Grammar Practice in Context - David Bolton, Noel Goodey 1997
59 The definite article the (2)
Quick inference
• We use the with plural nouns and uncountable nouns when we mean particular people or things.
The women in our family are taller than the men.
The weather in England was good but the food wasn't.
We don’t use the when we use the following nouns in a general sense:
• Plural nouns. Women live longer than men. (not The women live longer than the men.)
• Uncountable nouns. Heat and light cost a lot. (not The heat and the light cost a lot.)
• Abstract nouns. He writes about love and death. (not He writes about the love and the death.) Note that we sometimes talk about a particular thing but use it in a general sense.
Buses in London are red.
1 Do these sentences refer to the particular or the general? Write Particular or General after each sentence.
1 Murder is becoming more and more common nowadays.
2 Have you heard the news about the murder of the London school teacher?
3 The pupils at the teacher’s school saw it happen.
4 People say crime is getting out of control.
5 Statistics prove it is increasing.
6 The increase last year was particularly bad.
7 Violence is certainly increasing.
8 The violence people see on television may be partly responsible.
9 Politicians are very worried about this.
10 Violence in big cities is very worrying.
(...)
(...)
(...) ...
2 Read the radio news headlines below. Look carefully at each line. Some of the lines are correct, and some have a word which should not be there. If a line is correct put a tick (✓) after it. If a line has a word in it which should not be there, underline the mistake and write the word in the brackets.
Example: The government has announced that the alcohol is good for you. (alcohol)
1 Government scientists have confirmed that one or two glasses of the wine or
2 beer are good for the heart.
3 The price of petrol is going up but the diesel stays the same.
4 The unemployment has gone down by 125.000 in the last six months.
5 The Prime Minister says he is worried by the increase in the sex and
6 violence on the British television.
7 The weather tomorrow will be hot and sunny.
(...)
(...)
(...) ...
3 A speaker at an international conference on the environment wants to make the following points in his speech. He finds the use of the definite article the difficult. Rewrite the sentences correctly.
1 Ozone layer that protects the Earth from the radiation has been damaged by CFC gases coming from the aerosols and the refrigerators.
2 The scientists believe that emissions of the carbon dioxide are causing the global warming, and that the temperatures will continue to rise worldwide.
3 The water is being polluted. The fertilisers and the pesticides are killing fish and insect life in the world’s rivers. The oceans of the world are full of the industrial waste.
4 The acid rain caused by the air pollution is damaging forest trees and the plant growth.
5 The world’s rain forests are disappearing because of the demand for the hardwoods, and millions of hectares are burnt every year to provide the farming land.
6 Energy resources, like the oil and the coal, are being rapidly exhausted, and the burning of these fuels adds to the atmospheric pollution.
7 Air pollution in big cities is mainly caused by the cars.
4 Complete these sentences in any way you like. Check your answers with a teacher.
1 Coffee ...
2 The coffee ...
3 Money ...
4 The money ...
5 Girls ...
6 The girls ...
7 Young people ...
8 The young people ...