Streets, Roads, Squares, Parks

Exercise 1 . Insert articles where necessary.

1. He walked over to__ Fifth Avenue, dodging the blind black menace of umbrellas, and standing in front of Delmonico’s hailed an auto-bus. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

2. I know a dove of a house in__ Talbot Square you could get, furnished. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

3. We’re driving along __Holloway Road when Nicola tells me that she wants to ask my advice. (M. Gayle)

4. Lara walked into a print shop on __ Lake Street. (S. Sheldon)

5. It’s the property on __ Fourteenth Street. (S. Sheldon)

6. The pawnshop was on __ South State Street in the heart of the Loop. (S. Sheldon)

7. He walked slowly up __ Park Side and through __ Piccadilly, picking out as he passed them __French Embassy, __ Hyde Park Corner, __ Apsley House, __ Park Lane and __ Devonshire House. (G. Galsworthy)

8. It connected __Douglas Park with __ Washington or __  South Park.

9. “Got an office up __ Charing Cross Road.” (S. Fry)

10. I was walking westward up __ Strand, and though it was coldish I went slowly to get the pleasure of my cigar. (G. Orwell)

11. When I got down near __ Charing Cross the boys were yelling a later edition of the evening papers. (G. Orwell)

12. __ Ellesmere Road, and the whole quarter surrounding it, until you get to __ High Street, is part of a huge racket called the Hesperides Estate, the property of the Cheerful Credit Building Society. (G. Orwell)

13. Some quiet morning, when the clerks are streaming across __ London Bridge, and the canary’s singing, and the old woman’s pegging the bloomers on the line – zoom, whiz, plonk! (G. Orwell)

14. James Cameron died on an early morning in spring, and Lara buried him at __ Greenwood Cemetery in the Passiondale area. (S. Sheldon)

 

Names of Buildings and Institutions

Exercise 1 . Insert articles where necessary.

1. He took her to __ National Gallery, and __ Tate, and __ British Museum, and she really enjoyed it almost as much as she said. (W.S. Maugham)

2. You’re strangely like Titian’s portrait of Francis I in __ Louvre. (W.S. Maugham)

3. They went out very little: to an occasional play, or to dinner at __ Ritz or __ Princeton Club. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

4. Larry had reserved __ table at__  Maxim’s. (W.S. Maugham)

5. Jack could not get to the dinner. He waited for the others in front of __ Hollywood Theatre. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

6. Afternoon at __ Plaza, with winter twilight hovering outside and faint drums downstairs. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

7. So they stored the furniture, gave instructions to sublet, and shook hands gloomily in __ Pennsylvania Station. (F. Sc. Fitzgerald)

8. Widgett was overemphasizing his ts and ss as if he was Laurence Olivier on stage at __ Old Vic. (H. Fielding)

9. “Everything you hear here stays here, understood? Or you’ll be taken to __ Tower.” (H. Fielding)

10. __ Prince Charles shows a combination of arty films and films that were on release ages ago. (M. Gayle)

11. __ Festival Hall was crowded with music aficionados. (S. Sheldon)

12. It’s early evening and I’m just coming out of __ Wood Green Station to meet Caitlin for the first time in nearly fifteen years. (M. Gayle)

13. The next day, Simon Piperstock made several calls from the first-class lounge at __ Kennedy International Airport. (C. Bushnell)

14. “My mother taught me until I was fourteen, and then they sent me to study at __ Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.” (S. Sheldon)

15. When Lara was fifteen, she entered __ St Michael’s High School. (S. Sheldon)

16. He had studied in France. He made references which suggested __ Sorbonne, but he was not specific. (H. Fielding)

Names of Organizations

Ø Some names of organizations have the definite article and some have a zero article. Names of well-known organizations typically have the definite article, and they keep it when they are abbreviated: the United Nations (the UN), the BBC, the Labour Party, the FBI, the EC.

· The Labour Party has a job to do.

· The TUC runs ten-day courses all over the country.

· The BBC never reported my speeches.

· ... the role of the UN during the election period.

· ...something to do with the United Nations.

Ø If an abbreviation is pronounced as a word (is an acronym), then there is a zero article. So ‘the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ is usually called ‘OPEC’ [ouреk]. Other examples are ‘NATO’ [neitou] and ‘UNICEF’ [ju:nisef].

· ...as a member of NATO.

Ø Some names of charities have a zero article: Oxfam, Christian Aid, Mencap.

Ø You usually refer to businesses and chains of shops with a zero article: General Motors, Sony, Woolworths, Shell, Nissan, Singapore Airlines. This applieseven when an abbreviation is used which is not pronounced as a word: BP [bi:pi:] (British Petroleum), KLM, BA, ICI, IBM and so on.

· You could have gone to Woolworths.

· Now Collins have brought it out in a new translation.

· …corporations like IBM, RCA and Xerox.

Ø However, if a word like ‘company’ is used, then the definite article is used: the Bell Telephone Company. You can find alternatives like: ‘General Electric’ and ‘GEC’ as well as ‘the General Electric company’

Exercise 1.In the sentences below, only one of the underlined alternatives is appropriate. Cross out the one that is wrong.

1. United Nations/ The United Nations was formed in 1945.

2. ICI/ The ICI is one of the world’s largest companies.

3. John Major replaced Margaret Thatcher as leader of Conservative Party/ the Conservative Party in 1990.

4. Cathay Pacific/ The Cathy Pacific offers daily fights to Tokyo.

5. There have been arguments about the role of UNESCO/ the UNESCO.

6. Several countries are interested in joining European Community/ the European Community.

7. In 1954 he joined General Electric Company/ the General Electric Company, or GEC/ the GEC as it is usually known.

8. The Barclays Bank/ Barclays Bank have opened a new branch in the High Street.

9. He’s been a newsreader for BBC/ the BBC for 10 years.

10. Pentagon/ The Pentagon, that immense monument to modern man’s subservience to the desk. (O. Franks)