E Write: Put in a, the, or one only where necessary.HERE'S HEALTH!

'I think that's all, Mrs Grant,' Dr Grey said as she handed her¹ a list of prescriptions.²... list was very long and Mrs Grant almost fainted as she tried to read it. She had³... headache and⁴... cold and felt as if she was getting ⁵... flu. On top of this, one of her children was in bed with ⁶... mumps. 'I've prescribed some pills for⁷... high blood pressure as well,' Dr Grey said. 'How many do I have to take - ⁸... pill⁹...day?' 'No. One pill with each meal. Three pills ¹⁰... day.' Mrs Grant thanked ¹¹... doctor and walked out of her surgery with some difficulty. She staggered into the local chemist's and handed ¹²... long prescription list to Mr Burt,¹³... chemist. Mr Burt greeted her cheerfully. 'Good morning, Mrs Grant,^’ he said, glancing at ¹⁴... list. 'What a list! I trust you're keeping well!' I trust you're keeping well’

3.3A The definite article: 'the' (1). Form and basic uses of 'the' [> leg 3.16,318]

1 The never varies in form whether it refers to people or things, singular or plural:

a That's the man we met last night. b That's the woman we met last night

с That's the shirt I bought yesterday,d They're the men we met last night.

e They're the women we met last night. f They're the shirts I bought yesterday.

2 We use the to refer to something that is known. [> 3.2A]

3 The can combine with singular countable nouns (the book), plural countable nouns (the books) and uncountable nouns, which are always singular (the furniture).

Write: Supply a/an or the in the following text.

We wanted to reach ¹... a...small village and knew we must be near. Then we saw²... woman just ahead and some children playing. When we stopped to ask the way,³... woman said she was⁴... stranger herself. We called out to⁵... children, but they ignored us. Just then two men came along and we asked them the way.⁶... men didn't know, but at least they were helpful. 'There's⁷... signpost a mile along this road,' one of them said. We drove to⁸... signpost eagerly. This is what it said: NORTH POLE 6,000 MILES.

 

3.3B 'A / an', 'the' and zero in front of abbreviations: 'the BBC' [> LEG 3.7, 3.17, 3.24]

1 We make abbreviations with the first letters of the most important words. We then treat these abbreviations like ordinary nouns and use them with a/an, the or zero [> 3.1 C]; I’ve just bought an LP. (= a Long Playing record). We use an + vowel sound (an LP) and a + consonant sound (a VW= a Volkswagen).

2 We use a / an and full stops with titles: She's an M.A. (= Master of Arts) 3 We use the in front of institutions when we can't say them as single words. We don't use full stops: / listen to the news on the BBC. (= the British Broadcasting Corporation) We are members of UNESCO,/ju:'neskou/ (= the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) 4 We use no article (zero) with chemical symbols: CO₂ stands for Carbon Dioxide. 5 The first letters of some words are often used as normal words: e.g. Planes use radar. (= RAdio Detection And Ranging)

Write: Supply a/an, the or '-'.

1 Jim got... a... B.Sc. (= Bachelor of Science) from Durham University in 1988. 2 Celia is sure she's seen... UFO (= Unidentified Flying Object). 3... EC (= The European Community) does a lot of trade with the rest of the world. 4 I don't know how much... MP (= Member of Parliament) earns. 5 Which countries belong to... NATO? (= North Atlantic Treaty Organization) 6... H₂0 is the chemical formula for water. 7 I've used my computer to learn... BASIC (= Beginners' All-purpose Instruction) 8... NASA [ˈnasə] (= National Aeronautics and Space Administration) had a setback in 1986.

 

3.3C The' + nationality nouns: 'the Chinese' [> leg 3.19.2, App 49]

We use the in front of nationality nouns to refer to 'all the people in general'. We can divide nationality nouns into four groups:

1 the + -ese or -ss:the Chinese, the Japanese, the Portuguese, the Sudanese, the Swiss.

2 the + plural ending in -s. -ian:the Austrians, the Belgians, the Brazilians, the Egyptians, the Russians. -an:the Americans, the Koreans, the Mexicans, the Venezuelans, the Zimbabweans. other -s endings: the Arabs, the Germans, the Greeks, the Poles, the Scots, the Turks.

3 Two forms: the Danes/the Danish, the Spaniards/the Spanish, the Swedes/the Swedish.

4 the + -en or -sft- the British, the Dutch, the English, the French, the Irish, the Welsh

 

Write: Rewrite these sentences using nationality nouns to refer to 'the people in general'. 1 The people from Portugal are very different from the people from Spain. The Portuguese... the Spanish/the Spaniards. 2 The people from America and the people from Russia understand each other better. 3 The people from Brazil speak Portuguese, but the people from Mexico speak Spanish. 4 The people from Germany and the people from Japan work very hard. 5 The people from Greece buy ships from the people from Korea. 6 The people from Britain and the people from Holland do a lot of foreign trade.