Task 78

Find the homonyms in the contexts and say to which type they belong: homophones, homographs or homonyms proper.

1. a) Hard work, Pennine air and Mrs. Hall's good food had filled me out and the jacket failed to meet across my stomach by six inches (J. Herriot).

b) "Wonder how long a person can survive without meat?" says Waldeen, somewhat breezily (B.A. Mason).

2. a) Because by now I had learned that Mr. Holden moved fast when he started and for all I knew the strike might be settled that afternoon (J.M. Cain).

b) They all admired Jannie's new blouse and skirt, and one of them had brought her a book and the other had brought a dress and hat for her doll (Sh. Jackson).

3. a) But before they left they again bound our wrists firmly behind us, and tightened the cords on our ankles (R. Stout).

b) With his left hand he seized the revolver, thrusting it upwards (B. Cartland).

4. a) In a few moments, he had frantically excavated a hole into which he could insert his head and shoul­ders (W. Morris).

b) He could create whole worlds with one hand (S. Sheldon).

5. a) He requested George and me to kiss his mother for him, and to tell all his relations that he forgave them and died happy (J.K. Jerome).

b) Irene Westcott was a pleasant, rather plain girl with soft brown hair and a wide, fine forehead upon which nothing at all had been written and in the cold weather she wore a coat of fitch skins dyed to resemble mink (J. Cheever).

6. a) I had been trying to identify the sensation, and thought it was like the sudden lull in a heavy wind which has been beating against the trees and the windows for hours, and then stops (Sh. Jackson),

b) I merely said I had been called to New York to wind up some details of my financial settlement with the Harrises and told him I would call him by long dis­tance every night (J.M. Cain).

7. a) She said the doctors told her not to drive; the bones in the back of her neck will always be weak (J. Schumacher),

b) It lay in a ditch for over a week (B.A. Mason).

8. a) The building was made of ordinary wood, painted white a few years ago but starting to peel (J.C. Oates).

b) When they wished to communicate with each other he sent her a note addressed to her maid (B. Cartland).

9. a) "Let us walk down the road a little," said the priest (O.K. Chesterton).

b) She rode a borrowed bicycle (D. West).

10. a) Then three little slender bunches of ryestalks lay flat on the dewy grass beneath the fence, one bunch behind each reaper's bent left leg (L. О'Flaherty).

b) His grey eyes were shadowed and, as Ferris passed into the flat, they flickered momentarily (C. McCullers).

11. a) He gave her a little bow, but said nothing, and his eyes followed her as she walked with measured step from the room (W.S. Maugham),

b) Finally there were two triumphant bouquets of vio­lets, each with the stems wrapped in tinfoil shrouded by a bow of purple chiffon; and one bou­quet she wore at her waist and the other she car­ried in her hand (B. Tarkington).

12. a) The road was built over a flat plain covered with gray alkali dust, with only a few tufts of dry grass showing, and this plain extended for miles and miles (J.M. Cain).

b) Well take the plane tonight, do whatever has to be done about your divorce, and that will be the end of Mrs. Harris the Younger and Mrs. Harris the Elder (J.M. Cain).

13. a) Miss Bewlay showed me where everything was kept (M. Spark).

b) My biggest worry was that my chair was beginning to show signs of wear... (J. Herriot).

14. a) Anyone who had passed the time of day with him and his dog refused to share a bench with them again (K. Vonnegut Jr).

b) At a quarter past nine Andy and the sheriff came in (G. Berriault).

15. a) The dawn had just broken and from the river rose a white mist shrouding the junks that lay moored close to one another like peas in a pod (W.S. Maugham).

b) She was like a rosebud that is beginning to turn yellow at the edges of the petals, and then sud­denly she was a rose in full bloom (W.S. Maugham).

16. a) Her way of life was mean and miserly, but she did not know it (D. West).

b) In the cool blue twilight of two steep streets in Camden Town, the shop at the corner, a confec­tioner's, glowed like the butt of a cigar (G.K. Chesterton).

17. a) She wore a necklace of diamonds set in silver (W.S. Maugham).

b) We had another council of war next day (A.C. Doyle).

18. a) At that moment they were all thinking precisely the same thing - that somehow or other this clergyman, who was certainly not the local fellow, had been sent to poke his nose into their business and to report what he found to the government (R. Dahl).

b) "The dogs followed the scent well," said Mr. Grant (A. Christie).

19. a) The mahogany was hard and very dry, and as Claud worked, a fine red dust sprayed out from the edge of the saw and fell softly to the ground (R. Dahl).

b) The whole family saw him to the door (C. McCullers).

20. a) He was riding from Kensington to Hampton Court when he was thrown from his horse (Ph. Carr).

b) He wanted to raise them against the present King and bring James back to the throne (Ph. Carr).