CHAPTER 3

3.1. USES AND MEANINGS OF

SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE AND CONTINUOUS PRESENT TENSE
SIMPLE PRESENT
PRESENT CONTINUOUS
1. with general truths
1.
- of a scientific nature
- of a proverbial nature
Gold is a precious metal.
No corresponding value
0
Water boils at 100 C.
It is the early bird that catches the worm.
The coat does not make the gentleman.
2. with permanent characteristics of the 2. with temporary states of mind and to
subject:
express modality (surprise, admiration,
He is a kind-hearted man.
annoyance):
Oh, you are being so kind!
Are you being so thirsty?
3. with be and have as the most common 3. a) with be to express modality in
state verbs:
expressions like: being a fool, being a
nuisance, being awkward:
He is dead tired. I think he is already asleep.
You are really being a fool!
I have a splitting headache.
Hes being so awkward!
Do you have any pills for that?
b) with have as an action verb in expressions
like: having dinner, having fun, having a
baby:
Hes having a bath, so you have to call
again.
Were at Hughs; were having such fun!
4. with habitual actions, permanent
situations, and regular happenings:
He reads English novels in the original.
I get up very early.
You live in London, dont you?
( permanent residence)
I see him quite often
twice a week

5.
No corresponding value

55

4. a) with actions that are going on at the

moment of speaking:
He is reading an English novel.
b) with temporary actions or situations:
I am getting up later these days, because I
am on holidays.
My brother is living at the hostle for the
moment/this term. (temporary residence)
I am seeing a lot of him this week.
c) in a more general way, about something
that may be going on at any time:
I dont like to be disturbed [when/if] Im
working.
5. for developing or changing situations:
The weather is getting colder and colder.
Its getting warmer and warmer.
Things are changing for the better.

6. for repeated actions with adverbs of

frequency and indefinite time: always, ever,
never, often, rarely, seldom, usually,
sometimes.
She often borrows money, because she has
a low pay.
He always teases me whenever it comes
about that (a mere statement).

6. with adverbs of frequency and indefinite

time always, ever, never, often, seldom,
rarely to express irritation, annoyance,
reproach, disapproval, admiration.
She is always borrowing money and
forgetting to give it back.
He is always/continually teasing me
when it comes about that (that gets on my
nerves)

7. with verbs of mental activity: think, 7. think = reflect, meditate.

imagine, know, mean, suppose, suspect,
What are you thinking of?
understand, believe, expect, doubt, consider,
She is imagining things.
agree, forget, guess, note, realize, remember,
She is expecting a baby.
wonder, feel (think) esp. when they are
The police are expecting trouble.
followed by a that clause or wh-clause:
Do you really think that he can make a
good job of that?
I imagine they live high due to that big
fortune.
8. with verbs of perception:
a) see, hear
Do you see the man over there?
Do you hear that song?

8. a) see = to accompany smb to, to wave

smb good-bye; date, visit:
Were seeing Nick to the airport in the
afternoon.
We are seeing each other a lot this week.
Are you seeing things?
b) hear = to give an audition to:
Mr. Jackson is hearing one of the
members of the new orchestra.
b) with the verbs of perception feel, taste, c) with the verbs feel, taste and smell when
smell and sound to make up passivals, as they they denote voluntary actions:
show permanent characteristics of the subject:
What on earth are you doing there?
This silk feels soft; I think it wears well.
Im feeling this cloth; I dont like it
This juice tastes sour; I cant drink it.
because it feels too rough.
These roses smell wonderful.
Im tasting the soup; I think it needs some
Your offer sounds tempting to me.
more salt.
(passivals are specific English constructions
made up of one of the four verbs above +
adjective)
9. verbs of emotions, of likes and dislikes: 9. a) hope = with a more polite and tentative
like, dislike, love, hate, hope, forgive, meaning:
refuse, care, prefer, want, bear, stand:
I am hoping that you will be in charge.
b)
love = to be crazy about
I hope to see him there.
Set me listen to this tune; I am loving it.

56

10. in sports commentaries, for quicker 10. in sports commentaries, for longer
actions:
actions:
John passes to Paul, and Paul shoots and
Oxford are drawing a head of Cambridge
its a goal!
now; theyre rowing marvellously. The latter
are looking a little disorganized...
11. with the expressions Here comes..., and 11.
There goes..., called instantaneous present:
Look, here comes Nick!
There goes our bus; well have to wait for
the next.
12. in newspaper headlines, preferred to Past 12.
Tense, due to its brevity, as a way of
announcing recent events; this use has
something of the dramatic quality of the
instantaneous present:
Bank manager dies
.
13. with present events which happen at the 13.
moment of speaking when we beg, offer, or
accept smth; it is called event present:
We accept your offer on some terms.
We regret that we cannot do it for you.
I pronounce you man and wife.
I beg your pardon.
I beg you to think it over.
14. in practical usage, in expressions like:
Its a long time since
Its a long time since we heard from Sean.
Its five years since they moved away.
the negative is NOT used after these
expressions.
Typical mistake:
Its a long time since I didnt call them
on.

57

No corresponding value

No corresponding value

No corresponding value

14.

No corresponding value

3.2. SPECIAL USES OF

SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE AND CONTINUOUS PRESENT TENSE
SIMPLE PRESENT

PRESENT CONTINUOUS
used for FUTURE

1) in if clauses
- time clauses
- discussions about
- programmes
- timetables
Well be glad if he arrives tomorrow.
Are you going to take him on when he leaves
school?
The plane takes off at 515
* typical mistake (with intention):
* I see John tomorrow.

1) when talking about future actions which are

already decided, or which we are deciding as
we talk:
a) in making plans:
Were going to London next month (It is
already decided)
Were doing up the house in May (we
have already made the plan).
b)
future arrangements:
We are dining with the Smiths on Friday.
(the invitation has been given and accepted).
Were spending next weekend at the
seaside (it has been arranged).
The Browns are coming to dinner.
(* Not The Browns will come to dinner.)
c)
intentions
Im seeing John tomorrow
d) a decision made a few moments before:
I think Im going to bed.
(* The right tense is future for a decision
made at the moment of speaking: I think Ill
go to bed.)
2) with verbs of movement(come, go, leave,
2) with verbs of movement: the speakers
start): a square action, i.e. the action is sure to intention, i.e. he may change his mind, or the
take place.
action may not take place:
We leave early tomorrow. (we are sure to
We are leaving early tomorrow.(but we
leave no matter the circumstances).
may not).
3) after I bet and I hope:
3)
I bet you dont get up before sunrise
tomorrow.
No corresponding value
I hope they have a nice time in Paris next
week.
used for PRESENT PERFECT
in expressions I hear
after I hear
I understand
I understand
Im told
Im told
I hear youre looking for a job.
to express intentions:
I understand they move out next month.
I hear he is going to China.

58

used for PAST TENSE

- in narratives (story telling)
- for background situations in present
So he comes into the pub and orders a beer; tense narratives.
he catches sight of me and comes to my
So Im sitting at my desk, working on the
table
design, when this guy comes in and starts
shouting at me as he is walking up and down
the room.

3.3. INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES

Exercise 1. Explain the differences between Simple Present and Present Continuous
using them in minimal contexts.
Exercise 2. Comment on the special uses of Simple Present and Present Continuous
giving examples of your own.
Exercise 3. Comment on the types of modality expressed by Simple Present and Present
Continuous.
Exercise 4. Refer to the relationships between modality, tense and aspect.
Exercise 5. Give eight examples alternating habitual and temporary actions.
Exercise 6. Use verbs of perception, of mental activity and of likes and dislikes in
sentences of your own.
Exercise 7. Explain the uses and meanings of tenses and modals in the following
excerpts:
We talked and talked to fill in those tiny, enormous romantic lacunae between us. ()
Should you marry him? the question comes in English.
Yes.
Should you marry him? the question echoes in Polish.
No.
But I love him; Im in love with him.
Really? Really? Do you love him the way you understand love? As you loved Marek?
Forget Marek. He is another person. ()
Youre imagining him. Youre imagining your emotions. Youre dorcing it. ()
When you get married you have to assert to someone with your whole self. A romantic
illusion. If you dont satisfy me, youll always be dissatisfied. Go away. Youre
becoming a succubus.
Should you become a pianist? the question comes in English.
No, you mustnt. You cant.
Should you become a pianist? the question echoes in Polish.

59

Yes, you must. At all costs. ()

Dont be so dramatic. I can play for myself. For pleasure.
Dont kid yourself. You want to play for others. You want to hear the applause.
(Eva Hoffman, Lost in Translation)
Exercise 8. Use Simple Present and Present Continuous in the following sentences:
1. He (to be) my best friend and (to help) me a lot when I (to be) in need.
2. I (to have) a terrible stomach ache and I cannot eat anything. In fact, I rarely (to
eat) anything after 7 oclock in the evening, that is why I (not to get) fat.
3. He (to be) already in the bathroom and (to have) a shower; the others (to prepare)
everything for the party.
4. You (to be) so stupid to answer him back!
5. Will you call up later, please? Mum (to cook) the dinner, dad (to repair) my bike,
and I (to help) my little brother to get dressed. He always (to get) dressed very
slowly and this (to get) on my nerves.
6. You cant talk to them now; they (to have) breakfast.
7. He rarely (to lend) any money because he (not to have) a big salary.
8. My younger brother (to read) till late at night, but now he is very tired and (to
watch) television, though he (not to like) it.
9. It (to seem) to me that things (to change) for the better.
10. Im sure he (to deserve) this reward because he (to be) a diligent boy.
Exercise 9. Translate into English using Present Simple or Present Continuous:
1. Se pare c tatl tu are dreptate. Sunt de acord cu el c Jenny e o fat deteapt i
munceste din greu. De aceea cred c merit aceast rsplat.
2. De obicei merg cu autobuzul, cnd este frig si plou tare.
3. Semestrul acesta stau la cmin, deoarece nu am bani ca s nchiriez o camer.
4. Este att de plicticos! De fapt, e unul din acei oameni care dau vina pe alii, dei
ei sunt cei vinovati. i nici nu e prea iste.
5. Sun telefonul i n-am timp s vorbesc acum. Dac este Jeremy, spune-i c sunt n
baie i spl.
6. Doar tii c cine se aseamn se adun, nu?
7. M tem c m crede un prost. Recunosc c ntr-un fel are dreptate, dar spune-i c
l implor s neleag bunele noastre intenii.
8. Nu putem trece pe la voi acum. Tata scrie un reportaj, mama face curat n toat
casa, Andreea rezolv probleme la matematic, iar eu mi recapitulez ultimele
lecii pentru examenul de mine.
9. Tare mai eti nendemnatic! Mai mult, ntotdeauna te gndeti la altceva cnd
vorbesc cu tine.
10. mi place mtasea asta pentru c este moale la pipit.

60

Exercise 10. Point out the uses and meanings of the Present Tense in the following
excerpts:
1. Elisabeth talks without fully opening her mouth and swallows the endings of words
so that I can understand her even less than most people.
(Eva Hoffman, Lost in Translation)
2. I like the way Penny speaks: with an easy flow and a pleasure in giving words a
fleshy fullness.
(id., ibid.)
3. Once a week, I am woken up early in the morning by sounds of peasant calls coming
into the window from the street below: Fresh vegetables, fresh cream, butter, eggs,
young chickens They shout out in strong, hoarse voices elongating the vowels in a
sing song tilt.
(id., ibid.)
4. Finding some interruption in which to insert any uncertain voice, I launch into a
translation of some off-colour anecdote Id heard my father tell in Polish But as I hear
my choked-up voice straining to assert itself, as I hear myself missing every beat and
rhythm that would say funny and punch line, I feel a hot flush of embarrassment. ()
Ah, the humiliation, the misery of failing to amuse! () Telling a joke is like doing a
linguistic pirouette.
(id., ibid.)
5. From this, I can infer several things: apparently, in this teachers book, being a patriot
and being religious are good things, and apparently, he wants to convey this to us.
(Galperin, Stylistics)
6. Reasons, reasons Youre passionate about it you have a duty to yourself. Oh,
God, I dont know, I dont know what you should do any more. What do you want? What
do you want? I want I want not to have to change so much.
(id., ibid.)
7. Six oclock. The shuffling of white robed figures from the station yards. The shops
filling and emptying like lungs in the Rue des Soeurs. The pale lengthening rays of the
afternoon soon smear the long curves of the Esplanade, and the dazzled pigeons, like
rings of scattered paper, climb above the minarets to take the last rays of the waning light
on their wings.
(L. Durrell, Justine)
Exercise 11. Give the modal values of the Present Tense in the following idioms:
1. Everything is moon, light and flowers again?
2. Im climbing the walls here!
3. That woman is a loose canine!
4. Now shell come out smelling like a rose!
5. You are barking at the wrong tree!
6. Youre saying that things are a little chilly?
7. You are looking at a woman with frostbite!
8. He is always there through thick and thin.
9. Where bads best, naught is the choice.
10. He that goes barefoot must not plant thorns.
11. An ass is tied where the master will have him.
61

12. He does not pull the thorn out of his foot to put it into his own.
13. You are more royalist than the king!
14. He needs a long spoon to come to an end with it.
15. What Manchester says today, London will say/the world will think tomorrow.
Exercise 12. Give the uses and meanings of the Present Tense and of the modals in the
following excerpt:
Selfish and vulgar thats what I must seem to you. Youve done everything for
me, and here I am as if I were asking for more. But it isnt because Im afraid (), it isnt
because that one is selfish, for Im ready to give you my word tonight that I dont care;
dont care what still may happen and what I may lose. I dont ask you to raise your little
finger for me again, nor do I wish so much as to mention to you what weve talked of
before, either of my danger or my safety, or his mother, or the girl he may marry, or the
fortune he may make or miss, or the right or the wrong he may do. If after the help one
had from you one cant either take care of ones self or simply hold ones tongue, one
must renounce at all claims to be an object of interest. Its in the name of what I do care
about that Ive tried still to keep hold of you. How can I be indifferent to how I appear to
you? Why, if youre going, need you, after all? Is it impossible you should stay on so
that one maynt lose you? ()
What I hate is myself when I think that one has to take so much, to be happy, out of
the lives of others, and that one isnt happy even then. One does it to cheat ones self
What it comes to is that its not any happiness at all to take. The only safe thing is to give.
Its what plays you least false. ()
And not trouble you any more, no doubt. () All the more that I dont really pretend I
believe you couldnt, for yourself, not have done what you have. I dont pretend you feel
yourself victimized, for this evidently is the way you live. () Yes, as you say, I ought to
be easy and rest on my work. Well then there I am doing so. I am easy. Youll have it for
your last impression. When is it you say you go? she asked with a quick change.
(adapted from H. James, The Ambassadors)
Exercise 13. Translate into English comparing the uses and meanings of Present Tense
in English with the Romanian prezentul:
Rmn din nou ndelung pe gnduri. Toat vremea aceasta de vreo civa ani
ncoace e a vieii mele i trebuie s precizez c orice dat, chiar strin, trece prin
existena mea ca un amestec de vis i realitate Triesc o via n care nimic din ceea ce
se ntampl nu mai e cu semnificaie simpl. Totul trebuie s corespund, ca n vis, la alt
situaie, faptele capt nelesuri noi, unele printr-altele. Cuvintele nu mai sunt semne
pentru ce e dincolo de ele. () Dar de civa ani, printr-o acumulare de ntmplri
deosebite, care ele nsele or fi avnd vreun tlc, semnele nu mai corespund coninului lor
stabilit, faptele au alte cauze de cum le stiu eu, dac o femeie, care e zodia mea, rde, nu
mai nseamn c e vesel; cnd un domn e grav, corect i important, nu nseamn c nu
depinde n toat soarta lui de un cuvnt al meu, cnd fug de un surs, poate nsemna c l
doresc Iar acum cnd eu nu mai sunt cum am fost, ochii mei prin care vd lumea, sunt,
mai mult ca oricnd, cum n-au fost niciodat, numai ai mei i napoia lor sunt eu, numai
eu
(adapted from Camil Petrescu, Patul lui Procust)
62

Exercise 14. Translate into Romanian and comment on the uses and meanings of Simple
and Progressive Present:
Vardaman comes back and picks up the fish. It slides out of his hands, smearing
wet dirt onto him, and flops down, dirtying itself once again, gapmouthed, goggle-eyed,
hiding into the dust like it was ashamed of being dead, like it was in a hurry to get back
hid again. Vardaman cusses it. He cusses it like a grown man, standing a-straddle of it.
Anse dont look down. Vardaman picks it up again. He goes on around the house, totting
it in both arms like an armful of wood, it overlapping him on both ends, head and tail.
Durn nigh big as he is.
Anses wrists dangle out of his sleeves: I never see him with a shirt on that looked
like it was his in all my life. They all looked like Jewel might have give him his old ones.
Not Jewel, though. Hes long-armed, even if he is spindling. Except for the lack of sweat.
You could tell they aint been nobody elses but Anses that way without no mistake. His
eyes looked like pieces of burnt-out cinder fixed on his face, looking out over the land.
When the shadow touches up the steps he says Its five o-clock.
Just as I get up Cora comes to the door and says its time to get on. Anse reaches
for his shoes. Now, Mr. Burden, Cora says, dont you get up now. He puts his shoes
on, stomping into them, like he does everything, like he is hopping all the time he really
cant do it and can quit trying to. When we go up the hall we can hear them clumping on
the floor like they was iron shoes. He comes toward the door where she is, blinking his
eyes, kind of looking ahead of hisself before he sees, like he is hoping to find her setting
up, in a chair maybe or maybe sweeping, and looks into the door in that surprised way
like he looks in and finds her still in bed every time and Dewey Dell still a-fanning her
with the fan. He stands there, like he dont aim to move again nor nothing else.
Well, I reckon we better get on, Cora says. I got to feed the chickens. Its
fixing to rain, too. Clouds like that dont lie, and the cotton making every day the Lord
sends. Thatll be something else for him. Cash is still trimming at the boards. If theres
ere a thing we can do, Cora says.
Ansell let you know, I say.
Anse dont look at us. He looks around, blinking, in that surprised way, like he had
worn hisself down being surprised and was even surprised at that. If Cash just works that
careful on my barn.
I told Anse it likely wont be no need, I say. I so hope it.
Her mind is set on it, he says. I reckon shes bound to go.
(W. Faulkner, As I Lay Dying)
Exercises 15. Translate into Romanian and explain the uses of the Present Tense:
It is not easy to pinpoint what makes Anthony Hopkins the most watchable actor
on the screen today. But he is. Ironically, although he has been nominated for a Best
Actor Oscar for his repressed and uncomprehending butler, Stevens, in The Remains of
the Day, the performance he offers as C.S. Lewis in Shadowlands a man ultimately
released from repression and then wholly comprehending is, like the character, more
profound and more moving, much more moving. It makes the movie.
We see him first at dinner with his fellow dons at Magdalen College, Oxford,
where he taught medieval English. Despite the camaraderie, one senses that Lewis is a
63

man apart. He has published works other than academic treatises, even science fiction
and childrens books. With his brother Warnie, who acts as a sort of secretary and enjoys
the free college food and, even more, the wine, he returns to his austere house by a lake.
The brothers clutch hot-water bottles as they ascend the little wooden hill to their lone
rooms. One searches in vain for the teddy bears.
But they are there metaphorically. The image of the writer, William Nicholson,
and the director, Richard Attenborough, manage to establish is of two chaps who havent
really made the emotional escape from childhood. The Lewis boys Clive Staples, or
Jack as he preferred to be known, was 54 and Warnie even older seemed to have
made the transition from sucking dummies to sucking pipes without the intervention of
any other oral gratification.
For Jack, emotions belong in books. Nevertheless, the author of The Allegory Of
Love and the man who has been converted from his atheism by the love of Christ is able
to out-argue his students on romantic idealism and hold adoring audiences spellbound by
his mythological Christianity in his lay lectures. The film is set in 1952 and, although it is
more than half a century since Oxford colleges required their dons to be celibate, things
at Magdalen are marooned in the past, and intellectual male company at High Table
seems the highest excitement to which one can aspire.
That is, until Lewis agrees to meet an American fan, Joy Gresham. The
whisperingly correct atmosphere of the lounge of the Randolph Hotel is shattered by the
American shout of Anyone here named Lewis? And so, subsequently is the heart of the
man himself.
The Nicholson version of what happened next is familiar enough by now: it has
been told on television, in the West End, on Broadway, and in interviews and profiles
over the past decade. Once Surprised By Joy (the title of Lewis autobiography), Jack
starts to surprise himself. Increasing gestures of friendship her and her small son
culminate in his asking them to stay at his house for Christmas and, later, marrying her in
a civil ceremony so that she can remain in the country.
She, of course, has fallen in love with him. This love expresses itself in anger at
his refusal to unlock his own emotions. Only when he discovers that she has terminal
bone cancer is that particular attic door in his heart flung wide open. They go through a
religious marriage service on what could be her deathbed. Im a foolish, frightened old
man who loves you more than he hardly knows how, he confesses, crucifying himself
with the knowledge that by opening himself up to joy he is exposing himself to pain. That
is always the risk with any consuming love. Here it is more than a risk; it is a certainty.
He is going to lose her.
And here, too, the performance of Anthony Hopkins reaches suitably seraphic
heights. His Jack Lewis up until then has been cosy, academic, friendly, but dry, his
humourlessness hidden by that guarded little smile that Hopkins can conjure up even
when imparting the most upsetting information. But from the moment he meets Joy his
eyes unsettled, darting, searching have hinted at the inward spiritual journey he has
embarked upon. When finally his emotions break out it is nigh on impossible not to weep
with him, especially when this previously reserved don puts his arms around Joys son.
The magic of Hopkins consists of his knowing how little he has to do to achieve
so much. All the passion is there in the actor himself, but from his Welsh background he
has been able to observe how the English regard a show of emotion as a sign of
weakness.

64

Great performances do not exist in isolation, and Debra Winger as Joy Gresham
a forthright Jewish American poet hits out with all the brashness of the woman but
comes to terms with the endearment of her character when she is crippled by cancer. An
unexpected delight is Edward Hardwicke as Warnie, who fits in his 1952 setting as if he
were a permanent inhabitant of a 1950s time warp. Attenborough recreates that age of
austerity in every sense with considerable care and, by letting the emotion flow,
makes his most affecting film to date.
I have deliberately referred to Nicholsons version of events since he has been
economical with the facts where they harmed the harmony of his love story Joy had
another son; Jack had a previous lover but one senses a transcending truth. In one
respect I can verify this. I went to the same school as C.S. Lewis Campbell College,
Belfast an institution where emotions, like girls and Catholics, were not allowed.
(J. Johnstone, Pure Joy To Behold, in The Sunday Times)
Exercise 16. Comment on the uses of the Present Tense:
Lets talk about ballpark figures: A billion babes and dudes under the sun have
what it takes to chew the fat in English.
Or, to discuss the matter in approximate terms: A billion women and men in the
world are able to speak English.
A great many talk among themselves; they chin-wag one-to-one. Do they communicate
effectively or just shoot off their mouths? Do they speak grammatically or make a hash of
it? Large numbers receive information electronically. Zillions are up to their necks in
dope from the infonet. But do they understand? Do they, like, get it? ()
English is probably the most-analysed language in history, but the export version
doesnt submit to convenient analysis. Native linguists spend their time defending the
Queens English against defilement, or decrying the cultural imperialism of AngloAmerican values. Meanwhile, English is dropping its cultural baggage as foreigners slap
together norms of their own. ()
The more people struggle with English, the more English there is to struggle with.
Prague has two English weeklies and an English literary magazine. Educators in the U.S.
beam courses to Thailand. Star TVs footprint stretches from Israel to Korea. Europeans
can now watch six channels of news in English, all day long.
But ask if the meaning comes across on the receiving end, and the communicators
answer: We cant tell.
Satellite broadcasts are too diffuse for gauging comprehension. So the solution is
strictly seat-of-the-pants.
We try to keep it simple, says Peter Vesey, CNNs international vice-president.
We tell the story in a way that viewers who do not have a sophisticated knowledge of the
language can at least benefit from.
But talking clearly to foreigners is no piece of cake. A British study records talk
between immigrants and job interviewers. One man sits mute when an interviewer urges:
Fire away. An interviewer trying to learn whether a man has a wife asks for his
domestic circumstances. Another interviewer exclaims, Really? when a man says he
can fix cars; the man thinks he is being accused of lying.
The English of gatekeepers, the study says, is one of the least visible, least
measurable and least understood aspects of discrimination. But from the mouths of airspeakers, it can kill.
65

Just before two big jets collided in Tenerife 18 years ago, the tower radioed:
Clipper 1736 report clear of runaway. The pilot thought he was cleared for take off; he
wasnt, and 600 people died.
Edward Johnson has tried to count the number of people killed by airborne
ambiguities. I stopped at 3,000, he says. But Prof. Johnson is one native who strives for
absolute clarity: He creates operational languages at Cambridge University. The
professors version of sea-speak won a United Nations blessing in 1987. Now he has
come up with a police-speak, to help flicks at one end of the Channel Tunnel decode what
bobbies say at the other end.
(B. Newman, How The World Remakes English)
Exercise 17. Translate into English:
- Scriu despre suferinele altora.
- Nu se poate.
- Sigur c nu se poate, oft el. Din pcate, nu se poate, i asta ma leag att de
mult de tot ceea ce fac. Scriu ntotdeauna ca un posedat, sunt nspimntat de participarea
mea la tot ceea ce scriu, totul e ca o durere, e aproape perversitate ceea ce se ntmpl.
- Vezi?
- Da, dar asta e altceva. Nu trebuie s amestecam procesul creaiei cu viata. Eu nu
vreau s sufr, eu vreau s fiu fericit.
- Am mai auzit prostia asta, dar nu m ateptam s o aud de la dumneata.
- Ai s-o auzi de cate ori o s m vezi. Eu sunt mult mai profund n suferin dect
n bucurie.
- Eu nu. Eu m apr, aa e omenete, s te aperi de ceea ce i face ru.
- Dar poi s faci ru altcuiva aprndu-te. La asta de ce nu te gndeti?
- Nu-mi pas. E dreptul meu. Nu m-am nscut s fiu controlat i supus suferinei
E dreptul meu s m apr singur. Cine s m apere dac nu eu?
- Asta e laitate. S fugi de suferin e o laitate.
- Inuman e s te lai prad suferinei. Eu vreau s fiu linitit, am nevoie de un
climat de linite n care s pot lucra. M zbat de dimineaa pn seara, ca s sufr apoi din
voluptate? Nu, asta nu!
- i cum participi emoional la un film sau la o carte? Nu te impresioneaz? Nu
suferi?
- Nu. Cnd simt c nu-mi place i c poate s-mi fac ru, fug. E dreptul meu.
- A nceput s citeasc o carte cu canceroi i a lsat-o dup primele cincizeci de
pagini, zise Lulu. I se prea c se contamineaz prin lectur.
- Nu fi obraznic!
- Nu e obraznic. Spune un adevr.
- tii, dumneata nu nelegi ce se ntmpl aici. Ei sunt doi frai care se iubesc
anormal. Sunt ca nite animale care nu cunosc dect o lege, aceea de a rmne mpreun
i de a mnca tot ce este n jurul lor, tot ce ntlnesc n cale.
- Foarte bine. E ceva frumos. Nu m-a impresionat de mult o istorie ca asta.
(C. Cristea, Scadena)

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Exercise 18. Translate into English, using Simple or Progressive Present:

Totul este computerizat, inclusiv oamenii; la unele companii, funcionarii cnd
merg la baie, de pild trebuie s ating un buton i astfel eful tie ct a lipsit; sunt
monitorizate deci i cele nemonitorizabile
Proces: doi tineri dau n judecat o btrn pentru c le-a vndut un cel care s-a
dovedit apoi a fi hermafrodit; ntre timp cinele crete mare, este operat, ei vin la tribunal
cu el/ea, btrna aduce o vecin ca martor, au loc dezbateri, sala este plin: judectorul
un brbat n vrst, cu prul alb, cu faa de nelept i ochi vioi se retrage, iar noi
ateptm verdictul; ctig btrna, ziaritii iau interviuri, iar eu m hotrsc s trec
strada i s beau o bere rece (cldura neobinuita pe malul lacului) cu un cine fierbinte
(numele unui fel de crenwurst)
La televizor este intervievat un tnr negru, absolvent de liceu; i se cere s
citeasc ce scrie pe diploma pe care tocmai a primit-o i nu tie.
(t. Avdanei, Acolada atlantic)

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