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

13.2. Questions and answers 2
Unit thirteen. Information, reality and belief

Sections 243-244

Yes-no questions containing words like any, ever, yet are neutral, while words like some, sometimes, already suggest a positive bias.

Questions in statement form with rising intonation have a positive or a negative bias depending on the absence or presence of a negative element.

Task ***

Form acceptable and fully explicit questions suggesting a neutral attitude (NEU), or a positive (POS) or negative (NEG) bias to match the following answers.

Example: A: Yes, they’ve all been locked already. (NEU)

→ Q: Have all the gates/doors been locked yet?

1. Yes, some of them are unsuitable for such a job. (POS)

2. No, we didn’t see any of them at all. (NEU)

3. No, it won’t make much difference. (NEG)

4. Yes, they have been successful sometimes. (NEU)

5. No, none of them are being taken care of. (NEU)

6. No, not many people knew about it. (NEG)

7. Yes, we had already met all of them. (POS)

8. Yes, I’ve written to some of them. (NEU)

9. Yes, they definitely do protest sometimes. (POS)

10. No, there is no one on earth who can. (NEG)

11. No, it’s going to get a lot worse. (NEG)

12. Yes, it could make a big difference for some of them. (POS)