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| Google Images |
Looking back at the photo
which opens the first part of this topic, I somehow feel that most of you decoded
the be-have-do
triad in terms of notions rather than
tools for constructing utterances; yet
their uses are by far more numerous as modal, and auxiliary verbs than notional verbs.
This is indeed tricky business, and – of course – we are taken back to our
attempt at getting verbal, at least
in order to make sure we’re on the right track.
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| Grammaring again! |
Let’s get notional now for just a little while, and look for answers to
such questions as:
What comes first to our
mind when we say I am? Do we really decode it as existence?
What do we first think
of when we take in I do? Is it action, or else some echo of a previous question?
How many times does I
have evoke by itself something which ‘doesn’t mean anything’?
What is needed in order
for us to understand them as tools?
While waiting for your
answers, I am about to become a bit philosophical: what seems to be more
important, being (that is to say, existing), having (that is,
possessing), or else doing (visually, taking a course of action)?
At the end of the day,
what does it take for one to enjoy the ‘simple thing’ of reading these lines?
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| Aaron and Candy Spelling's mansion |
A study in contrasts
[adapted from New
Success at First Certificate,
by Robert O’Neill, Michael Duckworth & Kathy Gude]
Aaron Spelling is said to have been the richest
and most successful television producer in Hollywood and, in a city famous for
its wealth, his wife, Candy, has been known as the biggest spender. A few years ago
they paid more than $10 million for the huge house Bing Crosby used to live in.
Then they had it torn down so that an even bigger, more wonderful mansion could
be built. Not only does it have a more luxurious swimming-pool but an indoor
ice-skating rink and a private zoo, as well. The final bill came to more than
$25 million.
They say that a few years ago – surely before
2006 (the year Aaron Spelling passed away) – on a typically warm Californian
Christmas Eve, Candy had a huge amount of real snow delivered to the Spelling
mansion and spread all over the green lawns so that their children could enjoy
'a white Christmas'.
Not so long ago Candy decided she needed a few
more clothes. She had a whole fashion show flown out to her from New York,
along with the designer and three models. Not only did she buy the entire
collection but - so the story goes at least - the bags and hats the models
travelled with, as well. A lot of people in Hollywood wonder what she is going
to buy next.
'What more can she possibly want?' others ask.
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| Google Images |
Martin and Rebecca Granger used to teach in a
tough secondary school in London. A few years ago, they moved to a small cottage
in Cornwall, in the extreme south-west of England. ‘We got tired of trying to
make kids learn things they had no interest in’ Martin says. Martin's mother
had died, leaving the cottage to them. 'It was in a terrible state when we
came. There were leaks in the roof. There wasn't even an indoor loo. * Rebecca
and I have rebuilt the place with our own hands.’
It is a pleasant, small place by the sea. In
their large garden they grow most of their own vegetables and keep a goat. They
also make all their own clothes. ‘Money is still a problem, but we've learned
to get by on very little,’ Rebecca says. She does some part-time teaching in a
school in the village nearby. Martin paints water-colours of the wild Atlantic
and the brilliant sunsets they see almost every day. He has sold a few
recently.
They both say that what they value most is their
freedom from the rat race and the pressures of life in a big city. Only one
thing really bothers them, and that is the invasion of tourists every summer.
‘We've been very happy here, but we might
emigrate to New Zealand, where we'd be even further away from it all,’ Rebecca
says.
* lavatory.
