Exercise 12. Complete the gaps with suitable prepositions

1. ____ the beginning of the XX century the United Kingdom played the leading role. ____ the end the situation changed.

2. ____ the beginning there was a word.

3. ____ the end Jeremy will win.

4. ____ the end of the room there was a little staircase, leading to a darkened chamber.

5. ____ the end, he came back, went over to the picture, and examined it.

6. ____ the end, he went over to the table and wrote a passionate letter to the girl he had loved.

7. Then a black-faced workman ____ the end of the platform grinned at the passing train.

8. Laughing he sat down on the seat ____ the end of the garden.

9. ____ the end of the hall hung a tattered green curtain that swayed and shook in the gusty wind which had followed him in from the street.

10. ____ the end I took pity on your tired servant and told him to go to bed, as he let me out.

11. She was only ____ the beginning of everything.

12. "We are only _____ the beginning of our friendship, Dorian," answered Lord Henry, shaking him by the hand.

13. He was glad that the summer was over ___ the end.

14. “And I want to add _____ the end that John was right,” said Mirth

15. He mentioned _____ the end that no one expected such results.

There is/ there are

When a noun representing an indefinite person or thing is the subject of the verb be we normally use a there + be + noun construction. Note that, though there appears to be the subject, the real subject is the noun that follows the verb, and if this noun is plural the verb must be plural too:

There are two policemen at the door.

These constructions are used when be is used to mean exist/happen/ take place:

There is a mistake/There are mistakes in this translation.

There is/ It is compared

Some examples may help to prevent confusion between the two forms:

there is + noun There is a fog. There was a lot of rain. There won't be much sun.	it is + adjective It is foggy. It was very wet. It won't be very sunny.
distance and time (it denotes that time or distance has left) There is a long way still to go. (We have many miles still to go.) There is time for us to go home and come back here again before the film starts. (That amount of time exists.)	distance and time (it points to the time or way) It is a long way to York. It is time to go home. (We always start home at six and it is six now.)
there is + noun/pronoun There is someone at the door. There's a key here.	it is, used for identity I think it's the man to read the meters. Is it the key of the safe?

Exercise 13. Paraphrase the sentences using there is/ there are where possible.

EXAMPLE: Your PC (Personal Computer) is a system, consisting of many components.

There are many components in your PC.

1. Your computer's system unit probably has at least one floppy disk drive, and one CD or DVD drive.

2. Your computer's hard disk can store as much information as tens of thousands of floppy disks.

3. Use the floppy disks and CDs to send copies of files through the mail.

4. Most modern hard disks have tens of billions of bytes of storage space on them.

5. Windows will start showing a little message on the screen that reads "You are running low on disk space".

6. Your mouse probably has at least two buttons on it.

7. Many mice have a small wheel between the two mouse buttons.

8. Most keyboards also have a numeric keypad.

9. Most keyboards also contain a set of navigation keys.

Exercise 14. Insert THERE or IT:

1. _______________ is another disk drive, called the hard disk inside the system unit.

2. _______________ are a lot of names for that stuff.

3. _______________ is time to discuss the problem.

4. _______________ is too much "stuff" on your computer's hard disk.

5. _______________means that you can create, save, and download files.

6. _______________ are some special keys like Esc (Escape), Ctrl (Control), and Alt (Alternate).

7. _______________ is a heavy traffic jam in the center of the city.

8. The situation worsens. _______________ is out of control.

9. _______________ are also some keys across the top of the keyboard.

10. _______________ doesn't really matter which keys you use.