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Answer key
UNIT ONE
Spoken and written English
1.1. Informal spoken English
Sections 17–19
Task one **
Non-grammatical features: er(m) (×7) / you know (×2) / repeated elements (suggesting stammer), especially in line 4 / WHOOSH!
Grammatical features: me (instead of ‘my’) / half a dozen sentences beginning with ‘and’ / free direct speech: She said fill it up … / subject dropped in two sentences beginning with ‘Was . .’ / omission of other sentence elements: Just take it back … (= answers ‘what’ in preceding sentence) – Straight across the counter. – Dust coal everywhere.
Task two **
We lived in Cambridge when I was young. One day, my mother got very angry because the coal had some rocks and bits of scale in it. She told me to get a strong bag and fill it up with the coal and stuff. Then we took it by bus to the coal office at the bottom of Hills Road Bridge. Inside the office, there was an old oak table, about as long as this room. I thought she was just going to take it back and tell them coal wasn’t very good. But she went in, bent down, picked up the bag and threw it straight across the counter. There was coal dust everywhere. “Take it back,” she said. “And come and get the rest of it.” They couldn’t believe it. I can see their faces today.
Task three ***
1. At the polling station tell the clerk your name and address. It’s on the front of the card. After that the Presiding Officer will give you a ballot paper. Make sure that he or she stamps it before they give it to you.
2. Then you go to one of the booths. You’ll see some instructions, telling you how to vote. The main thing is that you can only put one cross in the box next to the name of your favourite candidate. Some people put two or three crosses, but these votes are not counted.
3. Now suppose you’ve made a mistake. That would mean you’ve spoilt your ballot paper. No problem, though. You just show it to the Presiding Officer and they’ll be happy to give you another one.
4. Then fold the ballot paper into two. Show the official mark to the Presiding Officer, but be careful; no one should see who you voted for. The last thing you do is, of course, put the ballot paper in the ballot box and then simply leave the place.
5. There are also two alternative ways of voting. You can, for example, appoint somebody else to vote for you. Such a person is called a proxy. However, some people change their mind at the last minute and want to vote themselves. No problem again, as long as the proxy hasn’t voted before you.
6. The other alternative is postal voting. That’s a different thing. Once you’ve been allowed to vote through the post, you can’t change your mind anymore.
Task four ***
1. – (your name and address) as shown on the ballot paper: as + past participle clause sounds very official
– (s)he: conventional gender neutral way of referring to any male/female (person), only used in writing
2. – (Mark only one cross) as stated in …: as + past participle clause (cf above)
– alongside: (slightly) more formal preposition than ‘next to’
– place: more formal than ‘put’ (= lexical feature)
3. – if by mistake you …: rather formal word order
4. –
5. – you may: rather formal way of granting permission
– complex sentence: if-clause + infinitive clause, followed by main clause, followed in turn by if-clause and time clause
6 – fairly complex sentence
– to be entitled to …: expression which is typical of official documents, regulations, etc.
General comment: None of the imperatives in the original text is preceded by the covert subject ‘you’, while this is quite common in spoken English.
1.2. Cooperation in conversation
Sections 21–23
Task one ***
1. Comment on features of turn-taking:
– At first turn-taking is restricted to brief contributions by S2 (laughs/yes/yeah).
– When S3 joins in, he makes a truly interactive comment, followed by a question addressed by S2 to S1. This is followed in turn by a counter-question by S1 addressed to S2.
– Next we get a succession of discourse markers by all three speakers. The third speaker (S3) goes on to add an interactive comment, is briefly interrupted by S2, then completes his comment and also gets a minimal response from S1.
– S3 elaborates on his comment, which contains an indirect question. S1 abruptly answers his question and gets ‘laughs’ from both S2 and S3.
– S1 ‘takes the initiative’ again, contributing several sentences. S2 asks for further information, which S1 hesitates to answer straight away. S2 helps to get S1 ‘going again’.
– S1 resumes where she left off and continues her story. At first she gets a minimal response from S3 and a somewhat more meaningful one from S2. Towards the end of the conversation the balance between S2 and S3 shifts, with S2 only p...
