Starting with the continuation of
SOME REASONS NOT TO MESS WITH A CHILD:
3. The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of a table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray: “Take only one. God is watching”. Moving further along the line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note: “Take all you want. God is watching the apples”.
BASIC ENGLISH REVIEW
7. PREPOSITIONS (II) and CONJUNCTIONS
7.1 PREPOSITIONS AND CONJUNCTIONS
7.1.1 PREPOSITIONS: FOR / DURING / SINCE / LIKE
FOR:
‘I have been waiting for two hours’!
‘Let the solution warming up for half an hour’
[both used ‘with a period of time’].
‘I went to the college for an interview’
‘Is that cake for eating or just for looking at’?.
[both used for ‘purpose’]
‘They punished the child for lying’ [used for ‘cause of reaction’]
DURING:
‘I met a lot of people during the day, except you’.
‘I fell asleep during the English lecture (or class)’
[both used ‘before known periods of time’].
SINCE:
‘I have been in the University since 8 o’clock’ (AM) [notice: ‘in the University’ because the person is really in there, but: ‘I work at the University’].
‘It is two years now since we last saw Gerry’.
‘How long is it since we went to a Congress?’
[these three situations used ‘with a point in time’].
LIKE:
‘He runs like the wind’ [a preposition used before a noun].
‘She looks like me’ [a preposition used before a pronoun].
7.1.2 CONJUNCTIONS: AS / WHEN / ONCE / WHILE
AS:
‘As I left the library I remembered the book was in my bag’ [a second action occurred before the first is finished].
‘As she was tired she went to bed’ [with the meaning of because].
‘Tired as he was he repeated the exercise’ [with the meaning of although].
‘Nobody knows her as I do’ [a conjunction used before subject + verb].
‘On Friday, as on Monday, we meet at eight’ [a conjunction used before a prepositional expression].
See the difference between as and like: 1) ‘The “muriqui” or woolly spider monkey is endemic to the Atlantic forest. As a target for hunters, it is an endangered species. Like the muriqui, the golden lion tamarin is also an endemic and endangered species’. 2) ‘I am the manager of the company. As the manager, I have to make many decisions. My wife is the assistant manager. Like the manager, she also has to make many decisions’.
WHILE:
‘What have you been doing while I was working in the lab?’ (or laboratory).
‘I saw Bob while I was going to the library’
[both with the meaning of ‘during the time that’].
WHEN:
‘When the sun is shining the plant transpiration must be measured’ [simultaneous actions].
‘When I pressed the red button the apparatus stopped’ [when one action follows another].
ONCE:
‘Liquids are important because, once substances are dissolved, their molecules can readily come together to react’.
‘Once you understand the basic rules, you will have no further difficulties’
7.2 FOR and AGAINST
‘Are you for or against the plan?’.
7.3 WAY. Observe the following phrases with the word way:
a) In the way: ‘Could you move this chair? It is in the way’.
‘Do the work in the way I have shown to you’.
b) On the way: ‘I bought some envelopes on the way to the post office’.
c) In this way: ‘John has a SOHO [small office home office]. In this way he saves money’.
d) By the way: ‘By the way, have you seen Teresa recently?’
e) In a way: ‘In a way, it is an important scientific paper (or article)’.
7.4 WORDS FOLLOWED BY: for / with / of / to / at / from / in / on / about.
Use this list as reference:
FOR: enough, famous, fit, grateful (or to), qualified (or in), ready (or to), responsible, sorry, sufficient, thankful (or to), valid.
WITH: angry (with someone; at something), busy (or at), consistent, content, familiar (or to), identical, patient, popular.
OF: afraid, ahead, aware, capable, careful (or with), certain, conscious, envious, fond, guilty, ignorant, independent, jealous, kind (or to), north/south/east/west [and their respective derivatives: northern ...], short, shy, sure, worthy.
TO: close, contrary, cruel, dear, equal, faithful, fatal, harmful, indifferent, inferior, liable, new, obedient, obvious, polite, previous, rude, sensitive, similar, useful.
AT: bad, clever, efficient, expert (or in), good, indignant, quick, sad (or about), slow, skilful (or in).
FROM: away, different, far, resulting, safe.
IN: deficient, fortunate, honest, weak.
ON: dependent, intent, keen.
ABOUT: curious, doubtful (or of), enthusiastic, reluctant (or to), right (or in), uneasy.
7.5 LOOK... AT / OUT / FOR / AFTER / FORWARD TO / UP / IN / INTO / TO / THROUGH
a) ‘The girl looked at me curiously’.
b) ‘Look out! A bus is coming’. (= be careful).
c) ‘Look for my child of eight. He got lost in the fair’.
d) ‘Look after this animal’. ‘Look after my son, please’!
e) ‘I am looking forward to receiving news from you’ / ‘We are looking forward you coming home soon’. ‘We are looking forward hearing from you soon’
f) ‘Look the word up in the dictionary’ / ‘Look up the time of the bus in the timetable [search for].
g) ‘Would you look in at the library and collect my books I left at the reception’? / ‘Would there be time to look in John and Mary’? [... a brief visit].
h) ‘I’ve offered to look into the problem for him’ [... when you investigate it].
i) ‘She has always looked to her parents for support’ [when someone rely on ... and expect to be helped or provided with ...]. ‘They are now looking to the future with confidence’ [when the future is considered].
j) ‘I looked through my clothes but I couldn’t find nothing suitable for the occasion’ [when you examine one by one]. ‘I only got about one hour to look through his thesis early this morning’ / ‘I only get about ten minutes at breakfast to look through the headlines on the newspaper’ [read briefly].
7.6 BY / UNTIL
BY: ‘If you post the letter today, she will receive it by Monday’. ‘I have to be at home by 6 o’clock in the evening’. ‘Where’s Helen? She should be here by now!’ ‘Tell me by Friday whether or not you are able to come to my house for repairing the machine’ [DO NOT SAY ‘until Friday’].
Notice the expression by the time: ‘Hurry up! By the time we get to the cinema, the film will already have started’.
UNTIL (use until to say how long a situation continues: ‘Shall we go now? No, let’s wait until (or till) it stops raining’. ‘On Sundays I stay in bed until 9 o’clock’.
NOTICE the differences: ‘John will be away until Monday’ / But ‘Peter will be back by Saturday’. ‘I’ll be working until 5 o’clock in the evening; I’ll have finished all my experiments by then’.
7.7 BY / ABOVE / BELOW / OVER / UNDER (UNDERNEATH / BENEATH) / BEFORE / IN FRONT OF / BEHIND / OPPOSITE / AFTER (preposition) / AFTERWARDS (adverb)
‘He is standing by the blonde girl’ (= ‘at the side of’).
The prepositions that follow express relative position vertically. NOTICE that over and under indicate a direct vertical relationship and/or spatial proximity: ‘A fluorescent lamp hanging over the desk’/ ‘The stool (= a seat without a back and arms) is under the bench’. ‘The doctor was leaning over the body when the policeman arrived’ / ‘There was a gun under the body’. Above and below indicate simply on a higher or lower level than: ‘The Research Institute stands on a hill above the valley’ / ‘The picture is above the shelf on that wall’ / ‘The shelf is below the picture’. / ‘The valley below the hill is a very beautiful green micro-basin’. Other prepositions expressing position vertically: ‘The book on plant physiology is on top of the bookcase’. (NOTICE: beneath (formal word) and underneath are less common substitutes for under; underneath indicates a contiguous relation; e.g. ‘he wears a chamois leather jacket and a wool sweater underneath) [N.B.: chamois is a goatlike antelope from the mountains of Europe and Asia Minor].
The prepositions that follow express relative position horizontally (see the figure on top): ‘A man is standing after the car, in front of the wall’ / ‘The wall is behind the car’. ‘The stop signal is opposite the wall’.
Before indicating time: ‘I’ll have lunch before going to work’; and indicating position: ‘The people in the church knelt before the priest’ / ‘Before you is a list of the participants in the event’. With the sense of future: ‘The task before us is a very hard one’. Indicating the presence of somebody: ‘He made a good speech before the Congressmen’. After must be followed by a noun, pronoun or gerund, but if there is none of these words we use afterwards: ‘It is unwise to bathe immediately after a meal’ / ‘It is unwise to have a meal and bathe immediately afterwards’.
7.8 ACROSS / THROUGH / PAST
There is a sense of passage in the meaning of these prepositions. The difference between across and through is like the difference between on and in; examples: ‘we walked quickly across the street’ or 'we walked across the ice' (we were on the street or we were on the ice). ‘The water flows to that tank through this pipe’ or 'the water flows through the forest' (the water is in the pipe or in the forest).
‘I live in a house just past (= after, AmE) the church’. ‘There is a bus every 20 minutes past the hour’.
7.9 UP / DOWN / ALONG / AROUND
There is a sense of direction in the meaning of these prepositions; examples: ‘I walked up and down the platform at the bus station’ / ‘I saw her walking along the corridor’. ‘Travel around the world’. ‘It’s around here somewhere’.
7.10 BEYOND / THROUGHOUT / ALL OVER
Use of beyond indicating a specified time: ‘I will not work today beyond 6 o’clock in the evening’. Use indicating at or to the further side of something: ‘The road continues beyond the village’.
Use of throughout with a sense of time: ‘ Tropical fruits are abundant throughout the year’. As a substitute of all through: ‘The news quickly spread throughout the city’. Use of all over: ‘The ants spread all over the lawn (= a short cut grass in the garden)’.
7.11 BETWEEN / AMONG, AMONGST (BrE)
‘There is a fight between those two scientists’.
‘The members of the Department never agree among(st) themselves’.
7.12 TOWARDS
‘This meeting is the first step towards greater unity between the two groups’. ‘Walk towards the river’. ‘We must be very friendly towards tourists’.[See ‘-wards’, a suffix, in ‘10. WORDS ...’]
7.13 BUT / EXCEPT
‘Everyone but me was tired’. ‘The problem is anything but easy’ [it means ‘apart from’, ‘other than’]. ‘Nobody but you could be so selfish’.
‘The weather is good today except in the South-east or Southeast of Brazil’. ‘All students except/but Peter passed the test’.
7.14 OF / WITH / WITHOUT (having ...)
‘A man of courage’.
‘Bean with rice is the Brazilians favourite dish’. ‘I am very glad you are coming with us’. ‘It’s nearly impossible for me to lunch bean without rice’. ‘She is a woman without children (= a childless woman)’.
7.15 AWAY FROM / OFF / OUT OF
‘John went away from the door’ (= ‘John was not at the door’).
Off: this preposition is used with many verbs: ‘get off the room’; ‘get off the bus’; ‘fall off a ladder’; ‘keep off the grass’ ... .
‘Fish can survive for only a short time out of water’. ‘Jump out of bed’. ‘Go out of the lab’. NOTICE the use of out as a prefix of nouns and verbs: ‘an outburst of microorganisms...’ (outburst = bursting out, explosion); ‘an outfit’ (= all the equipment or articles needed for a particular purpose); ‘an outbreak of dengue’ (= appearance or start, especially of disease or violence).
7.16 IN SPITE OF / DESPITE
‘In spite of / despite the rain, we did our field experiment’
7.17 ALTHOUGH / THOUGH / EVEN THOUGH
‘Although it rained a lot, we enjoyed our holiday’ / ‘We did the field experiment though the rain started early’ / ‘Even though I was really tired, I couldn’t sleep’ [= it’s a stronger form of although].
7.18 AS LONG AS / PROVIDED / SO THAT and PROVIDING / UNLESS
‘You can use this apparatus as long as / provided (that) / providing (that) you observe the instructions in the manual’. ‘We put on our raincoats so that we could do our field experiments even if it rained. ‘You can’t use this apparatus now unless you read carefully the instructions in the manual’ / ‘We’ll be late unless we hurry’.
7.19 ALL and WHOLE / ALL and EVERY
ALL and WHOLE: they both can be used with singular nouns to mean complete or every part of: ‘I spent my whole life studying English’. ‘I spent all (of) my life studying English’. Use whole with indefinite article: ‘He’s eaten a whole loaf’. ALL and EVERY: there is a little difference of meaning between them, but every is generally used with singular nouns: ‘Every child needs love’ / ‘I’ve written to every friend I have’; and all is used with plural nouns: ‘All children need love’ / ‘I’ve written to all my friends’.
7.20 EXERCISES
Put in the correct preposition:
1. I’ve spent the day ….. York.
2. Why don’t you take Joe ….. the cinema?
3. Your key’s ….. the reception desk.
4. We usually meet ….. the pub.
5. They’re delivering the furniture ….. my flat on Tuesday.
6. What’s the easiest way to get ….. Bristol?
7. Stop shouting ….. me.
8. Throw the keys down ….. me and I’ll let myself in.
9. Let’s throw snowballs … Mrs Anderson.
10. Can you shout ….. Paul and tell him it’s supper time?
11. When you smile ….. me like that I’ll do anything for you.
12. Promise you’ll write ….. me every day.
13. I went ….. Canada to see my father.
14. I went to see my father ….. Canada.
Put in like or as
1. He died ….. he lived, fighting.
2. Being in love is ….. an illness.
3. It’s mended, ….. you can see.
4. In Paris, ….. in Rome, traffic is heavy.
5. His eyes are ….. knives.
6. My brother isn’t at all ….. me.
7. She left ….. me, silently.
8. You’re shy, ….. me.
9. Your smile is ….. your sister’s.
10 ……. I said, you’re too late.
Using conjunctions: put the beginnings and ends together
Beginnings Ends
1. Although he was very bad-tempered, after you have a meal.
2. Always brush your teeth and I’ll hit you.
3. Always wash your hands but everybody liked him.
4. As Liz told you, before you have a meal.
5. Because I knew her family, he had lots of friends.
6. Talk to me like that again I did what I could for her.
7. Don’t do that again her mother left for Berlin last Friday.
8. He had a terrible temper, or I’ll hit you.
9. Liz explained to you so I tried to help her.
10. I was sorry for her, that your mother went back home last week.
11. If you do that again, unless you stop that.
12. There’ll be trouble you’ll be sorry.
Using conjunctions: join the beginnings and ends with so that or as long as
Beginnings Ends
1. He went to Switzerland he could learn French.
2. I don’t mind you singing it doesn’t rain.
3. We moved the piano that’s OK with you.
4. We took some blankets there would be room for the Christmas tree.
5. We’ll come back this afternoon we would be warm enough.
6. We’ll play tennis you do it quietly.
Put in, at, on, or NOTHING
1. ….. Easter.
2. ….. Tuesday.
3. ….. 1994.
4. ….. the evening.
5. …..Friday evening.
6. ….. May.
7. ….. next Wednesday.
8. I don’t know ….. what time.
9. ….. supper time.
10. …. this Sunday.
11. …. that afternoon.
12. ….. Sunday afternoon.
SCIENTIFIC TEXT
Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death. In the young there is a justification for this feeling. Young men who have reason to fear that they will be killed in battle may unjustifiably feel bitter in the thought that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer. But in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows, and has achieved whatever work it was in him to do, the fear of death is somewhat abject and ignoble. The best way to overcome it, so at least it seems to me, is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river, small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing past boulders and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue. And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest will be not unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do, and content in the thought that what was possible has been done. Bertrand Russell.
[Text extracted from “Alexander, L.G. (1967) New Concept English. Fluency in English, p. 46”]
QUESTIONS
1. Why is it justifiable for a young man to fear death?
2. How does the author regard the fear of death in old people?
3. What, in the opinion of the author, is the best way for an old person to overcome the fear of death?
4. Which of these statements best expresses the main idea of the passage?
a) Old people fear death.
b) While it is justifiable for a young man to fear death, it is not so in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows and has accomplished whatever work it was in him to do.
c) It is justifiable for young people to fear death.
d) An old man will not fear death if he knows that there are others who will carry on what he can no longer do.
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