Send in Task 2 ANSWERS Sections B,C,D,E B. Identify the noun information below. Are they abstract or concrete? Are they proper or common? Are they countable or uncountable (noncount)? Are they plural or singular? Are they variable or invariable? Use the following abbreviations in your answer: Abs-­‐abstract, Con-­‐concrete, P-­‐proper, Com-­‐common, UnCt-­‐uncountable, Ct-­‐countable, PL-­‐ plural, S-­‐singular, V-­‐variable, I-­‐invariable e.g. homework Abs, Con, Com, UnCt • All uncountable nouns act as singular entities in the sentence, so they take singular verb sand they are all by default invariable. • Some invariable countable nouns require context to tell whether one or more entities are referred to, so you can't tell whether they are plural or singular in this case. • You will not be held responsible for knowing whether things are abstract or concrete on the exam. 1. milk Con, Com, UnCt 2. loaf Con, Com, Ct, S, V 3. geese Con, Com, Ct, PL, V 4. Sweden Abs, P, UnCt 5. stimulus Abs, Com, Ct, S, V 6. money can be Abs or Con depending on the context, Com, UnCt 7. mortgage Abs, Com, Ct, S, V 8. deer Con, Com, Ct, I, can be PL or S depending on context 9. vermin Con, Com, Ct, I, PL 10. police Con, Com, Ct, I, PL 11. statistics Abs, Com, Ct or UnCt, depending on context, Com, if countable then this is the plural form, if uncountable it acts as a singular entity with verbs 12. homework Abs or Con depending on the context, Com, UnCt C. Give the plural forms of the following nouns: leaf, moose, Swiss wife, louse, woman, author, analysis, sister-­‐in-­‐law, stimulus, species, criterion, person 1. leaf LEAVES 2. moose MOOSE 3. Swiss SWISS 4. wife WIVES 5. louse LICE 6. woman author WOMEN AUTHORS 7. analysis ANALYSES 8. sister-­‐in-­‐law SISTERS-­‐IN-­‐LAW 9. stimulus STIMULI 10. species SPECIES 11. criterion CRITERIA 12. person PERSONS/PEOPLE (more common) D. Some (but not necessarily all) of the sentences below have mistakes in them. Correct the ones which have mistakes by giving the correct form. Why were they wrong? 1. The couple were in the restaurant. correct 2. The board consists of two members. correct 3. Two miles are a long distance to crawl. IS 4. The Himalayas is in Asia. ARE 5. Mathematics are difficult. IS 6. Measles are deadly. IS 7. The cod are jumping in the water. correct 8. Check out the news in the paper of today. IN TODAY'S PAPER 9. The womens' movement is still going strong. WOMEN'S 10. Elvis' grave is in Memphis. correct 11. Many important evidences are shown in the report. MUCH IMPORTANT EVIDENCE IS 12. He is an yodeller from Austria. A 13. They went to the bed to sleep having lost the interest in TV. 14. The Communism is a political ideology. E. Various Questions 1. What is meant by a noun with a zero plural? Give at least three examples. a zero plural is a countable noun which has the same form for both singular and plural, ex. cod, Vietnamese, headquarters 2. Explain the use or absence (-­‐) of the indefinite article in the following sentences: a. She is an engineer and has recently been appointed (-­‐) managing director of the firm she works for. managing director is unique, engineer isn't b. Clinton was (-­‐) governor of Arkansas before he was elected (-­‐) president of the United States. both governor of Arkansas and president of the US are unique positions c. She is a Catholic but she is married to a Protestant. could also be 'she is Catholic'-­‐ here it's an Adj, otherwise, the subject predicative of the first clause is a classifying NP, if used as a NP, an indef. article is needed as neither Catholic nor Protestant are unique d. She is a professor at Oxford University. nonunique e. Would you like some tea? No thanks, but a coffee would be nice. a (cup of) coffee, here coffee is a count noun, not uncountable. 3. Explain the use or absence (-­‐) of the definite article in the following: a. The petrol polluted the whole area. the petrol is known from previous discourse, specific reference b. (-­‐) Petrol has become very expensive. general reference c. (-­‐) Doctors claim that coffee makes you slim. collective reference d. The doctors can’t do anything to save him. specific reference e. He was so seriously hurt that he had to go to (-­‐) hospital. place of human activity rather than the building f. They drove past the hospital. building g. (-­‐) History can teach us a lot about the present. subject generally h. The history of the US is interesting. specific history (indicated by post-­‐modifier US) 4. Do these proper nouns take the definite article or not? Are there guidelines as to why? • EU-­‐yes, named (proper N) organizations & countries with >1 word in the name, • Internet-­‐yes, unique reference, winter-­‐no def. article if used generically, but if used more specifically they can either take or not take the definite article, • Netherlands-­‐yes, • Lake Michigan-­‐no, • BBC-­‐yes, most organizations referred to via acronyms take the definite article, • Rocky Mountains-­‐yes, mountain range, • New York Times-­‐yes, newspaper name, • Kennedys-­‐yes, specific family, • Easter-­‐no, holiday, • Pacific Ocean-­‐yes, oceans & seas take the definite article 5. Identify the grammatical “problem” in the sentences below, correct the error and try to explain what the problem is: a. This is an normal answer. 'an' →'a' before 'n' in 'normal' b. The society has a great responsibility in these matters. no 'the', generic reference c. USA have eight of the world’s top ten universities. 'the USA has' d. What a nice weather! no 'a' before 'weather' which is uncountable e. No news are good news. 'are'-­‐>'is' as 'news' is uncountable f. He’s in good mood today. 'a' before 'good', when describing someone's mood and the word 'mood' is the complement of a PP, you always need an indefinite article g. Parents sometimes feel that they can’t affect their childrens lives. 'childrens'-­‐>'children's', need genitive to show whose lives we're talking about h. There were a lot of damages on their car after the accident. 'were'-­‐>'was' and 'damages'-­‐>'damage' as 'damage' in this sense is uncountable; it's countable in the legal sense where it means money owed i. Many people have lost their job during the recession. 'job'-­‐>'jobs' as they don't share the same job! j. We often had homeworks consisting of a list of words that had to be learnt by heart. homework is uncountable in English