30. A Grasp of Reality (III)

Salvador Dali, Memory

       I. Following the thread of the previous post, here is a possible variant of the enlarged summary:

“Ideas have always been the motor of progress along the centuries, yet they are far from coming in a flash of inspiration – they are more often than not the result of years of concentration. An inventor’s life is not an easy one: he needs, above all, to work hard and work long hours. Such was the case of Elias Howe, the first person to design a sewing-machine that really worked. Like many other inventors, Howe went on thinking about the problem he was trying to solve in his restless sleep. The dream he had associated the unsolved design of the sewing-machine with the holes he noticed in the tip of the spears that some fierce savages were carrying: so, in order to stop the thread from getting caught around the needle, he had to pierce the tip.

There are also other renowned creators whom the text mentions for having found inspiration in dreams in order to solve their problems: inventors such as Thomas Edison, composers like Igor Stravinsky – even writers like Charlotte Brontë. That is the reason why dreams are sometimes called 'secret messages to ourselves': they contain strange images which communicate ideas.”

[You will find the key to the exercises of the previous post after the page break] 

USE OF ENGLISH

[adapted from New Success at First Certificate,

by Robert O’Neill, Michael Duckworth & Kathy Gude]

This is a dream that a young man called Martin Ellward once had. It is told in his own words but some of these words are missing.

Salvador Dali, The Fourth Dimension

I dreamt that I was standing in…….(1) of a small aeroplane. I was trying to persuade my girlfriend to.......(2) in it with me. At first she didn't.......  (3) to but finally she agreed. I started the.......(4) and we took off. I wanted to impress her so I started.......(5) some dives and rolls. I could.......(6) that she wasn't really enjoying it so I.......(7). Then I suddenly noticed that the weather.......(8) turned bad and that we were flying.......(9) some mountains. They.......(10) very dangerous, with tall, jagged peaks.......(11) fell away steeply. It was just then that I heard a strange.......(12) from the engine. It was coughing and spluttering as if we were about to.......(13) out of fuel.

'What's happening?' my girlfriend.......(14) me. I.......(15) her everything was all right and that there.......(16) nothing to worry about. But suddenly the engine stopped and we began to.......(17) height. The mountains were getting closer and closer and I knew we were going to.......(18) into them. My girlfriend turned to me with a terrified.......(19) on her face. 'This is all your.......(20)!' she shouted.

Here are fifteen of the missing words. Where do they belong? Can you guess the rest?

asked- crash- doing- engine - front- get- look- looked/were -noise- stopped- told- towards- was- want- which/that

Google Images

II.        Small words with big meanings

A.

1.      Einstein got a lot of ideas while he was asleep, too.

2.    Carl Gustav Jung was very interested in dreams, too.

3.    Nobody else here knows how to interpret dreams, either.

4.    My wife hasn’t been sleeping very well lately either.

B.

1. So did the ancient Chinese.

2. So were the Ancient Greeks.

3. Neither do snakes.

4. Neither did Jung.

5. So do cats and dogs.

6. Neither has my dog.

7. So will alcohol.

8. Neither is drinking a lot of alcohol.

C. Revision transformations

1. Not many people in England speak Chinese.

2. Do you mind posting this letter for me, please?

3. I thought the film on television was boring.  

4. Please stop asking so many questions.  

5. Who did you phone yesterday?

6. She has no intention of leaving.   

7. Maria Elena knows very few words in English.

8. These goods are duty free.            

9. Chris speaks Spanish fluently.

10. She isn't interested in music.