Articles: a/an, the, or @ (no article)? We use a before consonant sounds, and an before vowel sounds: vows SOUNDS: an appraisal, an hour, an interview, an office, an MBA CONSONANT SOUNDS: a director, a code, a unit, a question ‘We use a or an before unspecified singular countable nouns: B Uses of ‘Could you let me have an envelope?” We use a or an to talk about jobs, (but not areas of business) Janet's a Personnel Manager, and her husband is in O marketing. We use a or an to talk about frequency: We have to submit VAT returns four times a year. We use the with a specific noun we have mentioned before: We have bought a Mac and a PC. The Mac cost $2500 and the PC cost $2100, ‘We use the when we add information that defines something: Where isthe file that I gave you this morning? ‘We use the when itis clear what we are referring to because there is only one: Would you ike come in? The chairman will see you now: ‘We use the with superlatives Coca Colas the most famous soft drink inthe word. We use the with adjectives to refer toa groups The rich do not do enough to help the poor We use the to refer to rivers, mountains, seas, and names of countries that include ¢ noun like republic, kingdom, union, etc. ‘The Aral Sea in the former Soviet Union is very polluted. ‘We use no article (6) to generalize about uncountable or plural nouns: © Money isthe root of al evil. (ie., money in general, or all money) ‘We do not use an article (@) to refer to companies, cities, roads single islands, or lakes: work for @ Goldman Sacks in @ London, and Ihave a house in O Western Road, [also have a holiday home in @ Crete and another near O Lake GaraPractice Exercise 1 Complete the dialogue. Fllin the blanks with aoran, een A: Thad! ai appraisal with the Personnel Manager the other day, ancl B: Oh eealy? How did it yo? ‘A: Fine, We were talking about qualifications and carcer development, and she said to me that I should consider doing. course in Business Administration. Br That's not ™ bad idea. You've already got “!_ university. degree, haven't you? A: Yes, and I'm doing takes up about —houra week. B: That sounds like ® ‘waste of time to me. What you need to do is sy MBA at‘ __ institution like Insead, so that you end up with" __ decent qualification evening course in accounting, but that exercise 2 an, or @ (no article) Caper ean 11 like to go abroad about three times: year. 2. Have you met my brother? He's engineer too. 3 I'm thinking about buying ___ new eat. Wht would yon, recommend? 4 The Lloyds Bank Review is published four times ___ year. computer software is not as expensive as you may think 6 The government has urged businesses otto give __payrrises above inflation 7 How long have you been in engineering? 81 go to meetings in London twice __ month, Read the following newspaper extcact, Fill in the blanks with a or the Exercise Uses of the Coca-Cola has launched q. £4 million TV advertising ‘campaign ~ one of ®___ biguest ever soon in Britain ~ in what will be secn as direct attack on supermarkets’ own-brand colas. six-week campaign, which opened last night, is part of an attempt to boost __ size of the £6 billion ® year goft drinks market. The advertisements will be almed mainly at" young, but middle-aged drinkers will also be targeted © ____ drinks giant denied that ®___ new advertisoments aro ___ response to°”__‘eola wars’ that raged in supermarkets in °® summer, but admitted that there ‘was room for improving sales. a7Exercise 4 In each pair of sentences, fil in one blank with the, and the other blank with Uses of the @ (no article) 1A Lam not motivated by__@ money. B_ When are you going to pay back —_the _money [lent yout 2A Carbon-dating helps scientists to work out age of fossils. B_ We never refuse to give someone a job on the basis of age. 38 mistakes you have made cost usa great deal of money B_ Don't worry. Everybody makes mistakes. aa crime in the cities is now at record levels. B_ The police have no idea who committed ____crime. 5A. This book will give you information you need. B_ CD-ROMs can store large quantities of information. 6A visitors must be accompanied at all times B visitors are on a fact-finding mission from Japan. 7A Should ‘unemployed people do more to help themselves? B Should the government do more to help unemployed? 8 A ___Japanese imports are currently at very high levels. B_ Itis very difficult to sell to Japanese. Exercise 5 ‘Complete the following passages. In each space, put the or © (no article). The vs no article (@) A B | work fr a tour operator called ® Hi, my namo's Todd Sawyer. 'm a financial ‘analyst, and | work for a company called "Pacific Investments which is based in Channel Islands, Our offices are in est Helier, ©__capital « Jersey is very popular with financial institutions trom *\_ England because itis ‘ot part of" Uk for tax purposos, and it Is also popular with investors from". Europe. Lakeland Travel, and we specialize in binging people to * Lake District, which is in ow nonth of England. Wo run a de luxe hotel in Morison Road, Which isin Ambleside, a small town fon the shores of Lake Windermere. ‘Many of our visitors come from Scotland, which Is very close, but others come from as far away as New York or Far East a LARE pistRictfh 7 awsigsideLook atthe map. Flin the blanks witha, an the, or © (no article) ‘NIGERIA : Five ships fll of industrial waste ‘eer sipped rom Tay «Koko | in Nigeria where" ‘farmer vas paid USSS,750 Saitwa Bank, one of world’s lagest banks, offering its clients accounts for Clients’ pets ‘white they can save for special also 1s Boliday ot visit fo the vet A funeral for ®) aca Con up 1 $40, richest ian in USA's Bill Gates, Chairinaiof jierovol: The billonaite, whois Choose two other countries. Write two short reports about them (as in the ‘examples above) for the Benetton Report.