Nancy Wilson was a teacher in Valley Road School, Sun-derland from 1920 to 1929. Here is her story:
"I was the youngest of six daughters and like many middle class girls, I... become a teacher. I had no choice. I... earn a living in any other way. My day started at seven o'clock in the morning, when I... sweep and dust the schoolroom, and we... leave at the end of the day until this task was repeated. I had two grey dresses and I wore one of them every day. It... be grey. Black... also, but we... were anything fashionable or colourful. We... ride in automobiles with any men except our father or brothers. This was no hard ship because our family had no car. The most ridiculous rule of all was the one about visiting ice-cream parlours. I can't imagine why we... go there. Eventually, when I was 229,1 did meet and marry a young man, Jack. Then, of course, I... give up teaching. You... continue as a married woman."
b) Discuss Nancy's story in pairs.
c) Think of any other rules you (your friends, your parents, etc.) had to follow. Use the words from the box in a).
5. Work in groups. Look at the "rules for office staff" from a 19th century office notice board. Discuss these questions and the questions after the text with your partners.
• What were clerks allowed / forbidden to do in that office in 1852?
• Why were the various rules applied?
• What might have happened if any rules had been broken?
Office Staff Practices
1. Godliness, cleanliness and punctuality are the necessities of a good business.
2. This firm has reduced the hours of work, and the clerical staff will now only have to be present between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.
3. Daily prayers will be held each morning in the main office. The clerical staff will be present.
4. Clothing must be of a sober nature. The clerical staff will not disport themselves in raiment of bright colour.
5. Over-shoes and top coats may not be worn in the office but neck scarves and head wear may be worn in inclement weather.
6. A stove is provided for the benefit of the clerical staff. Coal and wood must be kept in the locker. It recommended that
each member of the clerical staff bring 4 pounds of coal each day during cold weather.
7. No member of the clerical staff may leave the room without permission from Mr Rogers. The calls of nature are permitted and clerical staff may use the garden beyond the second gate. This area must be kept in good order.
8. No talking is allowed during business hours.
9. The craving for tobacco, wines, or spirits is a human weakness and as such is forbidden to all members of the clerical staff.
10. Now that the hours of business have been drastically reduced the partaking of food is allowed between 11.30 a.m. noon, but work will not on any account cease.
11. Members of the clerical staff will provide their own pens. The owners will expect a great rise in the output of work to compensate for these near Utopian Conditions.
• What is allowed /forbidden now in an office (or classroom)? Why?
• What might happen if any of these rules are broken?
• Suppose you could change the rules in the place you work or study in, what changes would you make to the things people could / could not do and would have to / would not have to do.
• Do you find any common rules in Ex. 6, Ex. 7 and this one? What are they?
Drawing Conclusions with might, could, can't, must + Perfect Infinitive
6. Past modal verbs: may have, might have, could have, must have, can't have.
Now you see me, now you don't.
1) Work in pairs. Here there are some true stories about people appearing or disappearing. Look at these questions about the first story and predict what the answers might be.
1. Where was the old Spanish woman looking after her grandchild?
2. Why did the grandchild cry out?
3. Where was the strange, sad face?
4. What appeared three weeks later?
5. What did they hear at the same time?
6. What happened in the end?
2) Read the story and put the paragraphs in the right order. The ending is missing.
a. For what had frightened the child was a strange, sad face staring up from the faded pink tiles of the kitchen floor. When the woman had recovered from the shock, she tried to rub away the face. But the eyes only opened wider, making the expression of the face even sadder.
b. When the kitchen was locked and sealed, four more faces appeared in another part of the house and microphones set up by investigators recorded sounds the ear could not hear -moans and voices which were speaking in a strange language. The faces and sounds both disappeared, as mysteriously as they had arrived, leaving no clue as to what they were or why they had come.
c. After the incident, in August 1971, the old woman sent for the owner of the house, who lived in Belmez near Cordoba. He removed the tiled floor and replaced it with concrete. But three weeks later another face appeared, its features even clearer. Now faces appeared all over the kitchen floor - first one, then another, then a whole group.
d. An old Spanish woman was looking after her grandchild in the kitchen of her tiny village home when the youngster suddenly cried out. The grandmother turned round - and got the shock of her life.
3) Now work in pairs and check your answers to /.
4) Work in pairs. Talk about what might have happened in the story. Give possible explanations. Use could have, might have, must have and can't have.
5) Read the following to find out what had happened in the story.
They were very puzzled by what they had seen, so they called the local authorities. They were told that the house was built on the site of a medieval cemetry.
6) Work as Student A and Student B.
Student A: Read the story and guess the missing words and phrases.
In 1889, an English woman and her daughter,... checked into one of the most lavish hotels.... The daughter wanted to take in the sights and sounds of the city immediately, but her mother,..., wanted to sleep. The girl went out alone,..., and saw the Eiffel Tower. Six hours later she returned to her other's room, only to find it empty, and no sign of her mother ever having been there. When she checked with the front desk, they insisted that they had never seen her.... The mother had disappeared. The desperate girl searched for weeks.... She died several years later in a mental hospital, having gone mad....
Here are the missing phrases. Decide where they go in the story.
a. Each had her own room.
b.... on a visit to the Great Paris Exhibition...
c.... strolled down the Champs Elysees...
d.... because of the loss of her mother.
e.... tired after the trip...
f.... before finally returning to England.
g.... or her mother.
Student B: Read the story and guess the missing words and phrases.
An English journalist was walking... in Torremolinos with a friend,... but not paying much attention to what the other was saying. At one stage the friend turned round to say something to the journalist and was astonished....He assumed his companion must have disappeared into a side street..., so he returned to their hotel, expecting the journalist to turn up.... Four hours later,... when the friend was thinking about contacting the police, the journalist turned up at the hotel,....
Here are the missing phrases. Decide where they go in the story.
a.... in time for dinner...
b.... along a small street...
c.... with a bandage around his head.
d.... to explore something of interest...
e.... long after the meal was over and...
f.... Chattering happily...
g.... to find that he had disappeared.
Discuss the stories in pairs. Ask each other questions. Say what might or must have happened to them in your opinion.
7) Read the following text to find the explanations to the stories.
After the daughter had gone sightseeing, her mother complained to the hotel doctor that she felt ill. She had contracted the plague. The hotel officials were instructed to keep the news quiet in case everyone left the city and the Great Exhibition ended in disaster. The mother's room was quickly cleaned and another quest moved in. No one knows what happened to the mother, but it is assumed she remained in France until she died.
It turned out that the journalist had been so busy looking at the sights he had not noticed that a manhole cover had been removed from the pavement and had simply fallen down it while his friend carried on talking, completely unaware of what had happened.
8) Work in groups of two or three. Do you know of any other strange stories like the ones in this lesson? Think about:
ghosts, crimes, ships lost at sea, strange things in the sky, wild animals, fortune telling, voices from the past, reincarnation, curses.
Do any of your stories have simple explanations?
7.
Must
Should
Ought to + Perfect Infinitive Compared
Can / could
May / might
1) Find in the text sentences with modal verbs + Perfect Infinitive. Define the meanings of the modal verbs. Arrange a dramatization on the story.
Martin had been one of the winners named in a magazine crossword competition and was waiting impatiently for the postman to deliver his cheque.
"It ought to have been delivered by now", he said to Jillian one breakfast time. "The results were published over a week ago, so the prizes must have been posted before this. Even if they were sent off on the day the results were published, they should have been delivered by now. It can't have been lost in the post, can it?" he asked doubtfully.
"Do you think", Jillian suggested, "that your form might have been wrongly filled in? If you didn't write our address clearly enough, the cheque could have been misdirected".
Martin was about to explain that the address must have been correctly written, because he had checked the form twice when he heard the sound of letters falling through the letter-box onto the front-door mat. He came back to the breakfast table with two bills, but no cheque. "It must have been mislaid", he said. "I'll ring the magazine during the day".
"Well, what's your news?" Jillian asked when she met Martin on their way home that evening.
"Oh, I rang the magazine", he told her, "and they said the cheques should have been received because they had been posted a week ago. So I rang the post office, I said I wondered if a letter could have been lost or if it might have been wrongly delivered. They said it couldn't have been mislaid in the post office and that if it had been sent to the wrong address, it would have been returned to them. So I rang the police and told them that a cheque should have been delivered to me but hadn't. They said that an envelope might have been dropped in the street by the postman, but it's unusual, and that it ought to have been handed in to them as lost property if it had been picked up. It would certainly have been there if anyone had found it".
"Then I met Tom at lunchtime", Martin said, as they were approaching the front door. "He suggested it might have been pushed under the door mat. Let's see", he said, opening the door and bending down. Red-faced, he showed Jillian a dusty envelope.
"It must have been there for days", she laughed. "Come on, how much have you won?"
The cheque was for one pound. "It'll pay for the telephone calls", Martin said. "I'd better ring Tom, and let him know he was right".
"It might have been lost for years", Tom said, when he heard, "if I hadn't suggested looking under the mat. You don't mind if I write a little story about it for my paper, do you?" And two days later Martin read in the local paper for which Tom worked:
A valuable letter to Mr Martin Fry was thought to have been lost or misdirected. After two months the letter was discovered to have been pushed under the front-door mat. Perhaps Mr Fry's mat will get cleaned more often in future.
"Your friend", said Jillian, when she read it, "has got a misplaced sense of humour".
2) Single out from the dialogues sentences with modal verbs + Perfect Infinitive. Define the meanings of tlie modal verbs. Act out the dialogues.
Dialogue 1
Mr Fielding: Sorry to hear about the fire, Charles. Not too much damage, I hope?
Mr Williams: No, it wasn't too bad. We've had to redecorate the whole of the living-room, but the rest of the house wasn't damaged.
Mr Fielding: I suppose it must have been a cigarette-end.
Mr Williams: Probably. We ought to have checked for that sort of thing after the party.
Mr Fielding: I wonder who the culprit was? It couldn't have been me -I don't smoke.
Mr Williams: It might have been Ted Redman or Bill Cole-man - the more they drink, the worse they get.
Mr Fielding: It could well have been old Bill. He was standing by the big window flicking his ash all over the place.
Mr Williams: So he was! Still, it could have been anyone, and the insurance company's paying the bill.
Dialogue 2
(Maggie has been shopping. She has just come back.)
Robert: Oh, there you are at last, Maggie. We're absolutely starving.
Maggie: Luckily I found a self-service store. Here you are: two tins of herring in tomato sauce and a tin of wild boar!
Robert: Wild boar! Oh, Maggie, you might have brought some nice pork chops instead of wild boar.
Maggie: Don't be ungrateful, Robert. Now pass me the tin-opener.
Robert: Where did you pack the tin-opener?
Maggie: I may have put it in the cooker.
Robert: No, it isn't with the cooker. You must have forgotten to take it.
Maggie: No, I can't possible have forgotten the tin-opener. I must have put it in some very safe place.
Robert: Oh, women! Now think hard, Maggie: where could you have put it?
Maggie: I might have put it in the glove compartment of the car, but no, that's not very likely. Oh, I might have put it with the first-aid kit. No that's not very likely either.
Robert: Don't tell us where you might have put it. Tell us where you did put it. And we should have brought a spare one.
Maggie: Now, let me think where else I could have put it. Mmm... I know, I may have put it together with the tent-pegs.
Robert: No, I would have noticed it when I put up the tent.
Maggie: I know! I remember Jim using it this morning. He ought to have pocketed it by mistake. He's always doing things like that.
Robert: Where is Jim, by the way?
Maggie: He must have gone to town.
Robert: Well, there's nothing for it, Maggie. You'll have to go and buy another tin-opener.
Maggie: We'll have bread and cheese for lunch. I refuse to do
any more shopping, and that's my last word.
Dialogue 3
Mr Green: How did you enjoy your stay in Britain last year?
Mr Krolik: Oh, very much indeed.
Mr Green: Did you stay in one place or did you move about?
Mr Krolik: We moved around a great deal. We had our car with us. We saw London, Brighton, Salisbury, Oxford and Cambridge, Stratford-on-Avon and Leeds. We also visited the Lake.
Mr Green: I hope you went to the Trossachs. Did you?
Mr Krolik: The Trossachs? Let me think... No, I don't think we did. I seem to remember the name though. It's a beauty spot near Glasgow, isn't it?
Mr Green: Yes, that's right. You must have read about the Trossachs in the guide book. You may have seen some photographs, too. That's one of the most beautiful places in Britain. Have you read Walter Scott's poem "The Lady of the Lake?"
Mr Krolik: No, I haven't.
Mr Green: You should have read it. It's all about that district. What a pity you didn't go to the Trossachs. You ought to have seen that wonderful scenery.
Mr Krolik: Yes, I'm very sorry I didn't. We were to have gone, but the weather wasn't very good and we put it off. Then there were so many other places to visit.
Mr Green: You shouldn't have missed the Trossachs though.
8. Famous for fifteen minutes.
1. Read the newspaper headlines paying attention to modal verbs of probability. What do you think may have happened to the man and the woman? Read the ideas below. Which do you agree with?
A. "Excuse me... I've just jumped off the Empire State Building!"
He must be Superman!
He can't be serious. He must be joking.
He might be a bungee-jumper.
He could have come down by parachute.
He might have been trying to commit suicide.
He may be acting in a film.
He must have injured himself.
His story will be in all the newspapers.
He may become famous.
B. 40 Years in Bed - With Flu. (Rewrite the ideas using the modal verb in brackets).
1) She probably doesn't have flu. (can't)
________________________________________________
2) It's likely that she has had a more serious illness, (must)
________________________________________________
3) Perhaps she is just very lazy, (might)
________________________________________________
4) It's not possible that the doctor told her to stay in bed for so long, (couldn't)
________________________________________________
5) Surely someone has been looking after her. (must)
________________________________________________
6) She will probably find it very difficult to walk again, (may)
________________________________________________
2. Read the complete newspaper stories. Which of the ideas in A and В were correct? Answer these questions.
a. Why did Jason jump off the Empire State Building? Why has Mrs Teppit spent forty years in bed?
b. Who are the other people in the stories? What did they do?
"Excuse Me... I've just Jumped off the Empire State Building!"
On Christmas Eve, Bob Stichman was working in his office on the 85th floor of the Empire State Building in New York, when he heard a knock at the window. He looked up and saw a "man standing on the window ledge asking to come in. "I thought I was dreaming. You don't meet a lot of guys coming in through the window of the 85th floor!" The guy was Jason Hosen, a young, unsuccessful artist, who was so broke and alone that he had decided to kill himself. He had taken the elevator to the 86lh floor and then hurled himself towards the tiny cars 1.000 feet below on Fifth Avenue. However, strong winds had blown him onto the window ledge of the 85th floor, which is where he met Bob Stichman. His story appeared on TV, and hundreds of people have offered to have him stay for Christmas.
Other uses of modal verbs.
All of the comments below were made by people in the two newspaper stories. Who do you think is speaking to who?
"Excuse me. May I come in?"
"You must stay in bed until I return".
"I've had to look after her since I was 14".
"I couldn't believe my eyes".
"You should have been examined years ago".
"She won't get up".
"I can't find anything wrong with you at all".
"I ought to call the police".
"Can I get up soon?"
"You should try to lose weight".
"She told me that I couldn't get married and that I had to look after her".
"Will you spend Christmas with us?" "You'// have to have physiotherapy". "You mustn't do anything like this again". "You don't have to do everything for her".
What concepts do the verbs in italics express? Permission? Obligation/advice? Ability? Willingness/refusal?
YEARS IN BED - WITH FLU
Doctor Mark Pemberton, who has just taken over a medical practice in rural Suffolk, visited a 74-year-old widow, Mrs Ada Teppit at her home in the village of Nacton. Mrs Teppit has been bedridden for 40 years. The doctor examined her but couldn't find anything wrong. He questioned her daughter. Norma, aged 54, and to his amazement discovered that 40 years ago the village doctor had ordered Mrs Teppit to bed because she had influenza and told her not to get up until he returned. He never returned so she never got up. Her daughter has been looking after her ever since. She has never married nor had any job other than taking care of her mother. Now Mrs Teppit's muscles have wasted, and she has put on a lot of weight. She may never walk again.
9. Talking about obligation, permission and prohibition using have to, be obliged to, be supposed to, don't have to, can, be allowed, can't, not to be allowed, not to be supposed to.
1. a) Read the text "The Way of St James ". Find all the places the modals mentioned in the task are used. Translate them into Russian.
The Way of St James
IF YOU DRIVE across the south-west of France and into northern Spain you'll begin to notice groups of walkers. Most are carrying backpacks and long sticks, and somewhere they're wearing a scallop shell. You can stop and talk to them, but you're not allowed to give them a lift. They're on a guided tour, but they're not ordinary tourists. They're pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St James, to Santiago de Compostela, the route that millions of people have taken over hundreds of years.
The pilgrimage to Santiago, where St James is believed to be buried, was extremely popular, especially among the French and other north Europeans because it was easier to get to than the pilgrim routes to Rome or Jerusalem.
In the Middle Ages, pilgrims were rather like today's package tourists. The season began in April or May, and they travelled in groups because it was safer and also more enjoyable. To prove they had done the pilgrimage, the rules were quite strict. They had to follow a well-planned route and visit important places of culture where they bought souvenirs - scallop shells, for example - to prove where they had been. They had to travel on foot or by horse and they stayed in special hostels. For some, the pilgrimage was an important religious experience, but for many it was a chance to have a holiday and do some sightseeing-
These days the rules are less strict. Yоu only have to travel 100 km on foot or horseback. You can go by bicycle as well, but you're not supposed to drive or hitchhike, so to prove you have resisted this temptation, you're obliged to obtain a "passport" from the Confraternity of St James and get a stamp at various offices along the route.
You don't even have to be very religious. Many people see it as an alternative to package tours and beach holidays. But the Camino is getting very popular and if you want to do it in the peace and quiet which the pilgrims in the past enjoyed, you should travel out of season and avoid the fiesta of St James in July.
When you arrive in Santiago, you have to show your passport at the Pilgrim's Office by the cathedral. A church official checks the dates on the stamps and if he is satisfied, he gives you a compostela. The Hotel de los Reyes Catolicos, where the pilgrims used to stay and which is now a modern hotel, is still obliged to give up to ten pilgrims one free meal a day for three day, although they can't eat it in its main, very fashionable res-
taurant. Finally, you're supposed to enter the magnificent cathedral and touch the statue of St James. With this last gesture you have become part of the pilgrim tradition that has attracted believers and tourists for many hundreds of years.
b) Correct these false statements about "The Way of St James". Say full sentences.
1. You don't have to give the pilgrims a lift.
2. You are not allowed to talk to them.
3. They didn't have to travel in groups.
4. They weren't allowed to stay in special hostels.
5. They were supposed to travel on foot.
6. You are supposed to get a stamp at various places.
7. You are allowed to show you passport in Santiago.
8. Pilgrims have to eat in the main hotel restaurant.
c) Discuss the text.
2. Think of a situation which involves a number of rules in your country. Make notes on:
- What you have to do
- What you are allowed to do
- What you aren't allowed to do
- What you aren't supposed to do
3. Write a description of the situation you chose in l(b). Use the linking words in bold for a list of points.
When you do your military service, you are obliged to join the army for a year. Firstly, you're obliged to stop your studies. Then you have to leave your family. What's more, you aren't supposed to go home very often. And worst of all, you aren't allowed to have long hair.
Use however to introduce contrasting points.
Remember to separate in from the rest of the sentence with a comma.
However, you're allowed to go out at weekends.
10. Asking for and giving advice: must, should, be supposed to, do I have to, should I, am I supposed to...?
1. Read the text "Do it in style" and decide if the writer's advice is mainly for men or for women.
Do it in style
Aix is a university town, and there is clearly something that attracts pretty students. The terrace of the Deux Garcon cafe is always full of them, and it is my theory that they are there for education rather than refreshment. They are taking a degree course in cafe behaviour, with a syllabus divided into four parts. One: the arrival. You must always arrive as conspicuously as possible, preferably on the back of a crimson Kawasak 750 motor cycle driven by a young man in head-to-toe black leather x and three-day stubble. You mustn't stand on the pavement and wave him goodbye as he drives off down the street to visit his hairdresser. That is for naive little girls form the Auvergne. The sophisticated student is too busy for sentiment. You are concentrating on the next stage.
Two: the entrance. You must always keep your sunglasses on until you see a friend at one of the table, but you should not appear to be looking for company. Instead, the impression should be that you're heading into the cafe to make a phone call to your titled Italian admirer, when - what a surprise! - you see a friend. You can then remove the sunglasses and toss your hair while your friends persuade you to sit down.
Three: ritual greetings. You must kiss everyone at the table at least twice, often three times, and in special cases four times. Your friends are supposed to remain seated, allowing you to bend and swoop around the table, tossing your hair, and getting in the way of the waiters.
Four: table manners. When you have sat down, you should put your sunglasses back on to allow you to look at your own reflection in the cafe windows - to check important detail of technique: the way you light a cigarette, or suck the straw in a Perrier, or nibble daintily on a sugar lump. If these are satisfactory, you can adjust your glasses downwards so that they rest charmingly on the end of the nose, and attention can be given to the other people at the table.
This performance continues from mid-morning until early evening, and never fails to entertain me. I imagine there must be the occasional break for academic work in between these hectic periods of social study, but I have never seen a textbook on any of the cafe tables, nor heard any discussion of philosophy or political science. The students are totally involved in showing form, and the cafe terrace is all the more decorative as a result.
