B. walk, stroll, wander, stagger, shuffle, creep, slip, dash

1. The old man was... down the corridor, {dragging his feet) 2. For a long time he... about the town, {aimlessly) 3. He... out of the room unnoticed. 4. He... towards the door, trying to make no noise. 5. He was bumped into by the women who... out of the shop doors with their purchases, without looking first to right or left. 6. Now I was quite content to... mile after mile through this silent moonlit wood. 7. He... towards the door clutching at his wound, and then fell to the floor. 8. They... down the lane hand in hand.

Exercise 4. Replace the general, overused adjective or adverb with a more specific and effective one. Justify your choice, where more than one of the specific adjectives can be used, by extending the context.

1. That was a good lecture, {witty, stimulating, instructive, entertaining, up-to-date) 2. She is a nice girl, (friendly, warm-hearted, generous, modest, vivacious) 2. He answers every question well, (correctly,promptly, wittily) 4. Marion always dresses well, (elegantly, expensively, smartly, fashionably, tastefully) 5. He is a good student, (clever, intelligent, hard-working, conscientious) 6. She had a very nice face: her beauty took your breath away, (rare, unusual, striking)

Exercise 5. With the help of a dictionary (Hornby s, for example) define the stylistic value of each of the following words (formal, neutral, colloquial, slang, etc.):

1. begin, commence, start 1. to die, to kick the bucket, to pass

away, to decease

2. a furnished room, pad, a place of 8. to be frustrated, to be hung-up
residence

3. like, to be crazy about 9. money, dough, cash

4. phoney, sham, false 10. doctor, physician, doc

5. intelligent, smart, highbrow, brainy 11. certainly, of course, sure, о 'key.

6. man, chap, fellow, guy

Exercise 6. Some of the italicized words and phrases are colloquial, others are neutral, still others formal. With the help of a dictionary decide which of them are more appropriate in colloquial than in formal writing. Are all these expressions used appropriately? Give a neutral variant for each colloquial or formal one.

1. Soon, thanks to his enthusiasm, an exhibition was organized in M. 2. Once he invited me to a party saying that his sister would be therefor sure. 3. There is no doubt that a whole batch of new mathematical techniques will have to be cooked up before it will be possible to solve satisfactorily a lot of scientific problems that today can only be tackled empirically or experimentally. 4. Anybody could immediately tell that she

was aware of her great looks. 5. The Government failed to ensure that the press would keep mum on the new international agreement. 6. He would discourse at length about the great wealth of the Russian language.

Exercise 7. Find Russian equivalents, where possible, for the following idioms. How do they differ from the English ones? Make up sentences with them.

a hornet's nest; to break the ice; to talk nineteen to the dozen; to turn a blind eye to something; to let the cat out of the bag; to take something with a pinch of salt; to be in one's element.

Exercise 8. Study the following examples, paying attention to the italicized words. Write out the italicized expressions and compare them with the corresponding Russian expressions. Use them in examples of your own.

1. What I tell you now, I mean, and I want you to know that I am speaking from the bottom of my heart. 2. I had the usual beginner's luck. 3.1 was not hungry. I ate only to spite him. 4. Aaron loathed him on principle. 5. I'll take it on trust. 6. We had to go to bed on an empty stomach. 7. He is one of those rare people who is content with his lot. 8. We walked to the edge of the town to get a breath of fresh air and to stretch our legs. 9. All this only whetted my curiosity. 10. The rest of the money she put in the savings bank for a rainy day.

Exercise 9. Do you know the difference between the following set expressions:

to catch a glimpse/sight ofsmb or smth and to catch smb s glance/eye (compare the latter with to throw a glance); at a glance, at first sight, at | the sight of smth.

Study the following examples, and then make up sentences of your own with the expressions given above.

1. She felt as if she had caught sight of a strange face in the mirror, and then realized that the face was her own. 2. This is the hour when from my balcony I catch an unexpected glimpse of her walking idly towards the town in her white sandals. 3. Sometimes Miss Brent would watch him and if he caught her glance he just winked. 4. When he caught our eyes he.] smiled. 5. The time had come for my violin practice. Now and then, when I got the note just right, Mother would throw me a glance. 6. It was love at first sight. 7.1 saw at a glance that they had quarrelled. 8. His mouth watered at the sight of the ripe water-melon.

Exercise 10. Translate the following sentences and use the verbs with post-positives in examples of your own.

1. He would turn up in the town every few months. 2. She was going to have a new cupboard made, but she has not seen about it yet. 3. Someone

was guilty — and got away with it. 4. He had personality, you know. Nothing much to look at, but magnetic, women always fell for him.

5. Something in the spotless austerity of the room was getting me down.

6. He was the sort of chap that thought up all the ways you can get round
the law. 7. Over-exertion is killing him slowly because he won't give in
when he feels tired. 8. Of course we don't normally all live together. The
war and blitzes have brought that about. 9.1 was tired and turned in rather
early last night. 10. The headmaster was trying to find out who had put the
boy up to it.

Exercise 11. For each verb in the left-hand column find the equivalent in the right-hand column. Use the verbs with postpositives in examples of your own.

1. breakout appear

2. bring smth about betray

3. drop off deceive

4. get away with smth persuade/dissuade

5. giveaway manage without

6. go into explode

7. go off recover

8. make do without smth investigate

9. take smb in cause smth to happen

10. talk smb into/out of smth decrease

11. pull through escape without punishment

12. turn down start

13. turnup reject

Exercise 12. Replace the italicized words with a verb-postpositive combination from the list in the previous exercise.

1. His disguise was clever but his voice betrayed him. 2.1 will examine the matter as soon as possible. 3. Attendances have been decreasing lately. 4.1 was ten when the war started. 5.1 thought I heard a bomb explode in the middle of the night. 6. Nobody knows exactly what caused that financial crisis. 7. There was no bread in the house, so we had to manage without. 8. He was very ill at one time, but, amazingly, recovered. 9. Dolly's parents dissuaded her from accepting his proposal. 10. He was badly deceived when he bought that second-hand car.

Exercise 13. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate verb-postpositive combination (consult the list in Exercise 11).

1. Epidemics of the plague would... in medieval Europe from time

to time. 2. It was time to begin but Ruby hadn't... 3.1 do like him, he's

a very attractive person, but he can't... me....4.1 wonder what has......

this hideous headache. 5. There is no butter, can you... it? 6. He had

such charm that he could......... murder. 7. You would never... him...

He was usually late. He thought the study of Latin was a waste of time.

a. Не was not very often on time.

b. He did not think that studying Latin

was a sensible way to use one's time.

The above examples show the weakness inherent in the word not. The reader is dissatisfied with being told only what is not; he wishes to be told what is. It is, therefore, often better to express even a negative idea in positive form, as follows:

did not remember — forgot

did not have much confidence in — distrusted

not important — unimportant, trifling

Negations other than not, that is never, nor, etc. — are usually strong. / never knew she was so lovely.

2. Avoid a succession of simple sentences. When you begin learning a foreign language, short simple sentences are the best you can manage. You are at the level of a child who speaks in a series of short sentences: My trike was lost. I found my trike. It was behind the garage. I lost it last night. It was wet. It rained on it. With time, after you have mastered enough grammar you should be able to present the same ideas in a more sophisticated form: Bobby found his tricycle behind the garage, where he had left it last night when it began to rain (note the change in tenses, too).

Compare the following:

Some time passed. The local museum organized an exhibition. The portrait by Titian was shown there. It was the highlight of the exhibition. It had a wall to itself.

After some time the local museum organized an exhibition. Among the works shown there was the Titian portrait, which was naturally the highlight and therefore had a wall to itself.

3. Combine ideas logically. Sentences may lack logic and therefore clarity because they are overloaded with unrelated and often incompatible details, e. g. The library, old and dusty and well lit with bright new lamps, was a melancholy place to work in.

Melancholy seems to be related to old and dusty, but not the new lighting, so this last detail should either have been omitted or expressed in a subordinate clause: The library, though well lit with new lamps, was old and dusty and therefore a melancholy place to work in.

Here is another example of muddled logic in writing:

Military training teaches a person to stand upright and walk with his head up; this helps in future life because it becomes a habit and so many people have the habit of walking stooped and this leads to poor health and poor appearance.

If you write sentences like these, your remedy is to go back to the first principles of thought communication: say one thing at a time; say it as simply and as clearly as you can; say it so that it cannot be misunderstood.

Let us try to dissect these sentences in order to discover what the writer was trying to say.

Military training teaches a person to stand upright and to walk with his head up. (That is enough for one sentence.) Good posture (that is, evidently, what the writer means by this and it) becomes habitual, which leads directly to better health and better appearance.

As you see, the improved version is shorter, clearer and more sophisticated in syntax.

B. Choice of Syntactical Structures

While the logic of expressing ideas is common to all people, forms of expression differ from language to language. Even after you have learnt the grammar of a foreign language, some patterns may escape you, because they have no parallel in your mother tongue, or mother tongue habits may interfere with the habits of the acquired language. In the following pages we shall remind you of some useful syntactical patterns which you should be able to use in your writing to make it more idiomatic, mature and stylistically varied.

1. Parallel structures. Parallelism, or expressing similar ideas in similar grammatical terms, makes for brevity, coherence and balance of style. Here are a few examples of parallel structures.

The girl was small, plump and fair, (homogeneous predicatives expressed by adjectives)

Finding aflat and beginning her job were the next steps in her life, (homogeneous subjects expressed by gerundial phrases)

This pattern seems fairly obvious and easy to follow, but it is not always quite so simple in practice. There are two types of faulty parallelism which usually betray a lapse in logic:

a) The doctor recommended plenty of food, sleep and exercising. (Here
elements similar in idea are not made similar in form; there are two nouns
and a gerund. The correct version is:... food, sleep and exercise.)

b) She has travelled by land, sea and aeroplane. (The elements are
similar in form (nouns) but on different generalization levels; the correct
version is: by land, sea and air, or by train, boat and aeroplane.)

Parallel forms may be used with the correlative conjunctions both... and, either... or, neither... nor, not only... but also.

Sometimes it is possible to avoid repeating an element common to both parts of the parallel structure (e. g. a preposition, pronoun, article or phrase), e. g. And because of the memories it holds and the comfort it provides my room is a constant source of pleasure, (because o/not repeated) The team was praised for its courage and endurance, (for its not repeated)

investing his money in such a risky enterprise. 8. He came across with a

very interesting proposal which was...... by the other members of the

committee.

Exercise 14. Study the list of nouns derived from verbs with postpositives (see para. 5, p. 94-95) and complete the following sentences with a suitable noun.

1.1 always get in a muddle if a novel is told with too many.... 2. Everyone was disappointed at the... of those talks. 3. There has been no... in the export drive. 4. That was a spectacular... with the share­holders of both companies present. 5. That illness was a great... to him in his career. 6. University... are usually people who have failed repeatedly in examinations. 7. The prospects for a peaceful settlement have been precipitated by the recent... of borderline clashes.

Exercise 15. Below you will find some examples of cliches taken from Partridge s dictionary; compare them with the corresponding Russian ones. Would you use the latter in your speech or writing? And the English ones?

breathless silence; (his/her) better half; busy as a bee; conspicuous by his absence; (the) energy of despair; easier said than done; riot of colour; words fail to express.

Exercise 16. In the following sentences point out awkward repetitions and examples of wordiness, then rewrite the sentences, making them more concise and grammatically correct (some of them are ungrammatical).

1. He went to see the father of the girl to whom he was engaged to be married. 2.1 understood that she was the kind of person who was aware of her beauty. 3. At the party Aubrey was with a lady who was a nice-looking girl. 4. A feature of entertainment especially worthy of mention was the singing of Miss Astor. 5. The reason why I was so upset was because she seemed so angry with me. 6. They were so much astonished to find so much still to do that they were quite speechless. 7. The novel is devoted to the problem concerning the contradiction between man's desires and the real result of his activity. 8. The two companies gathered for a meeting. The reason for it was devoted to the question how to evade new tax regulations.

Exercise 17. Point out examples of tautology and rewrite the sentences with the necessary corrections.

1. He returned back late at night. 2. It sounded quite natural enough. 3.1 happened to meet her by chance at the theatre. 4. He was always full of life and in high spirits; nobody saw him depressed. 5. The story impressed us greatly. It was so extraordinary and unusual. 6. Deborah Franklin had a perfect figure, and classical features of the face. 7. That morning he woke

up at six a. m. 8. You've made a mistake: please repeat the word again.

9. The basic fundamental essentials of a college education are these.

10. When they finally reached the top of the hill, they were tired and
exhausted. 11. She soon realized that she ought to have warned the owner
in advance.

Exercise 18. Replace the italicized words with a single adjective from the list at the head of the exercise. (When the adjective is used attributively, it should precede the word it defines.) Use each word once only.

acquisitive, permissive, negligible, fastidious, momentous, malicious, ingenuous, incompatible, irresponsible.

1. In a speech of great importance and gravity the head of the state spoke of the recent achievements of the country. 2. The newspaper was sued for having made remarks motivated by ill will and spite about the famous singer. 3. Present day English society is often labelled permitting many things that were forbidden before. 4. At certain ages, many children are very difficult to please or very particular about food and clothes. 5. Adolescents often go through a phase when they are completely lacking in any sense of responsibility. 6. When asked about the broken window pane, the boy, with an open and innocent expression on his face, pretended to know nothing about it. 7. The two views are such as cannot be reconciled to one another. 8. The damage was found to be of little or no significance.

Exercise 19. Replace the italicized words by a single adverb, making any necessary changes in word order.

briefly, briskly, fatally, superficially, conscientiously, outspokenly.

1. In the accident that occurred last night two men were so badly wounded that they died. 2. He did his work with great care and thoroughness. 3. We walked actively and with energy along the cliffs and soon became warm despite the cold wind. 4. He expressed his point of view in very few words. 5. A member of the Opposition voiced his objections without any reticence or reserve. 6. The book deals with the subject in a very shallow manner.

Syntax A. General Recommendations

1. Put statements in positive form. If you want to state something make a definite assertion. Avoid colourless, non-committal, tentative sentences. Use the word not as a means of negation, not as a means of evasion. Compare the following examples.

A general rule to follow is to repeat the initial word or phrase in a parallel structure whenever it is necessary to make the meaning clear. In a succession of that-clauses, for example, the meaning is usually clearer if the introductory that is repeated in every clause, e. g. The boy denied that he had entered the house and he had taken the money, (ambiguous)

The boy denied that he had entered the house and that he had taken the money, (clear)

In a comparison phrase it clarifies the meaning if you repeat the preposition: e. g. The weather was a greater handicap to the invading army than the enemy, (ambiguous)

The weather was a greater handicap to the invading army than to the enemy, (clear)

2. Appositives. The appositive may be used to express details in a
compact way. Consider the following passage:

I was born in Middleville. It's a real small town. Most of the people in it are farmers. They raise cows for milk and a lot of apples. Still, ifs the county seat of Whiteside County.

The fault here, besides wordiness, wrong parallelism and the use of contracted forms, is monotony of syntactical construction. Using appositives you may rewrite it in a more efficient style:

I was born in Middleville, a small dairy and apple-growing community and the seat of Whiteside County.

The following example shows you how to combine two sentences into one with the help of appositives, and thus achieve a more mature style.

The custom of kissing under the mistletoe was once an old Druid religious ceremony. It is now a pleasant part of Christmas.

The custom of kissing under the mistletoe, once an old Druid religious ceremony, is now a pleasant part of Christmas.

Note that appositives of this type are set off by commas.

3. Absolute participial constructions. As the absolute participial
construction does not exist in Russian, students are unaccustomed to using
it. Yet quite often an absolute phrase is the best way of expressing an
idea — graceful, with a minimum number of words, breaking the monotony
of too many subordinate clauses, introducing a new rhythm.

Compare the following sentences:

After his patience had been exhausted, the teacher ordered the pupil to leave the classroom.

His patience exhausted, the teacher ordered the pupil to leave the

classroom.

The adverbial clause of the first sentence is substituted by an absolute construction in the second. We see that the absolute construction expresses the same idea with greater economy and force.

There are two types of absolute constructions: 1) the nominative and 2) the prepositional absolute constructions. Either of them may or may not contain a participle,

e. g. 1) The concert {being) over, we went away.

2) He walked slowly, with his hands {thrust) deep in his pockets.

Absolute participial constructions are generally separated by a comma, except those introduced by with, which occur fairly often without a comma.

However useful the absolute construction may be, it should be used in moderation. Remember, too, that these constructions (except those introduced by with) are characteristic of formal style.

4. Variations in sentence openings. The English language is charac­terized by fixed word order, which means that the subject normally comes before the predicate. This does not mean, however, that the subject always opens the sentence; it would be too monotonous. Variety is introduced by placing appositives, attributes, or adverbial modifiers first, as you will see from the following examples:

(I) A single-word modifier:

a. The time for decision had finally come.
Finally, the time for decision had come.

b. Cardinal Richelieu was shrewd and powerful and had enormous
influence upon the King of France.

Shrewd and powerful, Cardinal Richelieu had enormous influence upon the King of France.

(II) A phrase modifier:

a. Oxford has developed rapidly as an industrial and commercial
centre since the 1930s.

Since the 1930s, Oxford has developed rapidly as an industrial and commercial centre, (prepositional phrase)

b. The inspector looked through several suitcases to find the hidden
papers.

To find the hidden papers, the inspector looked through several suitcases, (infinitive phrase)

с The Normans, after settling in Northern France, crossed to England and conquered it in 1066.

After settling in Northern France, the Normans crossed to England and conquered it in 1066. (gerundial phrase)

d. Confucius learnt a great deal about human nature, studying people's
actions.

Studying people's actions, Confucius learnt a great deal about human nature, (participial phrase)

e. The forest ranger, an expert in forest fire control, talked to the
campers about safety in the woods.

An expert in forest fire control, the forest ranger talked to the campers about safety in the woods, (appositive phrase) Note that the part of the sentence placed first acquires a special stress. The appositive phrase in this case seems to have acquired a causal meaning, rather like:

Being an expert in forest fire control, the forest ranger...

(Ill) A subordinate clause.

When writing in complex sentences, variety can be achieved by putting the subordinate clause before the main clause.

a. The gardener had to plant roses when they ran out of carnations.
When they ran out of carnations, the gardener had to plant roses.

b. He began his climbing career when he was eighteen. When he was
eighteen, he began his climbing career.

One should remember, however, that in this case the idea expressed by the subordinate clause takes on a greater emphasis, which changes the functional perspective of the sentence. Therefore one should use this inversion with discrimination.

Below you will find a list of connectives and transitional phrases which will help you to vary your sentence openings.

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