a lepidopterist of prose, and her stories have the quality of butterflies dreaming
in her net.
Visvanathan appears to have entered her candidature for being a major writer
in the years to come. But there also exist authors who have leapt onto the
Kerala bandwagon, authors like Shreekumar Varma, who write for the only
purpose of falling on their face. His The Lament ofMohini is the most
avoidable book I have come across in recent years.
' State in South-West India
10. A great legal wall, ancient and thick, divides the human being from other
animals. We are on one side, with vast numbers of rights, ranging from the
great, such as not to be tortured or enslaved, to the petty. On the far side of that
legal wall is the rest of animal creation, one million species, ranging from
chimpanzees to pigs, from dogs to beetles. They have no rights; all are invisible
to the civil law.
After a career of comparing ancient and modern legal systems, the American
law professor Alan Watson concluded that "to a truly astounding degree the
law is rooted in the past". When we borrow past law, we borrow the past. Legal
rules that may have made good sense when they were fashioned may make
good sense no longer. Raised by age to the status of self-evident truths, they
may perpetuate ancient prejudice and ancient injustices that may once have
been less unjust because we knew no better.
This world in which the law of non-human beings emerged and developed is
long gone. In that universe, all beings were ordered into a chain or ladder.
Those on the lower rungs were thought to have been created for the benefit
those on the higher. Plants existed for animals, animals for human beings,
women for men, and slaves for masters... Equality demands that either
mentally complex beings like chimpanzees be treated as persons or non-
autonomous (the comatose, the severely retarded) humans be treated as things.
I suggest that justice favours the former.
11 .Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was
taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband' s death. It
was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that
revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near
her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the
railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of
"killed". He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second
telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in
bearing the sad message.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a
paralysed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden,
wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself
she went away to her room alone. She would have no-one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this
she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and
seemed to reach into her soul.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of the trees that
were all aquiver
26
with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in
the air. In the streets below a peddler
27
was crying his wares
28
. The notes of a
Poetic word for "trembling"
7
door-to-door salesman or street-seller
shouting out about what he was selling
distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless
sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
29
12. Her name was Wanjiru. But she liked better her Christian one, Beatrice. It
sounded more pure and more beautiful. Not that she was ugly; but she could
not be called beautiful either. Her body, dark and full fleshed, had the form,
yes, but it was as if it waited to be filled with the spirit. She worked in beer-
halls where sons of women came to drown their inner lives in beer cans and
froth. Nobody seemed to notice her. Except, perhaps, when a proprietor or an
impatient customer called out her name, Beatrice; then other customers would
raise their heads briefly, a few seconds, as if to behold the bearer of such a
beautiful name, but not finding anybody there, they would resume their
drinking, their ribald jokes, their laughter and play with the other serving girls.
She was like a wounded bird in flight: a forced landing now and then but
nevertheless wobbling from place to place so that she would be variously found
in Alaska, The Modem, Thome and other beer halls all over Limuru.
Sometimes it was because an irate proprietor found she was not attracting
enough customers; he would sack
3
her without notice and without a salary.
She would wobble to the next bar. But sometimes she was simply tired of
nesting in one place, a daily witness of familiar scenes; girls even more
decidedly ugly than she were fought over by numerous claimants at closing
hours.
13. Everybody attacks me for my detestable principles; I am reckoned an outcast;
there lowers ' a terrific tempest, but 1 stand as it were on a pharos
32
, and smile
exultingly at the vain beating of the billows
33
below. I attempted to enlighten
my father. Mirabile dictu! He, for a time, listened to my arguments; he allowed
the impossibility of any direct intervention of Providence. He allowed the utter
incredibility of witches, ghosts, legendary miracles. But when I came to apply
the truths on which he had agreed so harmoniously, he started
34
.. .and silenced
me with an equine
35
argument 'I believe because I believe'. My mother
believes me to be in the highroad
36
to Pandaemonium. She fancies I want to
make a deistical coterie of all my little sisters. How laughable!
Read the rest of the story which ends with an excellent example of irony.
30
Remove her from the job.
31
It is threatening to arrive.
32
Lighthouse rock.
Poetic word for "waves".
34
made a sudden, surprised or shocked movement
5
The author or translator, thinking of the Latin origin of the word for the stupid animal, the ass,
equus asinus, has applied this word instead of asinine, the adjective meaning stupid.
So called because Roman roads (and others since that time) were raised above the surrounding
land in order to make sure they did not run the risk of being flooded. Being main public roads,
they could thus function all the time.
14. I write to defend him to whom I have the happiness to be united, whom I love
and esteem beyond all loving creatures, from the foulest calumnies; and to you
I write this, who were so kind, and to Mrs. Hoppner, to both of whom I
indulged the pleasing idea that I have every reason to feel gratitude. This is
indeed a painful task. Shelley is at present on a visit to Lord Byron at Ravenna,
and 1 received a letter from him today, containing accounts that make my hand
tremble so much that I can hardly hold the pen.
15. We found out the woman' s story afterwards. Of course it was the old, vulgar
tragedy. She had loved and been deceived - or deceived herself. Anyhow, she
had sinned - some of us do now and then - and her family and friends,
naturally shocked and indignant, had closed their doors against her.
Left to fight the world alone, with the millstone of her shame around her neck,
she had sunk ever lower and lower. For a while she had kept both herself and
the child on the twelve shillings a week that twelve hours' drudgery a day
procured her, paying six shillings out of it for the child, and keeping her own
body and soul together on the remainder.
Six shillings a week does not keep body and soul together very unitedly. They
want to get away from each other when there is only such a very slight bond as
that between them; and one day, I suppose, the pain and the dull monotony of it
all had stood before her eyes plainer than usual, and the mocking spectre had
frightened her. She had made one last appeal to friends, but, against the chill
wall of their respectability, the voice of the erring outcast fell unheeded...
16. Just when we had given up all hope - yes, I know that is always the same time
that things so happen in novels and tales; but I can't help it. I resolved, when I
began to write this book, that I would be strictly truthful in all things; and so I
will be, even if I have to employ hackneyed phrases for the purpose.
It was just when we had given up all hope, and 1 must therefore say so. Just
when we had given up all hope, then, I suddenly caught sight, a little way
below us, of a strange, weird sort of glimmer flickering among the trees on the
opposite bank. For an instant I thought of ghosts; it was such a shadowy,
mysterious light. The next moment it flashed across me that it was our boat,
and I sent up such a yell across the water that it made the night seem to shake
in its bed.
We waited breathless for a minute, and then - oh! Divinest of music in the
darkness! - we heard the answering bark of Montmorency. We shouted back
loud enough to wake the Seven Sleepers - I never could understand myself
why it should take more noise to wake seven sleepers than one - and, after
what seemed an hour, but what was really, I suppose, about five minutes, we
saw the lighted boat creeping slowly over the blackness, and heard Harris's
sleepy voice asking where we were.
17. Night is a dead monotonous period under a roof; but in the open world it
passes lightly, with its stars and dews and perfumes, and the hours are marked
by changes in the face of nature. What seems a kind of temporal death to
people choked between walls and curtains, is only a light and living slumber to
the man who sleeps afield
37
. All night long he can hear Nature breathing deeply
and freely; even as she takes her rest, she turns and smiles; and there is one
stirring hour unknown to those who dwell in houses, when a wakeful
influence goes abroad over the sleeping hemisphere, and all the outdoor world
are
39
on their feet. It is then that the cock first crows, not this time to announce
the dawn, but like a cheerful watchman speeding the course of the night. Cattle
awake on the meadows; sheep break their fast on dewy hillsides, and change to
a new lair among the ferns; and houseless men, who have lain
40
down with the
fowls, open their dim eyes and behold
41
the beauty of the night.
18. ...that these last days of Hitler were a carefully produced theatrical piece is, 1
think, clear. It was not merely because he wished to escape a public trial, or
hide his body from the Russians, that Hitler chose his form of death. His whole
previous history had been consciously theatrical, perhaps even operatic; and it
would have been contrary to all his thinking if he had ended such a career with
an insipid or bungled
42
finale. Long before, in the days of his triumph, he had
often declared that the only satisfactory alternative to apotheosis was a
spectacular annihilation: like Samson at Gaza he would drag down with him
the temples of his enemies. He had even indicated - long before he even
conceived of failure - the ideal method of his death. "In short", he remarked in
February 1942, "if one hadn' t a family to bequeathe (sic)
43
one' s house to, the
best thing would be to be burnt in it with all its contents - a magnificent funeral
pyre!" Little did he think, in those months of triumph, that he would so soon be
following, even to the letter, his own prescription. Fortunately, when the time
came, he had with him the essential man, the impresario of the Nazi movement,
Joseph Goebbels, who for twenty years had devised the decor, the
accompaniment and the advertisement of this dreadful Wagnerian melodrama.
19. At this point he stopped, for he saw that the sun had begun to set, and knowing
that in a moment the quay would shine like a square opal in all the marvellous
colours known to man and, better yet, with marvellous colours to which no
man had yet fitted a name, he went to his attic window and looked out. .. .>
Poetic expression for "in the open/ outdoors"
38
Poetic word for "live"
39
Plural verb used because the author means "all the beings outdoors"
40
alternative Past Participle of "lie"
41
look at, see.
42
16
Ih
Century word meaning done inadequately or clumsily
leave
The water was dead still, the reflections of houses and trees dropped down in it
without a ripple; at first with aquamarine than with topaz, and then with thin,
tremulous rose . The bells began to ring in their sweet mournfulness, each note
rounded as an O. They were playing Dixie, an air so foreign to the tongue of
the carillon that it took on all the gnomic charm of a language still
undeciphered, like Etruscan or Minoan. It was an evening in spring...
A miraculous evening. The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water
caught fire. He held his breath: an angel could appear in full dress with
insignia, he would not be surprised. It was a wretched thing that, on an evening
like this, he had to turn away from such majestic sweetness to write to such a
swine as Willy.
Still, these things had to be done. As he turned back into the room he noticed
that he had ink on his forefinger. He poured a little water into the wash-basin
(not too much, since Lotte insisted that a jugful must last a whole day because
of all those stairs) and scrubbed himself clean, carefully poking beneath the
nails. He threw the water out of the window; it broke the reflection of the
house, which rocked and crumbled as if it were really tumbling down, then
slowly reformed and hung steady. Good. Now he could get to work again.
20. The bicycle was kept in a small shed in the hospital courtyard, and had for its
stablemate the long trolley used for moving unlucky patients to the mortuary. I
saw that the first problem of the case was balancing myself and my equipment
on the machine. As well as two leather bags 1 had a couple of drums the size of
biscuit barrels containing the sterilized dressings. There was a thick piece of
string attached to the bicycle, which I felt was probably part of its structure, but
I removed it and suspended the two drums round my neck like a yoke.
44
Carefully mounting the machine, I clung to the bags and the handlebars with
both hands and pedalled uncertainly towards the front gate. The snowflakes fell
upon me eagerly, like a crowd of mosquitoes, leaping for my face, the back of
my neck, and my ankles.
The few yards across the courtyard were far enough to indicate the back tyre
was flat and the direction of the front wheel had no constant relationship to the
way the handlebars were pointing...
I had gone about twenty yards when the chain came off.
After replacing the chain I managed to wobble along the main road leading
away from the hospital in the direction of the brewery. The buildings looked as
hostile as polar ice-cliffs. Everything appeared so different from the kindly
daytime, which gave life to the cold dead streets with the brisk circulation of
traffic. Fortunately my thorough knowledge of the local public houses provided
a few finger-posts
45
, and I might have done tolerably well as a flying angel of
mercy if the front wheel hadn' t dropped off. ...>
44
thing for putting over the neck of animals pulling something (e.g. a plough), to join them
together
45
Signposts at crossroads
I fell into the snow in the gutter and wished I had gone in for the law. As I got
to my feet I reflected that the piece of string might have been something
important to do with the attachment of the front wheel; but now the lesion was
inoperable. Picking up my luggage, I left the machine to be covered by the
snow like a dead husky
46
... By now I was fighting mad. I told myself I would
damn well deliver that baby. If it dared to precipitate itself ungraciously into
the world without waiting for me I decided I would strangle it.
21.1 was studying the history of the French Revolution. I felt almost annihilated by
the horrible fatalism of history. In human nature I discovered a terrifying
sameness, in human institutions an incontrovertible power, granted to all and to
none. The individual mere froth on the wave, greatness a mere accident, the
sovereignty of genius a mere puppet play, a ludicrous struggle against an
inalterable law; to recognize this law our supreme achievement, to control it
impossible...
22.Striving to sing glad songs, I but attain
Wild discords sadder than griefs saddest tune,
As if an owl, with his harsh screech, should strain
To overgratulate a thrush of June.
The nightingale upon its thorny spray
Finds inspiration in the sullen dark:
The kindling dawn, the world-wide joyous day,
Are inspiration to the soaring lark.
The seas are silent in the sunny calm;
Their anthem surges in the tempest boom,
The skies outroll no solemn thunder psalm
Till they have clothed themselves with clouds of gloom.
My mirth can laugh and talk but cannot sing;
My grief finds harmonies in everything.
' Eskimo or Siberian dog used for pulling sleds in arctic regions
7
- only, merely
23. A Birthday
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a watered shoot ;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dies;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleur-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.
24. Lines Composed upon Westminster Bridge
Earth has not anything to show more fair;
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so daunting in its majesty;
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning: silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie
Open unto the fields , and to the sky,
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock or hill;
Ne' er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
rushes beside a river or lake
25. Elegy On the Death of a Mad Dog
Good people all, of every sort,
Give ear unto my song;
And if you find it wond' rous short,
It cannot hold you long.
In Islington there was a man,
Of whom the world might say
That still a godly race he ran,
Whene'er he went to pray.
A kind and gentle heart he had,
To comfort friends and foes;
The naked every day he clad,
When he put on his clothes.
And in that town a dog was found,
As many dogs there be,
Both mongrel, puppy, whelp and hound,
And curs of low degree.
This dog and man at first were friends,
But when a pique began,
The dog, to gain some private ends,
Went mad and bit the man.
Around from all the neighbouring streets
The wond' ring neighbours ran,
And swore the dog had lost its wits,
To bite so good a man.
The wound it seem' d both sore and sad
To every Christian eye;
And while they swore the dog was mad,
They swore the man would die.
But soon a wonder came to light,
That showed the rogues they lied:
The man recovered of the bite,
The dog it was that died.
26.To one who has been long in city pent,
Tis very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven - to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.
Who is more happy, when, with heart's content,
Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair
Of wavy grass, and reads a debonair
And gentle tale of love and languishment?
Returning home at evening, with an ear
Catching the notes of Philomel
49
, an eye
Watching the sailing cloudlet's bright career,
He mourns that day so soon has glided by:
E' en like the passage of an angel' s tear
That falls through the clear ether silently.
27.Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attained his noon.
Stay, stay,
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the Evensong;
And , having prayed together, we
Will go with you along.
We have short time to stay as you,
We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you , or anything,
We die,
As your hours do, and dry
Away
Like to the summer' s rain;
Or as the pearls of morning' s dew,
Ne' er to be found again.
in this context, it is a poetic word for the (bird) nightingale
28.Miss Groby taught me English composition thirty years ago. It wasn' t what
prose said that interested Miss Groby; it was the way prose said it. The shape
of a sentence crucified on a blackboard (parsed, she called it) brought a light to
her eye. She hunted for Topic Sentences and Transitional Sentences the way
little girls hunt for white violets in springtime. What she loved most of all
were Figures of Speech. You remember her. You must have had her, too. Her
influence will never die out of the land. A small schoolgirl asked me the other
day if I could give her an example of Metonymy. (There are several kinds of
metonymies, but the one that will come to mind most easily, I think, is
Container for the Thing Contained.) The vision of Miss Groby came clearly
before me when the little girl mentioned the old, familiar word. I saw her
sitting at her desk, taking the rubber band off the roll-call cards, running it
back upon the fingers of her right hand, and surveying us all separately with
quick little henlike turns of her head.
Here lies Miss Groby, not dead, I think, but put away on a shelf with the other
T-squares and rulers whose edges had lost their certainty. The fierce light that
Miss Groby brought to English literature was the light of Identification. ...
Night after night, for homework, Miss Groby set us to searching in Ivanhoe
and Julius Caesar, for metaphors, similes, metonymies, apostrophes,
personifications, and all the rest. It got so that figures of speech jumped out of
the pages at you, obscuring the sense and pattern of the novel or play you were
trying to read. "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." Take that,
for example. There is an unusual but perfect example of Container for the
Thing Contained. If you read the funeral oration unwarily - that is to say, for
its meaning - you might easily miss the C.F.T.T.C. Anthony is, of course, not
asking for their ears in the sense that he wants them cut off and handed over;
he is asking for the function of those ears, for their power to hear, for, in a
word, the thing they contain
In later years I came across another excellent example of this figure of speech
in a joke long since familiar to people who know vaudeville or burlesque (or
radio, for that matter). It goes something like this:
A: What' s your head all bandaged up for?
B: I got hit with some tomatoes.
A: How could that bruise you up so bad?
B: These tomatoes were in a can.
I wonder what Miss Groby would have thought of that one.
29. French food and old junk
Thanks to the increasing popularity of D-I-Y and encouraged by the likes of
Home Front and similar TV programmes, home owners are now constantly
looking for out-of-the-ordinary objects to furnish house or garden. France
offers a wealth of establishments just waiting to be found.
In Britain we use the umbrella term of architectural salvage to cover a host
of enterprises dealing in antique and reclaimed material. France does not
categorise so broadly and you will find that there are many classes of business
that deal in similar materials.
To help you navigate your way through these businesses, a partnership called
Salvo has published listings of all known traders in France. The French Salvo
Pack provides dealer information for any chosen departement including
Materiaux Anciens (reclaimed and architectural antiques), Depots Vente
(second-hand shops) and Emmaus (a house clearance and recycling charity).
For those who are used to paying monumental sums for indifferent meals at
home, French dining out comes as a revelation. One of the best meals we ate
last year was at the elegant Restaurant Les Terrasses at Dinan, with tables
overlooking the River Ranee. The 85 Franc menu started with grilled prawns
with a beetroot puree, followed by sauteed veal with girolles and then a
sublime ginger creme brulee. It' s tempting to make a ceremony of lunch, but a
mistake if you' re on the road: France's drink-drive laws are just as tough as at
home, so unless you are settled at your destination, save the pleasures of the
cellar for dinner time.
The arguments about where to stay and where to eat can spoil an otherwise
idyllic stay. A week in a gite
51
gives you time to unwind and to play house in
France, cooking with the unparalleled market produce, but it is a shame to miss
out on the special atmosphere of a rustic auberge or a glorious castle serving B
& B. Staying in a fairytale chateau in France will probably cost you less than a
room in a characterless modern hotel at home.
30. Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson
52
must remember the Kaatskill
mountains
53
. They are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family,
and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height and
lording it over the surrounding country. Every change of season, every change
of weather, indeed, every hour of the day produces some change in the magical
hues
54
and shapes of these mountains, and they are regarded by all the good
wives, far and near, as perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and settled,
they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear
evening sky; but, sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they
host = large number
1
agriturismo
The River Hudson, which, in those days, was the only means of communication between New
York and the interior.
The Catskills are one of the highest of the Appalachian Mountain ranges. The system extends
over 2000km from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River to central Alabama, with many changes
of name as it crosses 14 states.
54
Poetic word for ' colours' .
will gather a hood of gray vapors
55
about their summits, which, in the last rays
of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory.
31 .When they heard him say this, some of them began to be afraid and crossed
themselves with all the hands on their bodies, thinking that this was the devil in
disguise. One of them, indeed, pulled his prayer-book our of his codpiece ...
Gymnaste pretended to dismount. But having poised himself on the mounting
side, he nimbly performed the stirrup-trick , with his short sword at his thigh
and, passing beneath his horse, sprang into the air, alighting
5
with both feet on
the saddle and his back to the horse' s head. Then, in that posture, he twirled
round on one foot in the leftward direction and succeeded in recovering his
posture exactly. T won' t do that at this moment,' said Tripet, ' and for a good
reason'. ' Bah,' said Gymnaste. T missed. Now I'll do the leap in reverse.'
Then with great strength and agility he twirled round in the same manner as
before, but to the right. When he had done this, he put his right thumb on the
pommel
59
of the saddle and raised his whole body in the air, resting his entire
weight on the nerve and muscle of that thumb, and so he turned himself round
three times. On the fourth, reversing his whole body without touching
anything, he sprang between his horse's ears, keeping the whole of his body
rigid in the air on his left thumb; and in this posture he turned a complete
circle
32.Quietly malicious chairmanship. There is no sound excuse for this. It is deeply
anti-social, and a sudden excess of it would tear great holes in our communal
life. But a man can be asked once too often to act as chairman, and to such a
man, despairing of his weakness and feeling a thousand miles from any delight,
I can suggest a few devices. In introducing one or two of the chief speakers,
grossly over-praise them but put no warmth into your voice, only a metallic
flavour of irony. If you know what a speaker's main point is to be, then make it
neatly in presenting him to the audience. During some tremendous peroration,
which the chap has been working on for days, either begin whispering and
passing notes to other speakers or give the appearance of falling asleep in spite
of much effort to keep awake. If the funny man takes possession of the meeting
and brings out the old jokes, either look melancholy or raise your eyebrows as
high as they will go. Announce the fellow with the weak delivery in your
loudest and clearest tones. For any timid speaker, officiously clear a space bang
in the middle and offer him water, paper, pencil, a watch, anything. With noisy
Brit. Eng. spelling: grey vapours
equivalent of the Missal
57
the cover or flap over the crotch in men's 15
,h
and 16
lh
century breeches (equivalent of
trousers).
58
landing
59
The raised front part of a saddle.
cheeky chaps on their feet, bustle about the platform, and if necessary give a
mysterious little note to some member of the audience. If a man insists upon
speaking from the floor of the hall, ask him for his name, pretend to be rather
deaf, and then finally announce his name with a marked air of surprise. After
that you can have some trouble with a cigarette lighter and then take it to
pieces. When they all go on and on, make no further pretence of paying any
attention and settle down to drawing outrageous caricatures of the others on the
platform, and then at last ask some man you particularly dislike to take over the
chair, and stalk out, being careful to leave all your papers behind. And if all
this fails to bring you any delight, it should at least help to protect you against
further bouts of chairmanship.
33. . . .The life, indeed, had proved exceedingly severe, and young Harris benefited
accordingly; for though corporal punishment was unknown, there was a system
of mental and spiritual correction which somehow made the soul stand proudly
erect to receive it, while it struck at the very root of the fault and taught the boy
that his character was being cleaned and strengthened, and that he was not
merely being tortured in a kind of personal revenge.
That was over thirty years ago, when he was a dreamy and impressionable
youth of fifteen; and now, as the train climbed slowly up the winding mountain
gorges, his mind travelled back somewhat lovingly over the intervening period,
and forgotten details rose vividly again before him out of the shadows...
... He smelt again the long stone corridors, the hot pinewood rooms, where the
sultry hours of summer study were passed with bees droning through open
windows in the sunshine, and German characters struggling in the mind with
dreams of English lawns - and then suddenly the awful cry of the master in
German - " Harris, stand up! You sleep!"
He recalled the dreadful standing motionless for an hour, book in hand, while
the knees felt like wax and the head grew heavier than a cannon-ball.
The very smell of the cooking came back to him - the daily Sauerkraut, the
watery chocolate on Sundays, the flavour of the stringy meat served twice a
week at Mittagessen; and he smiled to think again of the half-rations that was
the punishment for speaking English. The very odour of the milk-bowls - the
hot, sweet aroma that rose from the soaking peasant-bread at the six-o'clock
breakfast - came back to him pungently, and he saw the huge Speisesaal with
the hundred boys in their school uniform, all eating sleepily in silence, gulping
down the coarse bread and scalding milk in terror of the bell that would
presently cut them short - and , at the far end where the masters sat, he saw the
narrow slit windows with the vistas of enticing field and forest beyond.
This, in turn, made him think of the great barn-like room on the top floor where
all slept together in wooden cots, and he heard in memory the clamour of the
cruel bell that woke them on winter mornings at five o'clock and summoned
them to the stone-flagged Waschkammer, where boys and masters alike, after
scanty and icy washing, dressed in complete silence.
From this his mind passed swiftly, with vivid picture-thoughts, to other things,
and with a passing shiver he remembered how the loneliness of never being
alone had eaten into him, and how everything - works, meals, sleep, walks,
leisure was done with his 'division' of 20 other boys under the eyes of at
least two masters. The only solitude possible was by asking for half-an-hour's
practice in the cell-like music rooms, and Harris smiled to himself as he
recalled the zeal of his violin studies.
Then, as the train puffed laboriously through the great pine forests that cover
these mountains with a great carpet of velvet, he found the pleasanter layers of
memory giving up their dead, and he recalled with admiration the kindness of
the masters, whom all addressed as Brother, and marvelled afresh at their
devotion in burying themselves for years in such a place, only to leave it, in
most cases, for the still rougher life of missionaries in the wild places of the
world.
He thought once more of the still, religious atmosphere that hung over the little
forest community like a veil, barring the distressful world; of the picturesque
ceremonies at Easter, Christmas, and New Year; of the numerous feast-days
and charming little festivals. The Beschekr-Fest, in particular, came back to
him - the feast of gifts at Christmas - when the entire community paired off
and gave presents, many of which had taken weeks to make or the savings of
many days to purchase. And then he saw the midnight ceremony in the church
at New Year, with the shining face of the Prediger in the pulpit - the village
preacher who, on the last night of the old year, saw in the empty gallery beyond
the organ loft the faces of all who were to die in the ensuing twelve months,
and who at last recognized himself among them, and, in the very middle of his
sermon, passed into a state of rapt ecstasy and burst into a torrent of praise.
Thickly the memories crowded upon him. The picture of the small village
dreaming its unselfish life on the mountain-tops, clean, wholesome, simple,
searching vigorously for its God, and training hundreds of boys in the grand
way, rose up in his mind with all the power of an obsession. He felt once more
the old mystical enthusiasm, deeper than the sea and more wonderful than the
stars; he heard again the winds sighing from leagues of forest over the red roofs
in the moonlight; he heard the Brothers' voices talking of things beyond this
life as if they had actually experienced them in the body; and, as he sat in the
jolting train, a spirit of unutterable longing passed over his seared and tired
soul, stirring in the depths of him a sea of emotions that he thought had long
since frozen into immobility.
34.A quick word at the door and he was put in the picture.
"Your Excellency, this is a most unfortunate business. However, I am
reasonably fluent in your language, and perhaps I may even be able to persuade
your cousin to release your little daughter."
This provoked a yet more torrential and enraged outpouring. But when
comparative calm had descended at last, Commander Holsworthey, who had
succeeded only in interjecting a very occasional question, went over and had a
quiet word with his deputy.
"Seems you got the wrong end of the stick a bit, John. What' s happened here
apparently, if you can believe it, is not that the Ambassador's cousin has
kidnapped his daughter, but that the little girl, who' s aged just eleven, has
kidnapped him. She' s got him locked in the dining-room there, and nothing her
father can say will make her open the door."
35. As far as the Germans are concerned, they need neither freedom nor equality.
They are a speculative people, ideologists, thinkers, before and after the event,
dreamers who live only in the future, never in the present. Englishmen and
Frenchmen live in the present; for them every day has its struggle and counter-
struggle, every day has its history. The German has nothing to struggle for, and
when he begins to suspect there might be things worth struggling for and worth
possessing, his philosophers wisely undertook to make him doubt their
existence. True, Germans too love freedom, but in a different way from other
peoples. The Englishman loves freedom like his lawful wife, he possesses it,
and even if he doesn' t treat either with exceptional tenderness, in an emergency
he is quite capable of standing up for them like a man, and woe to the red-
coated
60
fellow who forces his way into her sacred bed-chamber - whether as a
gallant or as an executioner. The Frenchman loves Liberty like a sweetheart.
He bums for her, he blazes, he hurls himself at her feet with the most
extravagant assurances, he fights for her to the death, he commits a thousand
follies for her sake. The German loves Liberty like his old grandmother.
36.Sleep and death, the dark eagles
Around this head swoop all night long:
Eternity's icy wave
Would swallow the golden image
Of man; on horrible reefs
His purple body is shattered
And the dark voice laments
Over the sea.
Sister of stormy sadness,
Look, a timorous boat goes down
Under stars,
The silent face of the night.
British soldiers at that time (early 19 century) wore red uniforms.
37.Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should bum and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay
61
,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
62
38. The Decision
This tapestry of all we do,
This monument wherein we trust,
May dwindle to forgotten dust
With crowns of China and Pern.
This banner that our race unfurled
Proud on the battlements of Time
May drift to darkness in the slime
Of some long-drowned Atlantine world.
61
= happy
62
Dylan Thomas was bom 22
nd
October 1914. His untimely death (9" November 1953) is good
reason for his father to 'Rage, rage against the dying of the light'. Dylan, a chronic alcoholic,
could forsee his own death.
And we whose eyes are clear with youth,
Whose hearts are eager for long years,
May perish; though indeed we save
The glow-worm fantasy of Truth,
A reason sharper than all spears
To give again the life we gave.
39.Once, when I shed bitter tears - when dissolved in sorrow my hopes flowed
away and lonely I stood by the arid hill which in a narrow dark vault entombed
the image of my life - lonely as never a lonely man has been, compelled by
unspeakable fear - enfeebled, no more than a single thought concentrated on
misery . - When thus I looked out for help, could move neither forward nor
back and clung to my fleeing, extinguishing life with an infinite longing: -
then , from the heights of my former bliss there came a thrill of twilight - and
all at once I had broken the bond of birth - the fetters of light. Gone was the
glory of Earth and my sadness with it - all my griefs converged to flow into a
new, unfathomable world - rapture of Night, heavenly sleep possessed me -
The landscape gently rose; and above the landscape there hovered my
newborn, newly delivered spirit. Into a cloud of dust the hill was transfotmed
and through the cloud I glimpsed the beloved's transfigured face. In her eyes
eternity rested - I seized her hands and my tears turned into a sparkling ,
unbreakable chain. Millennia vanished away in the distance, like
thunderstorms. In her arms I wept enrapturing tears for the new life. - This was
the first, the only dream and only that dream confirmed my lasting,
unalterable faith in the heaven of Night and its luminary, the beloved.
40.
Escape
I have fled you over the ocean and fourteen days,
But every night has brought you nearer to mc.
I have dreaded to enter rooms alone, lest in a mirror
I should find your face.
In crowded places
You have pushed against me, smiling and no stranger.
But today as I read your letter
1 looked past you not caring to see any more
The hopelessness of my fidelity:
I have left you in that hot unbearable room
With your accusation written:
Crossing the street
I enter again the heavy train of Time.
Texts
1. "Anti-elitist", Giles Coren in the Times, 7* June 2000
2. "India bitten by gameshow bug", Peter Popham, The Independent on Sunday,
3.9.2000
3. "Cosmic collisions past, present - and future ", Steve Connor, Science Editor,
ibid.
4. "We're off . The Sunday Times, 6.8.2000
5. "Law's Flaws ", Rohit Saran, India Today International, 28 August 2000
6. "Unknown Gascony ", Penelope Dening, Homes and Gardens, March 1993
7. "On a Grand Scale ", Claire Pilton, ibid.
8. "Mrs Gandhi takes on the Sikh Extremists ", The Times Today, June 7, 1984
9. "Seeking Susan ", Ravi Shankar, India Today International, June 26, 2000
10. "A primate facie case", Steven Wise, The Times, June 6, 2000
11. "The Story of an Hour", Kate Chopin, A World of Difference, CIDEB, 1996
12. "Minutes of Glory", Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Four Continents, p.33, CIDEB, 1998
13. "Ariel", Andre Maurois, A Shelley Romance, trans. Ella d'Arcy, The Bodley
Head, London, 1961, quoting Shelley himself
14. Ibid., quoting Mary Shelley.
15. "Three Men in a Boat", J.K.Jerome ,p.!60, Penguin, 1961.
16. Ibid., p. 142
17. "Travels with a Donkey", R.L.Stevenson, p.66, Houghton ed., English
Literature Series, MacMillan and Co., 1948
18. "The Last Days of Hitler", H.R. Trevor-Roper, Introduction, The Macmillan
Press Ltd., 1947.
19. "The Unspeakable Skipton ", Pamela Hansford Johnson, Readers Union,
Macmillan, 1960. Page 2f
20. "Doctor in the House", Richard Gordon, Michael Joseph, 1956, p. 102
21. Letter of November 1833 (?),From Georg Buchner's "Works", pub. Leibzig
1949, p. 209
22. "Striving to sing... "James Thompson (1700-1748)
23. "A Birthday", Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
24. "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge", Sept. 3, 1802, William Wordsworth
(1770-1850)
25. "Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog", Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774)
26. "To one who... ", John Keats (1795-1821)
27. "To Daffodils". Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
28. "Here lies Miss Groby. "James Thurber. From "The Thurber Carnival", p. 33,
Penguin, 1953
29. "Voyage " Brittany Ferries' Summer magazine 1998. Selected passages.
30. "Rip Van Winkle"from "The Sketch Book" (1821) Washington Irving
31. Part of chapter 35, Gymnaste's exploit, from 'Gargantua' by Francois
Rabelais, Penguin Classics 1955
32. Chapter 64 of "Delight" by J.B.Priestley, Heinemann Ltd., 1949
33. "Secret Worship " by Algernon Blackwood, in Thirteen Famous Ghost
Stories, pub. in Everyman's Library by J.M.Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1977
34. "Incident at Millionaires' Row" by H.R.F. Keating, from Culprit, 2" Crime
Writers' Annual, pub. Chatto and Windus, 1993
35. "English Fragments " by Heinrich Heine, quoted in translation in "Reason and
Energy" by Michael Hamburger, pub. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970.
36. "Lament" by Georg Trakl, ibid.
3 7. "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas, pub. in Everyman 's
Library by J.M.Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1963.
38. "The Decision" by John Stanley Richardson (1911-1941), from apoetry
collection , The Heart's Renewal, 1939.
39. One of the "Hymns to Night" by Novalis, quoted in translation in "Reason and
Energy" by Michael Hamburger, pub. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970.
40. "Escape", by John Stanley Richardson, from the collection, The Heart's
Renewal, 1939.
(A)
KEY
Anslo-Saxon
stock
food
book
saga
cost
dear
truth
school
water
flow
fond
loving
rise
hopeful
pipe
quick
Latin origin
provision
nutrition
fiction
story
rent
expenditure
veracity
academic
river
amorous
ascend
encouraging
tube
rapid
(B)
Abstract: wealth, hope, idea, thought, sound, leave, home, superiority.
Concrete: Cow, fish, livestock, job, haircut, permit, house, classic.
Either (depending on context): work, success, way.
(C) a) 3
b) l
c)3
d) l
e)4
f)5
g)2
h)3
0 2
j ) 3
3. A. a.
2 1 4 5
4 2 3
2 1 4 5
5 2 4 3
1 2 3
4 1 3 2
5 1 4 3
5 1 2 4
1 4 3
2 1 4
Health care or hospitals.
b. Music.
c. Chocolates, confectionery
d. Bicycle, cycling
e. I3ririking
B way , buses, trains, strike, rockets, mails, fashioned/hat, work, leavers,
feelings/preferences, blind, slips/papers, market, course, with.
C America/ The Americas, b) hi l l ; valley, c) characteristic, d) Scandinavian ;
Mediterranean /African/ (skiing) Alpine e) south-easterly, f) confident,
decided, assured ; negative g) tongue, h) therefore, thus, i) constriction,
impetus; release, letting go, j) supposedly, k) spare, retain ; spend, waste , 1)
creating, forming, putting together; unmaking, destroying, m) fasten(ing), seal,,
close; unfasten, unlock, open , n) feminine, woman; male, o) force, oblige; give
a free hand, liberate, p) seize, imprison; free, q) and, as well as, r) without
people, lonely; in a crowd, s) server (large, powerful computer which can be
used by many people simultaneously); PC, t) outdoor, alfresco; indoor,
enclosed
D a) winter weather
b) decorating
c) economics
d) expert
e) condition
e) hospital
E (a) Ferrari, Benneton, McClaren ; racing cars/formula 1
(b) cases ; luggage
(c) programmes; TV
(d) Blue Period ; art /painting
(e) cards; fortune-telling/futurology
4. A. I . a) II. b) III. b) IV. a) V. b) VI. a)
B I. noun phrase II. prepositional/adjectival phrase
III. Adverbial phrase of time IV. main clause
V. adv.phrase of place VI. adv. phrase of place
VH.Subordinate clause VIII. adv. phrase of time IX main clause
X. relative clause XI. subordinate noun clause XII. Adv. phrase of time
XIII. noun phrase in apposition XIV. adv. phrases of manner
XV. subordinate clause XVII. and XVIII concession/contrast clauses.
a. Apparently simple ; really disguised complex - the "which" of the first
relative clause and the "whom" of the second one are omitted.
b. Complex-compound (the last line is the compound part)
C. Simple
d. Compound
e. Compound
f. Complex-compound
75
g. Complex
h. Simple
i. Compound (There is ellipsis in the first main clause: Here I am)
j . Simple
k. Simple
1. Complex (Each pair of lines is a complex sentence - that part starting
with "and" is part of the subordinate temporal clause, not another main
clause)
m. Compound-complex
n. Simple
D
a) The O'Malley family, father, mother and six-year-old Timmy, boarded their
ship and set sail on what was to be a once in a lifetime journey to America. At the
start of the journey there were three O' Malleys, as noted, but by the end of the
journey there were four, the latest addition being baby Kathleen, bom on the high
seas. Burdened as she was with the business of settling into a new house and
looking after the baby, Mrs. O' Malley sent Timmy to the comer shop to get some
supplies for his tiny sister. He asked the salesgirl for what was required and, in the
space of a few minutes, she returned with the package. That ' l l be four dollars for
the diapers and twenty-five cents for the tax. Timmy protested, "We don' t want
any tacks, lady. In Ireland, everyone uses safety pins!"
b) St. Catherine's Medieval Street Fair
For centuries Frome was the bustling hub of East Somerset - a busy market town
in an important cloth-producing region. The town' s history dates back more than
1,300 years to 685 AD, when the Abbot of Malmesbury led a group of monks into
a small clearing on the banks of the river Frome, in the great wilderness of
Selwood Forest, and built a small stone church there.
So Frome was founded. During the next 400 years it grew steadily until, by the
time of the Domesday survey of 1086, it had three mills paying 25 shillings and a
market which yielded 46s 8d a year. The cloth-making industry made it into an
increasingly prosperous town. Many of its important buildings date from the
industry's peak during the 16
lh
- 18
lh
centuries. Indeed, nowadays, Frome has
more listed buildings than any town in the county of Somerset.
Regular fairs were part of the life of the Middle Ages and, when the town
celebrated its 1,300* anniversary, it was decided to revive one of these. The
patron saint of spinners and weavers - the crafts which formed the basis of much
of Frome' s wealth - was Saint Catherine. So the street fair was revived in her
honour.
c) This Scotsman, Jock, was on his way home one night when he was stopped by
his neighbour. "Please will you help me get this pig out of the van?" When they
had got the pig out, the neighbour asked, "Will you hold the animal while I open
the front door?" Once the pig was inside the house, Jock was asked to help push
the great beast upstairs. So Jock did that. Now the neighbour said, "Help me put
the pig into the bath." After a great deal of effort, they managed to get it in.
"Look," said Jock, "What ' s going on? Why do you need to shove a bloody great
pig into the bath?" "Well, " said the neighbour, "the trouble is with my wife -
she' s one of those women who always know everything. If I tell her the football
t eam' s just signed a new manager, she says, ' I know' . If I tell her a new oil field
has just been discovered off the Scottish coast, she says ' I know' , and if I tell her
the Financial Times Share Index is likely to drop ten points next month, she says
' I know' ." "How' s the pig in the bath going to help, though?" asked Jock. "Well
t omorrow' s going to be a never-to-be-forgotten morning. She' s going to go into
the bathroom and then rush back to the bedroom screaming ' There' s a dirty great
pig in the bath' , and I ' m going to lie back in bed and say to her, ' I know, I
know' ."
E i I speak English very well, when I go home.
ii (as given, or) They were quite happily sitting in the car during the film,
iii She spoke very well at the meeting last night,
iv This computer on the bench is already completely out of date.
v She played tennis spectacularly at Wimbledon two years ago.
vi We talked it over briefly in the hotel at lunchtime /at lunchtime in the
hotel,
vii She practises conscientiously on the harp every day. The expert rapidly
analysed the problem by computer on the spot / on the spot by computer,
viii. The well-known stars performed free at the charity performance on
Monday,
ix. When the little, dilapidated, brown houses were rebuilt as quickly as
possible after the bombing, number 13 was intentionally omitted,
x. If my green wood and metal car functions alright, I'll travel as fast as
possible to England next summer / to England next summer as fast as
possible,
xi. The stupid, unintelligent secretary forgot to post the vital letter to
Russia, before going home in her pink and purple car.
xii. We heard an interesting, short, 20-minute lecture in the main hall last
night.
xiii. This morning she was wearing a lovely, new, sand-coloured sweater
outside the cinema. (Alternative: She was wearing a lovely, new, sand-
coloured sweater outside the cinema his morning.)
xiv. Everybody whole-heartedly accepted his wonderfully simple
suggestion during the meeting in the town hall last week.
_
a) My friend can speak English very fluently.
b) What is that horrible smell? Something is definitely burning.
c) He explained the rules of the game t o' me.
d) She was chaotically tidying up the contents of the cupboards.
e) Fred came in and offered to help her.
f) I haven't seen Paul lately. Have you?
g) We have been living in our present house (for) a long time.
h) (First sentence as given or) It's the end of the day at last. When I get home
I' m going to relax/ I' m going to relax, when I get to home,
i) I'll take my shoes off and sit down in front of the fire as soon as possible,
j) We very much enjoyed the jazz concert in the park yesterday (or "very
much" at end of sentence),
k) She finds it very difficult to make her mind up on the spur of the moment..
1) Our motto is to give the customers workmanship and the lowest possible
prices,
m) I have given birth to twins, following your instructions enclosed in the
envelope,
n) A man was arrested last night on charges of disorderly conduct, after he was
found nude in a car in a hotel car park,
o) Tests conducted by a zoologist recently have proved that grasshoppers
normally hear with their legs,
p) He hungrily ate his first meal for/in many weeks,
q) The weather in England is usually variable,
r) His latest picture thoroughly disappointed his many admirers, (or
"thoroughly" at end)
s) Not only have her letters been published but also her autobiography,
t) The hotel has bowling alleys, tennis courts, other athletic facilities, and also
comfortable beds,
u) Wanted: man that does not smoke, to look after cow.
v) I suddenly saw a person with a familiar face walking down the road,
w) The wife complained to her husband : 'You never tell me you love me any
more.'
x) Judge to jury : 'As we begin, I must ask you to banish from your minds all
present information and prejudice, if you have any.'
y) One thing the Dalai Lama advises is to spend some time alone every day.
z) Another of his pieces of advice : ' Approach both love and cooking with
reckless abandon.'
The verbs explain and suggest are two common words which absolutely must have the
construction using to before the person, e.g. She suggested to him that they should go on
holiday.
i Ellipsis: What an extraordinary chain of events it/that was ! It beats fiction
hollow 1
ii so and the ones reference words,
iii they refers to "words", one refers to "language"
iv. Ellipsis of the name of the preacher. Possibly also omitted posted/
shown/ written up on the church notice-board,
v. In the last sentence, it refers to "my health", and another one refers to
"doctor"
vi. Possibly omitted after TV is which is to be found. After "it is" ellipsis
of normal. The word so refers to normality, meaning I don't think TV
is normal.
vii. The boy refers to somebody who has already been mentioned. That
means "the boy is stupid",
viii. The polymer refers to the "magical piece of plastic". He (lines 2 and
3) is Mr Ward. Them refers to the polymer' s properties. The substance
is the plastic. It (line 5) is "the egg".
ix. It makes reference to the modem. There is ellipsis signals after
"analog" and after "digital".
x. Inside implies reference to a house or building, as does out , after
which word there should be of the building /house, etc. Heat and
flames refer to two of the "dangers" of the "life-and death situation".
H (a) Simile
(b) Antithesis
(c) (Ironic) paradox
(d) Simile
(e) Simile
(f) Personification
(g) Irony
(h) "rushed in" - personification, "like a hammer" simile.
(i) Metaphors
(j) Two personifications: affliction and sorrow
(k) Humour
(1) Irony. Also humour in the exaggeratedly formal style of the last line.
(m) "feeding them" personifies (really "animalises"!) the machines.
(n) Mixed metaphor (first two sentences); dying personifies "sun" and
grim personifies "castle".
(o) Antithesis and paradox.
(p) Mixed metaphors
(q) Mixed dead metaphors (chain, built, branches) with ironic addition (after
"none"),
(r) Pun
(s) Ironic repetition of Brutus is an honourable man.
(s) Ironic repetition of Brutus is an honourable man.
(t) Extended metaphor
(u) Simile
(v)Pun
(w) Unintentional irony . Humour.
(x) Mixed metaphor
(y) Humour because of illogicality,
(z) Humorous mixed metaphor,
(aa) Humour because unexpected - normally there is supposed to be only one
Santa Claus.
(bb) Humour. Play on words,
(cc) Hyperbole
(dd) Mixed metaphor (meaning: I won' t talk round the subject; I'll tell you
directly.) Give it to somebody straight" punch them straight between the eyes,
(ee) Litotes
(ff) Four puns. The first distorts the expression to let the cat out of the bag
(meaning "to tell a secret"). The second puts two words together: infant and tree.
The third is similar to the second : hurry and cane (or walking stick). The third is
a very common pun followed by a less common one to define i t : an IOU means "I
owe you" a certain amount of money, and is written on paper, promising payment
and by implication telling the person to wait for it; the paper weight is what is put
on papers to keep them from flying away in the wind,
(gg) Mixed metaphor (disease, bale out, savaged, reins, suitors)
(hh) Mixed metaphor (global; jitters travel - personification; cut a swath;
benchmark; plunge; losing power - another personification; wild ride - as if on
horseback; head of steam - reference to train; rattling; shell-shocked, hit),
(ii) Ellipsis (when he was a teenager) and litotes (slight exaggeration)
(jj) Pun astronomers actually study the moon. Over the moon = very excited,
(kk) Pun. Mother explains her son' s bad behaviour by using the metaphor of the
violin (highly strung = very tense, nervous). The victim of his behaviour plays on
strung (to string someone up ~ to hang).
Various texts
N.B. The points mentioned below are not intended to be full-blown, complete
analyses but merely notes on some stylistic aspects of interest. This is the first
stage in writing a proper analysis.
1 Journalistic, personal style. Mixed metaphors in first paragraph (rocky, oiled
machine, spinning, to field). Ironic (devastating subtlety, challenges the what).
They refers to ethosses as if, like mumps or measles, the word meant an illness.
Outside chance is metaphor taken from world of gambling, meaning remote
possibility. Superior, ironic tone in of course (ironic because most people do
not in fact know the Greek word). ...written all over him is metaphorical,
meaning that it was very evident that he was not from a fee-paying private
(called Public) school. The question which is omitted but implied is How do
you know he was not from a Public School? . Also ellipsis of He was
wearing...before thick rubber soles. [Magdalen is pronounced Mawdlin.]
Scurrying implies small animal-like steps. The final sentence is ironic.
From a magazine review, impersonal journalistic, rather slangy style. The show
is personified as seizing TV. India TV is also personified (scruff of neck).
Turned inside out must be metaphorical. Hyperbole enlarges the stature and
importance of Amitabh Bachchan. on the skids is slang and metaphorical,
meaning his career had been getting worse. Slang reference to TV {telly).
Betting metaphor (odds on). Informal (flopped) . Lament and squandering are
strikingly formal words - corrfusing the unity of style - perhaps
unintentionally, since back on top is another sporting, unliterary, metaphor.
Popular scientific magazine article - many short and therefore striking
sentences. Hyperbolic, therefore impressive forecasts. Dead metaphor (plume).
Use of inverted commas to emphasise the dramatic result. Apparently tactual
statistics, in second and third paragraphs, add to the scientific feel of the piece,
but use of us makes it strike the reader more directly. Last sentence (informal
won't) involves the reader directly with the writer.
Journalistic travel writing. It is the introduction to other articles giving reasons
for going to the seaside (as stated at the start of para. 2). Personification of
Great British Seaside - obituaries are only written about people who have died
- and coastal resorts. Hotels etc. also personified by referring to their breed.
Irony of should the unthinkable happen - it is not unthinkable but common for
the weather to be rainy. The Med is journalistic abbreviation for the
Mediterranean Sea. 3am is journalistic space-saving, in place of 3.0 a.m. The
quick fix is metaphorical use of drug terminology. Colloquial expressions slap-
up (large and good), kids. Dead metaphor taste.
Book review. Impersonal style. Metaphor - desert, dusty, together mean
'extremely boring'. Two similes in sentence two (similes because like that is
missing from both expressions: endurance like that of a camel...). Short
striking sentence 3 emphasises the book' s quality, as does the final sentence.
Crusading metaphor mixed with quest. Milestone is a valid metaphor.
Travelogue. Striking short first two sentences emphasise the setting
geographically. Several positive words to give atmosphere (pleasure, painless
[metaphor], easy, glorious, mellow). Simile (cruise liner). Dead metaphors -
bathed tourist trap, scratching. Ellipsis of by (courtesy of). Metaphor -
jumping-offpoint. Personification - 2(f
h
century.
7 Another possible travelogue. Actually the description of a renovated,
redecorated house in a women' s magazine. Similes {sampler-like, has the air of
a country seat) but at start of sentence gives a more colloquial, journalistic feel.
Dead metaphor {stripped) . Personification of house {forlorn, spoke, voice).
Inverted commas to indicate ironic meaning, 'modernisation' does not
necessarily mean ' improvement', indeed it often implies the opposite. Subject
(to learn that.. .hobby) is emphasised by being an infinitive construction
[instead of// is no surprise to learn that...]. In final sentence, position of time
phrase emphasises it. Insertion of and between the two final adjectives
underlines them both. Juxtaposition of house and home is well-worn. The
personification, again, of the house (welcoming, inviting) with adjectives joined
by and (not, as would be normal in a less emphasised expression, merely by a
comma). Here, the adjectives and the change from house to home, underline
the physical and the spiritual aspects of the house.
8 News report. Formal journalistic style : passives (// was, however, reported...)
Dead metaphors (green light - as in traffic lights - means "signal to go ahead";
seat of power; flush out) .
Review of two books. Headline is extended (trite) metaphor. Another trite
metaphor is the red rag to a bull. The vegetation metaphor should, of course,
be connected with the word sprouting (not spouting), to emphasise the sudden,
growing number of authors. Simile of overlapping voices with echoes.
Metaphor of authoress as lepidopterist is extended through butterflies to net.
Another well-worn metaphor of people "leaping" onto the bandwagon is
contrasted with the author/o7/ing on his face, being a complete failure as a
writer. The hyperbole of the last sentence (the most avoidable) emphasises how
bad the second book is.
10 This seems to be a formal (apart from the last sentence) pleading on behalf of
animals. Possibly polemical. Metaphor: legal wall. Trite hyperbolic
collocation: vast numbers. Personification of civil law , implying it has eyes to
see - the animals are invisible. Another dead metaphor: rooted in the past.
Metaphorical use of fashioned = made. Personification of law (emerged and
developed, as if it were a child or baby animal). Slightly extended metaphor of
ladder. Ellipsis after higher) rungs). Use of legal language (persons instead of
people) and Latinate words (non-autonomous, comatose, severely retarded)
adds to formality. Short, personal, direct last sentence is therefore particularly
striking, to drive home the defensive position of the newspaper article.
4
apologia - a word also used in forma! English.
11 The American writer (with a French mother and an Irish father) betrays something
of her origin in the use of the indefinite article before heart trouble (in British
English no article is used before most medical conditions), railroad not railway,
intelligence rather than information. This is the beginning of a short story. Several
characters seem to be involved, the most important of whom is Mrs Mallard
(significance in the name? - a type of duck). The mood of the start is subdued
{trouble, care, gently, death, broken). Metaphor: veiled, storm of grief, breath of
rain. Paradox: revealed in half concealing. Richards shown as very formal sort of
person by use of hastened, forestall, bearing the sad message. (Less formal
expressions would be hurried, beat, bringing the sad news.) Formal style also at
end of paragraph 2 : she would... = she didn 't want. Para. 3 word order of first
sentence emphasises the (size of the ) armchair. Also at start of 4
th
para.,
emphasising the tree-tops. Personification of physical exhaustion pressing her
down and reaching.. .Aquiver - see footnotes. Last para, gives slightly old-
fashioned {peddler), idyllic picture of Nature.
12 The start of a story. Factual introduction of main character. Emphasis on name
because of misplaced better. (Normal position she liked her Christian one
better.) not that she was ugly is not true litotes because it does not mean the
opposite (Cf. p.41); it is half of a stylistic balance created by mentioning
opposite ideas. The form - article implies ellipsis: of a beautiful woman. Tense
of waited shows non-English usage (was waiting, normal English). Unusual
expressions sons of women, drown their inner lives (normal dead metaphor is
drown their sorrows) - add life to narrative, as does unusual punctuation (full-
stop before Except). Extended simile : wounded bird, forced landing, nesting.
13.Elevated style; despite being First-Person narrative. Several old-fashioned
or not very common words: lowers, pharos, billows, (Latin expression), fancies,
deistical coterie. Rhetorical trick of repeating he allowed, to underline contrast
with what the father did not accept. Equine argument is a euphemistic way of
saying his father's remark was stupid because the argument was "circular".
Repetition of verb to believe : believes puts mother' s thoughts on a par with
father's - they are equally stupid. Outmoded use of preposition: in the
highroad: modem usage would require on [in the way but on the road].
Pandaemonium another antiquated euphemism, meaning Hell.
14.Mrs. Shelley is writing to defend her husband from what she considers to be
slander. Semi-formal (at that period) letter style. Another example of archaic
style: relative clause word order and use of whom. Old-fashioned collocation:
foulest calumnies. Relative use after Hoppner (the person' s name) is again
antiquated; more modern usage would require a separate sentence: /
entertained/ had the pleasing idea (=the idea that pleased me) that I had many
reasons to feel grateful to both of you; put more normally : I feel I have a lot of
reasons to be grateful to both of you. Transferred epithet: painful task - it is not
the task which pains her but the execution of it, having to write in defence of
her husband. She refers to him in the formal way of that epoch, not as my
husband or Percy but using his surname only. The last relative clause is a
hyperbole.
15.20
,h
Century narrative passage, a "framework" structure (i.e. a story within the
main story). Slightly ironic tone of or deceived herselfand some of us do now
and then. Clearly ironic that family and friends... had closed their doors
against her. This is a clear criticism of those who should normally support the
woman. Metaphor of fighting and sinking, mixed with dead metaphor of
millstone. Social criticism again, in the low amount of pay that drudgery
afforded her. Collocation: keeping...body and soul together. Repetition of the
phrase, with the slightly amusing comment (litotes) not ...very unitedly.
Personification of body and soul in They want to get away from each other.
Personification of pain and monotony "standing", as a "spectre". Dead
metaphor: wall of respectability saved from being completely "dead" by chill.
Collocation: erring outcast. Dead metaphor of appeal ...fell.
16. Humorous, personal style narrative. Humour of repetition - the third when we
had given up all hope makes one smile; it is indeed a trite phrase. I sent up
such a yell across the water that it made the night seem to shake in its bed. -
hyperbole and personification {night in bed). Further hyperbole {breathless,
divinest, loud enough to wake the Seven Sleepers) [The Seven Sleepers of
Ephesus refers to an ancient legend: seven noble youths, having refused to
worship pagan gods, took refuge in a cave. The angry emperor (Decius) had the
cave blocked up. Two centuries later (in the 5* Century AD) the sleeping boys
were accidentally wakened when a shepherd removed the stone blocking the
cave entrance. This happening was thought to be God' s proof that resurrection
was a fact.] Neologism: divinest. Personification of boat - people creep; boats
move slowly or float. Amusingly realistic reflection why it should take more
noise to wake seven sleepers than one. Amusing contrast of what seemed an
hour with realistic about five minutes.
17.
A eulogy of Night and Nature. [Travelogue published 1879, the year after his
travels in the Cevennes.] Prose style slightly poetic in its choice of vocabulary
{stars and dews and perfumes) and its personification of Nature (face,
breathing, she...). Eloquent use of conjunctions makes the sentences flow.
Transferred epithet: stirring hour it is not the hour which moves about but
people and animals who move. Stirring, like the verb move, also means
metaphorically stirring or awaking emotions - double meaning not uncommon
in poetry. Wakeful influence also transferred epithet - the influence or
atmosphere makes the people and animals become awake. Another transferred
epithet: dim eyes - not the eyes but the sight is dim and unclear. Simile: like a
cheerful watchman.,.. Concluding phrase unexpected: although the cock has
crowed not this time to announce the dawn, the reader expects - after awake,
break their fast (the verb form of the first meal of the day), open their eyes -
something like the words the beauty of the day.
18.This part near the conclusion of the introduction to The Last Days of Hitler
interests the reader by its extended metaphor of the theatre (operatic, finale,
impresario, decor, melodrama). Despite persona] interjection (I think) the
author uses the formal style of the historian (It was not merely, little did he
think, bequeath). Simile: like Samson...Dramatic irony: would so soon be
following, even to the letter, his own prescription. Medical metaphor:
prescription means 'what he had recommended' as a means of death.
19.
Descriptive, almost poetic, prose (very suitable as the observations of an artist
- about whom the author goes on to write). Simile, line 2. Hyperbole:
marvellous colours to which no man had yet fitted a name. Dead metaphor :
dead still. Oxymoron: sweet mournfulness. Surrealist simile: rounded as an O
- mixing sound with the visual figure. Ellipsis of us before rounded. Possible
personification of carillon, referring to its tongue, though this could merely
mean language. Contrast: between Dixie, an American tune and carillon, the
French word used in order to underline the setting of the story in Belgium.
[The word like does not introduce a simile; it simply presents an example of
two undeciphered languages.] The next like, however, does introduce a simile:
like an egg. The addition of Jwo adverbial phrases of manner (in full dress and
with insignia) emphasises the extraordinariness of the situation - a breath-
takingly beautiful sunset. Contrast of mood : It was a wretched thing.
Hyperbole of the water catching fire and majestic sweetness, contrasted with
writing to a swine - common animal metaphor. Brought back to normality by
the banal ink on his finger and the economising of water because of all those
stairs Lotte had to carry the water upstairs. The water thrown out seems very
solid to break the reflection, contrast with the what-should-be-solid house:
tumbling down .
20.
Humorous passage. Personification/animalisation of bicycle: stablemate.
Euphemistic litotes: unlucky, meaning dead. Visual picture of balancing
himself and all the equipment is humorous; the pieces subsequently falling off,
and the relationship of the front wheel and the handlebars also add humour.
Adumbration of problem with wheel which I felt was probably part of its
structure. Personification of snowflakes eagerly falling and leaping. Simile:
like a crowd and as hostile a.?...Personification of buildings (hostile) and
daytime (kindly). Extended medical metaphor: dead streets, circulation of
traffic, lesion was inoperable. Simile of dead husky. Humorous irony of last
phrase.
21.
Personal letter (or diary) style. Hyperbole: annihilated. Paradox: granted to all
and to none. Metaphor: froth on the wave. Repetition of mere underlines the
insignificance of the individual. Antithesis: to recognize this law our supreme
achievement, to control it impossible...
22.
Romantically sad poetic style, using Nature (especially birds). Antithesis of
first two lines, hyperbole in second: sadder than griefs saddest... Simile in
third. Neologism: overgratulate. Personification of seas and skies (plural is
poetic)- only humans can sing anthems & psalms and clothe themselves. Mirth
also personified (laugh, talk, sing). Balance of start and finish (songs &
harmonies).
23.Another Romantic nature poem, this time dealing with love. Similes, lines
1,3,5; relative clauses lines 2,4,6 Use of Greek origin word, halcyon, elevates
the tone. My heart (1.3) is a metonym for love; thick-set implies large quantity.
My heart is personified in line 5. That paddles is also a transferred epithet - the
shell (of the boat) does not paddle; it is paddled. The greatness of his love
(abstract) is emphasised by use of the comparative, greater. Love (1. 8) is the
beloved person.
The second verse emphasises the precious nature of his love (abstract) by
connecting it with precious and oriental objects (silk, vair, purple, doves,
pomegranates, peacocks, gold, silver, fleur-de-lys - this last connected with
royalty). Hyperbole: with a hundred eyes. The birthday of my life also
exclusive - the only birthday worth celebrating in his life - because his
beloved is present.
24 Descriptive poetry. Hyperbole, first line. Simile, lines four and five. Line
eleven, ellipsis of a second "I". Personification of "sun" and "river" - personal
pronoun "his" refers to both. Subjective - use of "I". Last line "mighty heart"
stands for the whole city of London - personification and synecdoche at the
same time.
25 Humorous elegy - paradoxically, since an elegy is a sad or mournful
song/poem. Antithesis ; short/long. Metaphor: running a race = living life.
Biblical precept to clothe the naked means to put clothes on other people -
amusing that he considers he follows the precept when he himself gets dressed.
Next two verses play on dog going mad and, because mad, biting the man;
verse six, dog is said to have lost its wits (= goes mad) because it bites the man
- antithesis of previous verse's view. The last two verses give another
antithetical point of view, reserving the funny, because ridiculous situation, for
the last two lines - very emphatic position.
26 A paean (song in praise) of nature, compared, without comparison markers, to
city life - life of animals in a pen (enclosure) [to pen up = to put (animals) into
a restricted, enclosed space; pent is past participle]. Personificatiom/Yjce of
heaven, smile. Firmament, poetic word for sky. Senses are awakened by
nature: ear, eye - metonymy , the former standing for the sense of hearing, the
latter for that of sight. Small clouds referred to a little boats sailing. Metaphor
continued in next line: glided. Simile in penultimate line. Poetic word ether
stands for air. Last word, not rhyming with any other in the poem, is
particularly striking - also because it is out of normal order and emphasises
the peaceful end-of-day atmosphere of the poem.
27 Transitoriness of life is regretted in this well-known poem. Personification of
daffodils which haste away, of the sun, early-rising, his, of the day, running to
the church to pray at Evensong (name of evening prayer service in Church of
England). Similes throughout verse 2: our life on earth is as short as the
daffodils' - common poetic theme.
28 Personal reminiscence of a "character", typical school mistress. Informal but
not colloquial style (use of I, abbreviation, direct address to the reader, you) -
only colloquial use is at the end: bruise you up so bad; example of American
mis-use: bruise does not require up and adjective bad. should , of course, be
adverb badly. Personification of prose which said things, sentence which was
crucified, figures ofspeech jumped out...) Simile of little girls hunting
introduced by the way (elliptical for adverbial phrase of manner in the way in
which). Fierce light, transferred epithet (i t was more probably Miss Groby
87
who was fierce). The word here means bright. Can is another example of
American; English uses the word tin.
29 From two magazine articles, in a fairly informal style (we, you including the
reader), the reader learns much of practical value about living in France. The
wealth is a dead metaphorical use and host is another dead metaphor, perhaps
slightly more "dead" than the umbrella term, navigate your way, and
monumental sums. The revelation of dining out in France is perhaps rather less
dead but metaphorical nonetheless. The tables are personified by overlooking
the river. Hyperbole it must be, for the ginger crime brulee to be sublime, and
certainly the ceremony of lunch is an exaggerated expression, as is probably the
idyllic nature of the stay. Laws personified as tough and people metaphorically
unwinding. More hyperbole in the unparalled market produce - one may be
sure that there is a parallel somewhere (even in an unlikely place like Finland).
The castle may be glorious but that it serves B & B is an amusing, if not
humorous contrast. A modern hotel in England will probably be expensive but,
whatever the character, it cannot be entirely characterless.
30 This piece of travel writing is sometimes poetically romantic in its descriptions
of nature(crown of glory, last rays of the setting sun). Personification of the
Kaatskill mountains and a dead metaphor in the reference to the branch of the
Appalachian family. People may be noble and lording it over others. Rhetorical
repetition of every and change. Further personification in the mountains being
clothed. Continued personification when they print. The final simile is a
suitable conclusion to the piece.
31 Clearly this passage comes from a picaresque novel of ancient times. It is
humorous (all the hands; significance of the name Gymnaste - given his
actions, a very gymnastic person; the actions themselves are exaggeratedly
skilful; Tripet's refusal to copy the actions for a very good reason - that the
reason is not stated lets the reader amusingly understand the difficulty;
Gymnaste's comment I missed is unexpected, since we thought he had
succeeded.)
32 Another humorous passage, clearly and emphatically introducing the subject as
a separate noun phrase, rather than in a topic sentence. This is an essay,
presented as personal advice to the reader, who might be too-often asked to be
a chairman. There is a crescendo of anti-speaker suggestions, mostly presented
in conditional sentence form, each getting more outrageous; these can amuse
you, the chairman, by annoying the speakers. Rather informal use of cheeky
chaps. Stalk out is a dead metaphor meaning to walk out as upright and
straight as a stalk. The word bout now primarily means a contest of strength,
such as in a boxing match - a very suitable word for this type of chairmanship!
33 Various memories forming the background to the story which is to follow.
Formal style, suitable to the subject, a disciplined school upbringing.
Personification in line 3 (made the soul stand erect). Dead metaphor: the root
meaning the cause or reason for. Travelling train parallels travelling thoughts.
The details are personified as rising vividly. The German-ness of the master is
revealed in his inaccurate grammar: you sleep instead of ' you are sleeping'.
Simile: knees felt like wax. Comparison of the weight of the head and the
cannon-ball. Choice of adjectives (watery, stringy), nouns (half-rations,
punishment, odour) and adverbs (pungently, sleepily, in terror), all with
negative connotations, to underline some Iess-than-pleasant aspects; contrast
with his reflecting somewhat lovingly , he smiled to think, of enticing fields.
Metonymy: under the eyes . Transferred epithet: cruel bell - the bell is not
cruel but the person ringing it could be considered cruel. Loneliness is
personified by the dead metaphor as having eaten , the train as puffing
laboriously (working like a person). The Brothers burying themselves is an
obvious metaphor; a simile is the veil. Other metaphors are the torrent of
praise, the sea of emotions. The personified village dreaming the transferred
epithet of its unselfish life, the personified winds sighing. The passage
generally gives a positive impression because it finishes on a note of longing
and non-static (because not frozen any longer) emotions.
34 Narrative style, for light entertainment rather than serious writing. Opening
sentence elliptical, to convey speed of action in this case. He was put in the
picture, dead metaphor meaning someone told him what was happening.
Understatement: unfortunate ; this litotes contrasts with the Ambassador' s
reaction, enraged outpouring. Torrential is metaphor, as is outpouring - both
referring to liquid in quantity - an impressively powerful force - the emphatic
way of speaking used by the Ambassador. The quantity and speed of his speech
is emphasised by the inability of the Commander to ask anything more than a
very occasional question, and contrasts with the quiet word. Ellipsis of subject
in "seems you... ". Metaphor: getting the wrong end of the stick, means
misunderstanding. The situation of contrast is amusing.
35 This piece contrasts with the previous one. It is part of a serious consideration
of national characteristics, therefore uses formal style. There is some irony in
the Germans' living only in the future and never in the present (not a practical
reality), and the idea of when there are things worth struggling for, the
German's philosophers wisely made him doubt they exist. Simile of freedom
like a wife or sweetheart, etc. Ironic understatement in the Englishman's not
treating the wife with exceptional tenderness. Hyperbole in the Frenchman's
metaphorical burning, indeed blazing and carrying out extravagant actions. The
German's approach is contrastingly (and therefore humorously) calm.
36 Georg Trakl is a difficult poet to interpret because his style is so laconic. His
concision comes from allowing the symbols, as it were, to speak for
themselves. The mood of this and most of his poetry is melancholic, gloomy,
dark. He begins by "personifying" sleep and death as birds of prey wanting to
eat up man. Metaphor of time/eternity as ocean waves also personified because
they swallow man, even man in his perfection {the golden image). The sea-
going metaphor is extended ( reefs, sea, stormy, boat). The tone is clearly
gloomy (horrible, shattered, dark, laments, sadness). Hyperbole of body being
shattered a revoltingly vivid picture of a mutilated body covered with bruises
(purple). The boat is personified by the transferred epithet, timorous - no doubt
it is the man in the sinking boat who is afraid, perhaps of sinking or perhaps of
the dark, night also personified: the stars are his silent face.
37 Dylan Thomas is addressing his father. He wants his father not to die ( go into
that good night) without having reacted vigorously to his, Dylan' s, early death
[Dylan always saw himself as dying young]. The abstract noun phrase old age
is personified by the verb rave. Close of day, like dying of the light, dark (line
4), and night are all metaphors for death. The metaphor offorked...lightening
(1.5) means wise men' s words had not had any great effect. Good men' s deeds
are metaphorically treated as little boats which might have danced
(personification) on the waves in the bay. Wild men. like hunters, caught
(experienced) life in full movement and sang (wrote poems) about it - only to
learn, when it was too late, that they had made life pass on its way
(personification )too fast, which caused people to grieve or mourn. This
realisation is in the oxymorons, blinding sight, fierce tears. The sad height is
also metaphorical (unless he is standing on a hill); it is probably that Dylan
envisages himself already in the ground and his father standing above the open
grave. The height is not sad, but the father is - a transferred epithet.
38 Another poem, a sonnet, about the passing of youth and life [written during the
Second World War]. The poem starts by using the metaphor tapestry to refer to
life, which we create by our actions. The monument is that of our body, which,
like all our works, may disappear into nothingness, just like the kingdoms of
China and Peru (chosen for the rhyme). The empire-building, war-like attitudes
of the time are reflected in the poet' s choice of unfurling banners on
battlements and the fact that these empires last/have lasted for a considerable
period is caught up in the metonymy of Time. Reference to Time, by
implication: Atlantis, a legendary island, mentioned by Plato. It was considered
a place of perfection and harmony but it was eventually submerged under
Atlantic ocean, presumably in the mud of ages - here degraded into slime, a
negative, unpleasant word. Contrast, lines 8 and 9: youth, whose bright eyes
and lively hope represent the future, might die early . Another contrast: though
we young men may die, we have seen some measure of Truth light of truth
may only be a sporadic, small (metaphor of glow-worm) but may be only
fantasy, not real truth. The decision (title) has a spear-sharp point (metaphor):
we know, in some measure, why we are here, and we want to share this
knowledge and this life, or even sacrifice ourselves again (in the war) so that
others may realise their own lives.
39 Romantic, poetic prose style, indicated by order and choice of words: lonely I
stood , lonely as never a lonely man has been, vault, entombed, fleeing, bliss,
fetters, sadness etc. Metaphorical reference to abstract word hope being
physically dissolved in another abstract word, sorrow. Concentration on themes
of misery, death, solitude - all Romantic themes. Metaphorical heights of...
bliss - as if the poet were on a hill. Sleep, hyperbolically described as heavenly,
is personified as 'possessing' the poet. A dream-like effect is created by the
landscape rising. Pleasant impressions are already created by the use at gently.
Transformed and transfigured continue the dream-like mood. Surrealism of
tears turning into a sparkling, unbreakable chain. Simile of vanishing
millennia (full of problems) like thunderstorms. The dream ends in tears of
happiness and two metaphors : the heaven of Night and its luminary, the
beloved.
40. This piece of blank verse reflects, in its lack of rhyme scheme and irregular line
length, the turbulent emotions of the poet. He left his beloved [in this case, like
Oscar Wilde' s, a male], a fortnight ago, to cross the Atlantic and go to New
York. The adverbial phrases of place and time juxtaposed in the first line
contrast with the two in the second line , forming a paradox. Another near
paradox (perhaps better, antithesis) is in lines 3 & 4 : alone, he might
nevertheless find his friend's face in a mirror. He contrasts this with crowded
places where he has still found his lover - this must be metaphorical or a
vision, since the friend is still back in England.
The lack of punctuation in lines 7 - 9 enables the meaning to be interpreted
variously. The poet looked past this vision, because he did not want to look at
the (abstract word used as if concrete vision) hopelessness of his fidelity.
Alternatively, he looked past the vision, which was of the friend who did not
care for the poet any more (you not caring), and saw how hopeless or useless
his (the poet' s) fidelity was in this latter case he is personifying or giving
body to fidelity. At this point the poet escapes from the vision by leaving the
room which has become unbearable for him. He perhaps literally crosses the
street and goes into the subway and takes the train. Although the train is no
doubt heavy (last line), the word is a transferred epithet because it is
metaphorically used and means heavy hearted, sad, which is how the poet
feels.
APPENDIX 1
Glossary of grammatical terms
abstract noun, a noun describing an idea, quality, experience, e.g. love, music,
size (Cf. concrete noun)
active voice, a verb (group) expressing the action done by the person in a
particular tense e.g. goes, has seen (Cf. passive voice)
adjective, a word, usually used in English before the noun, describing or telling
more about the thing, place or person, e.g. happy, young
adverb, a word saying something about how, when or where something happened,
e.g. quickly, yesterday, at home
adverbial phrase or clause (q.v)
adverb particle the part of a phrasal verb (q.v) which comes after the verb and
differentiates it from the same verb with a different particle, e.g. look after, look
at, look into, look up
agent, the person who does the action of the verb
agreement = concord
apostrophe, the comma above the line, before or after ' s, to indicate possession,
e.g. Mary's
apposition, a noun group place directly after another noun, to give further
irrformation about it. It is not connected to the first noun by any other word
(relative, conjunction, etc.)
article, definite (the) or indefinite (a, an)
auxiliary verb, a verb which is used with another verb to make various tenses and
forms e.g. the verbs do, have, be and all the modal verbs (q.v)
bare infinitive or basic verb, the infinitve of a verb, without ' t o' , e.g. wash, learn
clause (see index)
collective noun, a noun that refers to a group of people, animals, things, e.g. team,
herd, pile
common noun, a noun referring to a person, thing, substance, etc, e.g. man, hat,
water, cat. (Cf. proper noun)
comparative, the second form of adjectives and adverbs either using ' more' or
ending in -er, e.g. more interesting, bigger (Cf. positive & superlative)
complement, a word (group), usually after the verb ' be' , that completes a
grammatical construction and describes the subject or object, e.g. important, as
in the man is important, or a teacher in She is a teacher, or president in They
elected him president.
complex sentence (see index)
compound, two or more words functioning as a single adjective, verb, or noun,
e.g. ten-year-old, dry-clean, house top. compound sentence ( see index)
concessive clause or clause of concession (see index)
concrete noun, noun referring to something which can be physically touched, e.g.
dog, window, water.
conditional clause, a subordinate clause (see index) starting with ' i f or, in
indirect speech, ' whether', e.g. If it rains, we will stay at home. I don' t know
whether it will continue raining.
conjunction, a word connecting two words, groups or clauses, e.g. and, but,
although, if.
countable noun, a noun which can have singular or plural form, e.g. dog, dogs
demonstrative adjective or pronoun like this or there
direct object, the word (group) on which the active verb operates, e.g. they sent
the letter. She saw him.
direct speech in which the actual words spoken are given, e.g. He said 'I met her
yesterday.
dynamic verb describes an action, e.g. walk, give, eat
finite verbs change form according to the person, tense and mood; not the form
with ' t o' (infinitive), nor the form with ' -ing' or '-ed'(participles).
gerund, the form of the verb in ' -ing' acting as a noun, e.g. Skiing is great. The
same form acting as an adjective is called a gerundive e.g. the book is
interesting.
glossary, list and explanations of technical (in this case grammatical) terms .
idiom, a group of words which together mean something other than what the
words normally mean, e.g. He kicked the bucket (=he died)
impersonal, using the word ' it' as a subject, makes the style more formal (q,v)
e.g. It is snowing; it was she who said that.
indirect object, the person who benefits from the action of the verb, e.g. He wrote
her st letter; he wrote the letter to her.
infinitive, the basic form of the verb, with ' t o'
intransitive verbs do not have an object, e.g. he goes, she arrived.
irregular, usually a verb which does not follow the normal rules of formation.
[Irregular verbs must be learnt!]
main clause (see p. 18 and index)
main verb, also called the lexical verb, the chief verb in a sentence (Cf.
subordinate).
modal, a verb used as an auxiliary to a basic verb, in order to show things like
possibility, deduction, obligation, prediction: can, could, may, might, must, etc.
negative, a verb or sentence using ' not' , ' never' ' nobody' , etc. to indicate denial
or absence of something. E.g. She never listens. N.B. Two negatives make a
positive, e.g. / won 't not come = I will come.
noun, a word referring to things, people, ideas, qualities, colours, feelings, etc.
which can function as the object or subject of a sentence.
noun clause or noun phrase, a group of words functioning as a noun (see index)
number, an indication of whether the noun (group) or other words (e.g. verbs)
are singular or plural.
obj ect , the noun etc. which is the target of the action of a verb, e.g. message in
They sent me a message (Cf. direct object and indirect object)
participle, present or past part of verb used primarily in order to form tenses, e.g.
trying or tried, looking or looked. Many participles can be used as adjectives,
e.g. trying (use your dictionary for this meaning!), charming, interesting;
covered, eaten, loved, etc.
person, one of the three possible subjects of any finite verb, first, second or third
person, singular or plural (/, you, he/she/it, we, you, they, are personal
pronouns)
phrasal verb, verb group constisting of two or three parts: basic verb + adverb or
one or two prepositions, e.g. get up, stand up for.
plural refers to more than one person or thing, e.g. hats, women
positive, the opposite of negative,
prefix, part of a word added before it to change the meaning, e.g. r>as/-operative,
non-smoker.
preposition, a word used before a noun, pronoun etc to tell something about
manner, time, place, etc. e.g. in a hurry, after lunch, before me.
prepositional phrase (see index)
pronoun, a word used in place of a noun, usually to avoid repeating the noun.
proper noun refers to a specific person or thing, etc. and must be written with a
capital initial letter, e.g. John, London, Easter.
quote or quotation repeats exactly the words used by the original writer or
speaker (Cf. reported speech),
relative pronoun, word like who, which, etc. in a relative clause (q.v. in index),
referring to and telling more about a noun or pronoun in the main clause (q.v.)
reported speech or indirect speech, reports what somebody said or wrote without
using the actual words of the original utterance. E.g. Direct speech : How are
you? Indirect speech: he asked how I was.
rhetorical question, a question asked not for information but to emphasize
something. This type of question does not expect an answer.
stative verb describes a state or situation, e.g. live, hope, be (Cf. dynamic verb)
subject, the noun (group) or pronoun which performs the action of the verb, e.g.
He sent the letter. His girlfriend replied.
superlative, the third form of an adjective or adverb, usually using ' most' or with
'-est' on the end. Used to indicate the best of three or more people or things.
E.g. She is the fastest swimmer I know. It is the most carefully built house in
the area. He works most seriously. (Most with adverbs often means very.)
tag question, a question with a question tag (auxiliary verb question form) added,
e.g. It' s lovely weather, isn 't it?
tense, the verb form which shows if you are talking about the past, present or
future. E.g. I am thinking (Present continuous tense). I wonder (Present
simple), if it will rain (Future) tomorrow.
transitive verb, a verb which takes an object, e.g. send, upset, oppose.
uncount(able) noun, a noun which has only one form (no plural), e.g. money,
advice, furniture, luggage, etc.
verb, the word in a sentence which describes what a person does or what happens.
APPENDIX 2
SUMMARIES
Although the rest of this book is intended to be useful for students in
other course years, the purpose of this appendix is to give second-year
students a litde extra help in the written exam.
Summarising is, like everything else in language learning, a technique
that requires practice. In order to make use of the texts starting on page
49 as practice pieces, you should consider only those in the following
list. They are ones which have a connection with the vocabulary areas in
the second-year text book .
Nos. 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 16, 20, 29, 33.
As the passages were chosen primarily from the viewpoint of stylistics,
they may not all be treated in the same way. Some are more suitable for
short summaries only.
The indications given here, however, can also be applied to other texts
when you wish to practise summarising further:
Think of a short title for the whole piece.
Think of a title for each paragraph or section of the text.
If you can put these together with linkers, you may then possibly have
your summary.
If some important points are missing, insert them, using verbal rather
than noun constructions (e.g. not they have the possibility o/...but they can).
Sometimes a list of nouns is the shortest form. Avoid using articles (e.g.
the doctor, dentist, butcher, all arrived early).
Generally use pronouns and ellipsis, cutting out most adjectives and
adverbs unless you are trying to achieve a similar style or atmosphere.
Avoid using phrasal verbs - two or three words - where one verb will
do and do not use compound tenses if you can use a simple one.
* Inside Out Upper Intermediate by Sue Kay and Vaughan Jones, pub. Macmillan Heinemann ELT, 2001.
Remember that if the instruction is to use your own words, do not merely quote
the text!
NB If you are instmcted to limit your words, make sure you keep within the limit!
Using your own words as far as possible, in all of the summaries, try to
summarise Text 2 in no more than 20 words.
Text 4 . Here, a title is given in the first line, so write a summary in 30 words.
Text 6 . Try to give a title and then attempt to convey the atmosphere in a
summary of fewer than 20 words.
Text 7. Give a title and then summarise in fewer than 30 words.
Text 9. Find a title and summarise the reviews in a maximum of 30 words.
Text 11. Entitle the passage. Give each paragraph a heading. Finally amalgamate
all into a summary of about 35 words.
Text 16.Try to find a short, unambiguous title and then write a summary of fewer
than 20 words.
Text 20. Give a title and then a summary of no more than 40 words. Try to convey
the humour of the situation.
Text 29. As the title is provided, summarise the information given in under 50
words.(You may quote one of the phrases from the text.)
Text 33. Try to give a title both to the whole passage and then to each paragraph.
Your subsequent summary should not exceed 100 words.
Specimen summaries
2. Who wants to be a millionaire? has shaken Indian television and promoted the
show' s host.
4. Now that seaside places are flourishing again, the newspaper's Travel writers
give 10 reasons for going to Britain's resorts, including avoiding airport
problems and getting good food and accommodation.
6. Rainy Gascony. A fly-drive weekend to old-fashioned, agricultural Lectoure is
enjoyably romantic despite rain,
7. Renovating Argrennan. Tulane and Bob, experienced renovators, saw much
potential in the empty, unspoilt, well-proportioned 1760s house. So they spent
two years restoring, to give each room its individual character
9. Contrasting Reviews. One of the Indian books, Visvanathan's short story
collection, is stylistically beautiful, partially autobiographical prose poetry. The
other, Varma' s Lament..., is lamentable /to be avoided.
11 .A Husband's Death.
Train crash news. Wife's reaction. Armchair. Spring hope.
Mrs. Mallard, cautiously informed she had lost her husband in a train crash,
wept immediately, then withdrew alone. From the armchair in her room she
could see hopeful life signs.
16.Rescue by Boat. ["Boat Rescue" would be ambiguous: rescue of or by a boat]
Despairing of being rescued in darkness, we heard our boat and successfully
shouted to attract attention.
20.The Doctor's Bicycle. Mounted precariously on the rickety bicycle, and laden
with four bags and containers, I teetered through falling snow until a wheel fell
off. I furiously determined, though, to get to deliver the baby.
29. D-I-Y enthusiasts, wanting unusual objects for their homes, should search in
France, where the abundant architectural salvage is variously classified.
Eating there is wonderful but drinking should be avoided if driving, and staying
there will cost less than in Britain.
33. Memories of Schooldays.
Discipline. Thinking back. Punishment. Food. Dormitory arrangements.
Solitude. Convent school staff. Christmas and spirituality.
In the mountain train, Harris thinks back to his German convent school days,
remembering first the mainly psychological punishment system; then the smells
of stone, wood, summer, cooking, and the types of food they had; the sleeping
arrangements and early waking. He recalled lacking privacy, though the masters
were kind. They celebrated festivals with gift-giving and church ceremonies, in
an atmosphere that pervaded the God-centred village and now made the writer
remember longingly.
I-
98
INDEX
( Number s in bol d are t he major page references, t he ot hers refer t o
adjective
adverb
Advice to student [in
Anglo-Saxon
antithesis
antonym
apposition
character
clause, comparative
clause, concession
clause, consequence
clause, main
clause, noun
clause, purpose
clause, reason
clause, relative
clause, subordinate
collocation
compound
conjunction
contrast
ellipsis
euphemism
farce
figures of speech
formal
simple ment i ons or examples)
1 6 - 1 9 , 26, 27, 31, 32, 36, 81, 86, 88, 92, 93
16, 17, 18, 19, 32
brackets] 11, 14, 17, 25, 40, 92
5, 7 ,73
38, 40, 78, 85, 86, 90
13, 14
18, 74, 92
24, 42, 45, 63, 65, 82, 86, 87
19
20, 74, 92
22
18 19, 21, 22, 24, 74, 75
19, 74
21
22
19, 24, 74, 82, 83, 85
18,19, 20, 22, 25, 26, 32, 33, 74, 93
11, 1 2 , 8 1 - 8 3.
12,91
20 - 22, 25 - 27, 36, 83, 92, 93
19, 20, 44, 74, 81 - 84, 87 - 90
22, 36, 38, 75, 79 - 82, 84, 85, 88
42, 82
45
11, 13, 38, 41, 46, 49, 62, 86
6 - 8 , 12, 20, 27, 28, 78, 80 - 84, 88, 93
,
humour 4 3 - 4 5 , 78, 79, 83, 84
hyperbole 4 2 , 4 3 , 7 9 - 8 1 , 8 3 - 8 5 , 8 7 - 8 9
hyponym 13
impersonal 6, 80, 82
informal 6 - 8 , 20, 80, 86, 87
irony 41, 42, 64, 78 - 80, 84, 85, 88
Latin 5 - 7, 73
lexical cohesion 11,14
lexis 5
limerick 45, 46
litotes 42, 43, 79, 82 - 84, 88
metaphor 39, 40, 62, 78 - 80, 82 - 86, 88 - 91
metaphor, dead 40, 78, 80, 81 - 83, 86 - 88
metaphor, extended 40, 78, 81, 84, 85, 89
metaphor, mixed 45, 78 - 80
metonym 13, 15, 62, 85, 86, 88, 89
objective 6
oxymoron 40, 84, 89
paradox 40, 78, 82, 85, 86
personal 6, 16, 65, 79, 81, 83 - 87.
personification 39, 40, 62, 78 - 90
phrasal verbs 8, 11, 12, 18, 92, 94
phrase, adjectival 17, 18, 84
phrase, adverbial 17, 18,32, 74, 84, 86, 90, 92
phrase, noun 12,17, 18, 32, 74, 87, 89, 93
phrase, prepositional 18, 20, 32, 74, 94
Practice/exercises 7, 16, 20, 22, 28, 34, 37, 46, 66
pun 4 3 - 45, 78, 79
punctuation - colon 28
punctuation - cornma 19, 24- 26, 28, 81, 92
punctuation - dash 27,28
punctuation - lull stop 26, 27, 31, 82
punctuation - hyphen 12, 27, 28
punctuation - inverted commas 28, 80, 81
punctuation - semi-colon 26, 28
punctuation 24, 26, 28, 30, 90
reference 11, 36, 37, 49, 78 - 80, 87, 89, 90
repetition 38, 45, 78, 82, 83, 85, 87
sentence length 30
sentence, complex 21
sentence, compound 21, 22, 74, 75
sentence, disguised 22, 24
sentence, simple 21
simile 39, 42, 78, 80, 81, 82, 84 - 88, 90
situation 16, 20, 33, 36, 37, 41, 42, 45, 78, 84, 86, 88
Stylistics, definition 4
subjective 6, 7, 85
substitution 33, 36, 37
surrealist 84
synecdoche 13, 85
synonym 12, 14
syntax 16
unexpected 44, 79, 84, 87
vocabulary 5, 11, 14, 83
Word order 31, 33, 82
Postscript
The author, after gaining his Honours Degree in Modem Languages at Oxford
University and the Teaching Diploma also at Oxford, has had long and successful
experience of teaching - more than thirty-five years - in school and university.
During that time he also studied for and obtained the Further Professional Studies
Certificate in Education from The University of Bristol.
He has significantly, though anonymously, contributed to the structure of a
German language text book published by Oxford University Press and, in his own
right, has published a work for the Honourable Company of Goldsmiths on
Careers Testing in the U.S.A. and co-authored two books recently published by
C.U.E.M. in Milan: Second Year Exanrination Workbook and Dictation Practice.
This present book is produced at the request of many students who have found it
impossible to attend courses, and it is the author's sincere hope that those students,
and any who feel they need more practice or clarification and buy the book, will
enjoy using this fruit of practical experience.

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