Agreement of the predicate with the subject

The P agrees with the S in person and number. But in Modern English there's often a conflict between form and meaning. Agreement of the P with the S is restricted to the present tense apart from the verb "to be", because it agrees with the S not only in the present but also in the past.

PLURAL:
• Two or more homogeneous subjects connected by the conjunction "and" or asyndetically (Her father and mother were completely out of breath);
• A subject expressed by a noun modified by two or more attributes connected by "and" when two or more persons, things or ideas are meant (Heavy and light music have their own admirers);
• The subject expressed by a collective noun denoting the individuals of the group taken separately (people, infantry, cavalry, gentry, clergy, police, cattle, poultry, jury, etc.) (Hurry up, the police are coming!)
SINGULAR:
• Two or more homogeneous objects expressed by infinitives (To live and to find peace was all he needed);
• The sentence beginning with "here" or "there" (In the room there was a small chair and a big table);
• Two homogeneous subjects in the singular connected by the conjunctions "not only… but", "neither… nor", "either… or", "or", "nor" (Not only the rain stopped, but the wind also was gone);
• Two subjects in the singular connected by the conjunction "as well as" (The album "In Rock" as well as "Machine Head" has contributed a lot into the development of heavy rock);
• A subject expressed by a noun modified by two or more attributes connected by "and" when one person, thing or idea is meant (The big, bad and blood-red moon was looking down at the Earth);
• The subject expressed by a defining, indefinite, or negative pronoun (Everybody is going to get good marks; There was something pleasant in her words; Nobody leaves the room until I say so);
• The subject expressed by the emphatic "it" (Many agree that it is English businessmen who can be trusted);
• The title of a book, the name of a newspaper or magazine (even if the noun is in the plural) ("Great Expectations" was written by Dickens);
• The subject denoting time, measure, or distance when the noun represents the amount or mass as a whole (Five dollars is not a big sum when we talk about this item);
• The subject is expressed by a collective noun denoting a group or collection of similar individuals taken as a whole (mankind, humanity, etc.) (If the mankind is going to see the end of this century, it is bound to survive);
• The word-group "many a…" (Many a politician is a liar);
• Arithmetic calculation (addition, subtraction, division; multiplication is an exception – it can be both) (Six and four is ten; Thrice two is (are) six);

Some more information about English grammar.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS

The British Museum

The British Museum, consisting of the national museum of archaeology and ethnography and the national library, is the richest of its kind in the world. The museum was founded in 1753 by an act of Parliament which set up a body of Trustees. Its nucleus was formed by the priceless collections of Sir Robert Cotton, whose manuscripts had been acquired at the end of the 17th century and stored away in vaults at Westminster, and Sir Hans Sloane, who left his enormously varied collection to the nation upon his death in 1753. To this diverse collection of manuscripts, works of art, antiquities, and natural history items the Trustees added the extensive library accumulated by the Har-leys, Earls of Oxford. A copy of every book published in the country has to be presented free to the museum.

The act of Parliament setting up the museum provided for a public lottery to be held to raise funds for housing and maintaining these collections. The lottery raised enough cash for the Trustees to purchase a 17th century building called Montagu House and in 1759 the museum was opened to the public. Montagu House proved woefully inadequate for the museum's constantly expanding collections, and by the early 19th century temporary buildings had been erected to accommodate many of the larger exhibits.

In 1823 Sir Robert Smirke was commissioned to design a permanent extension and produced plans for the complete replacement of Montagu House. Between 1823 and 1852 the old structure was pulled down and the present museum took its place. In 1857 the famous Reading Room was built.
It is impossible to list here more than a tiny fraction of the wealth of objects that the museum contains. Visitors are advised to equip themselves with a guide book and select a number of specific exhibits that can be comfortably looked at in the time available.

The superb Elgin Marbles are housed in the Duveen Gallery and should not be missed. The collection is named after the seventh Earl of Elgin, who sold it to the nation at a considerable loss. The Elgin Marbles are sculptures from the Greek Parthenon in Athens. They were brought back to Britain in 1802. They show the birth of Athena and processions to honour her. According to legend she was born out of the head of God Zeus, when another God hit him with a hammer to get rid of his headache. The collection includes brilliantly executed statues, friezes, and stonework.

The museum is famous for Egyptian mummies. The Egyptians thought that life would continue after death, so they preserved the body for the dead person's spirit to live in. It was buried with treasure, household goods and even servants to use in the next life. You can see mummies of kings, queens and their servants.

The Sutton Hoo treasure comes from the burial site of a 7th century Anglo-Saxon King in Suffolk. He was buried in a complete ship along with a rich treasure hoard to use in the afterlife. Among the many items on show are drinking horns, beautiful gold buckles and the king's helmet. It was been restored from over 500 pieces.

In the centre of the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery is the Rosetta Stone, which dates from 195 BC and inscribed with the texts which enabled scholars to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone was the key to understand ancient Egyptian picture writing. It came from an old wall in the village of Rosetta in Egypt. Its inscription is repeated in three different types of writing — in hieroglyphs, in another form of Egyptian writing and in Greek. By translating the Greek scholars were able to work out the hieroglyphs and begin to understand the ancient Egyptian language. The writing tells of battles of the time.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS

Robert Burns

Poet Robert Burns (1759— 1796) was the eldest son of a professional gardener and unsuccessful farmer in Ayrshire. Growing up to a life of hard physical work and poverty, he began to write poetry. By his mid twenties he was an accomplished poet and songwriter, especially in his native Scotland. In the summer of 1786, when he was on the point of abandoning farming in Scotland and emigrating to the West Indies, essentially because of a broken love affair, he published his first collection of poems, in an edition of 612 copies printed in the county town of Kilmarnock. Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect met with such acclaim in Ayrshire and among west of Scotland people in Edinburgh that he changed all his plans and travelled to the capital, where he was enthusiastically welcomed by a number of leading literary figures.

In 1787, Burns made a number of tours, to the Borders and, more than once, to the Highlands.
In the course of his travels, he had come across people interested in song tradition in different parts of Scotland, had visited places associated with historic events and ballads both north and south of the Highland line, and had listened attentively to many Highland and Lowland tunes. He now had unrivalled authority as a songwriter and collector, conferred by his firsthand familiarity with new sources of song, as well as by natural aptitude.

Eventually, Burns returned to farming in south-west Scotland. For a time he combined Excise work with farming, then decided to give up farming completely and became a full-time excise officer in Dumfries. His most famous poem, Tarn o' Shanter, was written in 1790 while he was farming at Ellisland, but for the most part he devoted his leisure hours in his later years to his lifelong passion for writing and collecting Scottish songs. From 1788 until his death he was editor in all but name of the greatest of all Scottish song collections.
He died in Dumfries on July.

In common with certain other Scots who have contributed to national myth — Robert I (the Bruce), Mary Queen of Scots and Bonnie Prince Charlie — Burns has an international reputation. His is an exceptionally personal kind of literary fame. Although celebrated for poetry, which is usually thought of as an intellectual pursuit, he is very often referred to as "Rabbie Burns". The familiar form of his name signals affection and acceptance. It is as if Burns is being saluted in a very down-to-earth way, as a creative genius certainly, but also as someone who does not stand on his dignity, a friend to the common man. In keeping with this tradition, people meet at Burns Suppers all over the world each year on and near his birthday, 25 January. The Burns cult is unique, and despite having many detractors, is evidently unstoppable.

Widespread identification of Burns's name with a habit of falling in love is accounted for partly by the eloquence of Ae fond kiss and О my luve is like a red, red rose — two of the best-known among literally hundreds of love songs.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS

Shakespeare's birthplace

The tourist trail, for visitors to England, often goes straight from London to Stratford. This old market town, Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, has become one of the world's most famous tourist centres. From April to October, it attracts thousands of visitors who come to see the poet's life from the cradle to the grave.

Stratford is best explored on foot, and the main points of interest can be seen in a walk taking about two hours. From Shakespeare's birthplace, a half-timbered early 16th century building in Henley Street, the route runs down Bridge Street to Clapton Bridge, built in the 15th century. From the bridge a road on the west bank passes the red brick Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, built in 1932.

The poet was born in the house in Henley Street in 1564. The house was his father's home and workshop, and in Shakespeare's lifetime it was two separate buildings. Built in the early 16th century, it is a typical middle-class dwelling.

The gardens of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre run down to the river bank to Southern Lane and to the tree-lined approach to Holy Trinity Church. This beautiful church overlooking the river is Shakespeare's burial place. His tomb and those of some of his family are marked by simple engraved stones in front of the altar.

Many hotels and shops in Stratford-upon-Avon have been renovated in the half-timbered style, with black beams crisscrossing whitewashed walls. Other buildings have been carefully restored to their original colour. The visitor to Stratford sees much of the town and its surroundings as it was in Shakespeare's lifetime.

Shakespeare never lost touch with his home town, even at the height of his success as a playwright in London. Readers of his plays and poetry will discover that much of his work derives from Stratford-upon-Avon's busy streets and peaceful countryside. As a boy, Shakespeare had on market days noted the manners, dress and speech of tradesmen, farmers, milkmaids, lawyers, and actors who came to perform their plays.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS