The Subject

Ex 610. Find the subjects in the sentences and say what they are expressed by Translate the sentences

1. Life is full of compensations. 2. Nancy is my close friend. 3. She found this hard to believe. 4. Everything that lay before us was new and mysterious. 5. Yours was a clever choice. 6. Reading is a way of learning things. 7. What I mean is that we should compromise. 8. To accept this offer is to radically change your life. 9. Thirteen is a tricky number: with some nations it means good luck, with others bad luck. 10. The rich and the powerful rule this country. 11. There are fashions in language learning. 12. Your constant perhapses and might-have-beens irritate me. 13. It was a pleasant surprise. 14. Shopping is my life. 15. To have been hit under the belt by your closest friend must have been a shock for you, Andrew.

Ex. 611. Analyse the pronoun it used as the subject in the following sentences

1. It doesn't matter. 2. It was very pleasant on the river's bank. 3. It's raining here at the moment. 4. — Who was that you were speaking to? — It was only the postman.

5. It took Stephen some time to work out what she meant. 6. It is impossible to make any decision. 7. He gave her an engagement ring. It was beautiful, very expensive, too. 8. The strike went on for over a year. Finally it was settled. 9. It seemed like a good idea. 10. The punishment wasn't severe. It was a three-month stay in prison. 11. We've just got urgent information. It can explain everything. 12. It's unexplainable, don't even try to do it. 13. It's vitally important that you give up smoking. It has become too bad for your lungs. 14. It's hard to believe that you are leaving us for such a long stretch of time. 15. It's an antique vase. It's very, very old.

Ex. 612. Insert there or it

1.... are about forty of us, sir. 2.... is a big group, of about twenty. 3.... was a new cushion on one of the settees. 4.... was a cute cushion embroidered by my grandmother. 5.... was not a tree in sight. 6.... was a lonely place. 7.... is a reason for everything. 8.... is a very sound reason, Paul, you may leave now. 9.... is a very sound excuse for my being late, Mary. Do forgive me! 10.... is nothing new under the moon. 11.... is as old as the world. 12.... was raining cats and dogs on Monday but... was still so much work to do in town. 13. —... never rains, but... pours. — Yes, one unhappy event is followed by another unfortunate event. 14. — Is... snowing outside? —... a lot of snow in the streets. 15. —... is something you are hiding from me, I feel it. —... is purely your fantasy,... is nothing to hide, especially from you. 16.... was an ordinary house, but in that ordinary house... lived an extraordinary wizard*. 17. According to modern standards... is a big family-... are four children in it. 18.... are 450.000 words in the English language.... is the richest language in the world.

* a wizard — a magician, a person of extraordinary powers.

Ex. 613. Make sentences with emphatic it according to the model There can be more than one variant

Model She told me the truth (only) many years later.

It was to me that she told the truth many years later.

It was only many years later that she told me the truth.

1. Undoubtedly, he did it. 2. Mr. Nickolson himself offered me the vacancy. 3. Brian wants a new bicycle. 4. Victor met Victoria m the year two thousand. 5.1 don't like meat, I like fish. 6. Susan isn't studying languages, she's studying law. 7. We need your help badly. 8. Daniel particularly liked Nabokov's works. 9. She escaped danger by listening to intuition. 10. Andy's quick reaction saved the mountaineers. 11. Jane remembered her childhood years with nostalgic feelings. 12.1 met Christopher on my way to the publisher's.