Exercise 2. In the following sentences insert articles where necessary and comment on their functions.

1. She had acquired __ ease, __ self-possession, and __ assurance. (W.S. Maugham)

2. He’s twenty and he has __ charm. (W.S. Maugham)

3. He was quite radiant and gave off __ peculiar brightness and charm. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald) 

4. Because American women expect to find in their husbands __ perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers. (W.S. Maugham)

5. It was like an old forgotten nightmare, something remembered months afterwards with __ doubt and disbelief. (D. du Maurier)

6. He was filled with __ violent disgust that was not like __ anger. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

7. Her lovely face was twisted with __ grief she didn’t care to hide. (W.S. Maugham)

8. I had known Elliot Templeton for fifteen years… He had __ taste and __ knowledge. (W.S. Maugham)

9. I don’t know what it is – __ tension, __secret, __ aspiration, __ knowledge – that sets him apart. (W.S. Maugham)

10. __ tact was a quality unknown to her, __ discretion too, and because __ gossip was __ breath of life to her this stranger must be served to her dissection. (D. du Maurier) 

11. Eventually, as it was bound to do, despite Lily’s efforts to shield him, __ local gossip reached the ears of Pa. (K. Saunders)

12. __ punishment could range from a broken arm or leg to __ slow and painful death. (S. Sheldon)

13. As the result of thirty years’ experience I may tell you that __ marriage arranged with proper regard to __ position, __ fortune, and __ community of circumstances has every advantage over __ love match. (W.S. Maugham)

14. It takes two to make __ marriage just as it takes two to make __ quarrel.

15. It had never occurred to me that __ life I offered Isabel was __ life that filled her with dismay. (W.S. Maugham)

16. He felt that __ life had rejected him. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

17. Get on with building a career and __ life that no one can take away from you. (H. Fielding)

18. I had __ curious inexplicable feeling that I must go back and look in my room again. (D. du Maurier)

19. He had __ feeling I have noticed in some Americans who have lived many years abroad that America is a difficult and even dangerous place in which __ European cannot safely be left to find his way about himself. (W.S. Maugham)

20. Lily stared at her, willing herself to beat off __ feeling that she was drowning in __ unreality. (K. Saunders)

 

Exercise 3. In the following sentences, the underlined nouns can be count or uncount depending on their meaning. Decide which meaning is being used in each sentence, and cross out the incorrect noun group.

1. To press clothes you need iron/ an iron.

2. The heart has reasons that reason/ a reason does not understand. (Jacques Bénigne Bossuet)

3. Language/ A language is unique to humans.

4. We are looking for people with experience/ an experience.

5. You should study law/ a law at university.

6. Then everybody called for him to make speech/ a speech.

7. Play/ A play is more natural for children than adults.

8. He kept his money in tin/ a tin under the bed.

9. Charity/ A charity begins at home.

10. He spent the entire afternoon in study/ a study.

11. Suleka has no objections to marrying someone of different religious faith/ a different religious faith.

12. She’s got good memory/ a good memory for faces.

13. Truth/ A truth is the first victim of war.

14. Such behaviour is unacceptable in a civilized society/ civilized society.

15. The spring was pretty well over and the trees were in full leaf/ a full leaf. (W.S. Maugham)

 

 

Exercise 4. The following sentences demonstrate the use of nouns that can be countable and uncountable depending on their meaning. Define the meaning used in each sentence and insert articles where necessary.

1. a) __ experience is a comb that life gives after you lose your hair.

(J. Stern)

b) Her failure to advance in the FBI after a brilliant start was __ new and awful experience for her. (Th. Harris)

c) We drank our coffee in__ silence. (D. du Maurier)

d) After __ silence, he said… (K. Saunders)

e) __ silence that I had always taken for sympathy and regret was __ silence born shame and embarrassment. (D. du Maurier)

2. a) Dick had not intended to come to __ decision so quickly. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

b) He is a man of __ decision.

c) She made __ quick decision. (S. Sheldon)

3. a) There was __ classic cold beauty about her. (S. Sheldon)

b) Nicole was __ great beauty. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

c) Back at two o’clock in the Roi George corridor __ beauty of Nicole had been to __ beauty of Rosemary as __ beauty of Leonardo’s girl was to that of the girl of an illustrator. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

 

Exercise 5. Insert articles where necessary. Pay attention to the abstract nouns that are never used with the indefinite article.  

1. The day started with __ good news. (S. Sheldon)

2. Howard couldn’t wait to tell his parents __ exciting news. (S. Sheldon)

3. Months before, the magazine had asked __ permission to do a story about him and he had foolishly agreed. (S. Sheldon)

4. He got __ permission from the headmistress to take Elizabeth out for dinner. (S. Sheldon)

5. Quite apart from being beautiful, he was a good cook, __ great fun, and endlessly, quietly supportive. (K. Saunders)

6. After all it had been __ fun. (W.S. Maugham)

7. __ work was to begin on the demolition of the hospital and the construction of the new building in April. (S. Sheldon)

8. It was __ revolting work. (S. Fry)

9. We had really __ wonderful weather. (D. du Maurier)

10. It had been something about Collis going into his father’s business – __ good sound advice. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

11.  __ nature as a rather coarse phenomenon composed largely of flowers. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

12. Amory was on the other side, full of confidence and vanity, gazing at her in__ open admiration. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

13. [A jury consists of] twelve men of __ limited information and intelligence, chosen precisely because of their lack of intellectual resilience. (H.L. Mencken)

14. He’s a very likeable young man and he gives people __ excellent advice. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

15. __ basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I am doing. (Werner von Braun)

16. If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; of you steal from many, it’s __ research. (Wilson Mizner)

17. __ good luck is a lazy man’s estimate of a worker’s success. (Anonymous)

18. Michael had __ perfect health. (W.S. Maugham)

19. Unless we receive __ financial assistance from the government, the hospital will have to close.

20. The council provides __ practical guidance and support for students wishing to study abroad.

21. The depletion of the ozone layer is causing __ widespread concern among scientists and doctors.

22. __ rapid progress was made on the development of drugs controlling schizophrenia at this time.

23. It was __ sheer torture to hear him play the violin so badly.

24. She hoped she would avoid __ recognition by wearing dark glasses and a hat.   

Exercise 6.Insert articles where necessary. Pay attention to the use of limiting adjectives.

1.  __ only child, he must have inherited quite a substantial sum when his mother died in 1925. (J. Fowles)

2. “You know you’re __ only woman in the world for me.” (W.S. Maugham)

3. I hear they sent you __ wrong dress? (D. du Maurier)

4. I’m __ last man in the world to want to disturb it. (D. du Maurier)

5. I could see I had said absolutely __ right thing. (J.H. Chase)

6. He watched her wandering around his room, picking things up, examining them and putting them down in __ wrong place. (S. Fry)

7. That was a step in __ right direction. (J.H. Chase

8. The party took place __ following Saturday at the penthouse. (S. Sheldon)

9. In 1016, after __ last struggle between the Danish Cnut and the English Edmund, the kingdom was divided between these two.

10. She had given him __ wrong number. (H. Fielding)

11. Watching them, Nhan saw with relief she had used __ right tactics. (J.H. Chase)

12. Scott Rich stood behind Olivia, his hands over hers around the gun, easing her body into __ right position. (H. Fielding)

 

Exercise 7. Insert articles where necessary. Pay attention to the use of relative adjectives.

1. She felt in __ tremendous form. (W.S. Maugham)

2. A lot of banks and savings and loans are in __ deep trouble. (S. Sheldon)

3. They were glad to know a man of __ great culture and perfect manners to arrange the matter with discretion. (W.S. Maugham)

4. They are American seen through __ English eye. (W.S. Maugham)

5. He had taken great pains to adopt the manner of speech as it is spoken in England and you had to have a very sensitive ear to catch now and then __ American intonation. (W.S. Maugham)

6. “How right you were. I noticed the room the last time I dined there. It’s in __ perfect taste.” (W.S. Maugham)

7. Larry had apparently struck up __ great friendship with another boy in his squadron. (W.S. Maugham)

8. It looks as though there were __ complete incompatibility of temper between you. (W.S. Maugham)

9. She wondered if she would ever achieve __ supreme elegance. (W.S. Maugham)

10. How can you be in __ big trouble? (M. Gabot)

11. Jeffrey, with__ intense concentration, was raising a pile of chips of all colours. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

12. Your mother appears to be a woman of __ enormous sense. (W.S. Maugham)

13. All bad poetry springs from __ genuine feeling. (O. Wilde)

14. I would walk along this drive, strange and unfamiliar to me now, with __ perfect knowledge, conscious of every twist and turn. (D. du Maurier)

15. “Delicious,” he said with__ mounting enthusiasm. (H.E. Bates)

16. Then just as I was getting to my feet, the Pontiac number plate clutched in my hand, there was a blinding flash of light followed instantly by__ complete darkness. (J.H. Chase)

17. There’s __ real joy in her voice. (M. Gayle)

18. In spite of his size, Jaffe had __ perfect balance. (J.H. Chase)

19. It was a look of __ complete and candid love. (J.H. Chase)

20. He was the best as well as the oldest fortune-teller at the Tomb and Nhan had __ great faith in him. (J.H. Chase)