JUJ SPM PAHANG 2010

Useful for those who need to see some sample essays both on Section A and Section B

JUJ ENGLISH SPM 2010

Thank you to edu.joshuatly.com for sharing this valuable material

VOCABULARY

House party

Wordwise by S.H.LOKE

HOUSEHOLD words seem so insignificant. Yet they can enrich our language if we can use them aptly to describe everyday situations and experiences which are part of life. They can add some lustre to your language. Do you know how to use these common “household” expressions? Go through this test and see how you fare. Fill in the blanks with the right word.

1. The government will put a ______on the price of beef during the coming festive season.

A wall B ceiling C door D fan

2. His fiery speech will______the people’s hatred for the ruling party.

A fan B light C dish D mat

3. She is a _______because she always tries to please everybody.

A rug B blanket C doormat D curtain

4. The ______of mystery hindered the police in their investigations.

A fence B wall C hedge D curtain

5. Everyone thought he is doing well. His problem of substance abuse has been swept under the ______.

A. doormat B mat C rug D carpet

6. Our Chief Minister has brought down the_______on corruption and Penang is even recognised by Transparency International for its anti-corruption measures.

A fence B ceiling C curtain D carpet

7. There is now a_______ban on designer drugs.

A blanket B curtain C carpet D ceiling

8. RM500mil is needed to ______ the effects of the economic downturn in this state.

A mattress B cushion C pillow D sponge

9. Patrick’s mother likes to ______him in order to provoke him to find a job.

A needle B knife C axe D pin

10. Knitting is not my ______of tea.

A mug B cup C glass D pot

11. She has to ______ all her frustration in front of her customers.

A pot B kettle C canister D bottle

12. The technicians have to sit down and ______ out their problems.

A iron B axe C brush D mat

13. The post of manager was handed to him on a ___________.

A dish B plate C tray D saucer

14. Teaching kindergarten children is a different _______ of fish.

A pot B plate C kettle D pan

15. Discipline and hard work are the ________ to success.

A locks B bolts C nuts D keys

16. Mr Tan’s painting will go under the _______ next week in Penang.

A chisel B hammer C plane D screwdriver

17. The Perak team turned the _______ on their opponents and won the match.

A tables B chairs C benches D stools

Answers

1.B ceiling 2.A Fan 3.C doormat 4.B wall 5.D carpet 6.C curtain 7.A blanket 8.B cushion 9.A needle 10.B cup 11.D bottle 12.A iron 13.B plate 14.C kettle 15.D keys 16.B hammer 17.A tables

CONNECTIVES

Connecting with connectives

Ramblings
By DR LIM CHIN LAM

A look at the ways in which words, phrases, clauses and sentences are connected.

WORDS per se do not a language make. What does is the way they are strung together. In this connection, connectives, inter alia, play an important role.

A connective has been variously defined as follows: (1) a word used to connect words, phrases, clauses, and sentences, as a conjunction – The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 1973; (2) a word or phrase that links and relates words, phrases, clauses, or sentences (and, although, otherwise, finally, on the contrary, which, not only ... but also (my underline) – Harbrace College Handbook, 13th edition, 1998; and (3) a word or phrase linking other linguistic units – Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2004.

Conjunctions and/or conjuncts are particularly classed as connectives, which also sometimes include copular and linking verbs (Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, 1998).

It will have been seen that connective is a generic term – arguably, best defined as in the Harbrace College Handbook above. It includes conjunction, conjunct, and copula, which three are discussed below.

Conjunction

A conjunction is one of a class of words that connect words (sand and surf; do or die; poor but contented), phrases (out of jail and deeply in debt), and clauses (she studied hard yet she failed the examination).

Conjunctions are of two types – coordinating conjunctions, which unite two (or more) words, phrases or clauses of equal rank (dogs and cats; sheep or goats; he dined and went home); and subordinating conjunctions, which unite a subordinate (of inferior rank) clause to the main clause (he went home after he had dined).

Coordinating conjunctions. These are used in several ways, including the following: (1) copulative, e.g. and – as in joining words (short and fat), phrases (slim of build and fleet of foot), and sentences (he arrived home at midnight and immediately went to bed); (2) disjunctive, e.g. either, neither, nor, or used singly (behave yourself or go home); (3) adversative, e.g. but (she was poor but kind); (4) correlative, in connecting equal parts of a sentence, e.g. either ... or, neither ... nor, or ... both, whether ... or used in pairs (neither dead nor alive; either behave yourself or go home; she had not decided whether to go to town or to stay at home).

Subordinating conjunctions. Likewise, subordinating conjunctions are used in various ways, including the following: (1) conditional (“if I should die, think only this of me”; go away unless you wish to help me weed the garden); (2) temporal (when the cat is away, the mice will play; do not stop until you reach the village); (3) concessive (she braved a smile although she felt hurt); (4) causal (because, since), as in Chong Seng did not go to university since the family could not afford it; and (5) consecutive (he was tired so he stopped running).

Unusual use of conjunctions. In the parsing of words, I have for a long time been uneasy about the use of the coordinating conjunctions and, or, and but in an unusual construction – to begin a sentence. Example: “And most of the time, Malaysian players find it hard to handle the pressure that comes with the heavy expectations of winning.” In fact, such construction can be found in earlier writings – in, say, Walter Scott’s novel, Ivanhoe. I have tried to rationalise such usage, and, resignedly, come to deem such “and” not as a conjunction but as an adverb meaning “additionally” or “furthermore” or “moreover”. Yet no dictionary has classified “and” as an adverb. What do readers think?

The conjunction but is likewise used to begin a sentence, as in the following example: “Conjunctions and/or conjuncts are particularly classed as connectives. But copular and linking verbs are sometimes also included”. The use of but here to begin a new sentence, rather than to join up to the preceding sentence, is rather odd unless one treats the word not as a conjunction but as an adverb meaning “however”. Even then, dictionaries still classify the word “but” NOT as an adverb but as a conjunction, and join it to a preceding sentence.

Conjunct

Whether in speech or in writing, linking signals help in conveying a message by signalling how one idea leads on from another. A Communicative Grammar of English refers to such type of links as sentence adverbial, while Practical English Usage uses the term discourse marker. Other similar terms include transitional marker, cohesive divider, linker, and connector. For the purpose of this article, I prefer the term conjunct which corresponds in full or in part to the meanings encompassed by one or other of the other terms above. In other words, a conjunct is a word or phrase that connects discrete sentences – to link or relate the idea expressed in one sentence to that in an earlier sentence. Examples: (1) Kong Seng was outside washing his car. In the mean­while, his wife was in the kitchen preparing dinner; (2) Pupils may attend the concert. They must, however, first obtain their parents’ consent.

Conjuncts usually begin a sentence. The following are examples of conjuncts and of their usage in several situations: (1) to indicate a temporal or spatial relationship (at the same time, first, later, meanwhile, then); e.g. The gardener methodically planted a guava seedling. First he dug a hole. Then he put the seedling into the hole. Finally he filled up the hole with a specially prepared soil mix; (2) to introduce or add to a list (additionally, again, and, at first, firstly, furthermore, in addition, moreover, next, on top of all that); e.g. First of all, I’d like to thank my parents ...; He earned a salary of RM2,200 a month. On top of that, he had a rental income of RM1,200.; (3) to indicate similarity (likewise, similarly, on the same basis); e.g. She was delayed because of the flood. I was similarly late.; (4) to indicate dissimilarity (all the same, by comparison, however, in contrast, in spite of, nevertheless, notwithstand­ing, on the other hand, still, whereas); e.g. He was said to be miserly. Nevertheless, he has been known to give alms to beggars.; (5) to indicate a result or follow-up (accordingly, as a result, as such, consequently, therefore); e.g. He was a gambler. As such he was often short of money.; (6) to explain or reinforce, as with examples (for example, for instance, in fact, in other words); e.g. He was said to be visually impaired. In fact, he was blind.; and (7) to conclude or sum up (after all, finally, to sum up, ultimately); e.g. He tripped and fell. To make matters worse, he broke his leg.

Copula

A copula goes by other names, such as copular verb, copulative verb, and linking verb. A copula does not govern an object. It is to be set apart from a conjunction (which connects words into phrases, words and phrases into clauses, and clauses into compound or complex sentences) or a conjunct (which links and relates discrete sentences). A copula couples the subject and the complement or predicate within a sentence. Copular verbs include:

(1) the verb “to be”, which in the appropriate context is an equational verb – it links a noun (or substantive) which is the subject with a noun which is the complement. Example: (a) Anne is a seamstress – Anne and seamstress are one and the same; (b) To err is human, to forgive divine; (c) Walking is a good exercise.

(2) verbs “to appear”, “to feel”, “to look”, “to prove”, “to remain”, “to seem”, “to smell”, “to sound”, “to stay”, and “to taste”, which link a subject to a predicate indicating a state or place. Examples: (a) This food tastes bad; (b) The village looks the same.

(3) verbs “to become”, “to get”, “to grow”, “to turn”, which link the subject to a predicate noun or adjective indicating a change of state. Examples: (a) He became a hero; (b) this food has turned bad.

(4) verbs “to call”, “to consider”, “to create”, “to make”, “to think”, used in the passive voice. Examples: (a) Mr Liew was made a Datuk; (b) One should not shun greatness. Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

When the verb “to be” or “to seem” links subject and complement in a sentence, the sentence is reversible. Example: Her face is her fortune can be recast as Her fortune is her face. However, when subject and complement are not of the same number (one is singu­lar, the other plural), the word-order determines the form of the copula to be used – the verb agrees with the subject and not with the complement. Example: One aspect that needs urgent attention is the parking facilities, when reversed, becomes Parking facilities are one aspect that needs urgent attention.

Additionally, the subject and the complement linked by a copula are both in the same grammatical case. For example, in the sentence Shirley is her mother’s favourite daughter, both subject (Shirley) and complement (daughter) are in the nominative case. A noun does not change form with case whether it is positioned on one or other side of the copula, as in the following: this man is their leader = their leader is this man. However, it is important when a pronoun, (which changes form with case) is involved. Example: He is the leader, when reversed, becomes The leader is he (NOT him). Another example: It was I (NOT me) who opened the door.

Furthermore, both subject noun/pronoun and complement noun/pronoun linked by the copula “to be” could be in the accusative case. Example: The people consider him to be a genius – the copular verb is in the infinitive, “to be”, which links him and genius, both of which are in the accusative. For nouns, the matching of case-forms (nominative with nominative, accusative with accusative), as exemplified in the previous paragraph, is of no consequence in English because there is no device (e.g. declension like in Latin) to differentiate between the nominative and the accusative. A differentiation is, however, necessary when a pronoun is involved. For example: The villagers suspect the culprit to be him – him, accusative case, NOT he, nominative case, to accord with culprit, accusative case, being the object of the verb suspect.

Closing remarks

The above outlines some features of three important types of connective, the three Cs – viz. conjunction, conjunct, and copula.

It is of interest to note that the word connective is used in still another way, in the etymology of the noun/adjective Balinese – Bali, an island in Indonesia + -n- connective + -ese suffix (The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 1973). By the same token, Congolese could have been derived from Congo with the use of the -l- connective.

IMPORTANT NOTIFICATION

I hereby regret to inform that this blog will not be updated in the near future due to several unforeseen circumstances

The ‘airy’ suffixes

RAMBLINGS
By DR LIM CHIN LAM

THERE is nothing airy (“spacious and well ventilated”; “light as air, delicate”, “casual, dismissive”) about suffixes. I use the word here because it nearly rhymes with the suffixes -ary, -ery, and -ory (which form the topic of this article) – and because I cannot think of a suitable alternative.

Ambling down the road of etymology, I picked up some notes about the three groups of suffixes, as elaborated below.

1. The suffix -ary and its kin

This group of suffixes includes -ary, -arium, and -aire, which are used in several ways as noun and as adjective suffixes.

1.1. -ary as noun suffix, denoting place. The suffix is the anglicised form of the original -arium from Latin. The following are examples of names of places with the suffix -ary: (1) aviary [Latin avis “bird” + -ary]; (2) bestiary; (3) granary; (4) library [Latin liber, libris “book” + -ary]; (5) sanctuary [Latin sanctus “holy” + -ary].

Oddities: There are words which look as if they have been formed with the suffix -ary –but are not.

Examples: (1) burglary [burglar + -y, not burgle + -ary]; (2) peccary; (3) quandary [Latin quando “when” + -are, infinitive suffix]; (4) vagary.

1.2. -ary as noun suffix, denoting person or thing or group thereof. The suffix is derived not from -arium but from the Latin -arius, and is used to form nouns denoting “connected with or engaged in”.

Examples: (1) beneficiary [benefice + -ary]; (2) constabulary; (3) dromedary [Greek dromas, dromados “running” + Latin -arius “-ary”]; (4) mercenary; (5) obituary [Latin obitus “death” + -ary].

Variant -aire: This word-ending, which appears in millionaire and billionaire, is sometimes considered as a variant of -ary (as in concessionnaire, legionnaire, and questionnaire, with double “n”) and sometimes as a variant of -er (as in commissionaire, with single “n”).

1.3. -ary as adjective suffix. The suffix is derived from Latin -arius, and is used to form adjectives denoting “pertaining to” or “connected with”, and is attached to Latin-derived words.

Examples: (1) ancillary [Latin ancilla “maidservant” + -ary]; (2) culinary [Latin: culinarius = culina “kitchen” + -ary]; (3) exemplary; (4) mercenary; (5) monetary [Latin moneta “mint, money” + -ary].

Note: Some of such adjectives may also function as nouns, e.g. contemporary, mercenary, revolutionary, tributary, visionary.

1.4. -ary as adjective suffix, to denote order, or time, or blocks of time. Examples: (1) anniversary; (2) centenary; (3) primary; (4) secondary; (5) tertiary; (6) quaternary.

1.5. -arium as noun suffix. The suffix is derived from the original Latin -arium, denoting a place or an instrument.

Examples: (1) aquarium [Latin aqua “water” + -arium]; (2) columbarium [Latin columba “dove, pigeon” + -arium]; (3) herbarium; (4) honorarium; (5) sanitarium, US spelling (= sanatorium, British spelling).

2. The suffix -ery (with its short form -ery) and its kin

This suffix forms nouns and adjectives.

2.1. -ery/-ry as noun suffix, to denote place or establishment. This is a Middle English noun suffix, derived from the French -erie. It is affixed to nouns or verbs to denote a place or establishment.

Examples: (1) bakery; (2) brewery; (3) eatery; (4) hatchery; (5) nursery.

Note: The variant -eria (of Italian origin) occurs in the word pizzeria; and the variant -erie (of French origin) occurs in the words menagerie and patisserie.

2.2. -ery/-ry as noun suffix, to denote a breeding colony of animals. Examples: (1) heronry; (2) rookery.

2.3. -ery/-ry as abstract-noun suffix. This suffix forms abstract nouns denoting activity, action, art, craft, occupation, vocation, trade, or business.

Examples: (1) chemistry; (2 cookery; (3) husbandry; (4) midwifery; (5) jugglery. This suffix, when added to nouns, adjectives, and verbs, also forms abstract nouns denoting quality, state or condition, and behaviour.

Examples: (1) artistry; (2 bravery; (3) demagoguery; (4) greenery; (5) thuggery.

Note: The variant -erie (of French origin) occurs in such word as camaraderie [French camarade “comrade” + -erie].

2.4. When -ery/-ry is not a suffix. There are many words containing the word-ending -ery/-ry – but their etymology indicates that their formation involves some other affix or not at all.

Examples: (1) awry [a- + wry]; (2) cemetery; (3) equerry [misleading – the word has the ending -erry, which, with a double “r”, is not a suffix]; (4) mastery [master + -y, not mast + -ery]; (5) mystery; (6) sundry.

3. The suffix -ory and its kin

This group of suffixes includes -ory, -orium, and -oire, which are used in several ways as noun and adjective suffixes.

3.1. -ory as noun suffix, denoting place. The suffix is the anglicised form of the original -orium from Latin.

The following are examples of names of places which incorporate the suffix -ory: (1) armory, US spelling (= armoury, British spelling); (2) conservatory; (3) dormitory; (4) observatory; (5) repository.

Variant -oire: Of French origin, this suffix appears in (1) conservatoire (= conservatory); (2) escritoire; (3) repertoire (= repertory).

3.2. -ory as noun suffix, denoting agent. Example: signatory.

3.3. -ory as adjective suffix. The suffix is derived from Latin -orius/-oria/-orium, meaning “having the function or effect of”.

Examples: (1) accessory [access + -ory]; (2) compulsory; (3) derogatory; (4) obligatory; (5) sensory.

Note: The adjective accessory is used also as a noun.

3.4. -orium as noun suffix, denoting place. The suffix is borrowed from Latin, denoting a place, a facility, or an instrument. Examples: (1) auditorium; (2) crematorium; (3) emporium; (4) sanatorium, British spelling (= sanitarium, US spelling); (5) scriptorium.

3.5. When -ory is not a suffix. There are many words which end with -ory. However, etymology shows that such words are made up of some other suffix or not at all.

Examples: (1) advisory [advisor + -y, not advise + -ory]; (2) allegory [Greek allegoria, from allos “other” + agoria “speaking”]; (3) category [Greek kategoria “statement, assertion, accusation”; from kategoros “an accuser”; from kata “down, against” + agora “marketplace, assembly” + -y]; (4) history [Greek historia]; (5) oratory [orator + -y, not orate + -ory]; (6) territory [irregular formation, from Latin terra “land” + -i- + -tory, abstracted from other words with such ending, e.g. directory, dormitory, purgatory]; (7) victory [Latin victor + -y, not vict + -ory].

4. Parting remarks

The English language has a plenitude of suffixes – as well as prefixes – and even more so of the facile ways in which these can be applied. The examples given above illustrate, in a small way, this point. One may look up many other suffixes and prefixes as well as the words or word-stems to which they are affixed.

Checking up on their etymology plus their pronunciation (note the misleading awry, or the deceptive prowess) helps towards the building up of one’s vocabulary.

I should like to take this point a little further, by considering the word vocabulary, a word with an “airy” suffix. It is derived from Latin: vocabulum “an appellation, designation, name” + -arius = -ary.

The word vocabulum itself is derived from vox, vocis “voice” and voco, vocare “to call”.

Very many other words are derived from the stem of these words – with the appropriate suffixes to form such derivatives as vocal, vocable, vocalise, vocalisation, vocalist, vocation, vocational, and vocative; and with the appropriate prefixes to form such derivatives as evoke, invoke, prevocalic, provoke, and revoke.

Dear readers, it can be enjoyable to check on etymology and at the same time to expand your vocabulary. Have fun.

Friday December 18, 2009

Modifiers awry

Ramblings:By DR LIM CHIN LAM

The generic term modifier and how adverbs, adjectives, and participles – as well as their phrases – can go awry or ‘dangle’.

IN AN earlier article, “Why we don’t say beautiful contest” (MOE, June 27, 2008), I dealt with the word modifier in the restricted sense – a noun, verb, name, or phrase that functions as an attributive adjective.

In the broadest sense, a modifier is any adjective or adverb – the former modifying a noun or substantive, and the latter modifying “the meaning of an adjective, verb, or other adverb, or of a sentence” (Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2004).

Necessarily, present and past participles functioning as adjectives also fall into the category of modifiers, as do adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and participial phrases. [Clauses with similar function are also included in the generic term modifier.]

Adverbs and adverb phrases

The placement of adverbs can convey different meanings. Consider the following:

(1) Only he came yesterday – only one person, he, came;

(2) He only came yesterday – he merely came, he did nothing else;

(3) He came only yesterday – he came only once, viz. yesterday;

(4) He was here only yesterday – he was here as recently as yesterday.

Similarly, certain other adverbs (even, just, and merely) may also cause ambiguity when carelessly positioned in a sentence. It is, therefore, advisable to place the adverb immediately before the word it modifies.

As with one-word modifiers, care need be exercised in the placement of adverb phrases and adverb clauses in order to avoid unintended meanings.

I remember coming across, many years ago, a newspaper report of a schoolgirl just about to enter her school compound when she was waylaid by a would-be rapist but was saved by the ringing of the school bell. The headline, however, read (with my underlining): Schoolgirl saved from rape by bell – as if a bell is capable of rape!

Consider a recent example (AFP report carried in Sunday Star, Dec 6, 2009, page WB34): Thailand’s revered king has called on the politically divided nation to unite during a brief public excursion from hospital to mark his 82nd birthday. Does it mean that the king asked his people to unite only for the short duration of time when he was away from the hospital on the occasion of his 82nd birthday?

Ambiguity may be avoided by rearranging the words of the sentence and/or adding some other words so that the adverb phrase appears next to the verb it modifies and not to some other verb.

Besides having the unnecessary present perfect tense has called amended to the simple past tense called, the said report could be revised thus: During a brief public excursion from hospital to mark his 82nd birthday, Thailand’s revered king called on the politically divided nation to unite.

Adverbs usually modify an adjective, a verb, or another adverb. Then there are certain adverbs, including adverb phrases, which modify a sentence. Note the following examples:

(1) Hopefully, it will not rain tomorrow.

(2) Mercifully, he died peacefully.

(3) However, the examination was much easier than he had anticipated.

(4) In fact, the problem was due to a misunderstanding.

In the above cases, the sentence-modifying adverb or adverb phrase is placed at the beginning of the sentence and is usually separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma. If placed later in the sentence, the adverb or adverb phrase would, advisedly, be included within commas, thus:

(1) The examination was, however, much easier than he had anticipated.

(2) The problem was, in fact, due to a misunderstanding.

Adjectives and adjective phrases

In common use, adjectives are placed before nouns (she found a beautiful seashell). A reversed word-order (she found a seashell beautiful), would be unacceptable. However, an inverted (i.e. reversed) construction is acceptable in poetry (“and with thee fade away into the forest dim” – Keats, Ode to a Nightingale) or in certain expressions (battle royal, heir apparent, president elect, professor emeritus, time immemorial).

There are certain constructions where an adjective may be mistaken for an adverb. Consider the following example: She looked sad, NOT she looked sadly. Here the word sad is correct, being an adjective used in the predicative; on the other hand, the word sadly is wrong, not being an adverb modifying the verb looked.

There are many other examples of such usage of the adjective instead of the adverb – and they are usually associated with verbs of perception:

(1) The food smells bad, NOT The food smells badly;

(2) The music sounded awful, NOT The music sounded awfully;

(3) The table surface feels rough.

One must, however, note that the “ungrammatical” sit tight (instead of sit tightly) may be deemed idiomatic (note that, in English, any expression which cannot be explained rationally is deemed idiomatic), or, according to Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2004, is informal, meaning “(1) remain firmly in one’s place. (2) refrain from taking action or changing one’s mind”.

Similarly, note another “ungrammatical” construction, sit pretty (instead of sit prettily), which is informal and means “to be in a comfortable situation” (The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 1973).

When several adjectives are used in a sequence, there is an unwritten rule for ordering the adjectives in the sequence. For word-order of adjectives, I use the mnemonic OpSiShACOM to categorise adjectives according to types, viz. Opinion, Size, Shape, Age, Colour, Origin, Material. Thus we say clear blue sky (Opinion clear, Colour blue), NOT blue clear sky.

Similarly, it is big round wooden table (Size big, Shape round, Material wooden), NOT wooden big round table. [Readers will have great fun constructing phrases with more than two consecutive adjectives and arranging them in a conventional order.]

There are three aspects of the subject of word-order of adjectives.

Firstly, adjectives of the same type are separated by and (lean and hungry look); and more than two adjectives of the same type are separated by commas, with and for the last (cold, dark and dingy cell).

Secondly, the placement of determiners (such as a, the, every, many, three, and fifth) in a sequence of adjectives must be noted. Determiners are words which, in the old grammar books, were classified as adjectives but are now classified as a sub-class of adjectives. A determiner is “a modifying word that determines the kind of reference a noun or noun group has” – Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 2004. In arranging adjectives in a sequence, a determiner precedes the other adjectives (the descriptive adjectives). Thus it is three blind mice, NOT blind three mice.

Thirdly, consideration must be given to the actual entity modified by the descriptive adjectives. It could be fish market or health food or white wine or red wine, which each are entities unto themselves – the two words are inseparable so that they could be imagined as two words conflated into one, or as a single hyphenated word. Thus it is Japanese fish market, NOT fish Japanese market; reliable health food, NOT health reliable food; and French red wine, NOT red French wine.

Then there are the phrasal adjectives like a few, a great many, many a, and a couple of. The strange thing about them is that each of them is made up of a singular and a plural word. When in use, do they take a singular or a plural noun, and is the following verb in the singular or the plural? Here one may apply the rule of proximity attraction. The following are examples of the phrasal adjective in the plural:

(1) A few prowlers were seen in the neighbourhood, and

(2) A great many mistakes were made in the past; and in the singular:

(1) More than one mistake is one mistake too many, and

(2) There is many a slip ‘twixt cup and lip.

And now to adjective phrases. What has been said above about adverb phrases applies to adjective phrases too – that the placement of the phrase can affect the meaning (gardens with fruit trees surround the village, NOT gardens surround the village with fruit trees).

Parting note

The concluding Part 2 will deal with the quirks of participles and participial phrases.

Fun with synonyms

By OH TEIK THEAM

EACH sentence below contains a synonym of the italicised word(s), spelt out in consecutive letters. Can you spot it?

Example: The couple continued their walk along the path in silence after he commented that she was not as slim as she used to be.

1. “If you haven’t heard the story about the naughty boy whom a group of villagers hired to look after their sheep, it ended with a wolf attacking the sheep and frightening the life out of the boy.”

2. “We have more plywood in the shed, boss,” the worker stammered out his answer.

3. The trainee chef said to me, “Would you like to eat a steamed fish and tell me what you think of its flavour?”

4. “Our companies will incur big losses for the current financial year if we do not control our expenditure.”

5. “Everything is hunky-dory,” a man says to his best friend, “except for one thing: the manager’s secretary seems to persistently avoid me.”

6. With a tear-stained face, she said to him, “Why do you detest me?”

7. Fred denied that he had teased her, but I saw him blush at the mention of her name.

8. The boss of the TV station said to the producer, “We need to re-examine the contents of the show if we want to attract more viewers.”

9. We listened with great interest to his amazing story about how he met a legendary adventurer.

10. Her success in six consecutive tournaments was indeed a rare achievement, as only 10 months ago, even a single title seemed to be out of her grasp.

11. “Post all your notices on this side of the booth.”

12. I had bought a melt-in-the-mouth chocolate cake to eat while I watched the football match on TV, but the game turned out to be dull.

13. The boa stopped by his friend’s place just to brag, “I squeezed two big animals to death this morning.”

14. The overnight rain brought further delays in its wake.

15. This up-and-coming tennis star is ingenious, amiable and unpretentious.

Answers

1. tend 2. reply 3. taste 4. curb 5. shun 6. hate 7. redden 8. review 9. tale 10. reach 11. stall 12. tame 13. boast 14. train 15. rising