The Communicative Grammar of English Workbook - Edward Woods, Rudy Coppieters 2002

4.2. Amount and quantity
Unit four. Determiners

Sections 70-81; 675-680; 697-699

Amount words like all, some, none can be used with both count and mass nouns. Amount words can specify more precisely the meaning such as a large quantity, a small quantity and not a large quantity.

Words like all, both, every, each and sometimes any carry a general or inclusive meaning.

Task one **

Consider the scale of amounts where all is the most inclusive and no(ne) is the most negative and organise the statements below so that 1 is the most inclusive and the highest figure is the most negative. Some items will have the same score. Also indicate whether they show whether the amount word is a determiner (D) or a pronoun (P).

1. There are some great artisan ateliers hidden in Treviso’s backstreets.

2. All the candidates spent the day hustling for votes.

3. I’d like to welcome everyone here and thank you all for giving up your time.

4. Anyone you ask is bound to know the way.

5. Nothing I said could tempt her to tell us what she knew about the candidates.

6. There are few things more tedious than hearing other people blaring into their mobiles.

7. He read every scientific paper he could find on cheese, immersing himself in the finer points of microbiology.

8. Although many of us stay fit and healthy well into our eighties and nineties, the risk of suffering some sort of health problem increases with age.

9. This booklet aims to answer most of your questions about Capital Bonds.

10. Each of the so-called multi-modal studies are “looking at some of the severe transport problems around the country”.

Task two **

Explain the (possible) difference of meaning in the pairs of sentences below. Say if two sentences have the same basic meaning.

1. The manager gave all the staff a week’s holiday.

The manager gave each of the staff a week’s holiday.

2. Some of the students could easily pass the exam.

Any of the students could easily pass the exam.

3. Either date will be all right.

Neither date will be all right.

4. Either date will be suitable.

Both dates will be suitable.

5. He couldn’t remember some of their names.

He couldn’t remember any of their names.

6. There are few books I’d like to read again.

There are a few books I’d like to read again.

7. Speak to each of my parents about it.

Speak to either of my parents about it.

8. Will he tell us whether he agrees with everything he said 17 years ago?

Or indeed whether he agrees with anything he said 17 years ago?

9. Neither of us could help him.

None of us could help him.

10. You can see him any Sunday morning walking by the canal.

You can see him every Sunday morning walking by the canal.

Task three **

Households with selected consumer durables: by type of household, 1999-00 (percentages) - National Statistics - Social Trends - 2001 ed.

With reference to the chart above complete the sentences below with the most suitable amount expressions: all, few, a few, half, little, a little, the majority of, majority of, many, most, much, none, several, some

1 ... homes with one adult with children had television.

2 ... homes with one adult had a dishwasher.

3 ... homes with two or more adults had a computer, but not all.

4. Only ... households had a dishwasher.

5. Not ... households with one adult had satellite TV

6. A large ... households with two or more adults had a video recorder.

7 ... families of two adults with children have a video recorder.

8. Just over ... the households of one adult with children have a tumble dryer.

9. A ... households of two adults have a microwave.

10. Overall ... households were without a telephone.

Task four ***

Television viewing and radio listening by age and gender, 1999 (hours per week) - National Statistics - Social Trends - 2001 ed.

With reference to the chart above and the chart in Task three complete the text below with appropriate amount words.

The figures show the number of hours per person by age and gender per week spent watching television and listening to the radio. As you can see ... (1) ... time among 4-15 year olds of both genders was spent listening to the radio. A ... (2) ... time was spent watching television by older people which reflects the fact that a ... (3) ... older people own a television. However, a ... (4) ... the television watched by those over 65 consisted of news programmes, whereas only a ... (5) ... of those under 15 watched these. A ... (6) ... of time was spent watching TV by women between the ages of 45 and 54.

The survey also showed the variations across the country ... (7) ... time spent watching television was in the Scotland BBC region. This was almost five hours more than the time spent by those in the South of England. Generally men spent ... (8) ... their time listening to the radio. This was possibly because they did so in the car on their way to and from work.

Overall, there was ... (9) ... of difference between the age groups at either end of the scale, but among those between the ages of 25 and 54, there was only ... (10) ... difference.