Minggu, 07 Juni 2009

Simple Past Tense

FORM
[VERB+ed] or irregular verbs
Examples:
You called Debbie.
Did you call Debbie?
You did not call Debbie. Complete List of Simple Past Forms
USE 1 Completed Action in the Past
Use the Simple Past to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past. Sometimes, the speaker may not actually mention the specific time, but they do have one specific time in mind.
Examples:
I saw a movie yesterday.
I didn't see a play yesterday.
Last year, I traveled to Japan.
Last year, I didn't travel to Korea.
Did you have dinner last night?
She washed her car.
He didn't wash his car.
USE 2 A Series of Completed Actions
We use the Simple Past to list a series of completed actions in the past. These actions happen 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on.
Examples:
I finished work, walked to the beach, and found a nice place to swim.
He arrived from the airport at 8:00, checked into the hotel at 9:00, and met the others at 10:00.
Did you add flour, pour in the milk, and then add the eggs?
USE 3 Duration in Past
The Simple Past can be used with a duration which starts and stops in the past. A duration is a longer action often indicated by expressions such as: for two years, for five minutes, all day, all year, etc.
Examples:
I lived in Brazil for two years.
Shauna studied Japanese for five years.
They sat at the beach all day.
They did not stay at the party the entire time.
We talked on the phone for thirty minutes.
A: How long did you wait for them?B: We waited for one hour.
USE 4 Habits in the Past
The Simple Past can also be used to describe a habit which stopped in the past. It can have the same meaning as "used to." To make it clear that we are talking about a habit, we often add expressions such as: always, often, usually, never, when I was a child, when I was younger, etc.
Examples:
I studied French when I was a child.
He played the violin.
He didn't play the piano.
Did you play a musical instrument when you were a kid?
She worked at the movie theater after school.
They never went to school, they always skipped class.
www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepast.html

Direct and Indirect Speech

We often have to give information about what people say or think. In order to do this you can use direct or quoted speech, or indirect or reported speech.
Direct Speech / Quoted Speech

Saying exactly what someone has said is called direct speech (sometimes called quoted speech)

Here what a person says appears within quotation marks ("...") and should be word for word.

For example:

She said, "Today's lesson is on presentations."

or

"Today's lesson is on presentations," she said.

Indirect Speech / Reported Speech

Indirect speech (sometimes called reported speech), doesn't use quotation marks to enclose what the person said and it doesn't have to be word for word.

When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in the past too.

www.learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.htm

Descriptive Text

A descriptive text is a text which lists the characteristics of something. Take an example, the following is one of the text belongs to the descriptive text.

We get the purpose from the text above that description is used in all forms of writing to create a vivid impression of a person, place, object or event e.g. to: ·
Describe a special place and explain why it is special.
Describe the most important person in your live.
Describe the animal’s habit in your report.

Descriptive writing or text is usually also used to help writer develop an aspect of their work, e.g. to create a particular mood, atmosphere or describe a place so that the reader can create vivid pictures of characters, places, objects etc. To complete our intention to, here are the characteristics based on descriptive writing or text, below;

As a feature, description is a style of writing which can be useful for other variety of purposes as:
To engage a reader’s attention
To create characters
To set a mood or create an atmosphere
To being writing to life

While in language function, descriptive writing;
Aims to show rather than tell the reader what something/someone is like
Relies on precisely chosen vocabulary with carefully chosen adjectives and adverbs.
Is focused and concentrates only on the aspects that add something to the main purpose of the description.
Sensory description-what is heard, seen, smelt, felt, tasted.Precise use of adjectives, similes, metaphors to create images/pictures in the mind e.g. their noses were met with the acrid smell of rotting flesh.
Strong development of the experience that “put the reader there” focuses on key details, powerful verbs and precise nouns.

Beyond the characteristics stated on, descriptive writing also consists of generic structure in range as:
General statement
Explanation
Closing

The description text has dominant language features as follows:
Using Simple Present Tense
Using action verbs
Using passive voice
Using noun phrase
Using adverbial phrase
Using technical terms
Using general and abstract noun
Using conjunction of time and cause-effect.

ahmadzahrowi.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/descriptive-text/

News Item

Purpose : to inform readers about events of the day which are considered newsworthy or important

Generic Structure :
Newsworthy event(s)
Background event(s)
Sources

Language Features :
Short,telegraphic information about story captured in headline
use of action verbs
use of saying verbs
use of adverbs : time, manner and place

drveggielabandresearch.blogspot.com/2008/01/reading-text-summary-of- genres.html

Passive Voice

In English, as in many other languages, the passive voice is a grammatical voice in which the subject receives the action of a transitive verb, and passive refers more generally to verbs using this construction and the passages in which they are used. In English, a passive verb is periphrastic; that is, it does not have a one-word form, but consists of an auxiliary verb plus the past participle of the transitive verb. The auxiliary verb usually is a form of the verb to be, but other auxiliary verbs, such as get, are sometimes used. The passive voice can be used in any number of tenses.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_passive_voice

Noun Phrases

Noun phrases normally consist of a head noun, which is optionally modified ("premodified" If the modifier is placed before the noun; "postmodified" if the modifier is placed after the noun). Possible modifiers include:
determiners: articles (the, a), demonstratives (this, that), numerals (two, five, etc.), possessives (my, their, etc.), and quantifiers (some, many, etc.). In English, determiners are usually placed before the noun;
adjectives (the red ball); or
complements, in the form of a prepositional phrase (such as: the student of physics), or a That-clause (the claim that the earth is round);
modifiers; pre-modifiers if placed before the noun and usually either as nouns (the university student) or adjectives (the beautiful lady), or post-modifiers if placed after the noun. A postmodifier may be either a prepositional phrase (the man with long hair) or a relative clause (the house where I live). The difference between modifiers and complements is that complements complete the meaning of the noun; complements are necessary, whereas modifiers are optional because they just give additional information about the noun.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noun_phrase

Narrative Text

Narrative is a text focusing specific participants. Its social function is to tell stories or past events and entertain the readers.

Generic Structure of Narrative

A narrative text consists of the following structure:

1. Orientation: Introducing the participants and informing the time and the place

2. Complication: Describing the rising crises which the participants have to do with

3. Resolution: Showing the way of participant to solve the crises, better or worse

understandingtext.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-is-narrativ.html