Preface to the fourth edition A practical English Grammar is intended for intermediate and post-intermediate students. We hope that more advanced learners and teachers will also find it useful. The book is a comprehensive survey of structures and forms, written in clear modern English and illustrated with numerous examples. Areas of particular difficulty have been given special attention. Differences between conversational usage and strict grammatical forms are shown but the emphasis is on conversational forms. 1. Explanation and examples have been brought up to date. 2. There is now more information on countable and uncountable nouns, attributive and predicative adjectives, adverbs of places, sentence adverbs, cleft sentences, prepositions, conjunctives, modal verbs, perfect tenses, infinitive constructions, the passive, purpose clauses and nouns. In the fourth edition the main changes are as follows. 3. Some material has been rearranged to make comparisons easier. For example, parts of chapters on can, may, must etc. are now grouped by functions; verbs of liking and preference have a chapter to themselves; suggestions and invitations have joined the chapter on commands, requests and advice. 4. The contents list now summaries every edition heading, and there is a new index containing many more entries references. In this edition the sign "~" is frequently used to show a change of speaker in examples of dialogue. Note also that although the sign "="sometimes connects two words or expressions with the same meaning, it is often used more freely, e.g. to indicate a transformation from active to passive or direct to indirect speech. We wish to thank all at Oxford University Press who have assisted in the preparation of the fourth edition. We would also like to thank Professor Egawa of Nihon University, Japan, Professor Rene Dirven of Duisburg University, West Germany and other colleagues for their friendly and helpful suggestions. London, November 1985 A.J.T., A.VM According to the passage, we know that this grammar book _ . A) compares modern English with old English B) gives a large number of examples to reduce difficulty C) attaches more importance to conversational forms D) pays little attention to strict grammatical forms
C
It all started when my sister was invited to speak at a threeday conference in Budapest. Mom and I thought we would join her because she was not able to take her husband or daughter. After all, how often does a trip to Budapest come along? We began planning a week long trip to Budapest. It was the first visit to Europe for all three of us, and there was so much we wanted to see that we couldn't narrow our base destinations down any further than Venice, Budapest, Rome, Sorrento and Florence. We immediately applied for passports. We looked over maps and through books trying to decide exactly where to stay. I spent hours and days researching hotels, transportation, museums. We waited and waited to book tickets so we had a starting point on our dates. Finally everything fell into place and we decided our plans. The excitement continued to build day by day. I researched packing tips online and my list of necessities grew. Mom and I compared notes for weeks trying to decide what to wear, what to bring, what to buy ... in the end, however, we just chose whatever was comfortable and to be honest, mainly wore the same couple of clothes day after day, washing them in the hotel as necessary. The only good clothes we took were for the ballet in Budapest. And thank goodness for that -- I can't imagine lugging a larger suitcase on and off during the journey to Florence, and some other places. The big day arrived and with bags packed and repacked, it was off to the airport for our first European adventure! We can learn from the text that _ . A) they would carry a larger suitcase during the journey B) the author's sister lived in some European country then C) they would certainly visit Venice, Budapest, Rome, Sorrento and Florence D) the preparation for the journey cost them hours
C
Q: The story goes that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: "Today my best friend slapped me in the face." They kept on walking until they found an oasis , where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning , but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: "Today my best friend saved my life." The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone. Why?" The other friend replied: _ can erase it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it." You have to learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in the stone. When they found an oasis _ . A) they decided to swim out of the desert from it. B) the second friend wanted to slap his friend back. C) They wanted to take a break and wash themselves. D) The first friend was saved from drowning by the second and felt ashamed .
A: C
(Question)
If you'renotmakingmistakes,you'renottryinghardenough. It's good to make mistakes. That's not a _ , folks,and I have not lost my mind. It is good to make mistakes, and here's why. First of all, mistakes are a clear sign that you are trying new things. It's always good to try new things because when you are trying new things you are growing. If you never try anything new, how can you improve? How can you expand? How can you innovate? The simple answer is, "You can't." Look around you. With very few exceptions, either everything you see in your physical world or every single detail of every single thing is the result of someone trying something new. Another good thing about mistakes is this: when you are making mistakes, you are learning. Consider this: Edison failed 10,000 times before he perfected the light bulb. When asked how he felt to fail that many times, he remarked that he hadn't failed 10,000 times, but rather had learned 10,000 things that didn't work. Finally, when you make a mistake you are that much closer to success. Why? Because when all is said and done, you will have tried some finite number of things before you succeeded. Every time you made a mistake you eliminated one of those things and are one step closer. But this all doesn't mean that you should forge ahead with disregard for the consequences of a mistake. Quite the contrary, when you try something new you have to be willing to set some reasonable limits so that, in the event that it doesn't work out the way you want it to, you will be in a position to try again. We all have limited resources in the form of time and money, so don't blow them all on one approach to a problem. Realize that it probably won't be perfect the first time and allocate these resources appropriately so you can learn, modify, and try it again. Only by embracing and using your mistakes in this way can you make significant advances in your business and your career. There is an old axiom that goes, "If you're not making mistakes, you're not trying hard enough." So... Which of the following isn't suitable for the passage? A) Mistakes suggest that people are trying something new. B) People can draw lessons from their mistakes. C) Mistakes mean that people are getting closer to success. D) People can afford to make mistakes as long as they limit them.
(Answer)
D