Времена английского глагола в сравнении = English Tenses Compared. Пособие

as he was feeling hot and sticky, he took off his shirt to have a wash. Suddenly he heard heavy footsteps running up the path. The back door burst open, and he found himself surrounded by policemen. They pushed him into the living room next door, made him sit down, and began asking him questions.

‘What’s your name?’ ‘Where do you live?’ ‘What’s in that case?’ ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I live here,’ said Herbert. ‘I’ve been on holiday.’ But nobody listened to him. They just went on asking questions. Then suddenly one of the policemen said: ‘Watch him Frank — we’ll go and search the house.’ They left one tall, very young policeman to guard him.

‘Can I put my shirt on?’ asked Herbert.

‘No,’ said the policeman, ‘stay where you are.’

Then the others came back with an older man, a sergeant. He asked the same questions, but he listened to Herbert’s answers.

‘I live here,’ said Herbert, ‘and I want to put my shirt on.’ The sergeant looked at him thoughtfully. ‘We’ll soon settle this,’ he said.

He went out and came back with a small, sandy-haired man wearing a shabby, brown dressing gown. It was Herbert’s next-door neighbour. He looked at Herbert intently through thick spectacles.

‘Oh yes, Sergeant,’ he said, ‘that is Mr Marshall.’ Then he disappeared very quickly. The policemen all looked dreadfully disappointed. They were convinced that they had caught a burglar.

‘Did he ring you up?’ asked Herbert. The police sergeant nodded. ‘He saw a light and understood your family had all gone away to the seaside.’

When they’d all gone, Herbert made himself a cup of tea.

Claude and Anna

Claude and Anna had been to the pictures. Now they were sitting in the bus on their way home.

Suddenly Anna said: ‘Oh, dear.’

‘What’s the matter?’ asked Claude. ‘I’ve forgotten my key,’ replied Anna.

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Claude looked at his watch. ‘Never mind. It isn’t late. It’s only eleven o’clock.’

‘But my family always go to bed about 10.30.’ Anna looked terribly worried.

‘I know,’ said Claude. ‘You can sleep on the sofa in the sitting room in my home.’

They arrived at Claude’s home ten minutes later.

Claude’s landlady, Mrs Briggs, was still up. She was watching television.

‘This is Anna,’ said Claude, ‘she’s forgotten her key, so she’s going to sleep on the sofa if that’s OK.’

‘Very well,’ said Mrs Briggs. ‘Has she telephoned her landlady?’ ‘No, she will be in bed by this time,’ said Claude.

‘All right,’ Mrs Briggs smiled. ‘I’ll telephone Anna’s landlady first thing in the morning.’

George

George’s mother was worried about him. One evening, when her husband came home, she spoke to him about it.

‘Look dear,’ she said, ‘You must talk to George. He left school three months ago. He still hasn’t got a job, and he isn’t trying to find one. All he does is smoke, eat and play records.’

George’s father sighed. It had been a very tiring day at the office. ‘All right,’ he said, ‘I’ll talk to him.’

‘George,’ said George’s mother, knocking at George’s door, ‘your father wants to speak to you.’

‘Oh!’

‘Come into the sitting room, dear.’

‘Hullo old man,’ said George’s father, when George and his mother joined him in the sitting room.

‘Your father’s very worried about you,’ said George’s mother. ‘It’s time you found a job.’

‘Yes,’ replied George without enthusiasm. George’s mother looked at her husband. ‘Any ideas?’ he asked hopefully.

‘Not really,’ said George.

‘What about a job in a bank?’ suggested George’s mother, ‘or an insurance company perhaps?’

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‘I don’t want an office job,’ said George. George’s father nodded sympathetically.

‘Well, what do you want to do?’ asked George’s mother. ‘I’d like to travel,’ said George.

‘Do you want a job with a travel firm then?’

‘The trouble is,’ said George, ‘I don’t really want a job at the moment. I’d just like to travel and see a bit of the world.’

George’s mother raised her eyes to the ceiling. ‘I give up,’ she said.

While the Auto Waits

(after O. Henry)

The girl in grey came to that quiet corner of the small park. She sat down on a bench and began to read a book.

Her dress was grey and simple. Her face was very beautiful. She always came there at the same hour and there was a young man who knew it. The young man came near. At that moment her book fell on the ground. The young man picked up the book, returned it to the girl, said a few words about the weather and stood waiting. The girl looked at his simple coat, common face and said, ‘Sit down, if you like, the light is too bad for reading. Let’s talk.’

‘Do you know,’ he said, ‘that you are very beautiful. I see you here sometimes.’ ‘Oh, let’s change the subject. Don’t forget that I’m a lady. You’d better tell me about the people passing by. Where are they going? Are they happy? I come here to sit because only here I am near the masses of people. I speak to you because I want to talk to a man not spoiled by money. Oh! You don’t know how tired I am of money, money, money! And of the men who surround me! I’m tired of pleasure, of jewels, of travels!’

The young man looked at her with interest. ‘I’ve always thought that money is a good thing! I like to read about the life of rich people.’ ‘Sometimes I think,’ the girl continued, ‘that I could love only a simple man. What is your profession?’

‘I’m a cashier in the restaurant that you see on the opposite side of the street.’

The girl looked at her watch and rose. ‘Why aren’t you at work?’ she asked. ‘I’m on the night shift. When shall I see you again?’

‘I don’t know. Now I must be going. Oh, there is a dinner and a concert tonight. Did you notice the white automobile at the corner of the park?

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The driver is waiting for me. Good night.’

‘But the park is full of rude men. May I accompany you to the car?’ ‘Oh, no. Stay on this bench for ten minutes after I have left.’

And she went away. The young man looked at her elegant figure while she was going to the gate of the park. Then he stood up and followed her. When the girl reached the park gate she turned her head to look at the white car, then passed it, crossed the street and entered the restaurant. A red-haired girl left the cashier’s desk and the girl in grey took her place. The young man walked slowly down the street, then stepped into the white automobile and said to the driver, ‘Club, Henry!’

The Gadfly

(after L. Voinich)

‘Gemma, there is a man downstairs who wants to see you,’ Martini said. ‘A man, Martini? What does he want?’

‘I don’t know, dear. He did not tell me. He said he wanted to speak to you alone.’

‘Very well. I must go to him, I think, but probably it’s only a spy.’

‘In any case, I shall be in the next room,’ Martini said. ‘When he goes away, you must lie down and have a rest. You have been working too much today.’

‘Oh, no. I will go on with my work.’

She went slowly down the stairs, and Martini followed her in silence. In the little study she found one of the guards, dressed as a mountaineer. ‘Can you speak German?’ he asked.

‘A little. I hear you want to see me.’

‘Are you Signora Bolla? I have brought you a letter.’ ‘A letter?’ She was beginning to tremble.

‘I’m one of the guards of the fortress. It is from the man who was shot last week. I promised him to give it into your own hands myself.’

She bent her head down. So he had written after all. He took a letter out of the breast of his blouse and gave it to her.

‘You won’t say anything,’ he began again looking at her. ‘I’ve risked my life to come here.’

‘Of course I will not say anything,’ said Gemma. She stood still for a minute with the paper in her hand, then sat down by the open window to read.

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SITUATIONS

A.Give a one-minute impromptu speech. Your classmates will take notes, and then in a short paragraph, or orally, they will report what you said. Choose any topic that comes to mind (relatives, sports, books, etc.).

B.Work in pairs. Each pair should create a short dialogue (five to ten sentences) based on one of the given situations. Each pair will then present their dialogue to the class. After the dialogue, the class will report what was said.

Sample situation: Have a conversation about going somewhere in this city.

Sample dialogue:

Sample report:

Ann asked Bob if he wanted to go to the zoo tomorrow. Bob said that he could not go because he had to study. Ann finally persuaded him to go. She said it would take only a few hours. Bob decided that he could study in the morning and go to the zoo in the afternoon. Ann asked Bob what time he wanted to go. He suggested going around two o’clock.

1.Have a conversation in which one of you invites the other one to a party.

2.One of you is a teenager and the other one is a parent. The teenager is having problems at school and is seeking advice and encouragement.

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3.Have a conversation in which one of you persuades the other one to begin a health program by taking up a new kind of exercise (jogging. walking, tennis, etc.).

4.The two of you are a married couple. One of you is reminding the other one about the things he should or has to do today.

C. Money is the most important thing in life. Do you agree with the given statement? Have a discussion. At the end of your discussion, make a formal written report of the main points made by each speaker in your group. (Do not attempt to report every word that was spoken, give an accurate idea of the speaker’s words, you don’t necessarily have to use the speaker’s exact words.)

In your report, use the words such as think, believe, say, remark, and state to introduce object clauses. When you use think or believe, you will probably use present tenses (eg John thinks that money is the most important thing in life.) When you use say, remark, or state, you will probably use past tenses (eg Ann said that many other things were more important than money.)

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b. We also use the passive when we are not interested in who or what does something.

The factory was painted last year. Sarah has been invited to the party.

In these sentences we are interested in the factory and Sarah, not who painted the factory, or who invited Sarah.

c. We also use the passive when we do not want to say who or what does something. Compare:

Note that some transitive verbs (sell, wash, bake, read, wear, open, close, etc.) are sometimes used in the Active Voice with passive meaning.

Detective stories sell well. Детективные рассказы хорошо

продаются.

This cloth washes and wears well. Эта ткань хорошо стирается и носится.

The pie is still baking. Пирог все еще печется.

The shop opens at 8 a.m. Магазин открывается в 8 часов утра.

Verbs with two objects in the passive

Some verbs eg give can have two objects.

Someone gave Jimmy the money. (The two objects are Jimmy and the money.)

In cases like this, we can make two different passive sentences.

Jimmy was given the money. The money was given to Jimmy.

In general, it is more usual for passive sentences to begin with the person.

Other verbs which can have two objects include send, offer, show, pay, teach, promise, tell, bring, grant, lend, hand, read, recommend and others.

I was sent a telegram.

She will be told the news.

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The Passive with prepositional verbs and phraseological units

In the passive construction the subject of the prepositional passive construction corresponds to the object of the active construction and denotes the receiver of the action. The peculiarity of the construction is that the preposition sticks to the verb.

Note the prepositional and phrasal verbs that can be used in the passive construction:

account for (объяснять что-л. ), agree upon (договариваться о), approve / disapprove of, arrive at (a conclusion, agreement, decision), ask for, break into, bring up, call for, comment on / upon, cut off, deal with, depend on / upon, do away with (покончить с кем-л., чем-л.), hear of, insist on / upon, interfere with, laugh at, listen to, look at, look after, look for, look through, look into, knock down / off, object to, operate on, point out, provide for, pull down, put off, put up with (примириться), read to, refer to, rely on, run over, send for, speak about / of, shout at, see off, wait for, write to and others.

Note the phraseological units that can be used in the passive construction:

find fault with (придираться, находить недостатки), lose sight of (терять из виду), make fun of, make use of (использовать), pay attention to, put an end to (положить конец), set fire to, take notice of, take care of.

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The passive with by and with

1.By+ agent

Compare:

We sometimes use the subject of an active sentence (eg Columbus, the strong winds) as ‘the agent’ in a passive sentence. When this happens, we use by to introduce the agent in the passive.

We only use by + agent when it is important to say who or what is responsible for something.

2. With + instrument

We use with to talk about an instrument which is used by the agent to do something. Compare:

I was hit with an umbrella.

I was hit by an old lady.

3. With + material

We also use with to talk about materials or ingredients.

The room was filled with smoke.

Irish coffee is made with whisky.

Passive constructions in sentences with the formal subject it

It was reported that he was still in town. =

He was reported to be in town.

It is expected that their plan will be a great success. =

Their plan is expected to be a great success.

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