1. Unit 5, Book I 郧阳师专英语系综合英语教研室

2. Language Structures Warm-up Exercises: Use indirect speech to convert the following sentence. A passage from a book about William Shakespeare: William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) probably wrote 37 plays --- 18 published during his lifetime. =>The book says that William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and he died in 1616. It tells us that he probably wrote 37 plays, of which 18 were published during his lifetime.

3. Direct & Indirect Speech There are two ways of relating what a person has said: direct and indirect. In direct speech we repeat the original speaker’s exact words: He said, “I am writing a letter.” In indirect speech we give the exact meaning of a remark or a speech, without necessarily using the speaker’s exact words: He said that he was writing a letter.

4. Statements in Indirect Speech 1) When the reporting verb is in the present, present perfect, or future tense, there is no change of tense in the words reported. E.g.: He says, “I’m very happy.” => He says that he is very happy. 2) But indirect speech is usually introduced by a verb in the past. Verb in the indirect speech normally go back one tense from what was said originally. E.g.: He said, “I am a student, and had studied for three years.” => He said he was a student and had studied for three years.

5. Present Time => Past Time: Direct simple present present progressive present perfect present perfective progressive Indirect simple past past progressive past perfect past perfective progressive

6. Past Time => The Time before Past: Direct Simple past Past progressive Past perfect Past perfective progressive Indirect Past perfect Past perfective progressive Past perfect Past perfective progressive

7. Supplement When the simple past or past progressive is used in the direct speech which is an unreal conditional sentence, the verb tense may not change. The simple part or past progressive is used in the time adverbial clause, the verb tense may not change when it is converted into indirect speech.

8. Exceptions (I) However, in some occasions, although the reporting verb is in the past form, the form of the verb in the indirect speech may not change. a) If the reported content are facts, truths, present habitual behaviours or mottoes, for example, He said: “The word ‘laser’ is an acronym.” => He said that the word ‘laser’ is an acronym. b) If the verb in the direct speech is in subjunctive mood, for example, “I suggest the meeting be put off till next week.” he said. => He suggested the meeting be put off till the next week.

9. Exception (II) c) If the state or action of the verb is still going on while reporting, for example, “I’m twenty,” she said. => She said she is twenty. d) When the predicative containing modal verbs, for example, He said, “It must be pretty late. I really must go.” =>He said it must be pretty late, and he really must go.

10. Other Rules 3)The change of the personal pronouns, determiners, time adverbial and place adverbial. a) Personal pronouns: except for reporting one’s original words, usually the first and second personal will change into the third personal, or the second change into the first, the determiners will do some corresponding change. I => he or she; we => they; my => his or her; our => their.

11. b) Demonstrative pronoun: this => that / it; these => those / they / them c) The changing principles of time adverbial in indirect speech: ① The tense and form of time adverbial and verb both changed. ② No change in time adverbial, the tense and form of the verb may change but sometimes may not, it depends on the concrete time point. ③ Whether the time adverbial will change or not depends on the situation, suppose the time of reporting is the time of speaking (the same year, the same month, the same day, etc.), it may not change. For example, Mr. Blake said, “We started learning Chinese last month.” => Mr. Blake said they had started learning Chinese last month.

12. Time Change the same month today this morning / afternoon,etc. yesterday the day before yesterday tomorrow the day after tomorrow next week / month, etc. last week / month now the previous month that day that morning / afternoon, etc. the day before / the previous day two days before the following / next day two days after / in two days’ time the next week / month,etc. the week / month before then

13. d) Place adverbial “here” usually will change into “there”, but if the place where speaker spoke the sentences is the place where the reporter reporting, we still use “here” in the indirect speech or use some detailed site to instead of “here”.

14. Questions in Indirect Speech While reporting questions, except for paying attention to the changing principles mentioned above, we have to notice the word order and the different requirement of changing in different kinds of question.

15. Reporting General / Tag / Alternative Questions: 1) While reporting general or tag questions, we usually use whether or if to lead the question, but if it is an alternative question, we may only use whether. For examples: “Does he really mean it?” => I wondered whether / if he really meant it. “Is this book yours or his?” => She asked me whether this book was mine or his.

16. Reporting Special Questions: 2) While reporting special questions, we use the wh-words in the original sentences. For examples: “Which chair shall I sit in?” => She asked me which chair she should sit in. “Why didn’t you stop her?” => She asked why I hadn’t stopped her.

17. Communicative Function of Questions: 3) Some questions are not really to raise a question but to express one’s requirement, suggestion, advice or proposal. While reporting this kind of questions, we have to use other ways to express the same communicative function. a) Requirement or advice: ask / advise / want, etc. + object + infinitive phrase Egs: “Would you buy me some stamps?” she said. She asked me to buy her some stamps. “Why don’t you phone her first?” she said. She advised me to phone her first.

18. b) Suggestion: suggest + -ing participle / that-clause Egs: “Shall we get the tickets first?” he said. He suggested getting the tickets first. He suggested that they should get the tickets first. “Why don’t you send it back to the factory?” she said. She suggested that I should send it back to the factory.

19. c) Proposal: offer + to-infinitive phrase E.g.: “Shall I post them to you?” he said. => He offered to post them to me.

20. Dialogue I Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language

21. Warm-up Talk about the differences between Chinese and English. 1) English is a universal language. 2) Chinese is a tonal language. 3) English is inflectional while Chinese is not. ① Number: table / tables ② Verbs have different tenses. ③ Determiner, clause, subjunctive mood, modal auxiliary verbs. 4) Chinese is the most representative of word writing system. English belongs to alphabetic writing system. Neat rows of 26 simple alphabetic letters Tens of thousands of unique characters formed with a varied number of strokes

22. Broad Questions: David is a foreign student who has been in China for two months. 1. Do you know what does “CFL programme” mean? It means study of Chinese as a foreign language programme. 2. What do David and Xiaohua think of Chinese grammar? In many ways the grammatical structure of Chinese is simpler than most European languages. No verb agreement, no irregular verbs and nouns, very few and simple tense markers, to name just a few.

23. 3. What difficulties does each of them have in learning Chinese and English? The Chinese writing system is altogether new to David. Instead of neat rows of 26 simple alphabetic letters, there are tens of thousands of unique characters formed with a varied number of strokes. Many of these characters seem complex to him. The grammatical structure of English is very complex. Xiaohua has difficulty with spelling, pronunciation, with numbers and figures. Verb agreement, irregular verbs and nouns, varieties of tense.

24. 4. How does David find the tonal system of the Chinese language? The tonal system of Chinese really bothers him. That’s a major source of difficulty with David’s comprehension and pronunciation. Most of the time, he doesn’t understand what he has heard and is not understood by others.

25. 5. Why does David mention the proverb “Rome was not built in a day”? What other proverbs are there expressing the same idea? Cause Xiaohua said that if he wants to talk to native speakers in Chinese the way Xiaohua is talking to him, he still has a long way to go. Dripping water wears away stone. Many a little makes a mickle. Little strokes fell great oaks. Where there is a will, there is a way.

26. Language Points: 1. So far so good. --- Things are satisfactory up to this point, at least. 2. So does my difficulty in learning Chinese. --- This is the elliptical form of “My difficulty in learning Chinese grows with each passing day, too.” 3. I’m going through a similar ordeal. --- I’m experiencing a difficulty alike an ordeal. go through: experience, suffer Egs: He would have gone through fire and water for his mother country he loved so much. He had gone through a lot of hardships when he was young. ordeal (n.) a difficult or painful experience E.g.: The parents went through a terrible ordeal when their child was kidnapped.

27. 4. way: a method or manner of doing something, for example: I wish I could say it the way he did. She doesn’t enjoy her job the way she used to. 5. to name just a few: (interjection) equal to “for example”. name (v.) refers to “mention, list”. For instance; that is (i.e.); such as; namely; as an illustration; in addition. 6. alphabet (n.): the set of letters used in writing any language, esp. when arranged in order alphabetical / alphabetic (adj.): of, belonging to, or in the order of the alphabet alphabetize (v.): marked by alphabet

28. 7. have trouble with sth. / have trouble doing sth. Egs: We having a bit of trouble with the baby --- he won’t sleep at night. I never have any trouble getting the car started. 8. make distinction of / between … and … = distinguish distinction (n.) difference Eg: Can you make / draw a distinction between these 2 ideas? distinguish (v.) recognize clear Egs: I can distinguish them by their uniforms. Small children can’t distinguish right from wrong.

29. 9. dip oneself in the language environment = put oneself in … 把某人融于语言环境之中 10. newly-released feature film 刚上映的故事 片 Documentary film Science and education film Animated cartoon Literary and artistic film Horror film Detective film