CLASS 3. THE NOUN

Exercise 1. State whether the nouns in bold type are proper or common.

1. You are like a Figaro. One minute here, another there. 2. Wellington defeated Napoleon’s army in the battle of Waterloo. 3. Wellingtons are rubber boots. Americans call them galoshes. 4. What had happened became a Waterloo Bridge for him. 5. He is a real Paparatssi in everything that concerns making money. 6. Carl Faberge was Russia’s Imperial Jeweller. 7. What a beautiful Easter egg! – Yes, it’s a Faberge. 8. You can’t buy a Cadillac for the same price as a Ford. 9. Who knows, you might become the next Pavlova. – What’s that? – She was a great dancer. 10. There, that’s the best picture in the Louvre. It’s exactly like a Manet.

Exercise 2. Translate into English.

1. Он настоящий Казанова. 2. На этой стоянке припарковано несколько машин: Мерседес, Хонда, Форд и старенький Москвич. 3. Тебе нравится эта картина? Это Пикассо. 4. Какое очаровательное платье! Неудивительно, ведь это Шанель. 5. Ричард Чемберлен купил маленький остров и живет на нем как современный Робинзон Крузо. 6. Что это за духи? — Это Кензо.

Exercise 3. Give the semantic classification of the following nouns:

1. Mark Twain; 2. an Oscar; 3. a feeling; 4. wine; 5. a wine; 6. a deer; 7. a box; 8. sincerity; 9. a friend; 10. cattle; 11. family; 12. luggage; 13. goods.

Exercise 4. Use the correct form of the verb with the following collective nouns:

1. The class (has/have) its final test on Friday.

2. The class (is/are) working on their individual projects today.

3. The crew (was/were) asleep in their bunks.

4. The committee (is/are) ready to make the programme public.

5. The family (is/are) fighting among themselves constantly.

6. The press (was/were) requested to show their credentials to the guard.

7. The cattle (was/were) all gone, probably driven off.

8. The police (was/were) already here.

9. The staff (is/are) worried about their jobs.

10. The party (was/were) leaving the house through different doors. (It/they) (was/were) considerably subdued.

11. The jury must understand that (they/it) (is/are) dealing with members of advanced society.

12. The wedding party (was/were) forced to abandon their cars and literally to fight their way into the Old Town Hall on foot.

13. The government (want/wants) its own way.

14. The family (was/were) unable to agree on a meeting place for reunion.

15. The landed gentry (was/were) on the whole decent and honourable.

Exercise 5. Comment on the underlined nouns:

1. The staff are going to buy a leaving present for their boss.

2. The local police have closed this night club.

3. Where are my spectacles?

4. His staff is very efficient.

5. Her poultry are the finest in the whole village.

6. The jury has announced its verdict.

7. Your money is on the table.

8. The jury were in disagreement.

9. The cattle are in the field.

10. Her mother’s hair is very nice.

Exercise 6. Give the plural of the following foreign words:

1. cactus, fungus, radius, stimulus, genius, nucleus

2. alga, formula (in science), vertebra, antenna

3. bacterium, curriculum, datum, medium, memorandum, stratum, millennium

4. index (in mathematics, in books), appendix (in books, in medicine)

5. analysis, axis, basis, crises, diagnosis, oasis, parenthesis, thesis, hypothesis

6. criterion, phenomenon

Exercise 7. Translate into English:

1. Странные явления происходят на этой планете. 2. Многие школы имеют разные программы. 3. Каковы критерии оценки этих работ? 4. Кактусы растут в пустынях. 5. Многие бактерии вызывают болезни. 6. Он один из гениев. 7. В этом кувшине живут духи. 8. Мы из разных социальных слоев. 9. Путешественники продвигались по Сахаре, и им постоянно мерещились оазисы.

Exercise 8. Give the plural of the following nouns. In some cases two variants are possible.

Aircraft, belief, bride-to-be, buffalo, drop-out, chief, codex, court martial, craft, dilettante, director general, echo, fountain pen, grant-in-aid, headquarters, coat-of-mail, looker-on, louse, man-eater, man-of-war, mango, manservant, medium, Member of Parliament, mouthful, oasis, passer-by, penny, pike, safe, sit-in, soprano, syllabus, symposium, synopsis, take-off, tempo, terminus, thief, vertebra, woman-hater, zero, pick-up, run-away, Mary, lily-of the-valley.

Exercise 9. Divide the following words into two columns: countable and uncountable nouns.

Furniture, coffee, leaf, food, computer, blood, job, work, advice, money, country, information, progress, luggage, window, weather, knowledge, scenery, mountain, luck, gate, funeral, watch, news, accommodation, traffic.

Exercise 10. Write out the nouns which are used only in the plural.

Athletics, cattle, scissors, pajamas, police, news, means, goods, pants, subjects, billiards, darts, outskirts, spectacles, clothes, stairs, shorts, gymnastics, crossroads, patience, scales, lodgings, equipment, research, soap, contents, looks, traffic-lights, toothpaste, binoculars, eyes, trousers.

Exercise 11. What have the following groups of nouns got in common?

1. information, luggage, news, advice, furniture

2. family, council, committee, crowd, government, the public, staff

3. customs, minutes, outskirts, thanks, lodgings

4. bread, rice, ink, wool, iron, sugar, salt, wood

5. tweezers, binoculars, pajamas, scissors

Exercise 12. Which of the following words are singular in meaning, which are plural, which can be used either singular or plural?

1. the news	10. statistics
2. people	11. gymnastics
3. measles	12. underpants
4. trousers	13. headquarters
5. the team	14. the government
6. the police	15. mathematics
7. billiards	16. Manchester United
8. cattle	17. thanks
9. scissors	18. the clergy

Exercise 13. Decide which of the sentences on the right are possible.

1. What did your teacher do?	a. He gave me some good advices. b. He gave me a good advice. c. He gave me some good advice. d. He gave me good advice.
2. How is my English coming on?	a. You’re making a lot of progresses. b. You’re making a lot of progress. c. You’re making progress. d. You’re making a progress.
3. What do you dislike about living in a big city?	a. My hairs are always getting dirty. b. My hair is always getting dirty. c. My hair feel dirty. d. My hair feels dirty.
4. What was her holiday like?	a. She had an appalling weather. b. She had appalling weather. c. The weather was fantastic. d. The weather were fantastic.

Exercise 14. Supply is, are, has or have.

1. The acoustics in this room … very good.

2. This crossroads … dangerous.

3. There … four crossroads in our village.

4. Acoustics … a subject I know little about.

5. Our company headquarters … in London.

6. There … many series of books on birds.

7. The statistics in this report … inaccurate.

8. … any statistics for road accidents?

9. Many species of moth … disappeared.

10. This species … green and white spots.

11. Our works … a good canteen.

12. My math … got worse and worse.

13. There … crossroads every mile.

Exercise 15. Supply the missing words.

1. The goods you ordered … arrived. – The goods you ordered have arrived.

2. “Where … the scissors?” “ … … in the first drawer on the left.”

3. How much … a good pair of trousers cost these days?

4. “How much did you pay for … trousers?” “… … very expensive!”

5. If your clothes … dirty, put … in the laundry basket.

6. My jeans … not faded much even though I keep washing ….

7. “I’m looking for the pliers.” “You’ll find … on that shelf.”

8. All their belongings … been destroyed in the fire.

9. My earnings … not high, but at least … … regular.

10. These shorts … not fit me at all!

Exercise 16. Translate into English using your active grammar:

1. Твои успехи в фонетике просто удивительны. Теперь твое произношение даже лучше, чем у Петра. 2. Морковь богата витаминами. 3. Это стоит 18 пенсов. А у меня в кошельке всего один пенс. 4. Какие новости? ― Новости потрясающие. 5. На окраине города находится большой кирпичный завод. 6. Товар был доставлен без задержки. 7. Фрукты полезны для здоровья. 8. Мои студенты делают большие успехи в учебе. 9. Дети, не бегайте по лестнице ― она очень крутая. 10. Бильярд ― его любимая игра. 11. Статистика стала неотъемлемой частью нашей жизни, хотя не всегда статистические данные вселяют оптимизм. 12. Эти деньги не мои. 13. Я могу рассказать вам очень интересную новость. 14. Китайцы ― самый многочисленный народ. 15. “Ваши советы неприемлемы”, ― сказал доктор Александер, и его голос звучал холодно и недружелюбно. 16. Ваших знаний недостаточно, чтобы провести эту работу. 17. Какая интересная работа! 18. Какая дождливая погода! 19. Эта ваза – настоящее произведение искусства. 20. Содержание вашего сочинения не соответствует теме. 21. Дания, Голландия и Швейцария славятся своими сырами. 22. Моя поездка в Лондон – настоящее приключение. 23. Вам нужен опыт работы на компьютере. 24. Дорожно-транспортное происшествие нанесло ущерб моей машине. 25. Кто возместит мне убытки? 26. Обслуживающий персонал этой больницы невелик. 27. Обслуживающий персонал собирается купит подарок для своего босса. 28. Класс состоит из 20 учеников. 29. Класс всегда отмечает свои дни рождения. 30. Поразмыслив, он решил купить не ландыши, а розы. 31. Он не жалеет усилий, чтобы овладеть всеми грамматическими явлениями. 32. Наконец, он изменил свое мнение. 33. Он описал двух дезертиров в деталях. 34. Последняя партия в шашки потребовала от него много усилий. 35. Объясняя правило, он слишком вдавался в детали. 36. Согласно последним данным на конференцию приедут 10 голландцев, 2 китайца, 5 шведов, 3 датчанина, 12 испанцев, 7 англичан и 8 немцев.