Task 19

Identify the meaning of the suffix -ish in the underlined words. The meanings of the suffix are:

a) “of, being, or pertaining to”;

b) “after the manner of, having the characteristics of, like”;

c) “addicted to, inclined or tending to”;

d) “near, approximately”;

e) “somewhat, rather”.

1. He brushed away some beads of perspiration on his pinkish brow (P. Highsmith).

2. Some women have told me I look boyish, which I don't take as a compliment (I. Shaw).

3. She's Swedish (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).

4. There was a longish pause (R. Dahl).

5. I can see you around eightish. Mike (Internet).

6. The woman's face was white and bloodless, and there was a slight bluish-grey tinge around the nostrils and the mouth (R. Dahl).

7. I must not be foolish and fanciful (Ph. Carr).

8. She was always a bookish child (Oxford Advanced Learner's Encyclopedic Dictionary).

9. He had got out of the car and walked to the nearest house, a smallish farm building about fifty yards off the road... (R. Dahl).

10. Look at her - isn't it awfully good - just like a shrew­ish woman (D.H. Lawrence).

Conversion Task 20

In these jokes there are words formed by conversion. What are they?

1. "Ma," said a little boy after coming home from a walk, "I’ve seen a man who makes horses."

"Are you sure?" asked his mother.

"Yes," he replied. "He had a horse nearly finished when I saw him. He was just nailing his feet."

2. Tom: "Don't be angry with me, Daddy. I'm very sorry that I've got a two in arithmetic."

Father: "How could it happen? Did you understand the teacher's question?"

Tоm: "Of course I did. It is he who didn't understand my answer."

3. Dentist: "Have you seen any small boys ring my bell and run away?"

Policeman: "They weren't small boys - they were grown ups."

Task 21

Find the cases of conversion in the sentences:

1. He took the cup she offered him and sugared it (B. Neels).

2. It was impossible for them to calm her (S. Sheldon).

3. She might come and room with her (Th. Dreiser).

4. However everything in life has positive and negative consequences and it is sometimes a mistake to only see the negative (Internet).

5. Truth will out (Proverb).

6. Besides, liquor dulled the pain in his legs... (P. La Mure).

7. Since I was the only child in their charge they moth­ered me (A. Marshall).

8. Seddons was wearing his hospital whites (A. Hailey).

9. His beard was caked with ice (L. Fosburgh).

10. ...it was merely a polite nothing (J.R.R. Tolkien).

11. Renie narrowed her brown eyes at her cousin (M. Daheim).

12. George's main purpose in shooting such a big beast had been to attract wild lions to the kill (J. Adamson).

13. A city to Raggles was not merely a pile of bricks and mortar, peopled by a certain number of inhabitants... (O. Henry).

14. That's rather a tricky point," Landy said, wetting her lips (R. Dahl).

15. Penreddy's face clouded {M. Daheim).

16. Chew each bite carefully (Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary).

17. Mr. Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale (E. Waugh).

18. Actually I’ve been toying with this idea (P.M. Stewart).

19. She finished before an hour was up, tidied her desk and put on her coat... (B. Neels).

20. A woman that will be and stay by my side to go through the ups and downs that this life throws at us (Internet).

21. ...I minored in history (J. Smith).

22. She wrinkled her forehead (N. Shute).

23. On March, 31 in 1889, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, opened to the public (Bright Ideas Calendar).

24. Judith gave a single shake of her head (M. Daheim).

25. He himself bandaged the wound... (Ph. Carr).

26. ...Lerice even keeps an eye on their children, with all the competence of a woman who has never had a child of her own, and she certainly doctors them all - children and adults - like babies whenever they hap­pen to be sick (N. Gordimer).