Exercise 9. Insert articles where necessary. Pay attention to the abstract nouns that are never used with the indefinite article.
1. The day started with __ good news. (S. Sheldon)
2. Howard couldn’t wait to tell his parents __ exciting news. (S. Sheldon)
3. __ bad news is that I have to leave for Venice tomorrow. (S. Sheldon)
4. The marriage of Lara Cameron to Philip Adler made headlines around the world. When Howard Keller heard __ news, he went out and got drunk for the first time in his life. (S. Sheldon)
5. “It’s __ wonderful news!” (S. Sheldon)
6. __ news was going to travel through international financial circles like a shock wave. (S. Sheldon)
7. Rhys knew how deeply __ news would affect her. (S. Sheldon)
8. Months before, the magazine had asked __ permission to do a story about him and he had foolishly agreed. (S. Sheldon)
9. __ news about Isaac’s father swept through the ghetto. (S. Sheldon)
10. He got __ permission from the headmistress to take Elizabeth out for dinner. (S. Sheldon)
11. She had been the one to break __ news that Tufton was dead. (K. Saunders)
12. Quite apart from being beautiful, he was a good cook, __ great fun, and endlessly, quietly supportive. (K. Saunders)
13. After all it had been __ fun. (W.S. Maugham)
14. “Fire away. What’s __ news?” (K. Saunders)
15. __ work was to begin on the demolition of the hospital and the construction of the new building in April. (S. Sheldon)
16. It was Kit who broke __ news, when the mugger was found, three days after the attack, with the blood of Octavius on his clothes. (K. Saunders)
17. __ good news is rather academic, when you’re in the thick of __ bad news. (K. Saunders)
18. It was __ revolting work. (S. Fry)
19. We had really __ wonderful weather. (D. du Maurier)
20. It had been something about Collis going into his father’s business – __ good sound advice. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)
21. They’re the people I’d turn to if I had some bad news so why not tell them when __ news is good? (M. Gayle)
22. __ nature as a rather coarse phenomenon composed largely of flowers. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)
23. Amory was on the other side, full of confidence and vanity, gazing at her in__ open admiration. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)
24. [A jury consists of] twelve men of __ limited information and intelligence, chosen precisely because of their lack of intellectual resilience. (H.L. Mencken)
25. He’s a very likeable young man and he gives people __ excellent advice. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)
26. __ basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I am doing. (Werner von Braun)
27. If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; of you steal from many, it’s __ research. (Wilson Mizner)
28. __ good luck is a lazy man’s estimate of a worker’s success. (Anonymous)
29. Michael had __ perfect health. (W.S. Maugham)
30. Unless we receive __ financial assistance from the government, the hospital will have to close.
31. The council provides __ practical guidance and support for students wishing to study abroad.
32. The depletion of the ozone layer is causing __ widespread concern among scientists and doctors.
33. Elliot had always felt that __ nature was an impediment to the social life, and he had no patience with people who could bother to go to see a lake or a mountain when they had before their eyes a Regency commode or a painting by Watteau. (W.S. Maugham)
34. __ rapid progress was made on the development of drugs controlling schizophrenia at this time.
35. It was __ sheer torture to hear him play the violin so badly.
36. She hoped she would avoid __ recognition by wearing dark glasses and a hat.
37. The only thing to do with __ good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself. (O. Wilde)
38. Captain Searle himself gave me __ permission yesterday to go and look at her, and I did. (D. du Maurier)
39. People are always rather bored with their parents. That’s __ human nature. (W.S. Maugham)
40. In __ scientific work, those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact. (Th. Huxley)