6. Grammar Focus Participles

A.

Study these examples: Check the parking regulations carefully. The parked car was left on the drive. The participles are: a) present participle (going, making, breaking); b) past participle (gone, made, broken). Both kinds of participle can be used to talk about the past, present or future. Example: She was buying a ticket when I saw her last. (past) Who's the man closing the door? (present) This time tomorrow we’ll be booking a coach trip. We use participles with auxiliary verbs to make some tenses. Example: Where are you travelling? Bus services are run by a large number of companies.

B. Read the Text.

The Highway Code

Every year in Britain, nearly six thousand people are killed on the roads. Although the percentage of casualties is not as large as in some other countries, the Government is seriously worried by this problem. They fear that with the increasing number of vehicles coming on to the roads each year the total number of casualties will also continue to grow. One of the greatest problems in Britain is the lack of space. It is extremely difficult, especially in the cities, to obtain any extra land in order to improve existing roads and the acquiring of sufficient land on which to build new roads often seems nearly impossible.

In spite of all the difficulties, however, improvements are being made, although motorists (and pedestrians too) are still not satisfied with the rate of progress, particularly when they think of the taxes they have to pay!

It remains true, however, that the standards of safety on the roads will not be improved simply by improving the roads. The attitude of the users of the road is the most important factor in improving road safety. This is why the government and local authorities devote time and resources to producing ‘propaganda’ in support of the ‘Safety First’ campaign, which is constantly being waged. Posters, broadcasts on the radio, special ‘Safety First’ weeks are some of the means employed.

Perhaps the best-known piece of ‘propaganda’ for safety on the road is the government’s booklet The Highway Code. This costs only a few pence and gives, with illustrations, all the rules and conventions in use on the roads of Britain. The fundamental convention of road usage in Britain (and one that usually gives foreigners a pleasant surprise) is that the pedestrian has ‘the right of way’. That is to say, the pedestrian is assumed to have priority in road usage. The sense of this rule is apparent when one considers that a pedestrian is not in a position to injure a driver whereas the reverse is certainly true. Every foreigner who intends to drive in Britain should obtain a copy of the code and read it carefully.

It is probably true to say that the British motorists are as careful as most others in the world. (The same is not, perhaps, true of the pedestrians, who are rather spoiled.) Even so, their standards must be raised considerably higher if the country is to succeed in its attempt (in the words of an early safety-first poster) to ‘Keep Death off the Road’.