Complete these grammar notes with the words in the box.

 

a/an the no article

 

a. Use_____ with plural nouns, to talk about people or things in general.

b. Use_____ with a singular noun, and to talk about a person's job.

c. Use _____ with singular or plural nouns, to talk about particular person, place or thing, or to talk about people places or things your listener knows about.

We use a when we talk about someone or something for the first lime. We use the when we talk about that person or thing again.

e.g. Helen Francis is a journalist with a national newspaper. Every week she writes an article for the newspaper.

 

2. Complete this description of a TV advert with a/an or the.

There's ¹_______ funny advert on ² _________ TV at the moment. This is what happens.³_________ honest-looking man and ⁴ ________ beautiful woman are getting married. ⁵___________ woman is wearing ⁶ ___________ expensive wedding dress. ⁷ __________ man looks very happy. At the last minute, however, ⁸__________ woman runs away and ⁹ ________ man is very surprised. Then we see why. Outside, ¹⁰ _________ car is waiting for ¹¹________ woman. We realise that ¹² ________ woman loves ¹³ ________ car more than she loves ¹⁴____________ man!

3. Complete these sentences with a/an, the or no article.

 

1. Do you like ___ computer games?

2. My sister’s ___ journalist.

3. There’s ___ interesting programme about medicine on TV tonight. ___ programme lasts ___ hour.

4. What’s the name of ___ presenter of that nature programme on Wednesday evenings?

5. Do you know ___ good Italian search engine?

6. That shop sells ___ DVDs. ___ DVDs are quite old and very cheap.

7. I don’t usually like ___ comedies but I really like ___ sitcom on Monday at 8.00.

8. My brother presents ___ news programme. He goes to the studio at 6.00 every morning to prepare for ___ programme.

 

4. Put the or a/an in the spaces in the story below.

 

Robbie, the School Rabbit

Once upon (1) ___________ time, on (2) ___________ boring Wednesday afternoon, Jed and Jen decided to steal Robbie, (3) ________ school rabbit. They took it home. At (4) ____________ time, they thought it was funny.

But (5) ___________ next day, (6) ___________ head teacher told (7) _________ whole school and everyone was very sad. Jed and Jen were sad, too.

"We'll have to put it back," said Jen. "But nobody must see us."

So that evening, they took (8) _________ rabbit back. They carried (9) ________ rabbit in (10) _____________ box. At school there was (11) evening class going on, so (12) ________ school building was open. They crept in. They walked quickly down (13) ________ main corridor. There were lots of doors into classrooms and (14) _________________ library. They turned the corner.

Suddenly they heard (15) _________ noise behind them - footsteps coming towards the corner. They ran into (16) ________ classroom and hid. Jed put (17) ____________ box down. They waited. (18) _____________ footsteps walked away.

"Come on," whispered Jed. "Let's go."

"Oh no!" said Jen, too loudly. "(19) ___________ rabbit's gone."

They rushed back into (20) _________ corridor They were just in time to see (21) __________ rabbit hop into (22)________________main school hall. They ran to (23) ________ hall but stopped suddenly. (24) ____________ hall was full of people speaking French. It was (25) _______________ French evening class.

 

5. Insert the missing articles a/an or the in the text below.

Did you know...

· that some popular products took 100 years or more to get to the marketplace? In 1485, Leonardo da Vinci made detailed sketches of parachutes. He also sketched studies for helicopter and tank. First helicopter that could carry person was flown by Paul Cornu at beginning of twentieth century. During First World War, tanks were first used in France in 1917.

· Bar codes were invented by Silver and Woodland in 1948. They used light to read set of concentric circles, but it was two decades before advent of computers and lasers made system practical. However, bar code system in use today is Universal Product Code, introduced by IBM in 1973. First bar-coded items sold were packs of chewing gum in 1974.

· Computer was launched in 1943, more than 100 years after Charles Babbage designed first programmable device. In 1998, Science Museum in London built working replica of Babbage machine, using materials and work methods available in Babbage time. It worked just as Babbage had intended.