CHAPTER 3
3.1. USES AND MEANINGS OF
SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE AND CONTINUOUS PRESENT TENSE
SIMPLE PRESENT
1. with general truths
- of a scientific nature
- of a proverbial nature
Gold is a precious metal.
Water boils at 1000C.
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:
He is a kind-hearted man.
3. with be and have as the most common 3. a) with be to express modality in
state verbs:
He is dead tired. I think he is already asleep.
I have a splitting headache.
Do you have any pills for that?
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, don’t you?
( permanent residence)
I see him quite often
twice a week
5.
No corresponding value
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PRESENT CONTINUOUS
1.
No corresponding value
express modality (surprise, admiration,
annoyance):
Oh, you are being so kind!
Are you being so thirsty?
expressions like: being a fool, being a
nuisance, being awkward:
You are really being a fool!
He’s being so awkward!
b) with have as an action verb in expressions
like: having dinner, having fun, having a
baby:
He’s having a bath, so you have to call
again.
We’re at Hugh’s; we’re having such fun!
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 don’t like to be disturbed [when/if] I’m
working.
5. for developing or changing situations:
The weather is getting colder and colder.
It’s 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: 8. a) see = to accompany smb to, to wave

a) see, hear smb good-bye; date, visit:
Do you see the man over there? We’re seeing Nick to the airport in the
Do you hear that song? 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. I’m feeling this cloth; I don’t like it
This juice tastes sour; I can’t drink it. because it feels too rough.
These roses smell wonderful. I’m 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.

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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
it’s a goal! now; they’re 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; we’ll have to wait for No corresponding value
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 No corresponding value
‘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. No corresponding value
I pronounce you man and wife.
I beg your pardon.
I beg you to think it over.

14. in practical usage, in expressions like: 14.

It’s a long time since
It’s a long time since we heard from Sean.
It’s five years since they moved away.

the negative is NOT used after these No corresponding value

expressions.
Typical mistake:
 It’s a long time since I didn’t call them
on.

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 3.2. SPECIAL USES OF
SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE AND CONTINUOUS PRESENT TENSE

SIMPLE PRESENT PRESENT CONTINUOUS

used for FUTURE

1) in – if clauses 1) when talking about future actions which are

- time clauses already decided, or which we are deciding as
- discussions about we talk:
- programmes a) in making plans:
- timetables We’re going to London next month (It is
We’ll be glad if he arrives tomorrow. already decided)
Are you going to take him on when he leaves We’re doing up the house in May (we
school? have already made the plan).
The plane takes off at 515 b) future arrangements:
* typical mistake (with intention): We are dining with the Smiths on Friday.
* I see John tomorrow. (the invitation has been given and accepted).
We’re 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
I’m seeing John tomorrow
d) a decision made a few moments before:
I think I’m going to bed.
(* The right tense is future for a decision
made at the moment of speaking: I think I’ll
go to bed.)
2) with verbs of movement(come, go, leave, 2) with verbs of movement: the speaker’s
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 don’t 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
I’m told I’m told
I hear you’re looking for a job. to express intentions:
I understand they move out next month. I hear he is going to China.

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 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 I’m 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; I’m 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. (…)
You’re imagining him. You’re imagining your emotions. You’re dorcing it. (…)
When you get married you have to assert to someone with your whole self. A romantic
illusion. If you don’t satisfy me, you’ll always be dissatisfied. Go away. You’re
becoming a succubus.
Should you become a pianist? the question comes in English.
No, you mustn’t. You can’t.
Should you become a pianist? the question echoes in Polish.

59
Yes, you must. At all costs. (…)
Don’t be so dramatic. I can play for myself. For pleasure.
Don’t 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 o’clock 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 can’t 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. I’m 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 că tatăl tău are dreptate. Sunt de acord cu el că Jenny e o fată deşteaptă şi
munceste din greu. De aceea cred că merită această răsplată.
2. De obicei merg cu autobuzul, când este frig si plouă tare.
3. Semestrul acesta stau la cămin, deoarece nu am bani ca să închiriez o cameră.
4. Este atât de plicticos! De fapt, e unul din acei oameni care dau vina pe alţii, deşi
ei sunt cei vinovati. Şi nici nu e prea isteţ.
5. Sună telefonul şi n-am timp să vorbesc acum. Dacă este Jeremy, spune-i că sunt în
baie şi spăl.
6. Doar ştii că cine se aseamănă se adună, nu?
7. Mă tem că mă crede un prost. Recunosc că într-un fel are dreptate, dar spune-i că
îl implor să înţeleagă bunele noastre intenţii.
8. Nu putem trece pe la voi acum. Tata scrie un reportaj, mama face curat în toată
casa, Andreea rezolvă probleme la matematică, iar eu îmi recapitulez ultimele
lecţii pentru examenul de mâine.
9. Tare mai eşti neîndemânatic! Mai mult, întotdeauna te gândeşti la altceva când
vorbesc cu tine.
10. Îmi place mătasea asta pentru că este moale la pipăit.

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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 I’d 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 teacher’s book, being a patriot
and being religious are good things, and apparently, he wants to convey this to us.”
(Galperin, Stylistics)
6. “Reasons, reasons… You’re passionate about it… you have a duty to yourself. Oh,
God, I don’t know, I don’t 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 o’clock. 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. I’m climbing the walls here!
3. That woman is a loose canine!
4. Now she’ll come out smelling like a rose!
5. You are barking at the wrong tree!
6. You’re 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 bad’s 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.

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 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 – that’s what I must seem to you. You’ve done everything for
me, and here I am as if I were asking for more. But it isn’t because I’m afraid (…), it isn’t
because that one is selfish, for I’m ready to give you my word tonight that I don’t care;
don’t care what still may happen and what I may lose. I don’t ask you to raise your little
finger for me again, nor do I wish so much as to mention to you what we’ve 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 can’t either take care of one’s self or simply hold one’s tongue, one
must renounce at all claims to be an object of interest. It’s in the name of what I do care
about that I’ve tried still to keep hold of you. How can I be indifferent to how I appear to
you? Why, if you’re going, need you, after all? Is it impossible you should stay on – so
that one mayn’t 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 isn’t happy even then. One does it to cheat one’s self…
What it comes to is that it’s not any happiness at all to take. The only safe thing is to give.
It’s what plays you least false.” (…)
“And not trouble you any more, no doubt. (…) All the more that I don’t really pretend I
believe you couldn’t, for yourself, not have done what you have. I don’t 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. You’ll 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:

“Rămân din nou îndelung pe gânduri. Toată vremea aceasta de vreo câţiva ani
încoace e a vieţii mele şi trebuie să precizez că orice dată, chiar străină, trece prin
existenţa mea ca un amestec de vis şi realitate… Trăiesc o viaţă în care nimic din ceea ce
se întamplă nu mai e cu semnificaţie simplă. Totul trebuie să corespundă, ca în vis, la altă
situaţie, faptele capătă înţelesuri noi, unele printr-altele. Cuvintele nu mai sunt semne
pentru ce e dincolo de ele. (…) Dar de câţiva ani, printr-o acumulare de întâmplări
deosebite, care ele însele or fi având vreun tâlc, semnele nu mai corespund conţinului lor
stabilit, faptele au alte cauze de cum le stiu eu, dacă o femeie, care e zodia mea, râde, nu
mai înseamnă că e veselă; când un domn e grav, corect şi important, nu înseamnă că nu
depinde în toată soarta lui de un cuvânt al meu, când fug de un surâs, poate însemna că îl
doresc… Iar acum când eu nu mai sunt cum am fost, ochii mei prin care văd lumea, sunt,
mai mult ca oricând, cum n-au fost niciodată, numai ai mei şi înapoia lor sunt eu, numai
eu…”
(adapted from Camil Petrescu, Patul lui Procust)

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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 don’t 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.
Anse’s 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. He’s long-armed, even if he is spindling. Except for the lack of sweat.
You could tell they ain’t been nobody else’s but Anse’s 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 “It’s five o-clock”.
Just as I get up Cora comes to the door and says it’s time to get on. Anse reaches
for his shoes. “Now, Mr. Burden,” Cora says, “don’t 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
can’t 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 don’t aim to move again nor nothing else.
“Well, I reckon we better get on”, Cora says. “I got to feed the chickens.” It’s
fixing to rain, too. Clouds like that don’t lie, and the cotton making every day the Lord
sends. That’ll be something else for him. Cash is still trimming at the boards. “If there’s
ere a thing we can do,” Cora says.
“Anse’ll 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 won’t be no need,” I say. “I so hope it.”
“Her mind is set on it,” he says. “I reckon she’s 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 children’s 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 haven’t
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. “I’m 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 Joy’s 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 Nicholson’s “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:

“Let’s 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
doesn’t submit to convenient analysis. Native linguists spend their time defending the
Queen’s English against defilement, or decrying the cultural imperialism of Anglo-
American 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 TV’s 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 can’t 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, CNN’s 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 air-
speakers, it can kill.

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 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
wasn’t, 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
professor’s 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 suferinţele altora.

- Nu se poate.
- Sigur că nu se poate, oftă el. Din păcate, nu se poate, şi asta ma leagă atât de
mult de tot ceea ce fac. Scriu întotdeauna ca un posedat, sunt înspăimântat de participarea
mea la tot ceea ce scriu, totul e ca o durere, e aproape perversitate ceea ce se întâmplă.
- Vezi?
- Da, dar asta e altceva. Nu trebuie să amestecam procesul creaţiei cu viata. Eu nu
vreau să sufăr, eu vreau să fiu fericit.
- Am mai auzit prostia asta, dar nu mă aşteptam să o aud de la dumneata.
- Ai s-o auzi de cate ori o să mă vezi. Eu sunt mult mai profundă în suferinţă decât
în bucurie.
- Eu nu. Eu mă apăr, aşa e omeneşte, să te aperi de ceea ce îţi face rău.
- Dar poţi să faci rău altcuiva apărându-te. La asta de ce nu te gândeşti?
- Nu-mi pasă. E dreptul meu. Nu m-am născut să fiu controlat şi supus suferinţei
E dreptul meu să mă apăr singur. Cine să mă apere dacă nu eu?
- Asta e laşitate. Să fugi de suferinţă e o laşitate.
- Inuman e să te laşi pradă suferinţei. Eu vreau să fiu liniştit, am nevoie de un
climat de linişte în care să pot lucra. Mă zbat de dimineaţa până seara, ca să sufăr apoi din
voluptate? Nu, asta nu!
- Şi cum participi emoţional la un film sau la o carte? Nu te impresionează? Nu
suferi?
- Nu. Când simt că nu-mi place şi că poate să-mi facă rău, fug. E dreptul meu.
- A început să citească o carte cu canceroşi şi a lăsat-o după primele cincizeci de
pagini, zise Lulu. I se părea că se contaminează prin lectură.
- Nu fi obraznic!
- Nu e obraznic. Spune un adevăr.
- Ştii, dumneata nu înţelegi ce se întâmplă aici. Ei sunt doi fraţi care se iubesc
anormal. Sunt ca nişte animale care nu cunosc decât o lege, aceea de a rămâne împreună
şi de a mânca tot ce este în jurul lor, tot ce întâlnesc în cale.
- Foarte bine. E ceva frumos. Nu m-a impresionat de mult o istorie ca asta.”
(C. Cristea, Scadenţa)

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

“Totul este computerizat, inclusiv oamenii; la unele companii, funcţionarii – când

merg la baie, de pildă – trebuie să atingă un buton şi astfel şeful ştie cât a lipsit; sunt
monitorizate deci şi cele nemonitorizabile…
Proces: doi tineri dau în judecată o bătrână pentru că le-a vândut un căţel care s-a
dovedit apoi a fi hermafrodit; între timp câinele creşte mare, este operat, ei vin la tribunal
cu el/ea, bătrâna aduce o vecină ca martor, au loc dezbateri, sala este plină: judecătorul –
un bărbat în vârstă, cu părul alb, cu faţa de înţelept şi ochi vioi – se retrage, iar noi
aşteptăm verdictul; câştigă bătrâna, ziariştii iau interviuri, iar eu mă hotărăsc să trec
strada şi să beau o bere rece (căldura neobişnuita pe malul lacului) cu un “câine fierbinte”
(numele unui fel de crenwurst)…
La televizor este intervievat un tânăr negru, absolvent de liceu; i se cere să
citească ce scrie pe diploma pe care tocmai a primit-o şi nu ştie.”
(Şt. Avădanei, Acolada atlantică)

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