О.А.КОЛЫХАЛОВА, В.В.МАКАЕВ

АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК

Учебник

Для студентов и аспирантов                                                                                                       гуманитарных специальностей вузов

Рекомендовано                                                                                                                                         Учебно-методическим объединением                                                                                         высших учебных заведений                                                                                                    Российской Федерации                                                                                                                      по педагогическому образованию

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Авторы:

О. А. Колыхалова, зав. кафедрой английского языка гуманитарных факультетов МПГУ, член-корреспондент Международной академии наук педагогического образования, кандидат филологических наук, доцент - главы II, V, III (совместно с В. В. Макаевым);

В. В. Макаев, профессор многих зарубежных университетов, кандидат педагогических наук, доцент - главы I, II, III (совместно с О. А. Колыхаловой).

Колыхалова О. А., Макаев В. В.

К60    Английский язык: Учебник для студентов и аспиран­тов гуманитарных специальностей вузов. - М.: Изда­тельский центр «Академия», 1998. - 463 с.

ISBN 5-7695-0179-0

Учебник написан молодыми специалистами в области филологии и педагогики, использующими в своей работе классические принципы дидактики и современные направления в российском и западном уни­верситетском образовании. Учебник отражает современные иннова­ционные тенденции в методике преподавания языка, ориентирован­ные на его глубокое и полное изучение. Учебник вовлекает обучаемых в самостоятельную работу и полезен как для занятий под руково­дством учителя, так и для самостоятельного изучения и совершенст­вования своих знаний.

ББК 81.2 Англ.

© Колыхалова О.А., Макаев В В., 1998

© Издательский центр «Академия», 1998

ОТ АВТОРОВ

Учебник «Английский язык» адресован в первую очередь сту­дентам и аспирантам гуманитарных специальностей высших учеб­ных заведений, студентам факультетов иностранных языков, а также всем тем, кто желает повысить свой уровень владения язы­ком, добиться глубинного понимания текста, усовершенствовать навыки устной и письменной речи и перевода.

Учебник состоит из пяти частей.

Первые две части теоретические. Они содержат материалы о словарном составе языка: многозначности, семантических пол­ях, структуре простых и сложных предложений, способах связи между ними, видах чтения. Теоретический материал дополняется упражнениями и заданиями.

Третья и четвертая части содержат иллюстративный материал, способствующий закреплению полученной информации. Тексты познавательны, информативны, интересны, современны.

Пятая часть состоит из упражнений, направленных на анализ внутренней структуры текстов.

Книга отражает последние инновационные тенденции в ме­тодике преподавания языка, ориентированные на его глубокое и полное изучение. Новый подход к изучению языка выразил­ся в соотношении и структуре теоретического и практического материала.

Все тексты и упражнения в учебнике мотивационны и взаи­монаправленны. Он удобен в обращении, так как предлагает удоб­но маркированные тексты и упражнения; легко ложится на компь­ютерные программы. Он вовлекает обучаемых в самостоятель­ную работу и полезен как для работы в аудитории под руководст­вом учителя, так и для индивидуальных занятий.

Авторы выражают глубокую признательность рецензентам, преподавателям кафедры английского языка гуманитарных фа­культетов МПГУ и преподавателям кафедры английского языка факультета переподготовки педагогических кадров МИПКРО, где апробировался данный учебник. Высказанные ими замечания были учтены при доработке рукописи.

Авторы будут признательны всем, кто пришлет свои отзывы об этой работе.

О.А. Колыхалова, В. В. Макаев

PREFACE

The textbook «English for Humanities» is for students and postgraduate students of Humanities departments. It can also be used by anyone who wishes to improve his knowledge of English.

It consists of five parts. The first two parts are theoretical, supplemented with exercises. Part I focusses on vocabulary, word formation and word usage. Special attention is paid to the use of words in different contexts.

Part II is devoted to the teaching of reading and compre­hending the texts. Here much attention is paid to sentence and text structure reading strategies per se.

Parts III and IV include rich variety of motivating humani­ties oriented texts which illustrate the theoretical material of the first two parts.

Part V is entirely a set of modern exercises (open-end ques­tionnaire, multiple choice, alternative, etc.) aiming at better analysing and the inner structure of the texts, purposeful ex­traction the information.

The main aim of the textbook is to help students to under­stand the text itself by increasing their word power, to teach them text analysis. The student is to increase his word power, and through the vocabulary he is to come to an understanding of the whole text, to master the techniques of text analysis.

For students it is necessary to economize on time and the textbook teaches them to work with different texts, trying to evaluate the general idea by skimming and scanning.

The textbook teaches a student a wide variety of skills, helps him/her answer formal and in-depth questions, without con­fusing him. It provides a student with appropiate techniques and know-how which is one of its main purposes.

User-friendly in its layout and the very structure, the text­book offers easy for marking ennumeratedly lined texts, exer­cises, firmly based on the classic principles of didactics strives at combining them with modern Western university education.

We hope that this textbook will not be the ultimate in its kind in the series but the first, and that other similar textbooks(e.g. in grammar ) will follow.

BOOK I

 

PART I                                                                                                                                                     WORD POWER (VOCABULARY STUDY)

 

SECTION  1

INTRODUCTION TO WORD POWER (WP)

WP is about words and word knowledge

It has been estimated by some researchers (Nagy and Herman, 1984)* that a native speaker of English who has completed 12 years of school encounters approximately 88,500 distinct word families with upwards of 100,000 distinct meanings in reading in English. According to Nagy and Herman, if materials for higher grades and for adults were included, then these figures would be substantially higher. In their view, the best way to acquire this necessary vocabulary is by reading, reading and more reading! While it may be an unrealistic goal to expect to acquire all the words one needs within the frame­work of one course or even two, it is possible to improve one's word acquisition strategies and one's knowledge of and about words. This is the purpose of this unit.

«Limitations of Vocabulary Instruction» Technical Report No. 326 Center for the Study of Reading University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

 

Which words you learn is up to you. You, the learner, have to build your own personalized vocabulary based on what you feel is important to you. The information and exercises in­cluded in the WP unit, along with the texts you read in the EFL course and the readings in English on the bibliographies for your other courses, will increase your English vocabulary. We hope all this will also improve your word knowledge (i.e. what you know about how words are formed and how to figure out what new words probably mean). Ultimately, we hope it will give you a feeling of word power (WP).

                    GOOD LUCK!

 

       SECTION II

WORDS ON WORDS

(Some Thoughts About How, and What, Words «Mean»)

Text A. (from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll «Humpty Dumpty» — Chapter VI)

«When I use a word,» Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, «it means just what I choose it to mean — nei­ther more nor less .»

«The question is,» said Alice, «whether you can make words 5 mean so many different things.»

«The question is,» said Humpty Dumpty, «which is to be master — that's all.»

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. «... I can manage the 10 whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!»

«Would you tell me, please,» said Alice, «what that means?» «... I meant by "impenetrability" that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here 15 all the rest of your life.»

«That's a great deal to make one word mean,» Alice said in a thoughtful tone.

«When I make a word do a lot of work like that,» said Humpty Dumpty, «I always pay it extra.»

Text B. (from Lewis Carroll's Symbolic Logic, quoted on p.269 of The Annotated Alice, ed. Martin Gardner)

...I maintain that any writer of a book is fully authorized in attaching any meaning he likes to any word or phrase he intends to use. If I find an author saying, at the beginning of his book, «Let it be understood that by the word "black" I shall always mean "white", and that by the word "white" I shall always mean "black,"» I meekly accept this ruling, however injudicious I may think it.

Text C. (from «The Philosopher's Alice in Wonderland,» by Roger W. Holmes, in the Antioch Review, Summer, 1959, also quoted in The Annotated Alice fp.2701)

«May we ... make our words mean what we choose them to mean? One thinks of a Soviet delegate using "democracy" in a U.N. debate. May we «pay our words extra,» or is this the stuff that propaganda is made of? Do we have an obligation to past usage? In one sense words are our masters, or communi­cation would be impossible. In another we are the masters; otherwise there could be no poetry.»

Text D. (from «Words,on Words,» the acceptance speech de­livered by Vaclav Havel, on receiving the Peace Prize of the German Booksellers Association on October 15,1989; reprinted in «The New York Review of Books,» January 18, 1990)

(1) Words can have histories too.

(2) There was a time, for instance, when, for whole genera­tions of the downtrodden and oppressed, the word socialism was a mesmerizing synonym for a just world, a time when, for the ideal expressed in that word, people were capable of sacri­ficing years and years of their lives, and their very lives even. I don't know about your country, but in mine, that particular word — «socialism» — was transformed long ago into just an ordinary truncheon used by certain cynical, parvenu bureauc rats to bludgeon their liberal-minded fellow citizens from morning until night, labeling them «enemies of socialism» and «antisocialism forces.» It's a fact: in my country, for ages now, that word has been no more than an incantation that should be avoided if one does not wish to appear suspect.

 (3) I was recently at an entirely spontaneous demonstration ...protesting the sell-off of one of the most beautiful parts of Prague to some Australian millionaires. When one of the speak­ers there, loudly decrying the project, sought to bolster his appeal to the government by declaring that he was fighting for his home in the name of socialism, the crowd started to laugh. Not because they had anything against a just social order, but quite simply because they heard a word which has been in-canted for years and years in every possible and impossible context by a regime that only knows how to manipulate and humiliate people.

(4) What a weird fate can befall certain words! At one mo­ment in history, courageous, liberal-minded people can be thrown into prison because a particular word means something to them, and at another moment, people of the selfsame variety can be thrown into prison because that word has ceased to mean anything to them, because it has changed from a symbol of a better world into the mumbo jumbo of a doltish dictator.

(5) No word — at least not in the rather metaphorical sense I am employing the word «word» here — comprises only the meaning assigned to it by an etymological dictionary. The mean­ing of every word also reflects the person who utters it, the situation in which it is uttered, and the reason for its utterance. The selfsame word can, at one moment, radiate great hopes, at another, it can emit lethal rays. The selfsame word can be true at one moment and false the next, at one moment illuminat­ing, at another, deceptive. On one occasion it can open up glorious horizons, on another, it can lay down the tracks to an entire archipelago of concentration camps. The selfsame word can at one time be the cornerstone of peace, while at another, machine-gun fire resounds in its every syllable.

(6) Gorbachev wants to save socialism through the market economy and free speech, while Li Peng protects socialism by massacring students, and Ceausescu by bulldozing his people. What does that word actually mean on the lips of the one and 50 the lips of the other two? What is this mysterious thing — [«socialism»] — that is being rescued in such disparate ways?

 

Text E.

Exercises:

I . In text (C) above, Roger W. Holmes asks: «May we... make our words mean what we choose them to mean?»

1. How does Holmes himself answer this?

2. Compare Holmes' position on this issue with that of Lewis Carroll (in text В above). Which of the two do you find more persuasive?

3. Why do you suppose Lewis Carroll qualified what he said by adding at the end of his declaration, «however injudicious I may think it»? (What did he realize might turn out to be «in­judicious»?)

4. How do you imagine Vaclav Havel (in text D) might answer the same question?

5. How does the girl in the peanuts cartoon answer it?

6. What words that have «histories» (see the first sentence of Havel's speech) can you think of?

II. A. Carroll tells us (in text В above) that if a writer wants to use a word to mean something different from what it com­monly means, he need only tell us, at the beginning of his text, what special meaning he has assigned to that word in his text. But what if a writer does not prepare his reader in this way? By what other means can we guess what meaning he has assigned to a word that he has used in an unusual way (one that cannot be found in any dictionary?)

1. One possibility is illustrated in the short Text (Part III) called «Filters Against Folly.» The writer speaks of a «shortage of supply and a longage of demand» (1.4). The tech­nical term for the rhetorical device used here by this writer is «parallelism.» What do you think «parallelism» means? How do we know what he means by longage, even though the word does not appear in any dictionary?

2. We can also guess something about the meaning of a word by its position in the sentence, or by its ending. This can be helpful in understanding something about what a writer is telling us, even when we're not familiar with many of the words he uses.

a. To understand something about the meaning of a word by its position in the sentence, we have to know the parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.)-and how they function in an English sentence.

For example:

— The first word in a sentence will usually never be a verb. But an unfamiliar word that follows one of the familiar modals (can, may, must, would, etc.) probably is a verb (e.g. , He may abscond with the money) , though the modal may be followed by an adverb (e.g. , He may never abscond with the money). -An unfamiliar word following any of the determiners (i.e., the articles «the», «a», «an», «some», «any»: the possessive pronouns such as «my», «your», etc. ; the demonstratives «this», «that», «these», and «those»; and the counters or mea­suring words such as «few», «many», «several», etc.)-is probably a noun of some sort (e.g. , Behold the Aardvark ingesting termites). -A word ending in «ly» is likely to be an adverb (e.g. , He is demonstrably idiotic), fol­lowed by an adjective; though it could also be an adjec­tive (e.g., He was a friendly creature) , followed by a noun. For the meaning of grammatically significant word endings such as «ly», see «Suffixes Used to Form Parts of Speech» in the Appendix to Part I (WP).

II. B. Below are a set of sentences with nonsense words. In the blanks provided, replace each nonsense word with some meaningful word, so that the resulting sentence is well-formed and meaningful. Use your knowledge of the meaning aspects of word forms and their functions in English.

1. The clonks were wimbling pootishly.                                                                                                      

The_______ were______ ing______ ly.

2 . Have you beller spiggled a _____?

Have you______er______ ed a _____?

3. This om the bodgiest puckle in the Hitch.

This______the ____iest ______in the ___ .

4. Greezzy fubbles should blably be shifted.

____ у______s should _____ly be _____ ed.

5. You can skritch your Cripples and plutch them into your trinks . You can____________ your_______s

and_____them into your______s .

What clues did you use to decide what parts of speech to choose to fill in the blanks?

II. C. In his novel, The Clockwise Orange, Anthony Burgess created a special lexicon (i.e., a list of words with their meanings) for his characters. To be understood, he depended upon his readers' background knowledge of the criminal world (presumably acquired second-hand, from reading and seeing «thrillers»). But he also depended upon their knowledge of the forms and functions of words in ordinary English.

What sense can you make of the following passage taken from The Clockwork Orange?

Then we slooshied the sirens and knew the millicents were coming with pooshkas pushing out of the police auto-windows at the ready. That little weepy devotchka had told them there being a box for calling the rozzes not too far behind the Muni Power Plant.

 

SECTION III

EVALUATE YOUR WORD KNOWLEDGE

How large is your English vocabulary? Do you need to have precise knowledge of every word in order to be able to under­stand a text? Is it sometimes enough to have only a vague idea about some of the words? Is it sometimes all right to ignore a difficult word, hoping you will be able to figure out what it means after further reading?

1. Evaluate your word knowledge (decontextualized). The following words come from Sublist 1 of A University Word List, prepared by Xue Guo-yi and Paul Nation, reprinted in Language and Communication, 3(2), 1984).

How well do you know each of them? (place the appropri­ate symbol before each word.)

i. 0 = no knowledge,

ii. ? = some knowledge,

iii. + = knowledge (discriminating knowledge, i.e. you can translate it, can give a definition, can understand it fully in reading and can use it productively in writing.)

alternative arbitrary assume concept constant criterion denote dimension element equivalent evident guarantee ignore imply interpret method negative presume publish range restrict specify suffice tense valid

analyse assess compensate conclude construct data derive distinct environment establish facilitate hypothesis illustrate indicate involve minimum obvious prime pursue region role status summary ultimate vary

approach assign complex consist context define devise dominate equate evaluate formula identify impact initial magnitude modify potential proceed random require similar subsequent technique usage vertical

 

 

2. Underline ten difficult words in one of the texts in this book as you read it, and before you reach for a dictionary.

A. How important is it for you to know each of these words in order to understand the text? (Evaluate the importance on a scale of 1-5: (O) = of no importance; (5) — crucial)

B. How important is it for you to know these words for your general/personal vocabulary? (Evaluate the im­portance on a score of 1-5: (О) — of no importance; (5) = crucial)

3. Strategies available for learning and remembering a new word:

1. Internal context (analysing word structure — prefixbase — suffix)

2. Association of the new word with words that look the same (i.e., have the same base, or stem)

3. External context (studying the words, phrase or sentence(s) just preceding or just following the unfamil­iar word)

4. Aural and/or visual cues (associating the word with some sound or image)

5. Native language equivalents (associating the word with its equivalent in your native language)

6. Synonyms (associating the word with word(s) of similar meaning )

7. Antonyms (associating the word with word(s) of opposite or contrastive meaning)

8. Collocations (associating the word with words that go together with it, i.e. coffee or tea)

9. Placing the word within a semantic field — (groups of words used in relation to a given topic or scene)

 

SECTION IV

THE WORD IN THE DICTIONARY

Some dictionaries you may want to examine:

American College Dictionary

Random House

College Dictionary Concise Oxford

Webster Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary

Longman's Dictionary of Contemporary English (Advanced Learners' Dictionary)

(4.1) Information Available in Some Dictionaries

1. Spelling (and various acceptable spellings, when there is more than one of these for a given word [e.g. color, colour])

2a. Various related Usages should be indicated — i.e. , us­ages that are closely related to each other so that they can be listed together — (usually in the order of the frequency with which they are used) under a single entry (e.g. «radical» as used in political science or in mathematics or linguistics) .

2b. Examples should be given of each usage (sentences or phrases in each of which the given word is used differently: i.e., has a slightly different «meaning»). E.g. «discipline» as «training» or «punishment», or as «an area of instruction».

3. Homographs — there may be separate listings for words that are spelled alike but are different in other ways. They may be pronounced differently, they may belong to different word classes (e.g., noun, verb, adjective, etc....) or they may be com­pletely different in meaning.

(e.g. flock (noun) — a group of animals or people

flock (verb) — to gather in large numbers

flock (noun) — (1) small pieces of wool, cotton, etc., used for filling cushions. (2) soft material that forms decorated pat­terns on the surface of wallpaper, curtains, etc.

4. Abbreviations — there may be a separate listing for the abbreviated form of a word (e.g., «Dr.» and «Doctor») (See also: Abbreviations, Unit 3 of WP Appendix, [Section X]).

5. Capitalization — there may be separate listings for the capitalized and uncapitalized forms of certain words that have a specific meaning when they are written with a capital letter.

e.g. reformation — the act of improving something

Reformation — a 16th century European religious movement

6. Syllabification — there may be an indication of the cor­rect way to divide the word. This information is necessary in writing, when we have room for only part of the word at the end of a line. It also helps us too see what parts the word is made of (which is useful for guessing its meaning).

Divide the words anonymous and anthropology according to the divisions indicated in your dictionary. What symbol does your dictionary use to indicate how this is to be done?

7. Pronunciation — Look up the pronunciation of the fol­lowing words: (a.) «ancillary» (b.) «harass». What symbols are used to indicate how to pronounce these words? Where are these symbols explained? Sometimes a word is spelled the same way, but pronounced differently, for each of its different gram­matical roles. (E.g., «estimate», as a noun; «estimate», as a verb.) Look up the word «estimate» to see how it is pronounced in each of its roles.

8. Parts of Speech — For each word there should be an indication of its Word classes or parts of speech: (e.g., verb (v.); noun (n.); adjective (adj.); adverb (adv.) etc. It's useful to know that the same form of the word can serve more than one function (i.e. , fill more than one position in the sentence). Look up the word «form» in a good dictionary. What different functions can it serve? (See also «Parts of speech», Unit I of section V in Part II.)

9. Other information about verbs:-

A. There should be an indication of whether a verb is trans. (transitive) or intr. (intransitive), i.e., whether or not it is fol­lowed by a direct object. You may find that some verbs (like «guess») can be used either way (trans. and intr.) B. Irregular inflections of verbs should be indicated; e.g. irregular forms of the past and past perfect; swim, swam; put, put; to be — am, is, are, was, were. C. Information about Phrasal Verbs is use­ful. Sometimes called two-part verbs, these consist of a verb and a specific adverb (e.g. to give out) or preposition (e.g. to look after). These have a different meaning from the meaning of the verb alone (e.g. to give or to look), and they may have separate listings.

10 . Other information about nouns:

A. There should be an indication of what type of Noun it is i.e., Countable (C), or Uncountable (U)). This is useful for deciding whether to use it with a singular or plural verb; what determiner (the, a, much, many, etc.) to use with it; and with what pronoun (sing. or plural) to replace it. B. Irregular inflec­tions of nouns should be indicated: e.g., irregular plural forms such as «child», «children»; «candy», «candies»; «phenomenon», «phenomena»; «datum», «data».

11. Other Information about Usage:— Become familiar with the labels used in your dictionary to give information about the use or function of the word in the language. What do you think the following labels indicate about the word?

standard/ non-standard; Brit./ Am., colloq. (colloquial), slang; obs. (obsolete); arch. (archaic); Black

English; abbrev. (abbreviation). (See «Abbreviations»,Unit 2 of WP Appendix, [Section X]).

Without bothering to look these up, how do you think a good dictionary might label the following:

a. «You're gonna make it hot for us.»

b. theater, theatre; color, colour; favor, favour

c. Thine honour has been ruined.

d. Ain't you pretty!?

e. Have a «nash»?

12. Compound words — these are separate words that have a special meaning when they appear together (without a hy­phen — ) and hence may be listed as a single entry under the first of the two words. E.g. hot air; hot dog; hot plate; hot pot; hot line

Sometimes the two words are actually joined together, and you will learn this from the fact that they are listed as a single word e.g. hothouse, hotfoot, hothead.

Sometimes the two words are joined by a hyphen, and this too, will be indicated by the form of the dictionary entry: e.g. hot-blooded.

13. Synonyms and Antonyms — A good dictionary will also list words that are similar in meaning to, or opposite in mean­ing from, the word you have looked up (i.e., its synonyms and antonyms). Some dictionaries list the synonyms and antonyms under the most frequently used word. E.g., under «injury» the American College Dictionary lists the following synonyms (syn.): hurt, wound, and the following antonym (ant.), benefit.

14. Etymology, or word derivations— It is sometimes use­ful to know whether the word was originally Latin, Greek, German, French, Spanish, etc., and when it came into the English language). (Most college-level dictionaries supply this information.) E.g. if you look up the word «refusenik» which is listed in some dictionaries published after 1974, you will learn that «refusenik» is a new formation from «refuse» and the Slavic suffix «-nik».(See also «nudnik»). See also «It's All Greek» in part III below.

 

(4.2) Learning how to get most out of a Dictionary

Dictionary Exercise:

1. Words of high and low frequency (in terms of usage). Is it enough for you to just deal with words that are com­mon (of high frequency) or does your bibliographical and col­lege level reading also require you to be familiar with words of lower frequency (words that are not commonly used)? Does your dictionary list words that are rarely used, or that are tech­nical terms peculiar to certain areas of knowledge? Does it include rare usages under commonly used words?

(a) Check the word «radical» in your dictionary. Do you find a mathematical and chemical or scientific meaning of the word as well as a meaning from the area of political science?

(b) Check the following (rarely used) words and see if they are in your dictionary  

                                      (i) aardvark

(ii) eleemosynary

2. Range of Definitions

Does your dictionary make available to you a range of mean­ings i.e. words which may be used in a technical /non-techni­cal sense? See example of «radical» above. Judging by what you found under «radical», would you say your dictionary pro­vides a broad, or narrow, range of definitions?

3. Order of Listings

How are different meanings of the word indicated in your dictionary? Does your dictionary follow any particular order in listing different meanings? I.e. does it give the most common or most typical meaning first?

4. Multi-meaning Words

How does your dictionary enter multi-meaning words? — as one entry, with several different meanings? with several dif­ferent entries? (a) How many meanings does your dictionary have for the word «hold»? (b) what is the meaning of the word «hold» in each of the following?

a. to hold hands

b. Hold the merchandise for me, please.

c. The call is on hold.

d. His performance can hold them spellbound.

e. We will hold the meeting on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

f. Will you hold back on that publication, please?

g. Who holds the major political offices? the minor ones?

h. This bottle holds 8 c.c.

i. I hold these truths to be self-evident. J. I hold him to be the best applicant.

k. He managed to hold the hostage for 18 hours before releasing him.

Does your dictionary contain all of these meanings or did you have to work out the meanings from the context?

5. Find one of each of the following types of dictionaries:

a. a bilingual dictionary (English-Russian, English French, etc.)

b. an English — English Learners' Dictionary c. an English — English College Dictionary Look up the underlined words in the following sentences in each of these dictionaries. Note the differences in the entries of the various dictionaries for the same word. (Be prepared to find that some dictionaries do not list them at all.)

1. The University cannot function on eleemosynary contri­butions alone.

2. The number of civil service posts held by people of indig­enous origin was small.

3. Students are often recalcitrant about paying their fees.

4. NATO is an organization that serves many countries.

(4.3) Dictionary Questionnaire* and some                                                                                   First-year Student Responses

 (A)   1. What is your general attitude toward the use of dictionaries?

— «I try not to use a dictionary a lot because that is a way to test myself and see if I can manage without using it.»

2. Do you like using dictionaries?

— «I hate using a dictionary because it takes me out of concentration and I hate searching for the words.»

3. Do you feel that dictionaries help you?

— «Yes. The dictionary helps me most of the time, be­cause I use it only when I really need it.»

4. When do you usually feel that you need the assistance of a dictionary?

— «Impossible I prefer using the context of the sentence itself to define an unknown word in that sentence. How­ever, when this does not work the assistance of a dictio­nary is O.K.»

5. Do you have any special difficulties while using a dictionary?

— «Sometimes the definitions of one word are too sub­tly different.»

— «The only difficulty I have while using a dictionary is when there is more than one meaning to the word and I can't pick the best one.»

6. Which type of dictionary do you prefer? Why?

— «I prefer thinking in English while studying English, so I use an English — English dictionary.»

—    «I prefer the English — Russian dictionary because it's the easiest. But I use the English — English because it's the best way to learn.»

(B) How would you respond to each of the above questions?

 

SECTION V

CONNOTATION

Many words have both a PRIMARY and a SECONDARY meaning. The PRIMARY meaning of a word is its denotation — i.e., what the word explicitly signifies. The SECONDARY meaning of a word is its CONNOTATION. This is the ADDI­TIONAL 'meaning that a word takes on from the types of contexts in which it is most frequently found. Some word have POSITIVE CONNOTATIONS, some have NEGATIVE CON­NOTATIONS, and some are NEUTRAL (i.e., they simply denote a concept without coloring it positively or negatively).

Often a writer implies his attitude or point of view by choos­ing words that have positive or negative connotations when there are neutral equivalents that he might have chosen in­stead. Conversely, he might express his unwillingness to take sides on an issue by using neutral terms wherever possible.

Consider the effect of the words having positive or negative connotations (in contrast to their neutral equivalents) in the following pairs of statements.

1. He purports to be happy in his work. (negative, implying a false claim) He claims to be happy in his work. (neutral)

2. He built himself a house, (neutral)

He built himself a home. (positive, implying a place of warmth, comfort and affection)

3. He entered the studio, (neutral)

He invaded the studio, (negative, implying an unwelcome intrusion)

4. He was youthful in appearance, (positive) He was juvenile in appearance, (negative, implying   imma­turity )

5. He decided to leave his job. (neutral) He decided to abandon his job. (negative, implying deser­tion)

6. She dedicated herself to feeding her family, (neutral) She dedicated herself to nourishing her family, (positive, implying that the feeder maintains life)

7. He was a profound thinker. (positive, implying extreme penetration into the subjects of his thought) He was a deep thinker, (neutral)

Sometimes the same word has somehow acquired various connotations. The reader must then pay close attention to the context in which it appears if he wants to infer an implied attitude. Consider the way in which the change of context changes the connotation of the underlined words in the sen­tences below.

8. Hercules was a mythical figure, (neutral).

        The story he gave the press was entirely mythical.

(negative, implying falsehood)

9. He told a funny story, (neutral)

There's something funny about the letter, (negative,  implying cause for suspicion) What connotation does the  underlined word have in the following sentences?

10. That was a fantastic meal. (       )

He was troubled by fantastic dreams. (        )

 

SECTION VI

A STRUCTURAL APPROACH TO WORD STUDY

 

Internal Structure/Context

Prefixes — Bases — Suffixes (see Unit 1 of WP Appendix [Section X])

6.1 Decoding the word correctly (noting exactly how the word looks)

Read aloud each of the following sets of words and think about the meaning of each word in the set. What element/s is/ are important for distinguishing between the different words? Add a word or a pair of words to each set, showing the same element of difference.

1. boot, booth; book;__________ (different end con­sonants)

2. bed; bud;___________________ (different vowels)

3. scheme — scene;____________(the addition or omission of a consonant before and/or after the vowel)

4. undeveloped-underdeveloped;_______ (a change in the prefix) underemployed-unemployed;

5. apprehensive-apprehension _______ (a change in the suffix, indicating a different part of speech)

6.2 Recognition of Consonant Blends in English

In the following list, circle consonant blends that you recognize as being found in English words. Supply a word using each of the latter blends (i.e. «ph» = phenomenon).

bl, br, bxt, cl, cr, ct, dt, dw, fr, fs, gl, gr, lr, nk, pi, pr, qu, sc, sch, sl, sm, sn, sp, spl, sq, st, str, sw, tch, thr, tw, wh

Which of the following combinations may also be found in words used in English? (Use a dictionary, if you aren't sure, to see if any words begin with them, and if so, how these words are pronounced.)

kn, psy, mn, pn, gn

6.3 Words have structure.

Individual letters > syllables > units of meaning.

A word in English always has a base, or stem (e.g. estab­lish). It may also have a prefix and a suffix (e.g. dis establish ment). It may also have more than one prefix: (e.g. un pro ductive (note that the base is the same as in re ductive; de ductive); un pro voked (note that the base is the same as in re voked); un per formed (note that the base is the same as in re formed) . And it may also have more than one suffix: e.g. profit able ness (in which the base is «profit»).

+/- PREFIXES + BASE +/- SUFFIXES

A prefix has invariable meaning or a few constants of mean­ing. A suffix may also have grammatical meaning (i.e. it can tell us if the word is used as a verb, noun, adjective, or adverb) in addition to «meaning» meaning.

Circle the prefix, block out the base, and underline the suffix in each of the following words . Then decide what parts of speech the word can be used as (the suffix will tell you) . Sometimes the same suffix can indicate more than one part of speech (e.g. , «explosive,» which can be used as a noun or an adjective).

international induction presupposition detective

homogeneous      reproductive     unfamiliar

6.4 Invariable position of word part

Reorder each of the following sets of word-parts so that each set makes a meaningful word.

Example: -ical, bio-, auto-, graph = autobiographical

 

1. marry, -age, -ity, abil-

2. on, -ment, -vir-, en-, al, -ism

3. -sible, -in, -pre-, corn, -hen

6.5 Meaningful prefix or not?

The first syllable may look like a detachable English prefix, when actually it is an integral part of the base (it cannot be separated from the base and analysed for meaning). Therefore, you must be careful, when trying to guess the meaning of an unfamiliar word, not to assume automatically that what looks like a prefix is in fact always that.

In each of the following sets of words, circle the word that does have a detachable prefix.

disappointment, disciple, disapproval (dis = showing an opposite or negative)

unanimous, unlawful, undisguised (un = a negation, a lack, or an opposite)

illegal, illegitimate, illusion (il = a negation, a lack, or an opposition)

pregnant, presupposition, predetermined (pre = before)

abnormal, able, abduction (ab = away from)

religion, renegotiate, reenact (re = again, or back)

biannual, bigotted, bilateral (bi = two, twice or double)

6.6 Word derivation

From a single word base, you may be able to construct many other words. The following are derivations of the base «edit». Divide them into noun, verb, and adjectival categories. edit: edition, editorialize; editor, editorial; editorialization

Nouns : Verbs : Adjectives :

6.7 Productive word parts — Chaining

Circle the part of the word which is repeated in the adjacent word. Explain the meaning of the word part in the word.

socialism     sociology         biology

theism                                  biography

theocracy     democracy      demography

 

Can you determine the meaning of the following words by analysing their parts?

atheism, atypical, specialize, nationalize, synthesize, sum­marize, bibliography, chronology, terminology?

Can you make up a new chain?

6.8 Creation of new words

On the basis of your knowledge of the words in Column I can you make an «educated» guess about the meaning of the (invented) words alongside them? (It is acceptable to invent a word when no word exists as yet for the concept you have in mind.)

Column I

1. cafeteria groceteria, washeteria

2. hierarchy «lowerarchy»

3. channel  chunnel

4. tunnel    hamburger pizzaburger, fishburger, soyaburger

5. shortages longages*

What do you think «ruburban» or «comdramatist» might mean?

 

6.9 Web of Relationships

Can you access the meaning of the words in the web in relation to the base word in the center?

apathetic                          pathology empathy                                   pathologist — patho —

sympathy              pathogenic pathological           pathos           apathy

6.10 Word parts — variable/invariable meaning Prefixes. How many of the following prefixes do you know? Indicate the meaning of each prefix and suggest a word in which it appears.

a, ambi, amphi, auto, bene, by, circu, circum, со, col, corn, con, contra, de, dis, dys, e, ex, en, entre, inter, intra, hyper, hypo, it, im, in, infra, ir, macro, micro, maxi midi, mini, mis, non, off, out, over, pan, pre, pro, pseudo, quasi, re, retro, sym, syn, ultra, under, vice, with.

6.11 Who Can Count??? (Word elements having numerical meaning)*

Identify the numerical elements in each of the following words. Make a number chart ranging from the smallest unit to the largest.

 

monarchy, bilateral, pentagon, septuagint, decade, quadraplegic, centennial, primary, hemisphere, dichotomy, unified, trimester, quadrant, quintuplet, semicolon, millenium, octagonal, hexagon, septet, octave, decalogue, trilogy, mo­nopoly, sextet, omnipotent, polygamous,multiracial, myriad, oligarchy, twilight, twice, twins.

SECTION VII

A CONTEXTUAL APPROACH TO WORD STUDY

A) Contextual clues to the meaning of the words in the sentence.

In addition to the Internal Context of Structure clues for a word, (see Section VI of WP above) readers are frequently told to find the meaning of an unknown word in the surrounding context — i.e. from the words or phrases before or after the unknown word «X». This is wonderful advice if it works: un­fortunately, the context does not always provide the reader with the clues needed. The following exercises are designed to help you recognize the contextual clues, if and when they exist in your text.

Deriving Meaning from Context                                                                                                           (Do not use a dictionary for these exercises)

 

7.1 The context can sometimes help you with the meaning of an unknown word without your having to go to the dictio­nary. Although there are severe limits to the meaning the con­text alone can give, it can help to reveal meaning in several ways. Try to figure out the meaning of each of the difficult words in the examples below:

1. The context can help by re-stating the idea expressed by the word (i.e., by providing a definition). Most organisms are aerobes; that is, they require oxygen to live.

«aerobe» means: ______________________.

2. The context can help by restating the idea expressed by the difficult word using several simpler words. The Germans left the Czech village of Lidice devastated: it was totally de­stroyed.

«devastated» means: ____________________.

3. The context can help by providing examples illustrating the meaning of the difficult word: Innards, such as hearts, kidneys and livers, are eaten more enthusiastically in some cultures than in others.

«Innards» means: _____________________.

4. The context can help by telling us what the word does not mean (here introduced by the word «but», signalling a contrasting idea) . The word "sea" usually refers to a body of water that is saline, but the water in the Sea of Galilee is relatively sweet.

«saline» means: ______________________.

5. The context can help by allowing us to infer the meaning of the word from what it tells us about the concept that the word refers to. The doorway was so low that when he entered the room he hit his head on the lintel.

«lintel» means:_______________________.

6. The context can help by telling us what facts lying in the storehouse of our general knowledge we should call on for help.

Of all the five senses, the one dogs depend upon most is the olfactory sense.

«Olfactory» means:_____________________.

Exercise B:

Determine the meaning of each underlined word from the context. You may write the meanings in Russian.

1. Insect fecundity is frightening: many kinds of insects lay hundreds or even thousands of eggs at one time. «fecundity» means»:_____________________.

2. Mozart manifested his dislike of Salzburg by choosing to live much of his life outside that city.

«to manifest» means:____________________.

3. Many works of art were salvaged from the flood in Flo­rence in 1966, but Cimabue's «Crucifix» was very badly dam­aged.

«to salvage» means:_____________________.

4. Dr. Burns's research sounded much more impressive when he described it as petrology rather than simply the study of rocks.

«petrology» means:_____________________.

5. Scientists rejected first the idea of a geocentric universe and then of a heliocentric one as they discovered that neither the earth nor the sun is at the center of the universe.

«geocentric» means: _____________________.

«heliocentric» means: _____________________.

6. The terminal points of the Egged bus lines 9 and 28 are Mt. Scopus and Givat Ram.

«Terminal» means: _____________________.

7. Through Conan Doyle's stories the character of Sherlock Holmes has taken on so much verisimilitude that we tend to forget that, in reality, there was no such person.

«verisimilitude» means:__________________.

8. One characteristic property of gases is their thermal ex­pansion: all gases increase in volume when their temperature is raised.

«thermal» means:______________________.

9. Psychologists also study normal behavior, but they are particularly concerned with behavior that is deviant.

«deviant» means:______________________.

10. The best example of a true social isolate would be a feral child, provided a child could actually be found who had had no contact whatsoever with human society, and had been reared in the wilderness by animals.

«isolate» means :______________________.

«feral» means :_______________________.

11. The theme of a novel may be primarily didactic, and this teaching may be moral or social.

«didactic» means: _____________________.

 

7.2. Use of words indicating Spatial (Alternative spelling: «Spacial» ) Orientation or Movement

These words can be used both literally (to indicate an actual movement or position in space), or metaphorically (to indicate something like movement or position). Deter­mine whether the use of the underlined spatial words is Lit­eral (L) or Metaphorical (M) in each of the following sen­tences.

__ 1. But since the boundaries of Islam extend far beyond those of Iran what constitutes Iran's «self-defence» becomes highly ambiguous.

__ 2. Iran protested the next day , contending that its plane had been attacked over «international waters», while the Saudis said that the plane had been downed in «Saudi» territo­rial waters.

__ 3. It was not until much later that pan-Turkism and pre-Arabism appeared on the political horizon and, even then, there is some doubt as to what they really sig­nified.

__ 4. The barrier separating the rich and the poor is sel­dom crossed.

__ 5. He was deeply in debt.

__ 6. Prices soared sky-high.

__ 7. He followed the ups and downs of the stock market.

__ 8. He arrived at a landmark decision during his first year as a judge.

B) Value Clues. You may find contextual clues relating to the worth or desirability of, or to the affect or emotion aroused by, the difficult word.

a. Indicate whether the underlined words in the fol­lowing sentences convey a positive or a negative mean­ing.

b. Underline the other words in the sentence that serve as value clues to the meaning of the difficult word.

1. The critic commended the work for its intellectual hon­esty.

2. Domestic effluents destroyed the formerly beautiful environment.

3. The sonorous bells awakened the villagers to another peaceful Sunday.

4. Beware of predatory men.

5. She was insulted by his condescension.

C. Function Clues:

Function clues relate to what someone or something does; how it, s/he functions.

7.3 In each of the following sentences, indicate the words or phrases which help us to understand how the underlined word functions.

1. The foundation provides grants and scholarships to de­serving students.

2. The minister was incarcerated in the Tower of London, where they held him until he was brought to trial.

3. They respected his anonymity by refusing to reveal his name and address.

4. The effect of his chicanery was to make everybody dis­trust everything he ever said or did thereafter.

 

SECTION VIII

SEMANTIC FIELDS

 

UNIT A: AREAS, SCRIPTS, TOPICS, CATEGORIES

When learning new vocabulary , try to attach the new words to something previously learned. It helps if you try to categorize or group related words that share a «semantic field» (an area of meaning) . In English it pays to focus on the way a word looks (as opposed to the way it sounds) when trying to decide what other words it might be related to. (Many words sound alike but are spelled very differently. Chances are they are very different in meaning e.g. bare — bear; affect — ef­fect.)

8. 1 Semantic Fields

List at least 5 words you associate with each of the follow­ing areas. Do any of your words cross areas?

 

ECONOMICS PSYCHOLOGY RELIGION MUSIC YOUR OWN FIELD OF STUDY

8. 2 The Vocabulary of the Script

Think of at least 5 words which relate to each of the follow­ing «scenes». Do any of your words cross scenes?

A RESTAURANT THE LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY THE DENTIST

8. 3 Suggest a Topic

For each of the following word sets, suggest an area to which it relates, the topic of a text in which you are most likely to find most of the words. I. leaders, executives, abili­ties, |2. nuclear weapons, aggression, manager, performance, |geopolitical considerations, job, production, supervisor, |de­terrence, restraint, selection, qualities, attributes, |attack, ci­vilian targets personality traits Do any of these words cross topics?

8. 4 Imagine a Scene — Suggest a Script

What do all the following words have in common? For each of them, imagine a specific scene that it suggests. Tip ransom allowance refund honorarium bounty tuition retainer bonus rent fare child support bus money wage salary reward alimony prize

8. 5 Identify the Topic

In the following short «text» , what words are used to identify and to refer to the topic? What is the topic? What replacement or substitution words or phrases are used instead of repeating it? Is there any ellipsis (word(s) or idea(s) left out)?

«Did Gordon give us any work to do for tomorrows?»

«Of course! 5 pages to read and ten questions to an­swer.»

«Have you finished doing it?»

«Yes, most of it».

«Does that mean I can get it from you this evening?»

«Yes, if you'll do the same favor for me some time.»

8. 6 Co — reference or Synonymous Reference

In each of the following sets, some of the words have more in common with each other than they do with the other words in the set. Group together those words in each set which share a common meaning. Specify what you think that meaning is.

1. obligatory, compulsory, binding, voluntary, enforceable

2. legal, bona fide, legitimate, illicit, lawful

3. rule, law, institution, custom, violation, precedent, prin­ciple, standard

4. allow, permit, grant, sanction, censure

5. calm, concerned, anguished, distressed, agitated

6. achievement, calamity, catastrophe, disaster

7. provoke, please, irritate, annoy

8. dispute, disagreement, accord, argument, strain

9. biased, prejudiced, subjective, objective

10. conclude, deduce, infer, introduce

11. judge, appraise, evaluate, ignore, assess

12. anticipation, expectation, retrospection, plan, inten­tion

Other Useful Groupings of Words

Words of related or overlapping meaning can sometimes be interchanged. They usually vary, however, in the degree to which they express a given concept.

8.7 Downtoners and Emphasizers

Words that are related in meaning may be positioned on a continuum according to the degree to which they express a given quality .

generous, bountiful, ample, scarce, plentiful, sufficient, ex­cessive, impoverished, adequate, lavish, deficient, sparse, skimpy, profuse, substantial, meagre, adequate, limited, abun­dant

If we want to strengthen or weaken a value word, we can choose an emphasizer to make it even stronger, or a downtoner to make it weaker.

b. Place the following sets of emphasizers on a continuum:

Emphasizers: certainly, definitely, fully, terribly, thoroughly, absolutely, completely, entirely, enormously, intensely, etc.

c. Place the following sets of downtoners on a continuum.

Downtoners: partly, almost, slightly, hardly, moderately, scarcely, possibly, quite, somewhat, rather, etc.. Combine words from a. and b. and a. and c. to illustrate the strengthening or weakening effect.

8.8 Place each of the following word sets on a scale as indicated . A scale of:

1. size — from small to large

huge, immense, microscopic, giant, minuscule, consider­able, gargantuan, titanic, mammoth, miniature, massive, dwarf-like, average, colossal, infinitesimal

2. probability — from improbable to likely

feasible, apt, likely, certain, definite, doubtful, conclusive, sure, impossible, decided, possible

3. frequency — from infrequent to frequent

often, seldom, occasionally, never, once in a while, eventu­ally, rarely, hardly ever, sometimes, hardly

4. quantity — from a little to a lot

much, many, few, hardly any, a mere few, a lot more than, most, a mere handful, the bulk of, the majority, massive amounts, some, several, a minority, not more than, somewhat less than, an infinite amount, countless, innumerable, num­berless

5. quality — from inferior to superior

excellent, shabby, precious, rare, poor, genuine, good, feeble, sophisticated, crude, fine, rough

6. development — from increasing to decreasing

magnify, enlarge, minimize, supplement, multiply, augment, swell, reduce, prolong, diminish, expand, extend, amplify, maximize, shrink, condense, contract, miniaturize

7. disagreement/agreement — from, disagreement to agree­ment

balance, accord, discord, concord, confluence, harmony, concurrence, unanimity, cooperation, disharmony, disunity, dis­sonance, congruence, consensus, dissent, dissention, controversy

8 helpfulness — from hidrance to help,

benefit, hindrance, impediment, prevention, support, aid, prophylactic, assistance, obstruction, restraint, restriction, fur­therance, repression, suppression, fosterage, sponsorship

9. achievement — from failure to success

attainment, failure, success, accomplishment, prosperity, fulfillment, realization, completion, perfection, consummation, triumph, breakdown, downfall, collapse, crash

8.9 Male/Female Words

While English is not considered a «gender» language in the sense that all words are specifically «marked» masculine or feminine, there are some words that are specifically masculine or feminine.

Place the following words in the appropriate column: «male», «female», or «unmarked». Indicate whether any of these words have any further specified meaning. (E.g. mullah — male [ in Islamic countries), title of respect for a person who is learned in, teaches or expounds the sacred law; ii. [in Turkey] a pro­vincial judge.)

queen

minister

mother

priest

child

politician

employee

adolescent

nurse

Esquire (Esq.)

Mrs.

actress

princess

director

lass

lad

soldier

waiter

chairman

astronaut

Ms.

spinster

master

stewardess

conductor

caliph

mistress

nun

ballerina

maiden

Mr.

bachelor

 

UNIT B: LANGUAGE OF RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS IN SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES (“Hedging”)

 

8.10 Hedging Words — the Language of Results and Con­clusions

8.10.1 Results and Conclusions:

The following statements have been taken from a psychol­ogy article reporting on an experiment set up to study the reactions of witnesses to an accident. Which of the statements reports a Result (R) of the experiment and which represents a Conclusion (C)? Is there a difference in the language of the reporting?

_ 1. It is not our impression that the non-responders had decided not to act. Rather, they were still in a state of non-decision.

_ 2. Subjects who had met the victim were faster to report his distress than other persons from sixperson groups.

_ 3. The groups ranked the same on speed as they did on response rate.

_ 4. Apparently the ability to visualize a specific distressed individual increases the likelihood of helping him.

_ 5. The situation created an avoidance-avoidance type conflict. On the one hand, subjects wanted to avoid guilt and shame for not helping; on the other hand, they wanted to avoid making fools of themselves by over-reacting.

_ 6. The behavior of other bystanders and the relationship among them seem to be important.

_ 7. A stranger who has been programmed not to react is the most inhibiting, a neutral stranger next; and a friend the least.

_ 8. Of those who heard the accident while alone in the waiting room, 70 percent offered to help the victim before she left the room.

8.10.2 Language of «Hedging»

Place the following words or expressions on a continuum from UNCERTAIN to CERTAIN

UNCERTAIN____________________________CERTAIN

                              1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

a. Undoubtedly...                              g. In our opinion...

b. It seems...                                     h. We may conclude that...

c. Surely...                                        i. It may be assumed that...

d. It may be that...                            j. The results are clearly...

e. I am not all that certain that...      k. Possibly...

f. It is not at all certain that...           l. this suggests that...

 

UNIT C: TERMS USED IN STUDY AND TEST SITUATIONS

8.11 Which of the terms in the following list expresses what each of the teachers has in mind?

identify; evaluate; draw a diagram of; review; enumerate; cause; compare; analysis; summarize; analyze; describe, out­line; list; justify; define.

1. A music teacher wants the class to show that they under­stand clearly the meaning of some special terms used in music

He would ask them to _________________ the term.

2. A literature instructor wants students to demonstrate their understanding of the similarities in two poems written at dif­ferent times and places. He would ask them to__________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________ the poems.

3. A political science teacher wants the class to give a sympat­hetic version of why the United States sent troops into a certain country. He would ask them to___________________________________the inva­sion.

4. Next, the students are expected to give an objective view of this same event. He would ask them to give the_____________________________________________ of the invasion.

5. Music students are expected to mention all the contribu­tions of jazz to modern music. They would be asked to ____________________________ these contributions.

6. A Shakespeare instructor wants students to present a clear picture of the construction of the Elizabethan stage. He would ask them to_________________________ the stage.

7. A history teacher wants the class to show that they know the main stages in the development of industrial power in En­gland. He would ask them to provide an___________________________________of these stages.

8. Students in an art class are assigned a painting by another member of the class; they must mention its strengths and weaknesses and decide whether or not it was successful. They would be asked to ___________ and to __________________________it.

9. A class in Spanish history is expected to present briefly an account of the development of Franco's political views. They would be asked to___________this development.

10. Students are given a list of names of people and places; they are expected to tell who or what these names represent. They would be asked to__________the items on the list.

11. A sociology teacher wants the class to give a thoughtful statement concerning the various aspects of the role of televi­sion in the lives of preschool children. He would ask them to provide an____________of the subject.

 

 SECTION IX

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

A writer frequently uses figurative language in order to ex­plain an idea: to explain a new idea in terms of an image or association with something familiar, or to make this idea more «colorful». One way to understand figurative language is to try to capture the qualities, properties or characteristics of the al­ready known image and relate what is relevant to the new idea.

Some frequent images that are used in figurative language are words related to,

i. Body parts

ii. Animals

iii. Light/Dark

iv. The Weather

v. The Military

1. Suggest what a writer wants to express by each of the following: the brow of a hill, the mouth of a river; the voice of the town; the heart of the matter; the sinews of war; the hands of time; to live from hand to mouth. Can you suggest any other such images related to body parts?

2. What do you think the writer means when he says: it's a dog's life; she's a snake, he's a pig; he's a mule; the month of March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb; I got it straight from the horse's mouth, you're being catty; she looks mousey; they're nothing but sheep!

3. What do you think the writer wants us to understand by each of the following expressions: to throw light on the matter; he wants to be shown in the best light possible; he's in the limelight now; it's an illuminating idea, what a brilliant piece of work! don't always be so gloomy; that was a dark day; The Age of Enlightenment; I see a brighter future; there are sunny prospects for the oil industry; the future looks bleak.

4. Examine the following statements, phrases or headlines and indicate what the writer wants to express when he says:

a. cutthroat competition

b. we're bending over backwards to please them.

c. The recovery of Fiat and VW follows a period when the economy has been ailing.

d. The strike fizzled out.

e. Ben and Jerry's (an ice cream firm) is getting fat on America's growing appetite for super-premium ice cream.

f. They planted $500,000 in seed money for the research.

g. The Conservatives routed the Labor party at the elections and Labor has been in retreat ever since.

5. Suggest other examples of figurative language that you have encountered in readings in this course. (See especially What Is A Historical Fact?, in Part IV.)

 

SECTION X

APPNDIX

 

UNIT 1: PREFIXES, STEMS, (ROOTS) SUFFIXES

A: PREFIXES

Prefix   Ab-, abs— (a-,an-)   ad-(ac-,af-, ag-,al-,ap- ar-,as-,at-) ambi- amphi- ana- ante- anti- arch- auto- bi- by- circum- con-(co-,col- corn-,cor-)

Usual Meaning   away from, without, lacking   to, toward     both around, on both sides back, again, out of before against first, chief self two, twice close, incidental around - with, together

Examples   Abnormal, abstract, abnegate, Amoral, Amazon, anonymous, Apathethic, aversion accede, adhere, aggressive, affix, allow, appeal, arrest, assert, attendance ambiguous, ambidextrous amphibious, amphitheatre anachronism anteroom, antediluvian antisemitic, antidemocratic archangel, archetypical autobiography, automatic bi-annual, bilateral, bisect by-law, byproduct circumvent, circumnavigate concede collaborate cooperate, combine, correlate

 

contra- counter- de- demi- di-, dia- dis-(di-)   dys- en- epi- equi- eu- ex- (e-) extra- hetero homo- hyper- hypo- in- (im-,ir-)   in-(il-, im-, ir-) inter intra-,intro- iso- macro-,magni- mal- micro-,mini- mid- mis- mono-, uni- multi-,poly- non- ob-(oc-,op-)   omni-, pan- para-   per- peri- post- pro-, prim- pro- pseudo- quadra-	against contrary down, do tne opposite half, lower two,through, between away from, fall to, (not) bad,abnormal make over, across,outside equal, same good out, from beyond, very other, different same, self homonym, above, excessive under, less than in, into, inside   not   between, among within, inside alike, equal large, great bad, wrong small middle, halfway bad, wrong single, one many not against, to all beside, for the purpose of through, completely around, surrounding after, behind first, before forward, before false, unreal four		Contradict counterproposal, countersue depress, depend, decentralize demigod, demitasse diameter, diagram, dichotomy   dismiss, digress, diversion dysfunction, dyslexia enable, enlarge epidemic, epidermis, epilogue equivalent, equilateral euthanasia, eugenic, euphoria exclude, emit, evasion extralegal, extraordinary heterosexual, heterogeneous homophon, homosexual hyperactive, hypertension hypodermic, hypo-allergenic indict, immerse, important institute, irradiate insecure, illegal, immoral, impure, irregular intervene, interpret intramural, introspection isometric, isolate macroeconomics, magnify malfunction, malpractice microscope, minimum midweek, midsection misdemeanor, mistake, monogamy, unilateral multipurpose, polygram nonsense object, obstruct, oppose observe, occur omniscient, panchromatic   parallel, paralegal, parasol perceive, perennial, perfect perimeter, peripheral postpone, postdoctorate preview, pcecedent, primary progress, procedure pseudonym, pseudoscientific quadrennial
quasi- re- retro se- semi-, hemi- soli- sub-(suf-, sug-,sup-,sus-, super-,supra- sur- (sue-) syn-, sym- tele- trans- tri- ultra- un-	as if, seemingly again, back backward away from half, partially only, single under, below, lower   above, greater, beyond over, on like far, long distance across three extreme, beyond not, opposite, reverse	quasi-judicial review, regard, reject, react retrogress, retroactive seclude, seduce, separate semiliterate, hemisphere solitude, soliloquy subordinate, suffer support, suspicion superimpose, superior surpass, surface, success synonym, sympathy telephone, television transport, transfer trilateral ultraconservative   undo, unlawful.

В: NUMERICAL PREFIXES USED IN MEASUREMENTS

 

 

C: QUANTITATIVE PREFIXES

 

Prefix Meaning   mon      one   un       one   bi two, twice,

Example of Use   monotone (single tone or key) monoxide (contains one oxygen atom per molecule) unicellular (one-celled) unilateral (one-sided) bicycle (two wheels)

double di du ter               three tri       tetr four   quadr a               without an            lacking heter       mixed   horn       similar               throughout hyper above, over,             excessive hypo less than,              below,             deficient is         equal,             same   micr small   poly       many,               much tel          distant, far

bifurcate (two branches, forked) dimorphic (in two forms) duplex (double, twofold) tertiary (third rank or stage) tripod (three-footed stand) tritium (hydrogen isotope with 3 nuclear particles). tetrachloride (four chlorine atoms) tetrahedron (solid with four faces) quadruped (four-footed animal) abiotic (without living organisms) anarchy (without government) heterogeneous (a mixture of kinds) heteromorph (exhibiting diversity of form) homogenized milk. homograft (tissue from a similar type) hypertoxic (excessively poisonous) hyperesthesia (unusually high sensitivity) hypodermic (below the skin) hypothyroid (thyroid insufficiency)   isosceles triangle (equal sides, equal angles) isomorphs (same shapes or forms) isothermal (equal temperatures) microscope (view of small things) microbiology (study of tiny living things) polychrome (many-colored) polynuclear (having many nuclei) telescope (distant view) television (seeing at a distance)

D: STEMS/ROOTS

 

Stem/Root	Usual Meaning	Examples
ag, act arch anim anthrop astro aud belli bene, bon biblio bio capit ced, cess cent chron corp cosmo cycl demo die, diet duce, duct erg, urg ethno fact, fict fed, fid fer fin fort gamy gen geo grad, gress gram, graph homo, human hydro ject jud locu,loqu mani, manu mem metr miss, mit mob, mot morph mort nom, nym   nov ology ortho pathy, pass	do, drive chief, leader life man stars listen, hear war good, well book life head, chief go, move hundred time body world circle, wheel people say, tell lead work race, nation do, make faith, trust carry end strong marriage become, produce earth step, go write man water throw Judge speak hand memory measure send move form, shape death name, law   new study of correct, traight felling,	agent, reaction anarchist, archetype animal, inanimate anthropology, misanthrope astrophysics, astronaut auditorium, inaudible rebel, belligerant benefit, bona fides bibliography, bibliophile biology, autobiography capital, capitulate proceed, excess century, bicentennial synchronize, anachronism habeas corpus, incorporate microcosm, cosmonaut tricycle, encyclopedia democratic, epidemic predict, dictator, indict conduct, deduce energy, ergometry, metallurgy ethnology, ethnographic manufacture, fiction confident, bona fide, federal transfer, differ, inference infinite, final fortify, reinforce monogamy, bigamy, polygamous generate, engender, genetics geology, geography, geometry gradual, congress, aggressive graphology, telegraph homicide, humanity, hominoid hydrology, anhydrous reject, interjection prejudice, subjudice elocution, circumloquacious manipulate, manufacture remember, memorial metrics, perimeter transmit, permit, dismiss motive, automobile amorphous, anthropomorphic post mortem, rigor mortis nominate, nomothetical, synonym, patronym novel, renovate psychology, penology orthodox, orthodontist

 

ped, pod pel, pulse pend philo phobe phone photo pone, pose   port press psycho rupt scribe,script sequ, secut simi solu, solv soph spec, spic struct tain, ten temper tend terre test   tract vene, vent ver vers, vert vid, vis vit, viv voc,vok voil, voiu xeno zoo
	suffering, disease foot push hang love fear sound light place, set in		sympathy, apathy, passionate biped, pedestrian expel, repulsive, impulse pendant, dependant philosophy, anglophile phobic, agoraphobia phonics, homophone, telephone photograph, photosynthesis
	place carry push mind break write follow like loosen, free wisdom look build, arrange hold time stretch earth swear, bear witness pull come true turn see life call roll, turn stranger animal		postpone, suppose, position transport, reporter depression, express psychometric, parapsychology interruption, disrupt prescription, describe sequence, consecutive similar, simulation dissolve, solution philosopher, sophisticated inspect, conspicuous destruction, construct maintain, detention, attend temporary, contemporary extend, tendency territory, terra sanctra   testify, attest contract, retraction convention, intervene verify, verisimilitude converse, reverse, divert visual, invisible, provide vivid, revive vocation, revoke, provocative evolution, revolve, revolt xenophobia, xenophile zoology, epizootic

 

 

SUFFIXES

E. Suffixes used to form (and sinify) the various parts of speech

 

Suffix	Formation	Examples
-able,-ible,-ble	adj from v	washable
-ance,-ence -ant,-ent -ate   -cy -dom -er -ful -fy (-ify) -ic, -ical -ish -ism -ist   -ive -ize -less -ly   -ment -ness -ous,-ious,-ose -ship -tion,-sion,-ation	n from v n and adj from v n and adj from n v from n or adj n from adj n from n or adj n from v adj from v or n v from n or adj adj from n adj from n or adj n from n or adj n or adj from n or adj adj from v v from adj adj from n adv from adj adj from n n from v n from adj adj from n n from n n from v	appearance expectant affectionate activate privacy kingdom, freedom dancer restful, eventful terrify, purify photographic; economical foolish; youngish heroism, socialism violinist; socialist   explosive modernize childless cleverly hourly government loudness dangerous membership examination

 

UNIT 2: REFERENCE WORDS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Reference words and abbreviations. Here are some of the more common abbreviations and reference words used in docu­mentation.

A.D. Anno Domini "in the year of the Lord". Proceeds numerals; often printed in small caps; no space between. Avoid using in references to centures.

anon.        anonymous

ante          "before" Cf. «supra»

art., arts.       article(s)

b.            bom Lat. «n.»; Ger. «geb.»

B.C. Before Christ. Follows numerals; often printed in small caps; no space between.

bibliog.        bibliography, -er, -ical

biog.          biography, -er, -ical

bk., bks. book(s). Note that this abbreviation (e.g., Bk. II of 2 bks.) saves but one character.

ca. (or c.) circa "about" Used with approximate dates, e.g.

ca.1776; «ca.» is preferable to «c.» whic can also mean "chap­ter" or "copyright."

 

cf. confer "compare" Never use»cf. «when «see» is intended. Ger. «vgl.»; Sp. «cfr.»

ch.,chs. (or chap., chaps.)        chapter(s)

col.,cols.      column(s)

соmр.       compiled, -er

d.             died Lat. «ob.»; Ger. «gest.»

diss.           dissertation

ed.,eds. (or edd.) editor(s), -ion(s), -ed by Some presses prefer «edn.» for «edition,» «ed.» for «editor.»

ed.cit. editio citata         "edition cited"

e.g. exempli gratia "for example". Rarely capitalized; no space between; preceded and followed by comma. Ger. «z.B.»

enl.           enlarged ( as in «rev. and enl. ed.»)

esp.           especially ( as in «pp. 248-263, esp p.251»)

et al. (never et als.) et alii "and others"

et seq., seqq. et sequens, sequentia "and the following" But cf. «f.,ff.»

etc. (rarely &c.) et cetera "and so forth". Avoid using in text. Ger. «usw.»

ex.,exs.,      (or exx.) example(s)

f.,ff. and the following (with a space, after a numeral) page(s) or line(s) But exact references are preferable, e.g., pp. 53-54 instead of pp.53f., pp.53-58 instead of pp. 53ff. (Some presses, e/g/, Harvard, prefer the style «53f» — omitting the period.)

fac. (or facsim.)      facsimile                                                                                                                                       

fasc.                        fascicle

fig., figs.                figure(s)

fl. floruit "flourished, reached greatest developement or in­fluence"

 

fn.      footnote Cf. '«n.»

fol.      (or fo.),f0oll. folio(s)

front,    frontispiece

hist. history, -ical, -ian

ibid. (sometimes ib.) ibidem "in the same place." i.e., the single title cited in the note immediately preceding. Not to be introduced by «in.» Ger. «ebd.»

idem (no period; sometimes id.) "the same" (person)

i.e. id est "that is" Rarely capitalized; no space between; preceded and followed by comma. Ger. «d.h.»

illus.     illustrated, -or, -ion(s)

infra (not inf.) "below" Cf. «post» and see «supra.» Since the English word has the same number of letters. The use of the Latin may be thought affectation. Many editors consider «see below (or above)» preferable, although others, particulary edi-tors of classical journals, warn that «above» and «below» can occasionally be mistaken for references to the physical position of objects in an illustration.

introd. introduction («by» understood in context)

1., 11. line(s) It is often advisable to indicate clearly in the margin that the letter 1 and not Arabic 1 or 11 is intended. Better still, spell it out or (for poetry) use «vs.»

lang., langs. language(s)

 

loc. cit. (not I.e.) loco citato "in the place (passage) cited," i.e., in the same passage referred to in a recent note. Never follow «loc. cit.» with a page number. Ger. «a.a.O.»

MS, MSS— manuscript(s) (as «the many MSS of Chaucer») But spell MS. with a period when referring to a specific manu­script, as «Bodleian MS. Tanner 43.»

n., nn. note(s) (as «p. 56, n. 3») Commonly used instead of «fn.»; occasionally spelled «p. 56n» (italicized, no period). Ger. «Am.»

N.B. nota bene "take notice, mark well"

n.d. no date, i.e., in a book's imprint Ger. «o.J.»; Fr. «s.d.» and Sp. «s.f.»

no., nos. number(s) Cf. «numb.»

n.p. no place, i.e., of publication Ger. «o.O.»; Fr. and Sp. «s.l.»

N.S. (or NS) New Series, New Style numb. numbered

op. cit. (not o.c.) opere citato "in the work cited" This is the most abused of scholarly abbreviations and many editors have expressed a wish to see it abandoned. Some journals and presses never use it. It is properly used in citing a passage on a different page (cf. «loc. cit.») of a work recently noted, but in such cases the author's name alone may suffice or his name and a short title may be clearer. Sp. «obra cit.»

O.S. (or OS) Old Series, Original Series, Old Style

p., pp. page(s) Avoid capitalizing: write «Pages» instead of «Pp.»; omit if volume numbers precedes. Ger. «S.»; Sp. «pag., pags.»

par., pars. paragraph(s)

passim "throughout the work, here and there" (as pp. 78, 113, et passim»)

 

per cent (no period)

philol. philological

philos. philosophical

pi., pis. plate(s)

post "after" Cf. «infra.»

pref. preface

pseud, pseudonym

pt.,pts. part(s) Note that this abbreviation saves but one character.

 

pub. (or publ.), pubs. published, -ication(s)

q.v. quod vide "which see"

r(superscribed, no period) recto "righthand page" But some journals require that this and «verso» never be abbreviated; a few, e.g., HLB, print B4r, instead of B4.

reg. registered

resp. respectively (as «pp. 56, 17, 89, 6 resp.»)

rev. review, -ed (by); revised (by), -ion

sc. scene Sp. «esc.»

scil. scilicet "namely, to wit"

sec. (or sect.), sees. section(s), §§

ser. series

sic "thus, so" Between square brackets when used as an editorial interpolation (see Sec. 13c); otherwise within paren­theses. Avoid using with an exclamation mark.

sig., sigs. (or sigg.) signature(s)

st. stanza

St. (or S.), SS. Saint(s) (fern. Ste.) See note 19.

sup. supra "above" See s.v. «infra» for comment.

s.v. sub verbo or voce "under the word or heading"

v. vide — "see"

viz. videlicet — "namely"

vol. vols. volume(s)

vs. versus — "against"

UNIT 3: VERBS FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES

A): verbs showing relationships

Contrast   Compare Contrast Differ distinguish vary

Arrangement   arrange balance classify divide list organize  separate

Cause and effect   effect cause develop invent originate produce result lead to

B: verbs of making statements

Information	representation	Demonstration
Announce Communicate Declare Disclose Expose mention refer (to) report, state	clarify contain, define depict, describe exhibit, explain include interpret portray represent	Conclude Determine Establish Learn Prove Verify
C: verbs expressing opinion
belief	agreement	Disagreement
appear assume believe claim consider imagine, presume realize recognize speculate, understand	accept acknowledge agree approve concur confirm	Argue Challenge Deny Disapprove Doubt Question
persuasion	prediction	Recommendation
convince force, incline induce influence, lead suggest, urge	anticipate await, expect forecast, predict	Advise ask, insist propose, recommend request, suggest, urge

UNIT 4: TERMS USED IN TEXT ANALYSIS

Nouns
analysis antecedent argument claim clarification comparison contrast detail fact function illustration phrase reason result statement
VERBS
analyze argue clarify compare contrast contradict contribute define demonstrate describe differentiate between distinguish between discuss emphasize enumerate evaluate examine exemplify explain express	identify illustrate imply infer mean mention negate oppose present prove provide quote reject review show state suggest summarize support trace

 

UNIT 5: THE UNIVERSITY WORD LIST

Language Learning and Communication

THE UNIVERSITY WORD LIST
A
abandon accelerate accurate adequate administer affect agitate allocate ambiguity annual appeal approach aristocrat aspiration asset assure attain automatic axis	abnormal access achieve adhere adolescent affiliate aid allude amorphous anomaly append appropriate arithmetic assemble assign astronomy attitude avail	absorb accompany acid adjacent advocate affluence alcohol ally analogy anonymous appendix approximate arouse assent assimilate atmosphere attribute averse	abstract accomplish acquire adjective adult aggregate align alter analyze anthropology appraise arbitrary ascribe assert assist atom auspices aware	academic accumulate adapt adjust aesthetic aggression allege alternative angular apparatus appreciate area aspect assess assume attach authorize awe
В
battery bore	benefit bread	biology bubble	bishop bulk	bomb bureaucracy
С
calendar carbon cease charter civic code collide commodity competence compound conceive condense conflict consent constant consume context contrary convention cord credible crucial cycle	cancel career cell chemical clarify coefficient colloquial commune complement comprehend concentrate conduct conform consequent constitute contact contingent contrast converge corporate creditor crystal cylinder	capable catalogue challenge circuit classic cogent column communicate complex comprise concentric confer confront conserve construct contaminate continent contribute converse correlate crisis culture	capillary category channel circulate client coincide comment compel comply compulsion concept configuration congress consist construe contemplate contract controversy cooperate correspond criterion cumbersome	capture cater chapter circumstance clinic collapse commit compensate component compute conclude confine conjunction console consult contend contradict convene coordinate create critic currency

 

D
dissolve diverge data defect deflect	distinct diverse debate defer degenerate	distort divine decade deficient degrade denote derive devise diffuse discrete dispute drama dynamic	distribute doctrine decimal define deliberate dense design devote digest dispense dissipate drastic	district domestic dedicate definite democracy deny detect diagram dimension disperse   drug
demonstrate        denominator
depress detriment diameter discern displace dominate duke	deprive deviate dictate discourse dispose drain duration
E
economy element emancipate emphasize enlighten environment equipment estimate	edit elevate embody empirical enrich episode equivalent ethics	efficient elicit embrace enable ensure equate en- evaluate	elaborate eliminate emerge energy entity equidistant establish evaporate	electron eloquent emotion enhance enumerate equilibrium estate evident

 

eventual exert explicit external

evoke exhaust exploit extract

evolve expand exponent

Exclude expel export

execute expert expose

F

facilitate fate final fluent formulate fragment frustrate fund

faction feasible finance fluid fort fraternal fuel fuse

factor feature finite focus fossil fraud fulfil

fallacy federal fleet foetus found friction function

fare fertile fluctuate forego fraction frontier fundamental

G

generate goal guarantee

genuine grant

geography graph

geometry gratuity

germ gravity

H

harbour homogeneous

hero horror

hemisphere  hostile

heredity huge

hierarchy hypothesis

I

identical image imply incentive incompatible  indigenous inflation injure instance integrate interlude intersect intrinsic investigate issue

identify  impact import incessant inconsistent individual  ingenious innate instinct intelligent intermediate interval intuitive invoke item

ignore imperial impose incident incorporate induce inherent innovation institute intense internal interview invade involve

Illuminate implement impress incline index infer inhibit insist instruct interact interpret intervene inverse irrigate

illustrate implicit impulse income indicate inferior initial inspect integer interlock interrelate intimacy invest isolate

J

job

journal

judicial                       justify

К

kindred

knight

L

label league leisure litigate luxury

laboratory lecture lens locate

labour legal liable locomotion

Launch Legislate Liberate Logic

layer legitimate linguistic lustre

M

magic manifest mathematics metabolism military mobile monarch myth

magnetic manipulate matrix metaphor minimum modify moral

magnitude margin mature method minor moist morphology

Major Material Maximum Microscope Miracle Molecule Motive

maintain maternal median migrate mistress momentum muscle

N

navy neutral novel

negative niche nuclear

negotiate norm null

Nerve Notate Nutrient

network notion

O

objective occupy orbit oxygen

oblige occur orientate

obsolescent odd oscillate

Obtain Odour Outcome

obvious option overlap

P

parenthesis peasant perpetrate pervade physical pole portion precede premise previous proceed project prosper psychology

parliament penal perpetual pest pine policy positive precipitate preposition prime process propagate protest publish

participate pendulum persist phase planet pollution postulate precise prestige prince proclaim propensity province pursue

partisan period perspective phenomena plead pope potential predict presume principle procure proportion provoke

passive perpendicular pertinent philosophy plot pore pragmatic preliminary prevail priority prohibit proprietor prudence

Q

quote

R

radical rational reform reject remove require resource retain revise rigid rudimentary

radius reacit refute release render research respective retard revive rigour rural

random rebel region relevance repress reservoir respond reveal revolt role

Range Rectectangle Reign Reluctant Reproduce Resident Restore Reverberate Revolve Rotate

ratio recur reinforce rely repudiate residue restrict reverse rhythm route

 

S
saint schedule secure series sift skeleton source speculate stationary stipulate subdivide subsidize superficial supreme switch	sanction scheme seek sex signify sketch spatial sphere statistic strata subjective subtle superimpose surplus symbol	satellite score segment shift site sociology species spontaneous status stress subordinate suffice superior survey symptom	Saturate Secrete Select Shrink Similar Solar Specify Stable Stereotype Structure Subsequent Sum Supplement Suspend Synthetic	scalar section sequence sibling simultaneous sophisticate spectrum starve stimulate style subside summary suppres sustain
Т
tangent technique tentative text theory tone tradition transform treaty tropical	tangible technology terminology texture thermal topic traffic transit trend tyre	tape telescope territory theft tiny torture trait transmit triangle	Task Temperary Terror Theism Tissue Trace Transact Transparent Trivial	team tense testify theorem tolerate tractor transfer transport troop
U
ultimate uniform utter	undergo upsurge	underlie urban	Undertake Usage	unduly utilize
V
vague velocity vibrate vital	valid verbal violate vocabulary	vary verify virtual volt	Vast Version Visible Volume	vein vertical visual voluntary
W
withdraw
X
x-ray

 

 

PART II

AN APPROACH TO READING

 

SECTION I

INTRODUCTION TO AN APPROACH TO READING

 

 

UNIT 1. VARIETIES OF MEANING

1. CONCEPTUAL MEANING

This is the kind of meaning that may be embodied in a single word, or a part of a word, or in a complete text made up of many words organized in the form of a discourse. Single words can embody simple concepts, or notions (e.g., «water») as well as the more complex variety (e.g., «intelligence»). Some­times, however, an entire book may be written just to explain a single complex concept such as intelligence. Units even smaller than a word can also embody a simple concept (e.g., the En­glish suffix -s, which expresses the concept of plurality).

2. PROPOSITIONAL MEANING

This is the kind of meaning that can be embodied in a clause or sentence on its own (i.e., without any other context). A word on its own has a propositional meaning, or truth value. For example, the word «intelligence» is not in itself either true or false. But if we embody it in a sentence such as -

Intelligence can be measured

we can support or deny the resulting proposition: we can assert that it is either true or false and try to prove this.

Some sentences, however, have little or no meaning unless embodied in a broader context. For example,

Nevertheless, he did it again.

 

We have little idea of what the significance of «Nevertheless» might be without the preceding context. Nor do we know who «he» is, or what he «did again.» Such sentences are dependent upon the broader context for their meaning.

3. CONTEXTUAL MEANING

This is the meaning a sentence takes on when it is embod­ied within a broader context. For example, the proposition

Intelligence cannot be measured by a test

is a generalization which tells us nothing about the attitude of the person who wrote it or why he bothered to write it. But within a broader context such as -

We must not use the results of IQ tests to determine whether or not a child should be allowed to continue his studies beyond high school. Intelligence cannot be measured by a test.

The generalization takes on the special function of explaining or justifying the preceding sentence.

4. PRAGMATIC MEANING

This is the meaning a sentence takes on when it is part of an interaction between a writer and a reader. It reflects the writer's feelings and attitudes as well as his intention that the reader should understand what these are. It also includes an intended effect - the effect that the writer intends his sentence to have upon the reader.

Consider, for example, the following:

Intelligence cannot be measured by a test. And yet we constantly use the results of I.Q. tests to deter­mine whether or not a child should be allowed to continue his studies beyond a certain level. How long are we going to go on perpetrating this iniquitous practice?

The last sentence, although phrased as a question, actually serves to emphasize the writer's outrage and to make clear his intention to get his reader to cooperate with him in doing something about the «iniquitous practice.»

Exercise:

For each of the following sentences provide a set of differ­ent contexts with different pragmatic meanings.

EXAMPLE: So of course you believed him.

a. Everyone knew he was the world's biggest liar. So of course you believed him. You obviously enjoy be­ing made a fool of!

b. After all, he never lied before. So of course you believed him. I would have done the same under those circumstances.

1.I never saw anything like it.        4. I could do with some fresh air.

2.I wonder how he managed.         5. Don't let me rush you.

3. Nothing ever came of it.             6. Don't worry about me.

 

UNIT 2. WHAT THE WRITER MEANS

I. WHAT THE WRITER MEANS

(AND WHAT HE ASSUMES THE READER ALREADY KNOWS)

Writers often assume some degree of prior knowledge of their subject on the part of their readers. Not having to spell out every single detail (i.e., assuming that the reader already knows certain details) makes it possible for the writer to get his message across more quickly and effectively.

Consider the following:

Text A:

The policeman held up his hand and stopped the car.

We understand what the writer of this sentence means be­cause we know more than what the words mean.

* What does the writer assume that we already know about traffic signals and how cars stop and go (before we even begin to read his sentence)?

Text B:

Mary heard the ice-cream man coming down the street. She remembered her birthday money and rushed into the house.

* How do you suppose Mary was able to hear the ice-cream man coming? (What detail didn't the writer bother giving us because he assumed we already knew?)

* What connection does the writer assume we will easily make between what Mary hears and what she does? (Is there anything in the sentences that helps us make the connection? To what extent do we have to depend upon what we already know about the situation from our own experience?)

II. IMPLICATION (WHAT THE WRITER ASSUMES HIS READER WILL INFER)

Writers often reveal what they have to tell us indirectly. The information is implied, rather than directly (explicitly) stated, so that we have to do some «work» before we can understand the message. The «work» that we have to do is called «infer­ring»: we «infer» the meaning that the writer «implies», or reveals indirectly (implicitly). Another way of saying this is: We make inferences (by inferring) about the writer's implica­tions (whatever he implies).

Text C:

Business had been slow since the stock market crash. No­body seemed to want anything really elegant anymore. Sud­denly the door opened and a well-dressed man entered the showroom. With a sigh of relief, John put on his friendliest smile and walked confidently towards him.

* What is John's occupation and how do we know this?

 

* John assumes that the well-dressed man has a particular purpose in entering the showroom. What does he think the man has in mind, and how do we know this?

* What has John probably inferred from the way the man is dressed that explains why he sighed with relief and walked confidently toward him?

* What can we infer about the sort of things that were on display in the showroom? On what basis can we make this inference?

Text D:

(1) Jill came bouncing down the stairs.

(1') Harry rushed off to get the doctor.

Most readers would interpret this in terms of Jill falling down the stairs and injuring herself, and as a result of this Harry calling a doctor. Notice how different the interpretation is when (1) is followed by a slightly different sentence:

(1)   Jill came bouncing down the stairs.

(1") Harry rushed over to kiss her.

* Now what would most readers infer about the meaning of the first sentence?

III. THE ROLE OF CONTEXT IN CLARIFYING AMBIGUITIES

Often what the writer means by a given statement depends to some extent upon the context within which the statement (or written sentence) appears. Out of context, certain sentences become highly ambiguous (open to various interpretations). Consider the following:

 

Visiting professors can be boring.

The lamb was too hot to eat.

Out of cotext, these sentences are ambiguous and the mes­sage is unclear.

* Place each of the above sentences in different clarifying contexts (by adding other sentences before or after them).

example: I don't think you'll enjoy the lecture. Visiting professors can be boring.

 

SECTION II

DEALING WITH SENTENCE

 

UNIT 1. EXERCISES ON SENTENCE PATTERNS*

 

(Before doing these exercises, read carefully through Unit 2 of Appendix [Section V of Part II] for a full presentation of the nine simple sentence patterns).

I. SIMPLE SENTENCES

Listed below are the simple sentence patterns in review:

Pattern 1 (Noun + Verb): The man teaches.

Pattern 2 (Noun + Verb + Adverb or Prepositional Phrase): My brother works in a factory.

Pattern 3 (Noun + Verb + Noun): That Professor teaches English.

Pattern 4 (Noun + Verb + Noun + Noun): The man teaches the boys English.

Pattern 5 (Noun + Verb + Noun + Adjective or Noun): That man called the teacher a genius.

Pattern 6 (Noun + LV (linking verb) + Noun): The man is a teacher.

Pattern 7 (Noun + LV + Adjective, Adverb or Preposi­tional Phrase): That man is intelligent.

Pattern 8 (There + LV + Noun + Adverb or Prepositional Phrase): There is a teacher in the classroom.

Pattern 9 (It + LV + Adjective, Adverb, Noun, or Preposi­tional Phrase): It is morning.

 

Exercise:

Analyze each of the following sentences. Identify each one by its sentence pattern number. List the sentence elements that make up the pattern. Underline and identify the subjects, predicates and complements you find in the sentences. Look out for compound subjects and compound predicates.

Example: Perhaps you wear a watch.

                      (Pattern 3. Noun + Verb + Noun)

(1) There was always a great need to tell the time.

(2) It was important.

(3) Early man used the sun and marked shadows of trees.

(4) Perhaps the shadow was short. Noon was near.

(5) Such clocks were satisfactory for a number of years.

(6) Then some clever person gave us the sundial.

(7) A sundial works fine on sunny days. But some days are dark and cloudy.

(8) Another inventor developed the water clock.

(9) In it, water ran from one vessel to another.

(10) The amount of water indicated the time.

(11) A modern hourglass is similar to the old water clock.

(12) Sand instead of water flows through an hourglass. But the principle is the same.

(13) Alfred the Great of England invented another method.

(14) Alfred's method was a candle with markings on it.

(15) The candle burned. Its markings indicated the time.

(16) In the fourteenth century, a German invented a clock.

(17) It contained many of the parts of a modern clock.

(18) Historians should consider that Germen were one of the greatest contributors to our civilization.

(19) He made possible our watches of today.

(20) We owe him recognition.

II. EXPANDED SIMPLE SENTENCES

Below is a review of the Expanded Simple Sentence Pat­terns:*

 

Pattern l (Noun + Verb )

         (Subject + Verb)

Example: The man teaches.

The tall man over there usually teaches every day at my school.

Pattern 2 (Noun + Verb + Adverb/Prepositional Phrase)

                    (Subj. + Verb + Complement)

Example: My brother works in a factory

My hopelessly lazy brother grudgingly works in a modern, well-designed, and well-managed shoe factory.

Pattern 3 (Noun + Verb + Noun)

(Subj. + Verb + DO [Direct Object])

Example: That professor teaches English.

That famous British professor brilliantly taught Shakespearean English last term.

Pattern 4 (Noun + Verb + Noun + Noun )

(Subj. + Verb + 10 (indirect object) + DO)

Example: That man teaches the boys English.

Year after year, a quiet, patient American man dutifully teaches my boys very useful English.

     Pattern 5 (Noun + Verb + Noun/Adjective)

(Subj. + Verb + Object + Object Complement)

Example: That man called the teacher a genius.

An unbelievably ignorant man just called our teacher a true genius!

Pattern 6 (Noun + LV (linking verb) + Noun)

(Subject + LV + Complement)

Example: The man is a teacher.

The talkative man in the corridor is a wellknown geography teacher.

 

Pattern 7 (Noun + LV + Adjective/Adverb/Prepositional Phrase)

               (Subj. + LV + Complement)

Example: That man is intelligent.

All bald-headed men are always very intelligent.

Pattern 8 (There + LV + Noun + Adverb/Prepositional Phrase)

           (There + LV + Subject + Complement)

Example: There is a teacher in the classroom.

There is an angry teacher in the noisy classroom.

Pattern 9 (It + LV + Complement)

(It + LV + Adjective/Adverb/Prepositional Phrase)

Example: It is morning.

It is a cold, rainy morning in March.

Exercise:

Text A:

I walk to work. I take my lunch and a thermos of coffee. I walk through the streets enjoying the air and the sights and sounds. The city is waking up. A boy is setting up his shoe-shine stand. A man is delivering lettuce to a grocery store. I see a friend. He is waiting for a taxi. I stop for a chat. Then I go on. I walk to work. I do not take taxis. Walking makes me happy. It keeps me healthy.

Below is an expanded version of the preceding paragraph. Tense, number, and one verb have been changed, and modifi­ers have been added. The subject has also been changed.

Text A’:

John walked to work. He took a thermos of hot coffee and a delicious lunch in a paper bag. He walked slowly, enjoying the cool, early-morning air and the sights and sounds of the streets. The big, noisy, turbulent city was rapidly waking up. An energetic little boy was setting up his battered shoe-shine stand in front of a hotel entrance. A delivery man dressed in a white uniform was busily slapping down cartons of lettuce on the sidewalk in front of a gro­cery store. John saw a friend waiting for a taxi. He stopped briefly for a short chat. John usually walked to work. He almost never took taxis. Walking made him happy. It also kept him healthy.

 

Text B:

It is summer. The days are long and hot. Children are out of school. They do not go to scout meetings or to music les­sons. They swim and read. They telephone their friends. They play tennis. Whole families go on vacation. There is fun in winter also. But there is more work. Teachers give their stu­dents long assignments. Parents keep busy. There is little time for play. Everyone takes a rest in summer. Summer gives the family change and relaxation. It makes everyone happy.

Rewrite Text B. Change the verb tenses for variety. Change the subject, if possible. Expand each subject and predicate by the use of as many modifiers as possible without distorting natural word order. Do not combine sentences.

III. COMPOUND SENTENCES*

Exercises:

A.

Underline the coordinate conjunctions* in the following paragraph. Identify the sentences or the sentence parts that are joined by the conjunctions.

 

John is sixteen years old, and he is a junior in high school. He is interested in physics and in baseball. He is a good stu­dent, but he finds time to go to the teen club on Friday nights and to keep up with the latest popular songs. He has never seen many of the things his parents grew up with. He has no idea how butter is made nor what veal is. Vegetables and fruits are brought home from the supermarket in bags and packages; he wouldn't know the difference between a potato plant and a plum tree. His parents are always a little shocked to realize these facts. They know he has not lived through a Great De­pression or a World War, but they usually expect him to un­derstand and adopt their attitudes and values. They are some­times surprised by his failure to do so, and they have to try very hard to see the world through his eyes.

 

В.

Underline the correlative conjunctions* (either or; nei­ther nor; not only, but also; both, and) in the following paragraph. Identify the sentences or the sentence parts that are joined by the conjuctions.

 

Thirty years ago people knew about neither spaceships nor astronauts. They were fascinated with a machine called the automobile, and they were nervous about flying in airplanes. Gradually both automobiles and airplanes became common­place. The coming of jets caused a small sensation, but soon people were used to them, too. Today, we are accustomed, not only to satellites being launched from the earth and put into orbit, but also to having men spend several days in space. We now expect man to go to the moon. Parents of the past wooried about airplanes. Parents of today may either have to accept space travel for their children or make themselves and their children unhappy.

C.

Underline the sentence connectors* in the following para­graph. Identify the sentences that are joined by the connec­tors.

Tonight we saw a light moving quickly across the sky. It looked like a star; however it was moving much too fast for a star. It left no trail of fire behind it; therefore, it could not be a comet or a meteor. It was too fat and too high to be an airplane; besides, there was only one speck of light, and it was steady and unblinking. We thought it might be an orbiting satellite, yet there was no space flight in the news. Maybe the morning papers would clear up the mystery; meanwhile, the light disappeared from sight in the distance. On the opposite side of the sky, we discovered a beautiful, brilliantly orange moon, partly hidden by the trees. It looked familiar and reas­suring; the smile on its face, however, was as inscrutable as ever.

 

D.

Rewrite the following paragraph. Provide the missing words and combine each set into one sentence, watching the sense of the story to produce a logical paragraph. You will have to change the word order to question word-order (i.e., by putting the verb, or the helping verb, before the subject) in some sentences (nos. 4, and 6).

(1) (but) A beekeeper brought twenty ferocious African queen bees to South America. He made a terrible mistake.

(2) (and) He thought they would mix with his tame bees. A better breed would be produced.

(3) (either ... or) They killed the tame bees. The result of their interbreeding produced killer bees.

(4) (neither ... nor) The bees could (not) be handled safely. Their honey could (not) be harvested.

(5) (for) They ran wild and increased in number. They were dangerous to control.

(6) (not only ... but also) These bees invaded the cities. They stung anything they could find when attempts were made to kill them.

(7) (both... and, so, or) Animals were killed by them. People were killed by them. They all had to be destroyed somehow. The cities would not safe.

(8) (for, and, but) The price of honey rose 400%. It was difficult to extract. Entomologists were faced with a serious problem. They eventually found means of solving it.

 

IV. COMPLEX SENTENCES*

 

Exercises:

1. Do the following exercises for practice in identifying noun clauses.

A.Underline the noun clauses in the following sentences.

Tell the function of each noun clause, whether it is used as subject, direct object, indirect object, object  of preposi­tion, appositive, or subject complement.

Examples:

Why a good vocabulary is important is obvious. (Sub­ject) The reason is that words carry thought. (Subject complement.)

One should learn how words are built. (Direct Object)

Skills give whoever masters them help. (Indirect Object)

A search for whatever clues are given may unlock a defi­nition. (Object of a preposition)

The fact that strange words slow our reading is evident. (Appositive)

 

(2) Those businessmen are interested in facts.

(3) Companies are requiring that their chief officers take special courses.

(4) They give whoever needs help free courses.

(5) The reason is that good readers help a company.

(6) The fact that skills can be learned rapidly encourages us.

B. Combine the sentences in each group below to form one sentence containing a noun clause. Write the resulting ten sentences as a paragraph.

(1) Poetry is difficult for some readers. It is a fact.

(2) They forget this. Poetry is natural for children.

(3) Most poetry must be read slowly. This is true.

(4) One reason is this. A few words suggest big ideas.

(5) Words are placed in unusual order. That is another reason.

(6) This fact is obvious. Poets use words figuratively.

(7) Who has an imagination? Poets give word pictures. (who­ever)

(8) One must think about this. What do the words suggest?

(9) Does poetry give rewards? Who reads it? (whoever)

(10) We know this. It contains many of man's noblest thoughts.

2. Combine the pairs of sentences below, using adjective clauses.

(1) Johnny had the right idea. You have just heard about him.

(2) An African elephant will measure over eleven feet high. It is full grown.

(3) P.T. Barnum was a great shownam. His circus elephant became world famous.

(4) The elephant was over ten feet high. Barnum owned it.

(5) The weight was twelve thousand pounds. It was normal.

(6) An elephant's trunk weighs three hundred pounds. It is about six feet long.

(7) We have to admire little Johnny. He answered so wisely.

(8) The elephants could not be lost. He had seen them.

3. Practice identifying adverbial clauses. Underline the ad­verbial clauses in these sentences. Tell which word in the sen­tence is modified by the clause.

(1) Many pioneers struggled as many other heroes have struggled.

(2) Danger lurked wherever they looked.

(3) If Indians attacked, everyone fought.

(4) When sickness came, families cooperated.

(5) Although hardships increased, people continued.

(6) Pioneers struggled because dreams survived.

(7) As time passed, life improved.

4. Rewrite the following pairs of sentences to make one complex sentence. Use adverb clauses.

 

Example: John will attend a technical college.
		He wants to be an engineer. John will at­tend a technical college so that he can be an engineer.
(1) (although)		John is only sixteen. He has already entered a university.
(2) (because)		He studied hard in high school. He wanted to be accepted by a good uni­versity.
(3) (as if)		He always conducted himself properly. He was older than his years.
(4) (since)		His family lived a long way from an university. He had to move to a strange city.
(5) (when)		He reached the university. Classes had not yet started.
(6) (while)		He was searching for a place to live. He met a foreign student.
(7) (after)		The two boys became acquainted. They decided to share a room.
(8) (unless)		They planned their expenditures carefully. They would not have enough money.
(9) (before)		They looked for a room. The two friends consulted the Dean.
5. Complete each of the following sentences with a noun by one of the subordinators given.
Who what Whose that	what for where why s kind		how how many when	how old    how far whether whom how much how soon

 

(1) John wondered ________.

(2) Mary told me _______.

(3) Jane said _______.

(4) The strangers inquired about _______.

(5) The teacher didn't explain _______.

(6) _____ is certain.

(7) Please ask Mr. Jones _______.

(8) We must remember _______.

(9) We must nevet forget _______.

(10) We argued about _______.

(11) I cannot agree with ______.

(12) Ted wants to do ______.

(13) Carl's mother wants to know _______.

(14) ______ should not be tolerated.

(15) Please give James Lee _______.

(16) The fact is ______.

(17) We asked the teacher _______.

(18) Believing _______, I will vote for him.

(19) Martha doesn't believe _____.

(20) It has been proved _______.

(21) Knowing ______, Mrs. Kelly will arrive early.

(22) The company will give ______ a prize.

(23) _______ was very amusing.

(24) ______ is a secret.

(25) Considering ____, I think I would like to know her.

6. Combine the following pairs of sentences. You may use coordinating conjunctions to make them compound, or rela­tive pronouns or subordinating conjunctions to make them complex. Rewrite the sentences to form a paragraph.

(1) Giraffes are curious creatures. Everyone finds them fas­cinating.

(2) Their coloring is interesting. Their long necks amaze us.

(3) They enjoy life. They have interesting experiences.

(4) The giraffe's neck is a watchtower. The animal's fine vision and sense of smell constitute additional protection.

(5) Curiosity and poor judgment lead the giraffe into dan­gerous situations. Often they result in its death.

(6) These animals stand beside a tree. They eat the top leaves.

(7) Their eating manners are excellent. They drink in an awkward fashion.

(8) Their long legs and neck present a problem. The ani­mals have learned a good method.

(9) They stretch their legs far apart. They lower their heads.

(10) The giraffe is fortunate. This strange animal can go without water for several days.

(11) It must feel safe at a water hole. Sometimes the giraffe will remain thirsty.

(12) With its head down to drink, it cannot see. This may be very dangerous.

 

UNIT 2. COMPLEX. SIMPLE. COMPLEX *

 

Exercise:

Rewrite each of the complex sentences in Text A below as a series of simple sentences, each making a single point.

Combine the important ideas in your set of simple sen­tences into a single complex sentence of no more than 30 words.

Text A:

[1] Ever since the telly(l) came to claim pride of place in every parlour, prophets of doom have described the corruption of the soul and emasculation(2) of the mind bound to result from exposure to the sights and sounds churned out by the networks.

[2] Youth has been named as the prime victim of the persuaders, although I for one, far from fearing for the mental welfare of the modern young, envy them their painless access to vivid information about the world in which they are growing up.

[3] I suspect that television, by preparing young minds for the vagaries(3) of mankind, has made the business of cutting apron strings and launching into independence far less trau­matic than it was when I was a girl.

(1) telly -television (British English: informal).

(2) emasculation — the process of weakening something: depriving it of its strength and effectiveness.

(3) vagaries — wild or unexpected ideas or actions.

 

UNIT 3. REGISTER

By «register» we mean the words, style and grammar used by writers (and speakers) in a particular condition. Official docu­ments, for example, are written in a formal register (i.e., an elevated style). So are academic articles. A personal note to a friend is usually written in an informal register (i.e., a colloquial style, suitable for ordinary, or familiar communication: e.g., «You're nuts» is the colloquial equivalent of «You are insane»).

Members of certain professional groups tend to communi­cate with each other in a jargon (i.e., a language including words and expressions known mainly or exclusively to fellow members of their profession). Other groups of people differen­tiate between themselves and others by creating their own slang or argot (a style of expressing themselves and a vocabulary peculiar to members of a particular group: e.g., the slang of teenagers, or the argot of criminals).

Writers of popular articles often use a mixed register -i.e., they use both formal and informal language in order to make their writing more lively and/or amusing.

3.1 Reread Text A in Unit 2 above. Consider especially the underlined words and phrases.

A.    How would you describe the register of Text A?

B.     What type of article do you think this excerpt (Text A) was taken from? (Could it be part of: a literary essay? a chapter of a textbook? a popular essay written by a newspa­per columnist?

        C. Read Carr's «What is a Historical Fact?» in Part IV.

In what register was that essay written? Where was it pub­lished? Is Carr a «popular» writer? Why do you imagine he might have chosen to write in the style that he did?

 

UNIT 4. USING RELATIVE PRONOUNS TO FORM COMPLEX SENTENCE *

 

4.1 Combine the following sets of simple sentences to form complex sentences, substituting the relative pronouns «who», «which», «that», or «whose» for the repeated nouns and noun phrases.

1. a. There are certain historians.

b. The historians have been arguing against Carr's ideas.

c. The ideas have not been accepted by many of his colleagues.

2. a. There are certain historians.

b. The historians have been arguing against Carr.

c. Carr's ideas have not been accepted by many of his colleagues.

3. a. In the past few years we have seen the publishers of a book/ acquitted by the high court.

b. The book was considered unpublishable 30 years ago on moral grounds.

c. The fact (of the publisher's having been acquitted) can only be attributed to a sharp change in public opinion.

UNIT 5. STRUCTURES WITH OMISSION *

 

A good writer will make his sentences more concise (i.e. shorter and clearer) by using various structures of omission. These include:

1. Coordination

a. Not only classical, but popular art is being seriously studied these days. [Classical art is being seriously studied these days; popular art is, (too).]

b. Either West Germany or Holland will win the World Cup. [West Germany will win the World Cup or (else) Holland will do so.]

c. John washes and irons his own shirts. [John washes his own shirts; he irons them (too).]

d. Peter cut himself a slice of bread and cheese. [Peter cut himself a slice of bread; he (also) cut himself some cheese.]

e. He ate the fruit, though not the nuts. [He ate the fruit; though he did not eat the nuts.]

2. Non-finite clauses

(to-infinitive clause: -ing clause; -ed clause)

a. to-infinitive clause

I hope to be present

[I hope that I shall be present].

b. -ing clause

Living in the country, we had few social visits.

[Since we lived in the country, we had few social visits.]

c. -ed clause

The man injured by the bullet was taken to the hospital. [The man who was injured by the bullet was taken to the hospital.]

3. Non-finite clauses introduced by a subordinator

a. -ing clause

He wrote his novel while working as a research assistant.

[.... while he was working ...]

 

b. -ed clause

Though defeated, he remained a popular leader.

[Though he had been defeated, ....]

4. Verbless clauses (having no verb, and usually no subject)                                                                                                      a. Whether right or wrong, he usually wins the argument.

   [Whether he is right or wrong, ....]

b. A man of few words, George says what he has to say in a few minutes.

[Being a man of few words, ....]

3.1 Make the following sentences more concise by using one of the above structures of omission. The words which can be omitted have been underlined).

1. Tonight we are flying to Athens and next week we are flying to London.

2. He was determined that he would be the one that they chose.

3. Because she wanted to look well, she decided to diet.

4. He was sickened by the thought of so much waste and he decided that he would do something about it.

5. I came into the room and I found him waiting for me.

UNIT 6. THE USES OF PUNCTUATION *

 

Check the sentence that answers the question:

1. How do we know that Peter has unusual powers of per­suasion?

a. Peter left him, convinced he was a fool.

b. Peter left him convinced he was a fool.

 

2. In which case will there be three people in the car?

a. Julia, Barbara and I will drive to Oxford tomorrow.                                               

b. Julia Barbara and I will drive to Oxford tomorrow.

 

3. Which speaker has a brother named John?

a. Give this letter to my brother John and wait for an an­swer.

b. Give this letter to my brother, John, and wait for an answer.

4. Which sentence describes a monster?                                                                                                                                    a. Jim saw the man-eating fish.                                                                                                                               b. Jim saw the man eating fish.

5. Which is more flattering to Mrs. Sandford?                                                                                                                         a. Mrs. Sandford is a pretty generous woman.                                                                                                    b. Mrs. Sandford is a pretty, generous woman.

6. Which tells us that it pays to keep cool?

a. He remained calm, cool and collected.

b. He remained calm and cool — and collected.

7. Which tells us that the plan worked out in some unex­pected way?

a. The plan didn't work out, as we had anticipated.                                                                                                                             b. The plan didn't work out as we had anticipated.

8. Which suggests that I have more than one sister?                                                                                                         a. I rang up my sister who lives in Boston.                                                                                                                      b. I rang up my sister, who lives in Boston.

9. Which would explain my terrible singing style?                                                                                                    a. I sang the song as he told me to.                                                                                                                                  b. I sang the song, as he told me to.

10. Which suggests that we had some other reason for doing what we did?

a. We didn't do it because we wanted to see if he would cry.                                                                                                 b. We didn't do it, because we wanted to see if he would cry.

 

UNIT 7. DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN SIMILAR SENTENCES

Exercise: Paraphrase each of the following sentences (i.e., state the sense of each sentence using different words).

1. He was used to getting up early.                                                                                                                He used to get up early.

2. After an exhausting search they found the missing children.                                                                                         After an exhaustive search they found the missing children.

3. I have made few friends, but I enjoy living here.                                                                                                    I have made a few friends, so I enjoy living here.

4. I have heard nothing of him for a very long time.                                                                                                                                I have heard nothing from him for a very long time.

5. I regret to say that you'll be held responsible.                                                                                                   I regret saying that you'll be held responsible.

6. Did you read his last great novel?                                                                                                 Did you read his great last novel?

7. She didn't marry just because he was rich.                                                                                                  She didn't marry just because he was rich.

<a> just — precisely, or exactly

<b> just — only, or merely

8. She saved him a seat.                                                                                                              She saved him a phone call.

<a> saved — to reserve, set apart.

<b> saved — to prevent the necessity of something.

9. Did you remember to look for the book?                                                                                                                   Do you remember looking for the book?

 

10. John stopped to explain about his illness.

John stopped explaining about his illness.

11. The driver forgot to put gas in the car.                                                                                                   The driver forgot putting gas in the car.

12. I regret to say that you'll be held responsible.                                                                                                I regret saying that you'll be held responsible.

13. Did you know that John has agreed?                                                                                                    Do you know whether John has agreed?

14. Has he told you that they passed the exam?                                                                                                                 Has he told you whether they passed the exam?

15. I don't doubt that he will cooperate.                                                                                                              I doubt whether he will cooperate.

16.The rebels' defeat of the army was an exciting event.                                                                                                 The rebels' defeat by the army was an exciting event.

17. The young man's discovery was never even mentioned.                                                                                         The discovery of the young man was never even mentioned.

18.The Americans who are patriotic tend to be conservative.                                                                                         The Americans, who are patriotic, tend to be conservative.

 

UNIT 8. INDIRECTION: NEGATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

8.1. Answer the questions below each sentence:

1. Not infrequently we go to Prague in the autumn.                                                                                               Do we often go there in the autumn?

2. It is not unlikely that we will go there again this

October. Is there a good chance that we'll be going there in October?

 

3. It is not unthinkable that there should be a 3rd World War.                                                                                                Is this a completely ridiculous idea?

4. He thinks nothing of checking his answers again and again.                                                                                     Does he mind checking his answers?

5. Nor is it only his own answers that he checks.                                                                                                   What else does he do?

6. It is not impossible that the experiment will fail.                                                                                                    The speaker is ______ ing the person he is addressing that the experiments _______ fail.

                                                                                                                      (modal verb)

7. Geology is by no means without practical importance. The speaker is aware that some people, including the person he is addressing, may have the idea that geology ______________________________________ .

8. Her behavior makes her all but indistinguishable from a native Italian.                                                               How does she behave?

9. It is not unknown for him to be less than punctual.                                                                                                      Is he ever late?

8.2 Read the following sentences and answer the questions.

1. There could never be any circumstance which could justifi anybody's saying anything of the kind. Nevertheless he could hardly* keep himself from saying it.

 

a. Can you guess what kind of remark it probably was?

b. Did he actually make the remark?

c. Was he justified in what he did?

2. Even if she had never done anything like it before in her life, I would not have been surprised had she done it now, so much had she matured in the course of that year.

 

    a. Is «it» a good or a bad thing (and how do you know)?

b. Had she ever done anything like it before?

c. Why did the speaker expect her to do it now?

d. Did she do it now?

e. The speaker implies that, if she had done something like it before, then ____________________ .

 

f. What time does «now» refer to?

3. Nothing could have looked simpler, or been harder to accomplish.

a. Substitute an equivalent word for «looked».

b. The writer is contrasting the way it ____ (one word) with ___________.

c. Indirectly, we learn the fact that something hard to do has been ___________ (one word).

d. Why does the speaker set up the contrast? (Why doesn't he just state the fact?)

4. It isn't because I disagree with your views that I can't accept what you say, but because I don't see that you've man­aged to substantiate them properly.

a. The speaker is justifying his own decision. What decision has he made?

b. Does he disagree with the views of the person he is addressing?         

с. Has that person tried to substantiate his views?

d. Has he succeeded?

5. Hardly had she begun doing something about it when they warned her not to. Did she mind? Never had it been easier to do nothing!

a. Did she begin?

b. «Not to» — what?

c. Did she mind — what?

d. What did she find it easy to do?

8.3 Consider the following:

1. What risk is the writer taking when he uses indirection, instead of just saying what he means as directly and clearly as possible?

2. Under what circumstances might a writer (or speaker) want to make it harder for his reader (or listener) to quickly grasp exactly what he is saying?

 

UNIT 9. IMPLICATION

9.1 By his choice of words, his choice of language, a writer often implies more than is actually printed on the page. What is the meaning implied by each of the following quotations?

1. Women's intuition is the result of millions of years of not thinking. (Rupert Hughes).

2. Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily that is not difficult. (Char­lotte Whitton, Mayor of Ottawa).

 

3. I am glad that I am not a man as I should then be obliged to marry a woman. (Madame de Staël).

4. Women are most fascinating between the ages of 35 and 40, after they have won a few races and know how to pace themselves. Since few women ever pass 40, maximum fascina­tion can continue indefinitely. (Christian Dior).

5. There must be some women who are not liars. (W. Somerset Maugham)

6. Women are like gods. They have one face for their wor­shippers and one for their rivals. (source unknown)

 

UNIT 10. TYPES OF AMBIGUITY

1. Joe: «My hobby is sailing ships».

   John: «Personally, I prefer flying kites». Jack: «How about flying saucers?»

a. Can any of these speakers be sure that he knows what the others are talking about?

b. What's the problem?

2. He dreamed of travelling constantly.

a. How often did he have this dream?                                                                                                    b. How often did he want to travel?

3. The lamb was too hot to eat.

What are the three possible meanings of this statement?

a. The weather was _____, so the lamb wouldn't eat.                                                                                                    b. The (cooked) lamb wasn't edible because the cook used too much _______.

    d. The (cooked) lamb had to be ______ before it could be eaten.

4. SHIP SAILS TODAY

a. Is this an order that someone has issued?                                                                                                    b. Is someone reporting an event?

5. The patriotic Americans have great respect for their country's constitution.

a. Do all Americans respect their constitution (because they are all patriotic)?

b. Do only some (the patriotic ones) respect it?

6. The hungry workers went on strike.

a. Did all the workers participate in the strike (because they were hungry)?

b. Were some of the workers well-fed (and therefore not among the strikers)?

7. Criminal lawyers seldom die in bed.

a. Is the profession of defending people accused of crimes a dangerous one?

b. Is it particularly dangerous for a lawyer to commit a crime?

 

UNIT 11. WHAT THE WRITER MEANS BUT FOR SOME REASONS PREFERS NOT TO SAY DIRECTLY

Match each phrase in Column I with the phrase in Column II that expresses what the writer probably meant (but preferred not to say ditectly):

 

Column I	Column II
1. It has been said that...	a. I can't be bothered to prove this but I expect you to believe it
2. ... a fact of unquestion-significance	b. It suits my theory to able interpret these facts as ...
3. It is well known that ...	c. I haven't been able to find information on ...
4. By now it is clear that..	d. There are some idiots who belive that...
5. There are those who claim that...	e. ... something that strikes me as important, though I haven't decided why
6. Common sense will tell you that...	f. I believe that...
7. These facts can clearly be interpreted as expressions of...	g. I hope I've managed to convince you that...
8. Little is known about...	h. (I read this somewhere, but I can't remember where).

 

SECTION III

DEALING WITH PARAGRAPHS

 

UNIT 1. COHERENCE

COHERENCE means «reasonable connection» — «an or­derly relationship between parts». It's the quality that makes the difference between a set of UNconnected phrases or clauses, on the one hand, and a simple, compound or complex sentence, on the other hand (see Unit 2 of the Appendix [Section V of Part II] on Compound and Complex Sentence Patterns). It also makes the difference between a set of UNconnected sentences and a PARAGRAPH (which is a set of CONNECTED sentences). Finally, the same quality — COHERENCE — makes the differ­ence between a set of UNconnected paragraphs and a TEXT.

The writer makes his sentences, paragraphs and text coher­ent by using various cues and signals that establish the «orderly relationship» between the various parts of his sentences, be­tween the various sentences in his paragraphs, and between the various paragraphs in his text. It is the job of the reader to follow these cues and signals and understand the relationships.

 

CUES AND SIGNALS USED TO ESTABLISH COHERENCE

1. Grammatical Signals such as conjunctions (Section V of Part II Unit 4; the position of a given word in the sentence (Section V, Unit 2); and grammatically meaningful word end­ings (Word Power [Part I] Section X, Unit IE).

2. Punctuation Signals (Section V of Part II, Unit 3).

3. Visual Cues such as paragraph indentation.

4. Verbal Cues such as repeated words (to emphasize con­nections).

5. Pronouns (to refer backwards and forwards instead of simply repeating words).

6. Various Other Verbal Cues (Section V of part II, Unit 6).

A. Which of these two «sentences» makes some kind of sense (and why)? (How can a sentence make «sense» without being logical?)

a. Sleep green colorless furiously ideas.

b. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

B. The sentences that make up a coherent paragraph must be grammatically and logically connected. What makes the «paragraph» below incoherent?

People love music. There are carbon granules in the tele­phone receiver. Although the Japanese people are remarkable. Her dog was killed. In the southern part of Jordan there is a place of unique historical interest.

C. Now consider the paragraph below:

Cecil, the aardvark, was a strange pet. Because of his exotic eating habits, he was able to rid the house of insects. What he devoured most often were the little dark ants. He was often seen routing these out with his long ugly snout. Granted, his snout made him an excellent exterminator. However, it also made him an unusual household pet.

List the features that make this a coherent paragraph.

 

D. Below is another example of a COHERENT parapraph. The various devices used by the writer to establish coherence have been clearly marked, and they include the following:

1. Pronouns. The «we» in sentence 5 hooks back not only to «higher animals» but to the readers themselves, referred to in the first sentence with «our».

2. Summary nouns and pronouns. The «this» in sentence 6 pulls together the entire paragraph by referring to «experiment» and «play» in sentence 5 and to the «process of learning» in sentence 1. Sometimes a summary noun will do this job. For example, sentence 6 might have read: «Perhaps the nature of trial run is what gives. .»

3. Repeated words. «Scientist», «learning», and «errors» reappear.

4. Repeated stems. Bronowski used «an experiment» (the noun) followed by «experiments» (the verb).

5. Rewording of the same idea. A «harmless trial run» is later redefined as a «setting in which errors are not fatal».

6. Punctuation. Colons usually tell us that an explanation, an example or a list follows. Semicolons connect two main clauses that generally are closely related.

7. Parallel construction. The grammatically parallel con­struction of «the scientist experiments and the cub plays» (sen­tence 5) emphasizes the parallel connection Bronowski wishes to make.

Cues and Signals Used to Establish Coherence

D: A passage with many word and phrase cues

Source: Jacob Bronowski. The Common Sense of Science (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953).

 

3.1 In the following paragraph the cues and signals that es­tablish coherence have been underlined. Study each one and decide what type of coherence device it is. (Refer to the list of devices preceding the Bronowski text above).

Rescue dogs are often specially trained to work in areas where a bomb or earthquake has buried people in debris. Their job is to locate where the persons are buried so that rescuers can dig them out before they suffocate or die of other injuries. Since the dog must guide rescuers to the spot, he must be willing to sit and bark until help comes. As a result some dogs, including collies, shepherds, airedales, and, in fact, most working breeds, can be trained for rescue; others can't. Spaniels, setters, and some hounds, for example, refuse to bark once they have found their person. Although they would bark at home if someome came to the door, these hunting breeds have been selectively bred not to bark while working because it would scare the game.

3.2 Reorder the sentences below so that they form a coher­ent paragraph.*

__ a. But because many new summer workers don't know how to move large trees, the best ways to handle the equip­ment, handle the trucks, or the large plants, their job is much harder.

__ b. Yet Timmerman does little to help summer employ­ees in these areas.

__ c. Or at least it shouldn't be.

__ d. Timmerman Landscape Co. Inc. is a local nursery that has recently moved into doing landscaping.

__ e. There is a waiting list for these jobs because the pay is good and the work is outdoors but not as heavy as construc­tion work.

__ f. They have a year-round staff of around ten people, but in the summer they hire a lot of summer help to meet peak summer workloads.

__ g. Most of the summer help are college students.

2. What features of each sentence help you determine its position in the paragraph?

 

UNIT 2. OLD AND NEW INFORMATION

(Another Coherence Device)

In a paragraph, the writer usually establishes coherence be­tween sentences by referring back, in the first part of each sentence, to what the reader already knows (Old Information) and by adding the (New ) information that leads his argument forward in the second part of each sentence.

Notice how this pattern of Old Information leading to New Information works in the following:

Shopping for a Turkey

	Old ... New . . .
The old information was stated in the title.	In buying a turkey, you get more meat your money from a whole bird than from a boned, rolled turkey roast.
The reference to "the whole bird" is old information from the preceding sentence.	Old ... New . . . And the bigger that whole bird is, the more meat you will have in proportion to bone.
	Old ... New . . . A turkey weighing less than 12 pounds is one-half waste.
The reference to a turkey's weight is old information, but the fact of
one-half waste is new.
«As a result» is old information, reffering to the points made previously in the paragraph.	Old ... New . . . As a result, it is more economical to buy half of a lage, 20 pounder than to buy a small, 10-pound turkey.

At times this pattern of moving from old information to new information is broken. For example:

Old ...               New . . .                                                                                                                              And the bigger that whole bird is, the more meat

 

New . . .                                                                                                                                                                              you will have in proportion to bone. One-half

Old  . . .

                                       waste is what you'll get with a turkey weighing

                                      less that 12 pounds.

Sometimes the sentence with new information at the be­ginning is confusing and needs rereading. However, by violat­ing expectations, you can also create surprise and emphasis, as the sentence above did by surprising us with the phrase, «One-half waste . . .» To sum up, then, you can use various kinds of repetition, including the old information / new information pattern, to make clear connections between sentences.

Exercise:

A. In the following paragraph, underline the part of each sentence that presents New Information.

Behavior of People in Groups

Often people who hold the higher positions in a given group overestimate their performance. Although this may not always be true, it does indicate that the actual position in the group has much to do with the degree of confidence a person may have. Thus a group member is more likely to feel highly confi­dent about his own performance if he holds a high position in the group or feels he has an important part to play.

B. Which sentence «violates» expectations by putting the New Information first?

 

UNIT 3. THE ORDERING OF SENTENCES IN A PARAGRAPH * 

                                               Some of the Common Ordering Systems Are:

1. TIME ORDER                                                                                                                                                         Time Order — (information organized in a chronology, time sequence).

 

Words that are clues or signal words often used when writ­ing in chronological or time order:

first, next, last, in the end, days, dates, soon, later, finally, eventually, times, later on, in the meantime, afterwards, not long after, at the end, at last, right away, in the beginning.

2. COMPARISON/CONTRAST

Comparison/contrast — (information organizes to show simi­larities, differences, advantages, disadvantages. Speaker's per­spective may be neutral or may take a position).

Words that are clues or signal words of a comparison or contrast:

but, different, however, like, contrary to, comparative forms (e.g., faster, slower), rather, on the contrary, as, in the same way, instead, yet, similarly, on the other hand.

 

3. COLLECTION OF DESCRIPTIONS

Collection of descriptions — (information organized by a simple listing of facts or ideas relating to the same topic)

Words that are clues or signal words of a collection of de­scriptions:

some, others, many, a few, other, also, first, second, third, finally, in addition, lastly, all.

4. CAUSE AND EFFECT

Cause and Effect — (information organized by showing the cause or causes of an event or situation, of the effects of some event or situation, or both).

Words that are clues or signal words of a cause/effect pat­tern:

result, cause, effect, lead to, due to, consequently, because of, create, become, come about.

Exercise:

Below are four paragraphs about Sir Isaac Newton.

A. Read each paragraph, and then choose one sentence from the extra sentences below and write the letter for that sentence next to the paragraph in which it would fit best. One of the sentences will not be used.

B. Label each paragraph according to the system by which the sentences are ordered (use the four labels given above «Time Order»; «Comparison/Contrast»; «Collection of descriptions»; or «Cause and Effect»).

Paragraph 1

Sir Isaac Newton worked on many important scientific prob­lems. First, there was his development of the laws of motion. He also made important discoveries about optics and the na­ture of color. His other work included ideas about astronomy, chemistry, and logic. And finally, he produced the Principia, a book which explained his law of universal gravitation.

Paragraph 2

Isaac Newton was born in England in 1642. He went to Trinity College, Cambridge University, in 1661 at the age of 18. In 1665, the plague swept through England, and Newton left school and returned to his family home in Woolsthorpe. It was there that he began most of his best work. He published his famous book, the Principia, in 1682. And in 1699 he was made the director of the English Mint. Sir Isaac Newton died in 1727 and he is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Paragraph 3

Although the two men were both geniuses, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein have very little else in common. True, they both did their most important and famous work before the age of 26. But there are great differences between them. «Proper behavior» was most important to Newton, while Einstein liked to be different. Newton spent his later years working for the government, while Einstein spent his entire life doing science.

Paragraph 4

Newton did most of his best work during his stay in Woolsthorpe from 1665 to 1668. Many writers have tried to find out what caused him to produce all of those great ideas in such a short time. Was it the peace and quiet of the small town that caused his creative powers to increase? The causes may never be known, but the effects of Newton's genius are still felt today.

Extra sentences:

a. Some people think that a falling apple caused Newton to think of the law of universal gravitation.

b. Present-day physicists have discovered limits to the me­chanical universe which Newton described.

c. In addition, he invented differential and integral calcu­lus.

d. They say Isaac Newton never smiled, but Albert Einstein had a great sense of humor.

e. In fact, by age 26, he had alredy completed most of his best work.

SECTION IV

DEALING WITH TEXTS

 

UNIT 1. TYPES OF DISCOURSE

 

(THE FUNCTION OF A TEXT AND HOW IT DETERMINES THE WAY WE READ IT)

According to James Kinneavy (in A Theory of Discourse), there are two basic types of discourse (i.e., text).

A. the type (or mode) of discourse whose main function is to EXPRESS the feelings, ideas, emotions, beliefs, wishes, in­tentions, etc. of the WRITER or SPEAKER

Examples: diaries, personal journals, prayers, manifestos, contracts, constitutions, religious credos, myths

B. the type (or mode) of discourse whose primary function is to COMMUNICATE something TO A READER or LISTENER.

 

In COMMUNICATIVE discourse, according to Kinneavy, the emphasis can be on one of three different aspects of the communicative process:

REFERENTIAL Emphasis on:		LITERARY Emphasis on:   Form of Presentation The	PERSUASIVE Emphasis on:   The effect on the  Reader that the  subject-matter is  meant to have.
Subject Matter,
Information:
The information
is presented, described,
Defined, diagnosed,
Proved, or related in
an informative manner
Examples:	Examples:                                         Examples:         novels                                               advertisements         poems                                               sermons
Textbooks
scientific articles
dramas                                              political speeches
Jokes

It is important to remember that texts are seldom purely Referential, Literary, or Persuasive. Most texts have some of the characteristics of more than one of these categories, but they belong primarily in one of them. The determining factor is prob­ably the writer's intention: i.e., the primary function that he intended his text to serve. The types overlap because, for ex­ample, the writer may have intended his text to be primarily persuasive, but he may well have found it necessary to include a lot of referential material, informing the reader about the sub­ject and even supplying scientific facts to sound more convinc­ing. He may also have found it effective to employ certain liter­ary techniques in order to be especially persuasive (e.g., he may have used jokes, rhymed verse, or figures of speech to make the text livelier and to have a stronger effect on his readers).

However, each of these three types of discourse (determined by the writer's primary purpose) has its own interior logic, its own traditional organizational patterns, and its own stylistic peculiarities (e.g., the level of the language — its formality or informality).

If the reader can recognize the determining features of the type of text he has in front of him (e.g., if he recognizes the traditional form of a scientific report, with its sections devoted to the writer's hypothesis, the report on the experiment, the results of the experiment, and the writer's conclusions) then he knows something useful about HOW TO READ IT.

Questions:

a. Which part of a scientific report would you read carefully (after glancing briefly through the rest of the text), if you're not really interested in how the experiment was done or why it was done, but you know you will be required to explain why it was important?

b. Which of the three types of discourse would you nor­mally read most intensively, hardly skipping a word?

c. Why does a joke stop being funny when you try to ex­plain it?

d. Which of the three types of discourse would it normally be safest to glance over superficially, simply to get a general idea of what the writer is getting at?

Exercise A:

1. Using Kinneavy's categories, how would you describe the following piece of discourse («On Silence»)? Is it in the style of a diary or journal? — of a textbook? — of a novel or a poem? — of a sermon? — of any other kind of writing with which you are familiar?

2. What is the common assumption about the nature of silence that the writer intends to qualify or modify in some way?

3. What geographic location does the writer seem to have in mind while describing the various types of silence?

ON SILENCE

Extract from the «Wartime Writings: 1939-44» of Antoine de Saint-Exupery (The Yew York Times Book Review, Sept. 14,1986).

One silence even diners from another. There is the tranquil silence when tribes are at peace, when night brings coolness and one seems to be anchored with furled sails in a quiet har­bor. There is the midday silence when the sun suspends all thought and movement. There is the deceptive silence when the north wind bears down, bringing insects borne like pollen from the oases of the interior and heralding the advent of a sandstorm from the East. There is the silence of conspiracy when it is known that a distant tribe is preparing to revolt. There is the silence of mystery when the Arabs are gathered together for one of their secret meetings. There is the pregnant silence when the messenger is late returning, the shrill silence when in the night one holds one's breath in order to hear, the melancholy silence when one remembers one's beloved.

Exercise B:

There are many different organizational or discourse struc­tures which may be used in creating any type of text. Some of the common patterns are: describing, defining, comparing, contrasting, analyzing, giving examples, classifying, presenting information chronologically, presenting information of a cause and/or effect nature. Which type(s) of organization seem to apply to the excerpt «On Silence»?

 

UNIT 2. READING STRATEGIES

DIFFERENT KINDS OF TEXTS, SERVING DIFFERENT PURPOSES, REQUIRE DIFFERENT READING STRATEGIES

The following are the most commonly used strategies for reading scientific texts:

A. SKIMMING -                                                                                                             This involves:

1. Reading through the opening section until you have some idea of what the writer's thesis is — what he's out to reveal or prove. Usually the first paragraph will be enough, but some­times the writer doesn't get down to his actual thesis until after a few introductory paragraphs. If this seems to be the case, glance over the introductory section and only begin reading carefully after the writer actually gets down to the issue he's presently concerned with. Then when you feel you know what his thesis is, you can start to «skim» rapidly through the rest of the text.

2. Glancing over the rest of the text, paragraph by para­graph, trying to locate the key sentence within each paragraph and to follow the writer's train of thought (to follow his argu­ment). If you get lost (if you find that you no longer know what he's talking about) backtrack a bit and try to find out where you got lost and what new idea he introduced at that point (you may have missed it because it was in the middle of a paragraph, and not at the beginning or end, where new ideas are most commonly introduced).

3. Reading through the closing section to see if you actually did understand the thesis in the opening section (which, pre­sumably, you were able to follow by glancing through the body of the text). The conclusion usually refers back to the opening and confirms the thesis presented there, sometimes summariz­ing the important material in the body of the text which was meant to support the thesis.

B. SCANNING

This involves glancing over the individual lines of the text, looking for specific pieces of information (names, dates, sub­titles, a key sentence introducing a specific idea you're par­ticularly interested in, the place in the text where one section ends and a new idea is introduced, etc.)

C. READING INTENSIVELY

Once you know which parts of the text contain the infor­mation you're particularly interested in, you can concentrate on reading those parts with special care, weighing each word to make sure that you haven't misunderstood or missed anything the writer communicated either directly (explicitly) or indi­rectly (implicitly). Look up the words you don't understand in a good dictionary. If you're not sure you understood exactly what the writer means, go back to see if the preceding context is helpful. If that doesn't help, read ahead to see if what fol­lows clarifies for you.

Exercise:

The following list includes various kinds of texts. Decide which of the three strategies — or which combination of them, and in what order — would be suitable for each:

1. a menu

2. a page in the dictionary

3. a road map

4. a diagram in a scientific article

5. an article in a scientific journal reporting on the research of someone in your field whose work you admire

6. an article in «Time» or «Newsweek»

7. a caption under a photograph

8. a page in the telephone book

9. an advertisement for something you're thinking of buying

10. a label on a food package

11. instructions for the use of a new appliance

12. the note included in the box of a prescription drug giving active ingredients, dosage, side effects, storage instruc­tions, etc.

13. a book on your course bibliography

14. a poem

15. a short story

16. a novel

17. a set of classroom notes borrowed from your friend before the final exam in a course you have seldom attended

18. an article written by a professor whose course you're taking

 

UNIT 3. WHAT TITLES TELL US

Below is a list of text titles followed by a set of questions. Answer the questions by relating them to each of the text titles on the list.

1. Why Computers Can't Be Poets

2. No Man's Land: The Place of the Woman Writer in the Twentieth Century

3. Crime and Poverty

4. Rethinking the Holocaust

5. Overcoming Unemployment

6. The Task of Modern Philosophy

7. Towards A Humanistic Medicine in A Modern Age

8. Morality and Foreign Policy

9. Learning the Hard Way: How to Help Children with Learning Disorders.

10. What is A Historical Fact?

11. Education and the I.Q.

12.The Economic Organization of the Prisoner of War Camp

13. A Cultural History of the French Revolution

14. Political Development and Social Change

15. A Brief History of Time

16. The Common Interest: How Our Social Welfare Policies Don't Work, and What We Can Do About Them

17. Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Conse­quences

18. Signs in the Wilderness

Questions:

a. Within what academic field/s does this text probably be­long?

b. (i) Does the title reveal what the specific subject of the text is, or does it keep you guessing? (Note that sometimes the title keeps you guessing, but the sub-title explains it), (ii) Glance at the brief abstract under the title «Signs in the Wil­derness» in Part IV. Could you have guessed what the subject of this text is from its title? (Why not?)

с. Does the title reveal whether the subject matter is highly specialized (and hence suitable for professionals) or general (and hence suitable for a wider audience of laymen)?

d. Most titles include more than one concept (e.g., «Why Computers Can't be Poets»; «Crime and Poverty»; «What is A Historical Fact?» (This includes the concept of «historicity», or of being historically authentic; and the concept of being factual). What, if anything, does the title you are considering imply or state directly about the relationship between the con­cepts it includes?

e. Does the title (or subtitle) reveal anything about the writer's thesis, or his point of view with regard to the sub­ject of the article?

 

UNIT 4. DIFFERENT WAYS OF PRESENTING INFORMATION

The writer of a text may decide to present part of the infor­mation graphically instead of (or as well as) verbally. He may introduce diagrams, pictorial representations, or flowcharts to illustrate a sequence of concepts or operations and the rela­tionships between them. Diagrams and other schematic forms of presentation can help to clarify complex verbal expositions. They also tend to be easier to remember.

Note how the following flowchart simplifies and clarifies the verbal exposition that follows it:

Figure 5 Flowchart of «Waves» text (from Geva 1983: 387), from: «Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading» Cavell and Eskey

 

WAVES

Waves are caused, as nearly everyone knows, by the wind.Two classes of waves may be distinguished; the long roll­ers at the coast, and the far more irregular forms of the open seas, where waves of all sizes and types are present. The size and speed of waves depends not only on the wind's speed but on the length of time the wind has been blowing, and the unbroken stretch of water over which it blows as well. Very strong winds tend to beat down the waves' height and to re­duce wave speed. On the other hand, less violent but steady winds often produce wave speeds greater than that of the wind itself. The average maximum wave length is about 36 feet, although occasional higher waves have been measured.

Exercise:

Make a flowchart to clarify the following text:

Thert has been a long history of interest in the question of whether body build and personality are related. One approach to this issue is the constitutional view, which postulates that the individual's biological consitution gives rise to both physi­cal and psychological attributes and thus that these two sets of attributes are inevitably interrelated.

 

UNIT 5. TYPES OF SCHOLARLY

(ACADEMIC) ARTICLES*

 

Scholarly articles are of several types, among them:

a. factual/critical articles

b. book reviews

c. review essays

d. reviews of research

e. research reports.

Scholars also write articles for audiences not restricted to specialists in their own field; such articles may discuss, for example, the current state of understanding in a discipline or matters of public interest from the point of view of a particular discipline.

FACTUAL/CRITICAL ARTICLES

Current usage blurs the sharp dictinction that was once observed between «scholarly», or factually based, articles and «critical», or theoretically based, articles. Either type requires the scholar to:

a. demonstrate familiarity with the previous scholarship of the topic

b. suggest an original thesis

c. present supporting evidence

d. point to the significance of the proposition advanced

The best scholarly articles incorporate all four aspects in a proportion appropriate to the subject and audience.

Exercise:

1.      Read the following texts:

 

A. Education and Tolerance                                                                                                    B. The Outsiders

2. For each text, decide which of the above labels best describes the type of text it is.

3. A. Decide which of the four aspects of a typical schol­arly text it incorporates.

B. For each of the aspects that it does incorporate, note the number of the paragraph/s in which that aspect is devel­oped.

 

UNIT 6. GENERAL QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES THAT CAN (AND SHOULD) BE APPLIED TO ANY TEXT

YOU READ FOR ANY PURPOSE*                                                                                                        

(Not necessarily in this order)

 

A.

1. What is the subject area of the article (judging by the title)?

2. What information or knowledge do you already have about the subject (before you have read the article)?

3. What is your purpose in reading this article? Have you been given any guidelines for reading this article? If so, what are they.

4. What are the writer's basic assumptions, his hypothesis (or hypotheses), and his main thesis?

5. What historical or other background material does the writer provide?

6. What is the writer's plan or method of organization? Does any one type of text structure dominate this article? i.e.:

a. Does the writer define a word or concept?

b. Does the writer compare/contrast two ideas?

c. Does the writer describe a historical event — causes lead­ing up to the event, results of the event or both?

d. Does the writer analyze a situation or event, providing us at the outset with a generalization and following this up by supporting evidence (deductive organization)?

e. Does the writer begin with the details and end with a generalization (inductive organization)?

f. Does the writer first present the arguments of other writ­ers, only to refute them, and then finally, present his own viewpoint on the subject? (e.g., consider Towards a Humanis­tic Medicine and The Outsiders in Part IV.)

g. Does the writer use some combination of the above rhetorical text structures and organizing patterns to develop his argument?

7. What is/was the writer's purpose in writing this article?

8. What kind of writing characterizes this article (expres­sive? informational? a combination of both? Which one of them dominating?)*

9. What questions or problems are discussed?

10. What other researchers who support his point of view does he mention?

11. What points of view other than his own does the writer present?

12. What evidence or data does the writer present to sup­port his ideas?

13. What definitions (of special terminology, or terms he uses in a special way) are presented by the writer?

14. What examples does he bring in to illustrate each of his ideas?

15. What reservations or qualifications are made by the writer? Is he making a strong or weak claim for each of the points in the thesis?

16. Is he convincing? Why (or why not)?

17. Determine if, and where, the writer makes use of such rhe­torical devices as: (a) irony; (b) humor; (c) appeal to the emotions; (d) analogy; (e) figures of speech (metaphors, similes); (f) repetition for purposes of stressing important points; rhetorical questions.

18. Summarize the main points of this article in 2-3 paragraphs.

19. What difficulties did you have in reading this text? (Vo­cabulary? Sentence structure? Following the writer's argument? Missing background information?)

 

20. How closely does this article fit in with the lectures andcourse work for which you are reading it?

Hints on Answering Objective Test Questions About a Text

1. Always read the questions very carefully: at least as care­fully as you read the text they are based on. In a question, every word is important.

2. Watch out for statements in true-false or multiple-choice questions that have the little, but important, qualifying words such as not, some, can, must, may, most, very, hardly, often, always, usually, never, or seldom. They affect the meaning of the sentence.

Double negatives are tricky; «the idea was not unattractive» means that the idea was attractive. (See Unit 8 of Section II [Part II]). Also, make sure that you have read the relevant part of the text to the very end of the idea being expressed. The writer may begin by suggesting that one thing may be true, but then go on to decide that the opposite is true!

3. In answering multiple-choice questions, cross out the choices you're sure are wrong for some reason (e.g., because they make no sense; because they obviously contradict something stated in the text; etc) and concentrate on the ones that are left.

4. In answering matching questions (where items from one column are matched to items in a second column), lightly cross out the items you've already used (lightly - because you may change your mind); that way you can keep track of the one's you still have to work with.

5. You may be asked to fill in blanks in a sentence. Be careful; after filling in the blank, reread the whole question just to be sure the completed statement makes sense, and is in reasonably good English.

6. Always reread your answer to short answer questions to make sure you wrote what you meant. It's probably a good idea to translate your answer from English into your native language to make sure that it makes sense.

 

UNIT 7. READING/WRITING ABSTRACTS*

An abstract is a brief summary of the content and purpose of an article. In some journals, the abstract is used in place of a concluding summary. The abstract allows readers to survey the contents of an article quickly. It is self-contained, fully intelligible without reference to the body of the paper. Infor­mation or conclusions that do not appear in the paper are not supposed to appear in the abstract.

(suggested length: 100-175 words)

I. An Abstract of a Research Article usually includes:

1. statement of problem

2. method

3. results

4. conclusions

It should specify: subject population (number, type, age, sex, etc.)

It should describe: research design, test instruments (i.e. questionnaires, tests, interviews), research apparatus of data gathering procedures

It should summarize: data or findings

It should report: inferences or comparisons or conclusions drawn from results

II. An Abstract of a Review or a Theoritical Article should include:

1. Topics covered

2. Central thesis

3. The Sources used (i.e. personal observation of author, review of published literature, or present, current research bear­ing on topic and conclusions drawn)

It should be short but informative.

 

Exercise:

A. Read the abstracts in the following set of 9. Categorize each abstract as one based on:

(a) a research article

(b) a review of research in a given field

(c) a theoretical article.

B. Using I and II above as an inventory checklist, see how many of the items listed for each type of article can be found in each of the abstracts.

Abstract No. 1

Kufeldt, Kathleen & Nimmo, Margaret (Faculty Social Wel­fare U Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4), Youth on the Street: «Abuse and Neglect in the Eighties», CHILD ABUSE AND NE­GLECT, 1987, 11, 4, 531-542.

A report on an interview study of runaways & homeless youth (n = 489) conducted over a 1-year period in Calgary, Alberta. Analysis reveals two distinct groups: the true «run­ners» tend to leave their homes with the intention of not re­turning & thus their runs are extended: «in & outers» use the run as a temporary coping mechanism & their runs tend to be impulsive & of short duration. Findings also indicate that run­aways, in particular the runners, are at great risk of being drawn into illegal activities; major factors affecting this risk are dis­tance from home & length of time on the run. A significant proportion of Rs had run from substitute care arrangements. Results imply that adolescents in Canadian society suffer from systemic abuse & neglect. This researh led to the opening of a safe house for early runners in Jan. 1987. The operation of the house includes careful compilation of data to further advance understanding of the runaway population & its needs. 4 Tables, 6 Figures, 1 Appendix, 19 References. Modified HA (Copy­right 1989, Socioligical Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved).

Abstract No. 2

Tinsley, Barbara J. & Parke, Ross D. (Dept Speech Commu­nication U Illinois, Urbana 61801), «Grandparents as Interac­tive and Social Support Agents for Families with Young In­fants», INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGING AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, 1987, 25, 4, 259-277.

The role of grandparents in infant development is investi­gated in a comparative analysis of grandparent-infant grand­child & parent-child interaction patterns in 30 Caucasian Mc families. The extent to which grandparents serve as social sup­port agents for their adult children & grandchildren is also examined. Observations of dyadic play sessions between 51 grandparents & their 30 7-month old grandchildren were com­pared with those between the infants & their parents using both time-sampling & global coding schemes; information on grandparental support relative to other social support services was obtained via questionnaires completed by both parents & grandparents. Results indicate that both grandmothers & grand­fathers are interactive & support agents, with a pattern of simi­larities & differences in interactive style evident across genera­tion & gender. There is a high degree of overlap in parent and grandparent interaction style, but parents appear more compe­tent; both parents & grandparents report a high degree of satis­faction with their level of intergenerational contact. Results support an expanded view of the effects of various agents in young children's social environments. 3 Tables, 40 References. Modified HA (Copyright, 1989, Sociological Abstracts, Ins., all rights reserved).

Abstract No. 3

Chovanes, Andrew B. «On Vietnamese and other Peasants», JOURNAL OF SOUTHEAT ASIAN STUDIES (Singapore) 1986 17(2): 203-235. There are serious theoretical and meth­odological issues concerning revolutionary activity. These are examined in extensive critiques of James Scott's The Moral Economy of the Peasantry and Samuel Popkin's The Rational Peasant, both studies of the Vietnamese peasant's role in the revolution, in the light of other work on peasants. Proposed is a «transcultural grammar that would view history as non-pro-gressional, not the inevitable outcome of class conflict, the most revolutionary group as that with nothing to lose, the pres­ence of organizational factors which provide a new form of consciousness». 175 notes.

P.M. Gustafson

Abstract No. 4

Vasquez, John A. «Capability, types of War, Peace». WEST­ERN POLITICAL QUARTERLY 1986 39(2): 313-327. Whether a balance of power or a preponderance of power produces peace has long been a debate within the traditional literature. The quantitative analysis of Singer, Bremer, and Stuckey (1972) added to this puzzle the findinig that the balance of power was associ­ated with peace in the 19th century but with war in the 20th century. A careful review of that study, more recent empirical work, and the logic underlying traditional explanations suggest that neither a balance nor a preponderance of power is associ­ated with peace, but with different types of war. The author utilized both behavioral and historical approaches to construct a typology of war that will more clearly elucidate the varying role of capability in different wars. Classifies wars along three di­mensions — whether they are fought between equals or unequals; are limited or total; or are dyadic or complex.

Abstract No. 5

Seccombe, Ian J. «Immigrant Workers in Emigrant Economy: An Examination of Replacement Migration in the Middle East». INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION (Belgium) 1986 24(2): 377-396. Jordan, with its relatively skilled labor force experienced significant unmonitored labor emigration to meet the growing regional demand for labor that followed the 1973-74 oil price increases. During this period, however, do­mestic labor demand was also increasing dramatically. This demand was met, to a great extent, by undocumented workers. Legal foreign workers in the mid-1970s, in accordance with Jordan's 1960 labor law, were predominantly from other Arab countries, but Asian workers, usually under contract to Asian

companies operating in Jordan, increased in number rapidly in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Considerable exploitation of foreign workers and abuse of the labor law have occurred. 27 ref., 6 tables. French and Spanish summaries.

C.Moody

Abstract No. 6

Soffer, Amon. «Lebanon — Where Demography is the Core of Politics and Life». MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES (Great Britain) 1986 22(2); 197-205. Government and intercommu-nal relations in Lebanon since 1943 have been based on a solitary population census taken in 1932, which has resulted in political relationships in the state being based on a ratio of 6:5 in favor of the Christians. This article attempts to establish the size of Lebanon's population, the sizes of the various groups within it, and the population distribution. In all cases figures could only be estimated based on best available data, but they showed that the Muslims had become a majority, that geo­graphical distribution had changed little, and that the demo­graphic strength of the Muslim community and its socioeconomic weakness were factors that could not be ignored if Leba­non were to have a future. Based on statistics from the Leba­nese government, the UN and UNRWA and secondary sources; 3 tables, map, 27 notes.

F.A. Clements

Abstract No. 7

Mohan, Bernard and Helmer, Sylvia. «Context and Second Language Development: Preschoolers' Comprehension Ges­tures». (UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA). There is wide agreement that non-verbal information, and contextual information generally, plays an important role in language understanding for second language learners. This raises the question of whether learners understand non-verbal communi­cation. The «traditional» view of the role of context in lan­guage learning assumes that they do. The «social semiotic» view does not, holding that contextual understanding is devel­oped in the process of communicative interaction. Contextual understanding is therefore likely to vary with age and cultural familiarity.

This paper investigates the understanding of English speak­ers' gestures by preschool children, comparing native English speakers (age four to five) with non-native speakers. Thirty -six emblems and illustrators, two forms of commonly used ges­tures, were decoded by forty children, twenty native speakers, and twenty English as a second language (ESL) speakers. The gestures chosen were screened by a panel of ten ESL teachers who considered them to be typical of classroom interaction.

It was found that the children, on average, understood about half of the gestures. ESL children understood less than native speakers. Analysis of variance results indicate that there is an effect for age as well as a strong effect for cultural familiarity (native speakers vs. ESL). There were significant correlations for the sequence of acquisition of gestures across all groups.

Results therefore contradicted the «traditional» view and were consistent with the «social semiotic» view. It is suggested that research on the role of context in second language learn­ing should take account of the social semiotic and study the mutual development of language learning and cultural learning in the process of communicative interaction.

 

UNIT 8. READING/WRITING A SUMMARY

A. READING SUMMARIES WITHIN A TEXT

When skimming a long text, a good reader can spot those parts of the text where the writer has summarized the points of his argument — either before he is about to present these points, or just after he has presented them. This is basically the same reading skill involved in spotting the sentence which seems to summarize the main ideas in each paragraph.

In some long texts, the entire introductory section may be a summary of the important points in the text (i.e., it may be a plan or map of the argument that the writer is about to present). In such cases, the introductory section serves the same function as the Preface or Foreward to a book.

Similarly, a writer may pause to summarize what he has already told us before going on to some new aspect of his argument. Such brief summaries are easier to spot if the writer has included subtitles for each part of his argument. The sum­mary of each part would most likely be found at the end of that part (before the next subtitle), end is often signaled by words such as: thus, hence, in brief, on the whole, summing up, to conclude and conclusion.

The final section of a long academic article is often a sum­mary of the main ideas in the article. When this is the case, by reading the introductory and final sections — even before he has skimmed the body of the text — the reader can get a good idea of what the paper is all about.

In general, an introductory summary should be used as a guide to reading: it's as useful to the reader as a map is to the navigator of some unknown territory. A concluding summary helps the reader to control for important points he may have missed or misunderstood in the course of reading the body of the text. The skilled reader will immediately go back to the body of the text to find or clarify anything in the summary that is unfamiliar or unclear.

B. WRITING A SUMMARY (AFTER HAVING READ A TEXT)

There is a paradox involved in trying to summarize a text. On the one hand, the summary must be general and focus on the most important ideas, at times substituting a single gener­alization for an extended segment of text, or not even men­tioning other segments of the text because in your judgement, they add nothing new. For example, you may refer to part of the text as «the author's analysis of English economy» even though the text does not provide that label. On the other hand, your summary must be specific and refer to important facts, to points crucial to the development of the argument, or even to examples that provide essential support. It should also be writ­ten in precise and specific language that reflects your analysis of the text.

Before you can write a good summary you must understand and analyze the text. You will probably have to read the text, or at least parts of the text, more than once in order to answer such questions as the following:

1. What is the controlling idea or the main idea of the article?

2. What is the purpose of the article (regardless of whether the purpose is stated explicitly or only implied)?

3. How does the author develop his main idea — that is, what information is used to support the argument and how is the information organized?

4. What is the author's attitude toward the subject?

Theoretically, a summary can be as short as a single sen­tence or as long as about one fourth of the original. How long a summary should be and what kinds of information it should include and leave out depends on the purpose of the summary. If you are summarizing an article in order to organize and study the information it presents for an examination, for ex­ample, you will probably prefer a longer summary that in­cludes essential facts and some examples that illustrate impor­tant points. On the other hand, if your purpose is to make a bibliographic note of the main idea of an article you have consulted in writing a paper, a sentence or two may be enough to remind you what the article was about.