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Exercise 1. Add the definite article where necessary before the endings to make complete sentences.

Life would seem strange now without…

a) telephone;

b) video;

c) camera;

d) radio;

e) e-mail;

f) computer;

g) satellite television;

h) Internet;

i) press.

 

Exercise 2. Choose one of these nouns to complete each of the following sentences. (You will need to use some of the words more than once). Use an appropriate article.

newspaper papers phone post radio telephone television

1. If you go sailing you should listen to weather reports on ………….. .

2. Children spent too much time watching ………….. .

3. The Times is ………….. with a long tradition.

4. We bought ………….. with a 21-inch screen.

5. Before the days of television, people used to listen to ………….. .

6. All I know is what I see in ………….. . (W. Rogers)

7. Nowadays it’s possible to buy ………….. which you can speak into without lifting the receiver.

8. The letter is for you; it came in ………….. this morning.

9. I’ll send you a letter; it’s best not to talk about such things on ………….. .

10. Don’t believe everything you read in ………….. .

Exercise 3. Insert articles where necessary.

1. Paragraphs were sent to __ papers announcing the new venture and Michael and the publicity agent prepared interviews for him and Julia to give to __ Press. (W.S. Maugham)

2. She began to appear in __ media more and more often. (S. Sheldon)

3. __ telephone began ringing again from the little room. (D. du Maurier)

4. Now I don’t read anything but __ newspaper and detective stories. (W.S. Maugham)

5. She began to sing along with __ radio. (K. Saunders)

6. __ phone on my desk rings several times and I look at it as if I’ve never seen a phone before. “It’s __ phone,” says Fran. (M. Gayle)

7. __ free press is the mother of all our liberties and of our progress under liberty. (A. E. Stevenson)

8. __ morning paper is just as necessary for an American as dew is to the grass. (J. Billings)

9. __ newspapers are the world’s mirrors. (J. Ellis)

10. __ newspaper is a circulating library with high blood pressure. (A. “Bugs” Baer)

11. Time has convinced me of one thing: __ television is for appearing on – not looking at. (N. Coward)

12. __ media. It sounds like a convention of spiritualists. (T. Stoppard)

13. You know __ daytime television? You know what it’s supposed to be for? It’s to keep unemployed people happy. It’s supposed to stop them running to the social security demanding mad luxuries like cookers and windows. (V. Wood)

14. It is astonishing how articulate one can become when alone and raving at __ radio. Arguments and counterarguments, rhetoric and bombast flow from one’s lips like scurf from the hair of a bank manager. (S. Fry)

 

Means of Transport

Ø You can use the definite article with words like ‘train’ or ‘bus’ when you are referring to a whole transport system, rather than to an individual train or bus.

· She sent a cable to her husband and caught the plane back to New York.

· How long does it take on the train?



In these examples, the speaker does not mean one particular plane or train; there may be several possibilities. The speaker is naming the form or system of transport. Here is a list of words in this category.

boat hovercraft train underground (BrE)

bus plane tram

ferry subway (AmE) tube (BrE)

Ø ‘Boat’ and ‘ferry’ are used in this way but not ‘ship’.

· ...the vast new Lenin Bridge over the Volga which had replaced the ferry.

Ø ‘Taxi’, ‘car’ and ‘bicycle’ are not used in this way, because they do not offer a systematic means of transport; if you say to someone ‘Take the car’, you must be referring to a particular car.

Ø With ‘underground’, ‘tube’, and ‘subway’, you can use the definite article to refer not only to the form of transport, but also to the location.

· I am alone in the underground waiting for a train.

Ø All these words can be used after ‘by’ with a zero article to describe the form of transport used, for example: ‘by bus’, ‘by train’, ‘by plane’.

· I don’t often travel by bus.

· He got himself back to London the quickest way, by train and plane.

You can also use the following words after ‘by’ with a zero article.

air cab road taxi

bicycle car sea

bike rail ship


Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1535


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