Grammar Nouns and articles 1. Work in pairs. Find the following in the text below. 1 two singular countable nouns 2 three plural countable nouns 3 three uncountable nouns 4 two of these three uncountable nouns that could be countable in other contexts 5 two proper nouns (names), apart from Beobab 2 Many words have different meanings depending on whether they are countable or uncountable. What is the difference in meaning between these pairs of sentences? 1a Like coffee. b I'dlike a coffee 2 a I can't see ~ my hairis in my eyes, b I've got @ hairin my eye. 3 a Most English cheese is hard. bb There are more than 1,000 British cheeses. 4 a Anna lost a lot of weight when she was ill b Lifting weights strengthens your muscles. 5 a Car windscreens are made from toughened glass. b only wear glasses for reading, 6 @ He has no experience of living in a cold climate. b Buthe has read about the experiences of other people. 7 a Exercise is good for you. b We've got four exercises to do for homework. B pase 145 Language reference: Countable and uncountable nouns 3 Circle the correct articles in these extracts from Reading and Use of English Part 7 ( = no article), ‘Then check your answers by looking back at the text 1 A/ The last time Irene Pepperberg saw Alex, she said goodnight as usual 2 Ittook a/ the brillant insight to turn this human- centricity on its head. 3 This novel approach came to Dr Pepperbera, a/@ theoretical chemist, in 1977, 4 But Alex, unlike a / @ chimpanzes, learned to speak words ea: 5 @/ The birds as well as @/ the mammals can evolve @/ a complex and sophisticated cognition 6 Dr Pepperberg and her collaborators at a/ the University of Arizona began teaching Alex. 7 She went to a/ @ pet shop and bought an African Grey Parrot, which was then just a/ the year old, 8 ... the capabilities of a species only distantly related to humanity: a/ the parrot. 9 Thus began one of a/ the best-known double acts in the field of animal-behaviour science. 10 Researchers in this area live in © / a perpetual fear of the ‘Clever Hans’ effect. This was named after a/ the horse that seemed to be able to count. 4 Now match each use of a/an, the and @ in Exercise 3 with one of these rules for the use of articles, 1 Use the definite article (the) ‘a when there is only one of something/someone with superlative adjectives and first, last, only, same ¢ to refer to something/someone that has been mentioned before or that the reader already knows about d to refer to all the members of a group or species. 2 Use the indefinite article (a/an) @ to refer to something/someone for the first time b inplace of the number one € to refer to something/someone which is not specific (ie. it doesn’t matter which one) d to refer to someone's job, 3 Use no article (2) ‘a with uncountable nouns which refer to something general b with plural countable nouns which refer to something general. W pove 163 Language reference: Aces