Ex.5. Read the paragraph of reason, define the topic sentence with its controlling idea.

It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Thus, an elderly lady of leisure can spend the entire day in writing and dispatching a postcard to her niece. An hour will be spent in finding the postcard, another in hunting for spectacles, half-an-hour in a search for the address, an hour and a quarter in composition, and twenty in deciding whether or not to take the umbrella when going to the pillar-box in the next street. The total effort which would occupy a busy man for three minutes all told may in this fashion leave another person prostrate after a day of doubt, anxiety and toil.

 

commonplace – обычный

completion – окончание

dispatch – посылать

in a search – в поисках 

pillar-box – почтовый ящик

anxiety – волнение

toil – труд

 

Ex. 6. Supply five illustrative units for one or more of the following topic sentences.

1 Miracles do happen.

2 Life is full of ironies.

3 Untidy people are not nice to know.

4 A person’s character is often molded by daily acts, which, at the moment, seem insignificant.

5 The conquest of space, many people tend to forget, is in part the achievement of the men on the ground.

 

ü Although many topics can be developed by means of details, reasons, or illustrations alone, others will require a combination of these basic materials.

  

Ex. 7. For each of the following paragraphs copy the topic sentence with its identifying number. Underline the controlling idea. Then list consecutively the numbers of the sentences. After each number identify the kind of basic material used in that sentence. (If several sentence numbers belong together because they identify several sentences in one long illustration, merely bracket those numbers).

 

A) 1 While many black women in business today are where they are because the struck out on their own and built a viable company from scratch, some inherited companies from their husbands. 2 In 1948, Leon H. Washington, publisher of the Los Angeles Sentinel, had a stroke which left him unable to carry on the day-to-day work of running a newspaper. 3 His wife, Ruth, a studio photographer, decided that she would take over  even though she didn’t know anything about the news business. 4 “I surrounded myself with good professionals”, she says, “top journalists and other top people.” 5 As Ruth Washington learned more and more about running a newspaper, she began making changes in the paper’s format, advertising, and editorial policies. 6 Today the weekly Sentinel is one of the leaders among black newspapers in real estate and classified ads. 7 The size of the newspaper has more than doubled. 8 The staff of six that was employed when Mrs. Washington took over 27 years ago has grown to 40. And she’s not about to quit – no retirement for her anytime soon. 9 “I have ink in my blood,” explains the 61-year-old publisher.

 

viable – жизнеспособный

from scratch – с нуля

inherit – унаследовать

take over – принять обязанности

ads – реклама

quit – уходить

 

B) 1 Splitting a lobster is not an insurmountable job. 2 Actually, it is quite simple. 3 You need a good knife, one that is strong, sharp, and has a good point, and the courage to use it on a live, active shellfish. 4 First, cut of all the claws, both the large and the small ones. 5 Then place the lobster on its back on a board or table with body end nearest you. 6 Plunge the point of the knife into the tail section and cut right down the tail and the body, dividing the lobster in two in one long, clean cut. 7 Small lobsters that serve one per hinged when you lay them open for broiling. 8 Large ones which will make two servings should be cut through and separated. 9 With the dull edge of the knife blade, give both sides of each claw one crack. 10 As a result, after the lobster is cooked, you can break the claws easily and evenly.

 

splitting – разделение на части

insurmountable – непреодолимый

shellfish – моллюск

claw – клешня

plunge – погружать

broil – жарить на огне

crack – удар

 

C) 1 The children in our village do not play Run, Sheep, Run. 2 I am not sure of the reason. 3 It must be because children no longer possess the streets, as they no longer own the vacant lots and the gardens. 4 Traffic is too great a hazard, even in our quiet sector, for such wild excursions. 5 Perhaps there are no coverts left in which to hide. 6 Or could it be the curse of full employment among the young? 7 Children belong to the county clubs, and swim away the afternoons. 8 They go to camps. 9 They practice tennis and take riding lessons and are netted into hobby groups. 10 Even those we call the underprivileged go to organized playgrounds, presided over by adults. 11 One must have leisure for Run, Sheep, Run – leisure and long, lazy summers. 12 Life must not be hurried, as it is today for everyone. 13 There must be time for the gathering of the clan, time for the chase, and time to come home, shouting, through a dim blue twilight that smells of the fresh-cut grass.

 

hazard – опасность

covert – убежище

curse – проблема

 

D) 1 After Waterloo Napoleon was to live for six years and achieve an ironic final victory. 2 He fled to the west coast of France where at Rochefort he surrendered to the British navy, blockading the harbor. 3 Exiled to the island of St Helena, he managed to transform his image from that of a fallen tyrant into a martyr. 4 Out of St Helena grew the Napoleonic legend that exists today. 5 One can see it in the red porphyry sarcophagus at the Invalides in Paris where his body was buried in 1840. 6 There are listed the names of his great battles: Rivoli, Pyramides, Marengo, Austerlitz, Irena, Friedland, Wagram, Moscova. 7 But nowhere in that temple of legend and glory is written the word Waterloo.

 

surrender – капитулировать

harbor – гавань

porphyry – порфир (горная порода)

temple – храм

 

E) 1 Even the more important than overt  cheating, perhaps, is the frame of mind that leads to it. 2 There coexists, side by side with our higher educational system, an actively propagated faith which may be termed “antieducation”. 3 Recently in a Boston restaurant I overheard conversation in which the main tenets of the creed were set forth. 4 A high-school graduate about to set out for college was receiving advice from an upperclassman.

5“Now when you get there, remember,” the older boy was saying, “books are for the birds, not for the people. 6 What matters is contacts. 7 Get there a couple, three days earlier, introduce yourself around, become known, get elected to a class office. 8 Plan your courses so you are not always on the books, so you have time to make contacts.” 9 The younger lad protested that he wanted to be an engineer, a course which called for quite a bit of study along a prescribed curriculum.

 

overt cheating – очевидное мошенничество

frame of mind – расположение духа, настроение

coexist – сосуществовать

tenet – принцип

creed – кредо, убеждение

be set forth –быть сформулированным

curriculum – учебный план

 

Ex. 8. Select one of the following topics and write a paragraph using detail, reason, and illustration or example in some appropriate combination to develop the controlling idea. Underline the controlling idea. As you introduce minor supporting material, be sure that it is in unity with the major support and with the controlling idea of the paragraph. In the margin opposite each sentence identify the type of basic material you are using.

1 Vegetarians have found the secret of good living.

2 Luck may often be the deciding factor in a game.

3 Television has contributed to the decline of conversation.

4 Men need a college degree more than women do.

5 Women are only interested in getting married.

6 B Shaw is an outstanding English playwright.

7 In recent years some people have shown an amazing unwillingness to intervene (вмешиваться) in a crime that is taking place before their very eyes.