Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for English for University

Oliver Goldsmith, son of an Anglo-Irish clergyman, spent his childhood at Lissoy. It is thought he drew on memories of this place when writing The Deserted Village. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he excelled in flute-playing, storytelling, drinking, and gambling. After graduating in 1750, he moved to Edinburgh to study medicine, though he did not obtain a degree. Subsequently, he studied in Leiden and, during 1755-56, travelled through France, Switzerland, and Italy, arriving in London destitute in 1756. He then began a literary career as a reviewer and hack-writer, producing biographies, compilations, and translations.

Over the next fifteen years, Goldsmith was exceptionally prolific, authoring numerous popular histories...

Understanding Textual Unity: Coherence and Cohesion

Coherence: Ensuring Internal Meaning

Coherence relates to the deep, semantic structure of a text—what the text means.

• When writing, every sentence maintains a logical link to the previous or earlier sentences, ensuring the continuity of thought.
• Coherence is the overall meaning attributed to the text.
• The key words of a text are the foundation of its semantic structure.
• Segments organized around these key words form the consistency of the message.
• Coherence is the internal meaning of a text.

Cohesion: Linguistic Links and Surface Structure

Cohesion refers to the surface-level linguistic elements that connect sentences and paragraphs.

• Cohesion is built from the balance created by the linguistic elements

Mastering Complex English Structures

Tag Questions: Examples and Usage

Tag questions are short questions added to the end of a statement. They are used to confirm information or encourage a reply. Note the reversal of polarity (positive statement uses a negative tag, and vice versa).

• Everything has a beginning, doesn't it?
• It doesn't really make you angry, does it?
• You don't think they're too close, do you?
• She didn't think to have it all sunshine, did she?
• I have got a lot, haven't I?
• It is rather soon, isn't it?
• You're not to blame, are you?
• I'm not too old for the moon-run, am I?
• You've seen my snuff-box, haven't you?
• You're not thinking she had anything to do with the murder, are you?
• It was a visitation, wasn't it?
• It sounds so respectable and sane,

Virginia Woolf: Modernist Pioneer

Adeline Virginia Woolf (25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.

Key Works and Feminist Texts

English author Virginia Woolf wrote modernist classics including Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, as well as pioneering feminist texts:

• A Room of One's Own
• Three Guineas

Analyzing Mrs. Dalloway (1925)

Plot Summary: A Single Day in London

The book describes events occurring during a single day in central London. The events are told through the mind of the central character, Clarissa Dalloway, a hostess preparing for a party for high-society friends which is going...

English Vocabulary

Understanding Complex Sentences

A complex sentence is composed of one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses connected to it. A dependent clause resembles an independent clause—or a complete sentence—but lacks one of the essential elements required to function as a complete thought.

Examples of Dependent Clauses

• Because Mary and Samantha arrived at the bus station before noon
• While he waited at the train station
• After they left on the bus

Dependent clauses like those above cannot stand alone as complete sentences. However, they can be attached to an independent clause to form a complex sentence.

Subordinating Conjunctions

Dependent clauses typically begin with subordinating conjunctions. Common examples include: after, although, as,

MY DESCRIPTION

I’m a boy of 16 years old, my name is Markel and I live in Bergara.

Now, in my house we live 4 people; my mother, my father, my grandfather and me. My mother is called Lourdes, my father is called Francisco Javier and my grandfather is called Jose and we are very happy living together.

At school I've got good marks but now things are getting complicated.

In my free time I practice Karate and there are two types of Karate one is Katas that is about making series of moves and the other type is Kumite where you try to compete against your opponent and you have to get points and the person that gets the most points is the winner and fights usually last two minutes. I am quite good at it and I have participated in various competitions...

Advanced English Grammar Guide

The Past Perfect Simple

The past perfect simple expresses an action taking place before a certain time in the past, putting emphasis only on the fact, not the duration.

Positive/Negative/Question

• I had spoken / I had not spoken / Had I spoken?

Example: Before I came here, I had spoken to Jack.

Usage with Time Expressions:

• Use after, as soon as, the moment that, until before using the past perfect simple.
  Example: After she had moved out, I found her notes. / I didn't say anything until she had finished talking.
• Use before, when, by the time before the past simple.
  Example: Before I knew it, she had run out the door. / By the time he phoned her, she had found someone new.

The Past Perfect Progressive

The past perfect progressive...

Shakespeare's Poetry

The most outstanding poetic works by William Shakespeare include The Sonnets, Venus and Adonis, and The Rape of Lucrece.

Understanding Sonnets

A sonnet is a 14-line poem that rhymes in a particular pattern. In Shakespeare's sonnets, the rhyme scheme is typically abab cdcd efef gg. The final couplet was often used to summarize the previous 12 lines or present a surprise ending.

The rhythmic pattern of the sonnets is iambic pentameter, a metrical line consisting of five metrical feet. Each foot contains one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable:

unstressed | stressed | unstressed | stressed | unstressed | stressed | unstressed | stressed | unstressed | stressed

Historical Context

In the summer of 1592, an outbreak...

Daisy Miller: Chapter 4 Analysis

Winterbourne's Denial and Daisy's Inscrutability

As Daisy’s friendship with Giovanelli intensifies, particularly after Mrs. Walker’s party, Winterbourne is in the unpleasant position of having to wonder about the exact nature of the relationship between Daisy and Giovanelli. Winterbourne has many theories, but he never confronts the possibility that he himself has feelings for Daisy. He always couches his interest in her relationship with Giovanelli in terms of concern for her reputation.

Nevertheless, there seems to be evidence to suggest that Daisy is more interested in Winterbourne than she is in Giovanelli. Besides her praise of Giovanelli’s voice and musicianship, she pays no attention to his performance...