Exercise 2. Insert the correct form of the verb and explain your choice. State the type of collective nouns .

1. You know what the police here ………. like. (to be) (J.H. Chase)

2. I had a look at the paper, but there ………. much news. (to be) (G. Orwell)

3. And the baggage ………. apparatus and appliances. (to contain) (Wells)

4. My clothes ………. organized in carefully laid-out categories, on hangers, spread on the bed, over the backs of chairs. (to be) (Robert B. Parker)

5. The door opened and Bennet Malek came in. He was four years younger than Donovan with the same fair hair. Where Donovan’s ……….glossy, Bennet’s ……….coarse, and he kept it cut short to discourage a visible tendency to curl. (to be) (S. Grafton)

6. The sugar-tongs ………. too wide for one of her hands, and she had to use both in wielding them. (to be) (Ch. Bronte)

7. He collected twenty-five hundred dollars for the life insurance and he’ll get twenty-five thousand for the structural damage to the house. The contents ……….uninsured. (to be) (Sue Grafton)

8. Not all news ………. bad news. (to be) (S. Grafton) 

9. If looks ……….language, the merest idiot might have guessed I was over head and ears: she understood me at last, and looked a return – the sweetest of all imaginable looks. (to have) (E. Bronte)

10. Trouble ………. a vacuum into which the rest of us get sucked. (to create) (S. Grafton)

11. The outdoors, as far as I can see, ………. made up almost entirely of copulating creatures who eat one another afterward. (to be) (S. Grafton)

12. Most of the office staff ……….forced to scrounge parking elsewhere. (to be) (S. Grafton)

13. Far from celebrating Guy’s good fortune, the public ………. going to end up resenting his sudden wealth. (to be) (S. Grafton)

14. The family ………. agreed that the funeral should be held in Ireland.                (to have)

15. The family ………. all gathering here for Christmas. (to be)   

16. The only people who……….interested in the book ………. to be lawyers. (to be, to seem)

17. That band……….always had a reputation for performing better in the studio than live. (to have)

18.  The media………. interested in this story. (to be)

19. Money………. nothing to me, but my cause does. (to mean) (Jack Higgins)

20. Work ………. starting to take over my life. (to be)

 

Ø As distinct from their Russian equivalents, some commonly used English nouns, in the meanings indicated, are singular in number and take the singular verb, or are plural in number and take the plural verb. Study the correspondence between English and Russian words given in the table.

 

English singular	Russian plural
advice	советы
applause	аплодисменты
debate	дебаты, прения
fighting	бои
fruit (when used collectively)	фрукты
evidence	улики, свидетельские показания
funeral (the plural – funerals – is used to indicate two or more occasions)	похороны
gate (the plural – gates – is used to denote two or more objects)	ворота
gossip (a gossip – сплетник)	сплетни
hair	волосы
information	сведения
knowledge	знания
money	деньги
news	новости
progress	успехи
race	соревнования, состязания
sledge	сани
vacation (the plural – vacations – is used when two or more events are meant)	каникулы
watch, clock (a regular countable noun)	часы
election (the plural – elections – is used when two or more events are meant)	выборы
English plural	Russian singular
contents	содержание (письма, бумаги, документа)
clothes	одежда
opera-glasses	бинокль
wages (pl. tantum)	зарплата
grapes, carrots, beets, potatoes, onions, radishes (when used collectively)	виноград, морковь, свекла, картофель, лук, редис
stairs (pl. tantum)	лестница
police (multitude noun)	полиция

 

Ø Note the singular and the plural form of the noun in the following patterns:

 

He spared no effort to get you out.	Он не жалел сил, чтобы помочь вам выбраться.
It’ll require/ it’ll cost them a lot of effort.	Это потребует большой затраты сил (больших усилий).
You have no grounds for complaint.	У вас нет основания для жалоб.
Don’t go into details.	Не вдавайтесь в детали.
He explained everything in detail.	Он объяснил все в деталях.
On second thoughts, he decided not to tell her anything.	Поразмыслив, он решил ничего ей не говорить.
He was deep in thought.	Он был погружен в свои мысли.
compound numerals with one (e.g. twenty-one, thirty-one) take the noun in the plural	Twenty-one students were present at the lecture.

 

Exercise 3. In the sentences below, only one of the alternatives in brackets is appropriate. Cross out the one that is wrong .

1. I could see that closets were being emptied, ………. – suits and dress shirts – packed into large cardboard boxes. (the content/ the contents) (S. Grafton)

2. He wants to sell his business and move to Napa and grow ……….. . (grape/ grapes) (Terry McMillan) 

3. It was a very dark evening for summer: the clouds appeared inclined to thunder, and I said to bring him home without further ………. (trouble/ troubles). (E. Bronte)

4. The police ………. already talking to people at the country club. (is/are)  (S. Grafton)

5. There ……….news from home. (is/are) (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

6. The country’s first general ………. since it won independence ………. to be held next month.(election/ elections; is/are)

7. Mrs Linton’s ……….  ……….appointed to take place on the Friday following her decease. (funeral/funerals; is/are) (E. Bronte)

8. The man’s smooth hair ………. gray. The woman’s smooth hair ………. blond, and other than that, allowing for anatomy, they looked interchangeable. (is/are; is/are) (Robert B. Parker)

9. I didn’t need ………. on how to dress. (advice/advices) (Sue Grafton)

10. ...this watch ………. a special favourite with Mr. Pick­wick, having been carried about... for a greater number of years than we feel called upon to state, at present. (was/ were)

11. The nurse’s wages ………. good. (was/ were) (Collins)

12. Money ………. so scarce that it could fairly be said not to exist at all. (was/were) (Dreiser)

13. Its greatest virtue, as your uncle says, is its simplicity. It could work perfectly just like ………. . On the other hand, even ………. break down sometimes. (a Swiss watch/ Swiss watch; Swiss watches/ a Swiss watch) (Jack Higgins)

14. Sollazo told him in ………. of his conversation with Salamone. (detail/details) (Jack Higgins)

15. They confirm the mention in the New York Times, but in more ………..  (detail/details) (Jack Higgins)

16. Linda likes exotic ………. . (fruit/ fruits)

17. ………. are prevented from sprouting by a new technology using radiation. (potatoes and onions/ potato and onion)

18. I put the orange in his hand, and bade him tell his father that a woman called Nelly Dean was waiting to speak with him, by the garden ………. (gate/gates) (E. Bronte)                

19. At sunrise ………. ………. opened again. And the Jewish merchants were permitted to go into the city of Krakow to conduct business with the gentiles. (gate/ gates; was/were) (S. Sheldon)

20. ‘Sure,’ Cassidy said. ‘I’ve got all the ………..’ (detail/details)                      (Jack Higgins)

21. ‘And they get ………. of my uncle’s labours?’ (fruit/ fruits) (Jack Higgins)

22. Sometimes Jacob seemed so deepin ………..(thought/thoughts), I wasn’t sure if he was listening. (S. Meyer)

 

Exercise 4.Translate the following sentences into English.

1. Оглавление книги составили заново.

2. Полиция искала преступника по всему городу.

3. Лестница была старая.

4. Ешьте фрукты, когда они созрели.

5. Улики против него.

6. Похороны всегда печальны.

7. Ворота закрыты.

8. Это сплетни.

9. Отсутствие новостей – это хорошая новость.

10. Современная одежда красива и удобна.

11. Вы будете принимать участие в соревнованиях по гребле?

12. Ваши часы отстают на пять минут.

13. Это надежные сведения.

14. Актеров встретили бурей аплодисментов.

15. Прения были долгими.

16. Ваши успехи в шведском языке просто удивительны.

17. Это неожиданные новости.

18. Каникулы были веселые.

19. Он не жалел сил, чтобы помочь вам выбраться.

20. У Вас есть основания для жалоб?

21. Если бы лектор не вдавался в детали, выступление было бы намного короче и интереснее.

22. Я ему все детально объяснил.

23. Он был погружен в свои мысли и не слышал, как мы вошли.

24. Поразмыслив, она решила ему помочь.      

 

    Some nouns with a singular form can be treated either as singular (with a singular verb) оr plural (with a plural verb):

· The council has (or have) postponed a decision on the new road.

Other words like this include association, audience, class, club, college, committee, community, company, crowd, department, electorate, enemy, family, firm, generation, government, group, jury, orchestra, population, press, public, school, staff, team, university, and the names of specific organizations such as the Bank of England, the BBC, IBM, Sony. We use a singular verb if we see the institution or organization as a whole unit, and a plural verb if we see it as a collection of individuals. Often you can use either with very little difference in meaning, although in formal writing (such as academic writing) it is more common to use a singular verb.

Ø In some contexts a plural form of the verb is needed. We would say:

· The committee usually raise their hands to vote ‘Yes’. (not ...raises its hands...)

as this is something that the individuals do, not the committee as a whole. In others, a singularform is preferred. We would say:

· The school is to close next year. (not The school are...)

as we are talking about something which happens to the school as a building or institution, not to the individuals that comprise it.

Ø Some nouns are usually plural and take a plural verb. These include belongings, clothes, congratulations, earnings, goods, outskirts, particulars (=information), premises (=building), riches, savings, stairs, surroundings, thanks:

· The company’s earnings have increased for the last five years.

Ø The nouns police, people, and staff also always have a plural verb. The noun whereabouts can be used with either a singular or plural verb.

Ø Nouns in –ics (acoustics, athletics, economics, gymnastics, linguistics, mathematics, phonetics, politics, statistics, physics) take a singular verb when they are considered abstract concepts, whereas a plural verb and plural modifier are preferred when practical manifestations of the concept are emphasized. Compare:

 

academic disciplines	general use
· Politics is popular at this university.	· Her politics are bordering on the fascist. (= political belief)
· Statistics was always my worst subject.	· Statistics are able to prove anything you want them to. (= numerical information)
· Economics has only recently been recognized as a scientific study.	· The economics behind their policies are unreasonable. (= the financial system)
· Mathematics is a difficult subject.	· His mathematics are very poor (= his calculations)

  

Exercise5. Complete the following extracts with either was/were or has/have. If both singular and plural forms are possible, write them both.

1. Sony ………. announced rising profits for the third year running.

2. The crowd ………. growing restless as the day got hotter.

3. The police ………. issued a warrant for Adamson’s arrest.

4. Thepublic ………. a right to know how the money is to be spent.

5. When she was found, her face was bruised and her clothes ………. torn.

6. Thomas was thought to be in Spain, although his exact whereabouts ………. unknown.

7. The stairs leading to the exit ………. steep and dangerous, said the report.

8. LordTravers’ family ………. lived in the house for twelve generations.

9. Thecollege ………. spent over £500,000 on a new sports centre.

10.  People ………. running in all directions, trying to get away.

11. German measles ……….a particularly dangerous illness for pregnant women.

12. Politics ……….a topic best avoided with people you don’t know well.

13. The United Nations ………. agreed to deploy a peacekeeping force.

14. The United Nations ……….in disagreement on this usage.

15. Linton’s looks ……….very languid. (E. Bronte)

16. My brother thinks that economics ……….really interesting. I disagree.