‫ دراسات لغوية‬: ‫اسم المقرر‬ ‫جامعة عين شمس‬

EN-LING 32: ‫الكود‬ ‫كلية األلسن‬

‫ النظام الفصلي‬/ ‫ الثالثة‬: ‫الفرقة‬ ‫قسم اللغة اإلنجليزية‬

Exercises on Cohesion and Coherence

Exercise 1:
Highlight the cohesive devices in the narrative below:

The student sighed as she handed in the assignment, at last it was finished. This was the
most difficult piece of writing which she had been set, but she had completed it. The
‘magnum opus’ was 10,000 words long. This project, though not quite a dissertation, was
still the longest piece of academic writing she had ever written. She had thought she would
never complete it and it had taken all her strength to do so.

Her achievement made her elated, but had left her exhausted. When she had read the title
of the task, she knew it was not going to be just another essay, not an easy one at all.
Finally, the completed work lay on the counter of the reception [and was] beautifully
bound. She would sleep easy at night, [and she would be] no longer troubled by thoughts
of its accusing blank pages – the nightmare was over!
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Exercise 2: Identifying Cohesive Ties
Read through the dialogue and identify an example of the following six:
anaphoric demonstrative pronoun reference
nominal ellipsis
nominal substitution
clausal substitution
cataphoric reference
When John saw it, he realised how fine the garden was.
John: Where does the door lead?
Mary: That goes to the vegetable patch, every garden should have one. Doesn’t yours?
John: It should, I suppose, but I have so little space.
Mary: You don’t need much, you know. Why not start one?
John: I don’t think so. Besides, I wouldn’t have time.

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 ‫ دراسات لغوية‬: ‫اسم المقرر‬ ‫جامعة عين شمس‬
EN-LING 32: ‫الكود‬ ‫كلية األلسن‬
‫ النظام الفصلي‬/ ‫ الثالثة‬: ‫الفرقة‬ ‫قسم اللغة اإلنجليزية‬

Mary: You’re making excuses because you don’t want the work. Having a vegetable
area in the garden makes real sense when you live in the city.
John: I prefer to keep my land for flowers and not that stuff.
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Exercise 3:

Fill in the blanks using the cohesive devices given in brackets.

[in addition, otherwise, however, as a result, moreover, firstly, in spite of this, in

general, on the contrary, besides]

1. It was raining heavily. _______, the match continued

2. _____, we are happy about the result.

3. He directed the movie brilliantly. _____, he composed all the songs.

4. We were planning to visit Munnar. _____, we were unable to go due to COVID

restrictions.

5. Businesses are doing badly. _____, they are finding it difficult to pay back their
loans.

6. Installing CCTV cameras will deter people from throwing waste in public
places. _____, it will help police to catch criminals.

7. ______, I would like to thank all of you for coming.

8. Answer only if you are sure. _____, you will lose marks as there is negative marks for
wrong answers.

9. People expected the stock market to crash due to COVID. _____, it went up.

10. James is not likely to get army selection. He is always sick. _____, he is only five
feet tall.

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 ‫ دراسات لغوية‬: ‫اسم المقرر‬ ‫جامعة عين شمس‬
EN-LING 32: ‫الكود‬ ‫كلية األلسن‬
‫ النظام الفصلي‬/ ‫ الثالثة‬: ‫الفرقة‬ ‫قسم اللغة اإلنجليزية‬

Exercise 4: Coherence / Processes of the Ideational Metafunction

Identify the type of the process in the following sentences.

1. Raskolnikov felt sick. ‘Love love love by The Mountain Goats’

2. He felt the table’s grain.
3. Darling, you look wonderful tonight. – ‘Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton’
4. Winnie the Pooh looked round to see that nobody was listening. ‘Winnie-the-Pooh by
AA Milne’
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Exercise 5:
Read the paragraph carefully. Then, pick all cohesive/ transitional devices used.
Yesterday, I went walking. Generally, I don’t walk in the mornings. However, I could not
resist as the sun was shining brightly and it was a good idea to get some exercise. During
my walk, I observed lots of different animals including birds, butterflies, cows and goats.
As a result, I decided to walk a little further to witness how many more I could see. Finally,
I reached the route which would lead me back home. However, I was having so much fun
and I decided to continue my walk. Besides, the weather was still warm and I could still
feel the gust of fresh air, although the clouds were starting to form indicating for a rain to
come. I was quite a distant away from home when the rain started to fall. To begin with, it
was only a gentle drizzle, but it soon began falling more heavily. Consequently, by the time
I got home, I was shivering from cold because I was totally wet.

Exercise 6:

Identify the Reference in the following:

Every organization, as soon as it gets to any size (perhaps 1,000 people), begins to feel a
need to systematize its management of human assets. Perhaps the pay scales have got way
out of line, with apparently similar-level jobs paying very different amounts; perhaps there

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 ‫ دراسات لغوية‬: ‫اسم المقرر‬ ‫جامعة عين شمس‬
EN-LING 32: ‫الكود‬ ‫كلية األلسن‬
‫ النظام الفصلي‬/ ‫ الثالثة‬: ‫الفرقة‬ ‫قسم اللغة اإلنجليزية‬

is a feeling that there are a lot of neglected skills in the organization that other
departments could utilize if they were aware that they existed. Perhaps individuals have
complained that they don't know where they stand or what their future is; perhaps the
unions have requested standardized benefits and procedures. Whatever the historical
origins, some kind of central organization, normally named a personnel department, is
formed to put some system into haphazard. The systems that they adopt are often modelled
on the world of production, because that is the world with the best potential for order and
system.
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Exercise 7: Lexical cohesion

Identify examples of lexical cohesion in the following texts:

Text A:
The clamor of complaint about teaching in higher education and, more especially,
about teaching methods in universities and technical colleges, serves to direct attention
away from the important reorientation which has recently begun. The complaints, of
course, are not unjustified. In dealing piece-meal with problems arising from rapidly
developing subject matter, many teachers have allowed courses to become over-crowded,
or too specialized, or they have presented students with a number of apparently unrelated
courses failing to stress common principles. Many, again, have not developed new teaching
methods to deal adequately with larger numbers of students, and the new audio-visual
techniques tend to remain in the province of relatively few enthusiasts despite their great
potential for class and individual teaching.

Text B:

When we look closely at a human face we are aware of many expressive details - the lines
of the forehead, the wideness of the eyes, the curve of the lips, the jut of the chin. These
elements combine to present us with a total facial expression which we use to interpret the
mood of our companion. But we all know that people can 'put on a happy face' or
deliberately adopt a sad face without feeling either happy or sad. Faces can lie, and
sometimes can lie so well that it becomes hard to read the true emotions of their owners.
But there is at least one facial signal that cannot easily be 'put on'. It is a small signal, and
rather a subtle one, but because it tells the truth it is of special interest.
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 ‫ دراسات لغوية‬: ‫اسم المقرر‬ ‫جامعة عين شمس‬
EN-LING 32: ‫الكود‬ ‫كلية األلسن‬
‫ النظام الفصلي‬/ ‫ الثالثة‬: ‫الفرقة‬ ‫قسم اللغة اإلنجليزية‬

Exercise 8: Read the text and choose the correct answer

Alexander Popov stole the show at the European swimming championships

in Helsinki on Tuesday, producing a sizzling 100m freestyle time which
nobody but he himself has ever matched. The Russian Olympic champion
swam a languid heat in the morning and then burst out with an astonishing
semi-final swim of 48.34sec.

1. Which one of the following represents a relational process?

 "stole"
 "producing"
 "burst out"
 None of the above

2. In the clause "producing a sizzling 100m freestyle time which nobody but he himself
has ever matched", identify the process type in "producing".

 Mental
 Material
 Verbal

3. Which of the following represents a material process?

 "stole"
 "has ... matched"
 "swam"
 All of the above

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