English is the widely used language on Earth. It is one of the communication links between people. It would an added advantage to be literate in English. However, to master the language well is not easy because in English, you need focus on the use of nouns, verbs, tenses and many other more. One of my common grammar mistakes I often make is the Subject Verb Agreement.
In a sentence, I often fail to identify the correct subject. In Subject Verb Agreement, the basic rule states that a singular subject takes a singular verb, while a plural subject takes a plural verb1. It is so important to identify the subject because it will determine the verb to be use. If the wrong subject is identified, it would lead to the wrong use of verb. It would lead to a wrong sentence of singular subject with the use of plural verb or vice versa.
For an example, “Other important reasons for the spread of English language are economic.” The subject of the sentence is “reasons”, since “reasons” is plural, so the verb used has to be plural too. Thus, “are” is the verb used in the sentence.
All in all, Subject Verb Agreement is an important part of a sentence structure. By using the correct verb with the corresponding subject will bring out the correct meaning of the sentence. Although Subject Verb Agreement is important, there are also many other grammar usage we need to consider too. Therefore, to form a sentence that make sense and bring meaning to reader required much effort too.
1http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp
A Practice Exercise of Subject Verb Agreement
Why English?
The English language is used by more people in the world than any other living language today. This may seem surprising at first. After all, the population of the United Kingdom (1)____ (be) one of the smallest in the world. But of course the UK is not the only country whose native language (2)_______(be) English; the majority of people in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (3)________(be) also native English-speakers. However, even if you add up the populations of these countries the total only (4)________(come) to about 400 million, which (5)________(be) less than one-tenth of the population of the world.
Who else (6)_________(speak) English? Well, if we count all the English-speakers in India, Singapore and Hong Kong, that (7)_________(add) another 700 million to the total. Add all the people speaking English elsewhere and the total English-speaking population of the world (8)________(come) to an impressive one and a half billion!
This figure shows that there (9)______(be) more non-native speakers of English than there are native speakers. Why is this? There is one important historical reason: the influence of the British Empire -- the Empire that stretched across the globe. Although the Empire no longer (10)_____(exist), the English language is firmly rooted in its former colonies -- in Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Far East, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean and North America.
Other important reasons for the spread of English language (11)______(be) economic. English is the language of international business and commerce. It is also the native language of the United States. So, any country wanting, for example, to trade with the United States, or to take advantage of its technology, (12)______(need) to operate in English. Also, most scientific and technological developments have been made by English-speaking societies. To keep up with such developments, to talk about them in international conferences, or write and read about them in scientific journals and books, scientists, scholars and students must be able to understand English.
These are obvious reasons for the spread and interest in the English language. But there is a rather less obvious reason. English is also the language of a popular culture. All over the globe millions of young people listen to pop music and watch pop videos. The stars who perform in English (13)________(be) by far the most famous. The songs of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Police, Sting, Michael Jackson, and hundreds of other American and British singers (14)_______(be) heard all over the world. English has become an international language.
English is well suited to this role. Unlike many other languages, it has a built-in flexibility that (15)________(allow) constant adaptation and assimilation. In English, vocabulary from other languages (16)_________(be) often used, new words and combinations of words can be coined easily, nouns can be turned into verbs and vice versa.
Furthermore English does not suffer from having an academy (as (17)_____(do) France) which monitors the language and sets the standards of 'correctness'. What is correct in English (18)_______(be) often, simply, what (19)______(be) accepted as appropriate and understandable by those who (20)______(speak) it, whether they are native or non-native speakers.
This flexibility helps to explain why English has survived so well, why it can vary so much from speaker to speaker and why it has become a world language.
Passage taken from: GUO Jieke, YANG ying, JIN yan. 2002. College English Fast Reading (Book 2). Shanghai Foreign Languages Education Press.
Answer for Passage:
Why English?
(1) is
Explanation: “population” (uncountable noun takes a singular verb)
(2) is
Explanation: “native language” as subject (singular)
(3) are
Explanation: “majority” as the subject here, verb can be singular or plural depending on whether the nouns after “of “ are singular or plural.
(4)comes
Explanation: “the total” as the subject (singular)
(5) is
Explanation: verb agrees with a sum number ( singular)
(6)speaks
Explanation: Who (interrogative pronoun as subject, takes a singular verb)
(7) adds
Explanation: pronoun “that” as the subject here (singular)
(8) comes
Explanation: same as (1)
(9) are
Explanation: in “there be” structure, whether to use “is” or “are” is determined by the noun used after “there be”.
(10) exists
Explanation: “empire” as subject (singular)
(11)are
Explanation: reasons (plural) as subject of the verb “be”
(12) needs
Explanation: “any country” used as subject (singular)
(13) are
Explanation: the subject here is “the stars (plural)
(14) are
Explanation: the subject here is “the songs” (plural)
(15) allows
Explanation: flexibility (uncountable noun) takes a singular verb
(16) is
Explanation: vocabulary (uncountable noun here) takes a singular verb
(17) does
Explanation: France is the subject here (subject)
(18) is
Explanation: The noun clause “What is correct” serves as the subject here and takes a
singular verb.
(19) is
Explanation: similar to 6
(20) speak
Explanation: those + verb in the plural form
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Importance of Engineers (Portfolio 1)
With reference to the article [1], the shortage supply of quality and quantity water is a concern to all. Everyone and everything on earth needs water to survive. This could explain to us why the earth is made up of seventy percent of water, since it is such an importance source of element.
One of the ongoing issues the world is facing is water. Water is an essential source on earth. Human needs water for consumption, plants need water to survive too. Water would have been classified as an asset to the world.
In the South East Asia region, Malaysia has been providing water to Singapore. Over the years, Singapore is very dependent on Malaysia for the water supply. Due to the reason of being over dependent on Malaysia, this has put Singapore in a very dangerous position. Imagine one day, Malaysia was to cut off the supply to Singapore, it would be disastrous. Malaysia would have a trump card over Singapore. Thus, Singaporean would always live under the threat of Malaysia.
To solve the issue, Singapore has poured in engineers to improve the status of water. Singapore has the water catchments reservoir to supplement to the supply of Singapore. In addition to that, Singapore also came up with NEWater. All these efforts by the government and engineers are directed with one aim that is to provide enough water supplies for the population. Likewise, other than engineers coming up with new inventions and ideas, government also promote conserve water campaign.
Finally, to summarize, our future engineers play an important role in developing more ideas to overcome the shortage of water supply as well as the threat against Malaysia.
As a qualified engineer in the working sector, they will face plenty of real life circumstances. They shall go through the stringent of learning and experimenting to always improve and analyze the situation. Engineers who shall be the asset of the invention will face more hurdles as time goes.
One of the ongoing issues the world is facing is water. Water is an essential source on earth. Human needs water for consumption, plants need water to survive too. Water would have been classified as an asset to the world.
In the South East Asia region, Malaysia has been providing water to Singapore. Over the years, Singapore is very dependent on Malaysia for the water supply. Due to the reason of being over dependent on Malaysia, this has put Singapore in a very dangerous position. Imagine one day, Malaysia was to cut off the supply to Singapore, it would be disastrous. Malaysia would have a trump card over Singapore. Thus, Singaporean would always live under the threat of Malaysia.
To solve the issue, Singapore has poured in engineers to improve the status of water. Singapore has the water catchments reservoir to supplement to the supply of Singapore. In addition to that, Singapore also came up with NEWater. All these efforts by the government and engineers are directed with one aim that is to provide enough water supplies for the population. Likewise, other than engineers coming up with new inventions and ideas, government also promote conserve water campaign.
Finally, to summarize, our future engineers play an important role in developing more ideas to overcome the shortage of water supply as well as the threat against Malaysia.
As a qualified engineer in the working sector, they will face plenty of real life circumstances. They shall go through the stringent of learning and experimenting to always improve and analyze the situation. Engineers who shall be the asset of the invention will face more hurdles as time goes.
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