Menace to Our Marriage--Questions and Answers

Here are some questions about

Menace to Our Marriage

and possible answers

(reviewed and corrected)

# 1 Who is Madge?
      Why is she in Sue's home?

She is Sue's friend. she was ill and wanted to visit Sue.
Madge is Sue's best friend. Because she was sick, Sue invited Madge to her home to look after her.

She is Sue's  best friend  She wanted to rest and have some fun.

Madge is Sue’s best friend. She was ill, so she needed to take a rest.

Sue's best friend.Sue hadn't seen her for a long time.
Madge is Sue's best friend.

Madge was Sue's best friend. Because Madge had been ill and needed a  place to rest.

She's Sue's best friend. She's been ill and needs a rest.

Review of Verb Types: Intransitive, Monotransitive, Ditransitive and Linking

[Updated on May 31, 2015 with minor corrections]
 
Here are syntax trees for four major verb types: intransitive, monotransitive (one object),
ditransitive (two objects),and linking verbs (an complement, but no object),

(A) The baby is crying
V- (Intransitive):
An intransitive verb has no object (in = not)

(B) I did my homework quickly
V+ (Monotransitive):
A simple transitive verb has one object
(direct object = "homework")

(C) I told my children a story
V++ (Ditransitive):
 A ditransitive verb has two objects
(direct object = "a story"; indirect object = "my children")

(D) I am a doctor
(E) I am angry
V= (Linking):
 A linking verb has no object, but it has a complement ("doctor" "angry")

The syntax trees appear below:

Menace To Our Marriage

Menace To Our Marriage, page 1 (text retyped for reading comfort)

After you have read and understood the story, please go to the bottom of this blog post and click on Read More >> to do some writing practice.

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Here are some vocabulary notes to help you understand the story better:

p. 2

Sue is thoughtful: she gave Madge the sunniest room. In the US, some places are rather cold. Being in a sunny room is very pleasant.

Old fashioned words (DON'T learn them): play sth jivey/cut a rug (don't learn these words. I have never heard them, but I think they mean:

Play sth with a good beat. Let's do do some fancy dancing

M wasn't a girl to take no for an answer = if she wants sth, she won't stop until she gets it

[I won't take no for an answer = you must say "Yes!"]

try to do sth [it will probably not succeed]

There's nothing to it! = it's very easy!

There must be something to it
一定有他的道理

The laugh was on me [= I laughed at the other person for doing sth foolish, but I found out that I was wrong]

If you monopolize sb's time, you don't let anybody else talk to them or interact with them.

A monopoly is a situation where only one company is allowed to sell a certain product. Unlike in Taiwan, Monopoly is a very popular game for adults in western countries, especially in the US.

dawn = the time when the sun comes up
It dawned on me = I started to understand

"would you be a dear [= a woman's way of saying "Please"] and run an iron over it"

manage to do sth = do sth which is not easy

an unscrupulous businessman doesn't care if he/she does unethical things to make money

keep sb on the go = make them stay busy

wear  sb out = make them very tired

Sue looks like she's ready to strangle Madge (twist her neck and make her die)

Call it a night/Let's call it a day [= we have worked enough today, so we need to rest; let's not make ourselves too tired]

She treated me like a servant

put sb up = let them stay in your home for a while, usually because they have a problem

Madge feels resentful (Madge resents having to give up her room for the kids)

Writing practice appears below:

Verb Types 2--Linking & Complex Transitive

Be is the most common linking verb (V=).
In a sentence like Those dogs are spaniels,

Those	dogs	are	spaniels
Det	NC	V=	NC

spaniels is a complement 補語. A complement can be a NP, AdjP (The dogs are very noisy) or a PP (The kennelman is in the yard). The complement tells you more about the subject.

The dogs are very noisy (syntax tree)

The kennelman is in the yard

Complex transitive verbs (V++=) behave like a combination of a transitive verb and a linking verb. Try diagramming these four sentences:

1. Ruth considers the kennelman incompetent (= the kennelman is incompetent)

2. Young Taiwan voters elected Ma Yingjeou president

3. He called me an idiot (= He said that I am an idiot)

4. He called me a taxi (= He called a taxi for me 比較不自然)

Click on Read more to see the syntax trees below:

Verb Types 1--Intransitive, Monotransitive, Ditransitive

There are several types of verbs in English. Linguists use different names and short forms for these verb types. Here are the names I prefer to use:

1. Intransitive verbs (V-) have no object 受詞、賓語
(in+trans+itive; in = NOT, trans = across 不及物)

In English, most declarative sentences (陳述句、敘事句) are made of two parts: a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP): Puppies yap.

Puppies yap (syntax tree)

In Puppies yap, the NP Puppies is the subject （主語）and the VP yap is the predicate （謂語）

2. Monotransitive verbs (V+) have one object. The verb phrase in this sentence includes one object: Ruth dislikes dogs.

Ruth dislikes dogs (syntax tree)

The NP Ruth is the subject （主語）and the VP dislikes dogs is the predicate （謂語）. dogs is the object of the verb dislikes.

3. Ditransitive verbs (V++) have two objects. Because it is directly affected by the verb, a long story is the direct object （直接受詞）of told; the children is the indirect object （間接受詞）: Grandpa told the children a long story.

Grandpa told the children a long story (syntax tree)

Read the sentences below and try making your own syntax trees with phpSyntaxTree. You can see the answers if you click on Read more.

1 My husband snores very loudly

2 The baby cried in his room

3 They gave me a free iPad

4 I made you a birthday cake

5 The dog found a ball

Cheese Lesson

On April 8th, we had a cheese lesson to learn about different kinds of French cheese. We tasted several different cheeses with good bread and crackers.

1) Cream cheese is unfermented cheese with a high water content. In standard Chinese, cheese is called 乾酪, so cream cheese should be called 奶油乾酪. Cream cheese is often eaten with crackers or used to make cheesecake. We tried Kiri brand cream cheese. You can buy this at Carrefour supermarkets all over Taiwan (but there are more westerners in Taipei, so you will probably find more cheeses in Taipei supermarkets). This Wikipedia article uses a Cantonese name for cream cheese (probably written by somebody from Hong Kong): 奶油芝士.

2) Brie 布利乾酪. is a soft, creamy fermented cheese with a mild flavor which many Chinese people enjoy. It is usually sold in large triangles. Camembert is a similar cheese with a stronger flavor, but we didn't try any. Napoleon III supposedly enjoyed eating camembert.

3) Goat cheese 羊奶乾酪 is salty and has a rather strong odor, so not many Chinese people like it, but your teacher is crazy about it! The Wikipedia article uses an incorrect Taiwan mispronunciation of the French name  chèvre, which means "goat" (in French, CH is pronounced like English SH): 契福瑞起司

4) Roquefort is a famous blue cheese made from ewe's milk. The blue bits are penicillium mold (a similar mold is used to make penicillin). Roquefort has a very strong flavor, so one good way to eat it is to first put sweet butter (not salty!) on a piece of bread, then spread a little bit of crumbly Roquefort on top. This cheese is very tasty, but you can only eat a little bit at a time! 羅克福乾酪

In the comments, please tell me about your favorite types of cheese. Have you tried any other kinds?  Do you enjoy cheese, or do you think it's disgusting?

All of the images below are either public domain (cream cheese) or Creative Commons images licensed from Wikimedia:

Cream cheese on a bagel

Roquefort

Brie

Goat cheese

Internet Grammar of English: original or Chinese version

The Internet Grammar of English (IGE) provides a good way to review basic grammar. If you have trouble reading the English original from University College London (UCL), the translated version from the Chinese University of Hong Kong is quite good.

"Make my day!"

.44 Magnum bullets are very big (from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.44_Magnum)

"Make my day!" is a famous sentence from Sudden Impact, a movie with Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood plays Harry Callahan (nickname "Dirty Harry"), a policeman who shoots a gang of bad guys in a small restaurant. One of the robbers grabs a waitress, holds his gun near her head, and dares Harry to shoot. Harry says "Go ahead, make my day!" He means "if you try to hurt this woman, I will be happy to shoot you!"

Harry's big gun, a .44 magnum made by the Smith & Wesson company, became very famous because of this movie. Many Americans think that the police are too nice with criminals, so they enjoy watching Dirty Harry kill bad guys (real policemen rarely do such things because they would lose their jobs and maybe go to jail). Click below to see a 3-minute video clip (with all the words).

Potluck Lunch

A potluck dinner is a meal where many people bring different dishes that they share. Some people bring hot food [1] or cold, some bring sweet dishes, some bring savory, some bring soup or pasta, some bring crackers/cookies [3] or drinks. Somebody needs to bring paper plates [4] or utensils.

Usually each person brings enough food for two or three people. That way, most people can find something that they like, and you can even go back for seconds. The word "luck" reminds us that nobody knows exactly what they will eat. The meal is full of happy surprises.

Potluck -- Annotated (Nehrams2020 CC BY-SA)

The Heart of a Con: Summary & Reactions

1) Please write a 50-word summary of "The Heart of a Con" (what happened, who did what). Remember to only write the most important things. Page 1 of the story is here:
http://cute-writing-grammar.blogspot.com/2012/03/the-heart-of-con-golden-age-comic.html
Please contact me if you want to read the whole story.

2) Also be ready to discuss (you don't need to write it) why people did what they did and your opinion of each person. Do you agree with Dr. Rogers? If Billy was your son, would you want Jack Kelsey to come work in your house? Why/why not?

Have you read stories like this in Chinese? Do you think this story is believable? Did you learn anything from it? Would this kind of story be OK for high school students, or do you think it's unhealthy? Please leave some comments below.

Here is a mind map showing the relationships between the characters in the story:

Mind map for characters in "The Heart of a Con"

The Heart of a Con (Golden Age Comic)

"The Heart of a Con" is a story from a Golden Age comic magazine. Originally published in 1952 (but now in the public domain), "The Heart of a Con" was scanned and made available by the wonderful folks at DCM. I have simplified the text and explained some difficult words in this comic to make it easier to understand. I am releasing my additions under a Creative Commons license (CC Robert Matthews, BY-NC-SA).

Here is page 1 of the PDF file:

"The Heart of a Con" page 1

You can read some reactions to this story here:

http://cute-writing-grammar.blogspot.com/2012/03/heart-of-con-summary-reactions.html

Mindmap Software: Xmind

There is lots of mindmapping software. Xmind has a free version that can be useful. You can use it to make collaborative mindmaps (you and your friends can look at it and change it together).

This version installs on your computer's hard disk.

This version can install on your USB drive, so you can bring it everywhere.

Wikisummarizer: a Free Text Summarizer

If you are reading a long article in English, you can use text summarizer software to save you time. For example, some articles in Wikipedia are very long, and there is no Chinese text to help you read it. Wikisummarizer gives you very attractive summaries of these articles.

(1) Go to Wikisummarizer and (2) paste in the first keyword. In this case, it's "Jonas."

If one word is not enough, choose the article you need (3) Jonas Salk

Next, click on Summarize (4) to produce a summary.

Add caption

In the visual summary, you can click on the "+" signs to see the mindmap expand in MMAP mindmap form (Use Xmind Free software to save it for later). In the tree view, you can save the text information in RTF form (use Microsoft Word to view it).

Rank Scale (grammar hierarchy)

Knowing English grammar will help you write well. One thing you need to notice is rank scale, or grammar hierarchy.

What is a hierarchy? Some people, such as the president of the US, are more important than other people, such as the governors of the 50 states. This is a government hierarchy:

English grammar has another kind of hierarchy. Sentences are more important than phrases (noun phrases and verb phrases), and phrases are more important than words. Finally, words are more important than morphemes (the bottom level: "teachers" is made of three morphemes: TEACH (a "Free" morpheme) + ER (A "Bound" morpheme) + -S).

Collocation Tool-1

Tango, a bilingual collocational concordancer, is a marvelous tool developed at the Natural Language Processing Lab at National Tsinghua University in Hsinchu. Type in either

1] a word in English or

2] a word in Chinese,

and the concordancer will help you locate collocations for that word, along with plenty of context. What's even better is that next to each paragraph you will see a translation in the other language. The translations were NOT produced by a computer. Both the English and the Chinese sentences were written by native speakers writing in their own languages. The sentences come from an 11-year archive of Sinorama. Sinorama was a high-quality bilingual magazine published in Taiwan (now it is called Taiwan Panorama).

Below you can see a search I did for the word rice. Rice is a noun, so I clicked the "Noun" button. Then I clicked on VN to see verb-noun collocations. The concordancer found collocations with 7 different verbs: eat, grow and cook are the most common collocations. If I click on 1. eat rice (9), I will see 8 more paragraphs (8+1 = 9) and the original Chinese versions.

http://candle.fl.nthu.edu.tw/collocation/webform2.aspx

Mini-Sagas

Our first in-class assignment was to write some mini-sagas (50 word stories). We looked at some interesting stories written 10 years ago by students in England. My favorite was #7, An Open Mind (the robot story). What was yours?

Please post your own stories in the comments.