English Grammar through Stories - Alan Townend 1973

8. Usage of pronouns or “One thing or another”

The ONE thing that the boss couldn’t stand was a hint of dishonesty. SOME people believed if you closed a deal by whatever means, then that was acceptable. OTHERS thought that you should always be ethical and play according to the rules. And that’s what the boss, Andrew thought. He realised that OTHER people thought he was too traditional and believed he should see the OTHER person’s point of view. But Andrew wasn’t having ANY of that. If you didn’t like his way of working, you could do the OTHER thing and in his mind without ANY doubt that meant you had to leave. And then ONE fine day Andrew was faced with a challenge. ONE of his newly recruited staff had just clinched an amazing deal and she did this all on her own, without ANY help from ANYONE. He had always wanted someone to do something like this. Andrew was delighted until SOMEBODY told him SOMETHING that made him think. The new member of staff hadn’t done ANYTHING wrong but she had, as it were, bent the rules. NOBODY knew exactly what she had done but NOBODY doubted that she was very attractive and maybe that had had SOMETHING to do with the deal. Andrew was in a difficult position because without ANY doubt the deal had gone SOME way to rescuing the firm from financial problems in the future. The staff were divided. SOME were on her side, THE OTHERS on his side.

Clearly SOMETHING had to be done. Andrew had SOME holiday time, which he hadn’t used and he decided this was ONE way out for the moment. Off he went on his holiday not ANYWHERE in particular just SOMEWHERE to get away from it all. By the time he got back he hadn’t made ANY decision. Members of staff watched his face each day to see if there was ANY sign - SOMETHING that showed he had made up his mind. As the days went past, NO ONE knew what to say to the woman who was at the heart of the matter. Then one morning it looked as of SOMETHING had happened. There was SOME sort of smile on Andrew’s face, which wasn’t like ANYTHING ANYONE had seen before. Andrew had made his mind up and was going to get married to SOMEONE. And the SOMEONE was NONE OTHER than the new member of staff.