Working with language
1. Look at these pairs of sentences.
Penny said to Jody, “Will you be back before dinner?”
Penny asked Jody if he would be back before dinner.
“How are you feeling, Pa?” asked Jody.
Jody asked his father how he was feeling.
Here are some questions in direct speech. Put them into reported speech.
(i) Penny said, “Do you really want it son?”
Solution: Penny asked his son if he really wanted the fawn.
(ii) Mill-wheel said, “Will he ride back with me?”
Solution: Mill-wheel enquired if Jody would ride back with him.
(iii) He said to Mill-wheel, “Do you think the fawn is still there?”
Solution: Jody asked Mill-wheel if he thought the fawn was still there.
(iv) He asked Mill-wheel, “Will you help me find him?”
Solution: He asked Mill-wheel if he would help him find the fawn.
(v) He said, “Was it up here that Pa got bitten by the snake?”
Solution: Mill-wheel wanted to know if that was the place where Pa had got bitten by the snake.
2. Look at these two sentences.
He tumbled backward.
It turned its head.
The first sentence has an intransitive verb, a verb without an object. The second sentence has a transitive verb. It has a direct object. We can ask: “What did it turn?” You can answer: “Its head. It turned its head.”
Say whether the verb in each sentence below transitive or intransitive. Ask yourself a ‘what’ question about the verb, as in the example above. (For some verbs, the object is a person, so ask the question ‘who’ instead of ‘what’).
(i) Jody then went to the kitchen.
Solution: Intransitive
(ii) The fawn wobbled after him
Solution: Intransitive
(iii) You found him.
Solution: Transitive
(iv) He picked it up.
Solution: Transitive
(v) He dipped his fingers in the milk.
Solution: Transitive
(vi) It bleated frantically and butted him.
Solution: Intransitive, Transitive
(vii) The fawn sucked his fingers.
Solution: Transitive
(viii) He lowered his fingers slowly into the milk.
Solution: Transitive
(ix) It stamped its small hoofs impatiently.
Solution: Transitive
(x) He held his fingers below the level of the milk.
Solution: Transitive
(xi) The fawn followed him.
Solution: Transitive
(xii) He walked all day.
Solution: Intransitive
(xiii) He stroked its sides.
Solution: Transitive
(xiv) The fawn lifted its nose.
Solution: Transitive
(xv) Its legs hung limply.
Solution: Intransitive
3. Here are some words from the lesson. Working in groups, arrange them in the order in which they would appear in the dictionary. Write down some idioms and phrasal verbs connected to these words. Use the dictionary for more idioms and phrasal verbs.
close draw make wonder scrawny parted clearing sweet light pick |
Solution:
The words appear in the following sequence in the dictonary :
clearing, close, draw, light, make, parted, pick, scrawny, sweet, wonder.
Idioms or phrasal verbs connected to the above words.
Clearing: clearing, campaign
Close: close shave, close up, close quarters
Draw: draw the curtain on/over, draw a blank
Light: in the light of, bring to light
Make: make the most of, make up
Part: part with, parted comparing
Pick: pick up, pick and choose
Scrawny: the scrawny neck
Sweet: have a sweet tooth, sweet seventeen, sweet tongued, sweet nothings
Wonder: wonder world, wonder load, nine day’s wonder, wonder about, do wonders.