新世纪高等院校英语专业本科生系列教材写作教程第一册第二单元 语法和练习

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PART III GRAMMAR

pronouns

Subjective vs. objective

Reference for the Classroom Activities

a. She has told me about it.

b. -- Who is it?.

It's me.

a.That's him, I'm sure.

b.It was she who solved the problem. (In this sentence, her is also acceptable though it is the subject of the relative clause. The only difference is in style, subjective pronouns sound more formal than objective pronouns. Two more examples: It was them who helped me out.

It was me who did it. )

e. Jill is the girl who I think went up the hill.

(In the relative clause, who is the subject and the phrase I think is an explanatory parenthesis. )

f. The Red Cross will accept whoever volunteers.

( Whoever is the subject of volunteers. The clause whoever volunteers is the object of accept. )

g. Who/Whom is it for?

h. To whom is the letter addressed?

Now, ask students to summarize the rules about the case of pronouns

Summary:

1.Subjective pronouns can be used as the subject or part of the predicate of a sentence, while objective pronouns can be used as the object of either a verb or a preposition.

2.Both subjective and objective pronouns can be used as part of a predicate and the difference lies in style. If a subjective pronoun is used, it sounds formal and, therefore, is usually preferred in formal writing. If it is an objective pronoun that is used, it sounds colloquial and is, therefore, preferred in informal speech.

3.Phrases like I think, I believe, I suppose, when inserted into a clause, do not affect the roles of the other components in the clause.

4.when the interrogative pronoun is not the first word of a question, standard usage has not yet given up whom after a preposition or at the end of the question: For whom was the party given? You listened to whom? With whom did you go? However, popular usage gas been moving towards the elimination of whom, especially when it comes first in a question. Who is it for? Who did you meet? Who are you looking for?

Singular vs. plural

Reference for the Classroom Activities

a. Someone left his or her umbrella on the train. (One person left one umbrella. )

b. Everybody drove his own car to the camping site. (Each person got into his own car and drove it. )

c. No one likes to be forced to do what he doesn't like. (Focus should remain on individual's freedom. )

d. (correct) (Although everyone looks singular and is often followed by a singular verb,this sentence would be illogical if carried out in the singular: Everyone was in the classroom, but he has left to get pizza. )

e. (correct) (A number of people left a number of raincoats. )

Now, ask students to summarize the rules about the number of pronouns

Summary:

https://www.wendangku.net/doc/f56320613.html,e a singular pronoun when the intent of the antecedent is singular. An indefinite pronoun, like someone, everyone, no one, and one, is usually considered to be singular and referred to with singular pronouns, but sometimes it is used in the plural sense and form.

https://www.wendangku.net/doc/f56320613.html,e a plural pronoun when the intent of the antecedent is plural.

3.Point of view

Reference for the Classroom Activities

Revised version 1:

When people read about a natural disaster in another country, it hardly affects them. Of course, they feel bad and upset when people get killed. But as these disasters happen thousands of miles away from them and because they don't affect their own life, they are not traumatized by them. If a flood killed their own close friends, they would be more emotionally upset.

Revised version 2:

When we read about a natural disaster in another country, it hardly affects us. Of course, we feel bad and upset when people get killed. But as these disasters happen thousands of miles away from us and because they don't affect our own life, we aren't traumatized by them. If a flood killed our close friends, we would be more emotionally upset.

Notice while the first version is comfortable and respectable, the second one involves the audience more effectively and directly because of the use of the pronoun we. The pronoun you can also achieve the same effect in this paragraph.

Now, ask students to draw a conclusion from the activity

Summary:

One of the problems about the point of view is a careless shift from one subject to another within a sentence or from one sentence to the next. The solution is to rewrite the paragraph using a consistent presiding pronoun, or point of view.

PART V FOLLOW-UP EXERCISES

1. a. In this excerpt, Liza's style is all but appropriate for the occasion. At the beginning, she chooses a formal and affected style but later slides to colloquial and finally slang expressions. The other characters at the scene use general and colloquial vocabulary that is appropriate for the context.

b. No. Here the obvious switch from a formal to a highly colloquial style shows Liza in a transitional stage. She does not see that her learned comment on the weather is posed to be a lady and reverts to her natural speech, which incidentally is much more expressive and colorful than her phony formality.

2. a. play a minor role/be a utility man.

b. That's Greek to me.

c. belated action/advice

d. Where there is smoke there's fir

e.

e. an evil creature

f. walk into the trap

g. one's face glowing with health

3. a. We must practice economy. / We must reduce unnecessary expenditures.

b. It is essential to control environmental pollution.

c. We must arrive at the station on time.

d. Financial expenditures should be arranged in order of priority.

e. We should speed up constructions of urban housing so as to improve the housing condition.

f. To be allowed to make profits, private capital has to meet two conditions:1) the profits must be legal, and 2) they must not be excessive.

g. During the period of the Tenth Five-Year Plan we must never neglect grain production. Instead, we must steadily increase it.

4. Reference version

Women's Rights

In feudal China, women had low social status, and were regarded as inferior to men. Thanks to the women's liberation movement, women have achieved equal status with men, which is established by the law. But in fact, they still can't enjoy equal rights with men.

At home, wives are expected to do all the housework, which is obviously unfair. Husband and wife should share the housework and family responsibilities. But in some families husbands usually get angry when they find the cleaning or cooking unfinished by their wives. One can't help wondering why they don't do it by themselves.