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English Grammar through Stories
by Alan Townend
Photocopiable
© www.english-test.net
104
and been a guest there herself on the strength of her age alone but
as she frequently told me, she had no intention of turning into
(changing into) an old fogey.
I suppose serving breakfast was the most difficult task to turn your
hand to (perform) because there were so many variations of drink,
cereal, egg and toast. You had to stand there for ages as each guest
made up their mind, turning over (considering) the choices in their
minds. After a long wait like that very frequently they would turn
down (refuse) everything and simply ask for a cup of tea. One
morning an old lady turned up at (reached) the dining room sat
down, sniffed at the air full of breakfast smells, got up, turned
around (went the other way) and walked out again. Apparently she
had completely forgotten that she'd already eaten breakfast that
day. I turned aside (looked the other way) to hide my smile but
Doris caught me at it. 'Don't you turn your nose up at the old dears',
(Don't you behave in a superior way) she rebuked me. 'You'll be like
that one day. Just you wait.' I turned back (went again to where she
was) to apologise but she'd already turned her back on me (ignored
me) and gone back to the kitchen. She rather turned against (was
not very friendly to) me after that. With that experience of course I
learnt a little bit about being a waiter but also more importantly a
little about life.
English Grammar through Stories
by Alan Townend
Photocopiable
© www.english-test.net
105
47.
Usage of the word talk or «Small talk»
I imagine it must be a nightmare for an interviewer on live radio or
TV who has to interview someone who will only give very short
answers and be, as it were, annoyingly monosyllabic. Take this.
QUESTION: Tell me minister in view of the recent developments we
have been told about the negotiations you have been having with
other world leaders, do you believe there will soon be a settlement?
ANSWER: No. Or take this. QUESTION: It has come to the attention
of certain journalists that you are intending to take early retirement
and start a new career in music. Is there any truth in this? ANSWER:
No comment. See what I mean? Then there is also the other extreme
when interviewees just won't stop talking and the luckless
interviewer can't get a word in edgeways and that's called rather
unpleasantly, verbal diarrhea. I'll leave you to work that one out!
Of course there are those who simply find it difficult to make
conversation with their fellow creatures. This is supposed to be a
characteristic of the English. You can live half a lifetime next door to
someone and rarely have any sort of conversation with them. It
reminds me of I time when I spent the best part of a year
commuting. travelling back and forth, from a town on the south
coast to London. It was usually the same group of people getting the
same train at the same time each morning and likewise on the way
home back to the seaside. Conversation was at a premium, in fact it
was non-existent. Then one day on my return journey, one of the
'regulars' bounded into the compartment I was sitting in and yelled
at me: What's the score? Now I knew he was talking about the
cricket score but I can't stand the game and out of pure devilment, I
replied: What score are you talking about? By the look of sheer
horror on his face, you would think I had uttered a blasphemy. He
glared at me, flounced out of the compartment and went into
another one. And that was my sole 'chat' with any of my fellow
passengers for the entire twelve months. We call this type of
conversation that many people throughout the world indulge in with
people you don't know (except of course in the UK) when you pass
the time of day with them, small talk.
British Telecommunications, BT for short and in its own words a
leading provider of communications solutions serving customers
throughout the world, has latched on to this all important word 'talk',
doubled it and called one of its services Talk Talk, which is a scheme
whereby you get a special rate if you use your phone at certain
times. BT probably got the double barrelled idea from other types of
expression for making conversation - powwow - chitchat - yackety-
yack and my favourite, tittle-tattle for that special kind of gossipy
conversation. Oh and then there's that lovely verb (totally unrelated
but I couldn't resist mentioning it) chinwag, conjuring up the idea of
having a nice friendly conversation. On a loftier note there is that
famous remark by Winston Churchill, very pertinent to the world
today, that talking to other countries is preferable to going to war
with them:
"To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war. June 26, 1954"
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