Catch that thief

There have been a number of burglaries in our neighbourhood………. (1). We are not sure who is to blame but it is ………. (2) believed that the burglaries are ………. (3) the work of one gang. The police have been very ………. (4) to act and they still know very ………. (5) for certain. The public, rightly or ………. (6), blame the police for not acting more ………. (7). Most people do not think very ………. (8) of the local police and indeed so………. (9) they have arrested only one suspect. They say they need more evidence before they can take the matter ………. (10). Whenever they are called in to investigate a burglary, it takes them so ………. (11) to get to the scene of the crime that it is always too ………. (12) to catch the culprits.

[Still waters run deep.]

Exercise 3. Complete the following sentences using adjectives or adverbs.

We use adjectives after verbs relating to senses like look, taste, appear, etc. when they are used predicatively:

It takes good (=it is good)

Note:

He seems well (=appears to be in good health).

He seems good (=appears to be suitable)

1. I’d like to get to know him better. I don’t know him very ………..

2. I think my golf is getting better, but I have to say it’s never been very ………..

3. Jane’s beginning to feel better. She hasn’t been ………. for some time now.

4. I’m better-placed for promotion now, though I was quite ………. before.

5. The reference is better than the last one, which wasn’t very ………. at all.

6. The situation is a great deal better now. It hasn’t been very ………. for a long time now.

7. What do you mean my cooking tastes better?

Surely it’s always tasted very ………..

8. What do you mean he seems better? He seemed very ………. when I last saw him.

Some adverbs have two forms which can be used in the same way:

The light glowed bright / brightly.

However, it is not usually made clear that the two forms are not always interchangeable. We have to use the –ly form when it is an adverb of manner with a dynamic verb saying how smth is/was done:

He answered my question brightly.

We often use the same form as an adjective when:

• we can replace the verb with be or become without really changing the meaning.

The moon shone (was) bright.

• after verb + object combinations when the adjective form could be regarded as describing the state of the object.

We bought it. It was cheap. – We bought it cheap.

However, many native speakers say:

We bought it cheaply.

The moon shone brightly.

Exercise 4. Where possible, supply two forms in the following sentences.

1. On a clear moonless evening, the stars shine very bright/brightly.

2. Teachers like students who answer questions bright/brightly.

3. We bought our last car dear/dearly and sold it cheap/cheaply.

4. We had our car replaced quite cheap/cheaply.

5. Please cut the next slice thin/thinly.

6. I wish you wouldn’t play that awful music so loud/loudly.

7. For weeks, two detectives watched the house close/closely.

8. We came very close/closely.

9. It was cut clear/clearly in two.

10. Thank you for explaining the situation so clear/clearly.

11. “When a robbery goes bad/badly,” Stella continued, “it turns into complete pandemonium.” (Rosenberg)

Some adjectives end in –ly: cowardly, friendly, lively, lovely, motherly, sickly, silly:

Meg’s a friendly girl.

Exercise 5. Use the appropriate adjectives ending in –ly.

1. That was a ………. thing to do.

2. She can’t control her ………. feelings.

3. She’s a ………. teacher.

4. He looks pale and ………..

5. You don’t have to be so ………..

6. The men were assembled in folding chains in a large room inside the Immaculate Conception church for the ………. meeting of the Houston chapter of the Knights Columbus, a fraternal organization seminar to the Masons or Shriners. (Rosenberg)

7. By the time Mason extricated himself from Ciliberti at a ………. loud discotheque on the water’s edge, where they were joined by a voluptuous young blond woman whose only interest seemed to be to hang on Giliberti. (Rosenberg)

8. I met a friend for a drink in Ravello, and he introduced me to an ………. gentleman who is retired from the Priesthood. (ibid.)