C-1.

EMPHASIS: CLEFT SENTENCES

Emphatic constructions: it, what, the thing that.

A General statements
Compare these sentences:

What bothers me is the smoke.

I don’t mind the The thing that bothers me
noise in cities. is the smoke.
It is the smoke that bothers me.

What (first example) means the same as the thing that (second example), but notice
the form of the third construction. This form (cleft sentence) is used to emphasise
almost any part of a sentence except the verb.

What  pseudo cleft sentences. It is/was  cleft sentences.

Structure: It + be + highlighted part + that clause

When the highlighted words are adverbials of time (at three, in the morning) and
place (in England, on the table), they are not followed by when or where, but by that.

Rewrite the final sentence in each of the following in two ways, using the alternative
constructions given above.

1 I don’t mind flying. The thing that annoys me is the time you have to spend in
airports.
2 Oh, really? What upsets me is the rudeness of the employees.
3 I have a different complaint from you two. It’s the inefficiency of the services
that gets me down.
4 Yes, you’re right. The thing that I really can’t stand is the so-called shuttle
service, like the one from Barcelona to Madrid.
5 Oh, you’ve had trouble with that, too, have you? I arrived there last week at 8
o’clock and there were no planes with vacant seats till after 12.00, the man
told me. But the thing that annoyed me most was the smile on his face.
6 Yes, I understand. It’s not really their fault in Barcelona, though. It’s the fact
that nearly all the planes leave from Madrid that causes the trouble.

B Statements referring to place

Compare these sentences:

We met them in Naples.

We didn’t meet the The place where we met them
Smiths in Rome. was Naples.
It was in Naples that we met them.

The second and third sentences are emphatic forms of the first.

Rewrite the second of each of the pairs of sentences below in two ways, using the
emphatic forms.
1 The capital of the United States is Washington. But the real action takes place
in New York.
2 Shakespeare was brought up in Stratford-on-Avon. But he made his name in
London.
3 They don’t really breed the best racehorses in England. They breed them in
Ireland.
4 He wasn’t really happy in the city. He was only truly content in his native village.
5 The Nile is not spectacular at its source. It becomes a great river at Khartoum.

C Statements referring to time

Compare these sentences:

The mosquitoes don’t They are a nuisance in summer.

bother us in winter. It is in summer that they are a nuisance.

The second sentence is an emphatic form of the first.

Rewrite the second of each of the pairs of sentences below in the emphatic form.

1 Floods are not a major risk in spring. We have to be on the watch in autumn.
2 Tourists do not come in great numbers in July. Most of them come in August.
3 He did not write his best plays as a young man. He wrote them in middle age.
4 The French Revolution began in a disorganised manner. The decisive event,
the storming of the Bastille, took place on 14th July, 1789.
5 The Americans did not obtain their freedom from Britain until 1783. But they
celebrate Independence Day on July 4th, commemorating the Declaration of
Independence of 1776.

-----------------------------

‘It was Lewis who drained his glass first.’

‘It was the ‘bankers’ that always let him down.’
‘It was you who said it – not me.’
‘Sensibly Lewis was silent, and it was Morse who finally spoke.’
‘It was the piece about the ‘key witness’ which he found the more disturbing.’
‘... I say it was to him that I went for help and advice when I could no longer cope with
our financial crisis.’
(At a performance) ‘ It’s lots of rehearsals that does it, you know.’
‘It was these dammed holidays that upset him.’
‘It was lying by the same door that a member of the cleaning staff found her the next
morning.’
‘And it was forgetting that was the hard thing.’
‘It’s he who’s got the one priceless asset in the case -money.’
‘It was not only Ruth Rawlison, therefore, who had decided to miss the regular
Wednesday-evening rendezvous.’

From Service of All the Dead, by Colin Dexter.

Transformations.

1. I wasn’t in the office yesterday, so you must have spoken to my assistant.

 I wasn’t in the office yesterday, so it _____________________________________

2. His arrogance irritates me.

It _________________________________________________________________

3. Christopher Columbus discovered America.

It _________________________________________________________________

4. She became Miss Gold Prawn in 1996, not 1999.

It _________________________________________________________________

5. Deborah and Bob met in Madagascar while her father was chasing butterflies.

It ________________________________________________________________
FIFTH YEAR ENGLISH. KEY TO EXERCISES

A General statements
1 - It’s the time you spend in airports that annoys me.
- What annoys me is the time you spend in airports.
2 - The thing that upsets me is the rudeness of the employees.
- It’s the rudeness of the employees that upsets me.
3 - What gets me down is the inefficiency of the services.
- The thing that gets me down is the inefficiency of the services.
4 - What I really can’t stand is the so-called shuttle service.
- It’s the so-called shuttle service that I really can’t stand.
5 - What annoyed me most was the smile on his face.
- It was the smile on his face that annoyed me most.
6 - What causes the trouble is the fact that nearly all the planes leave from Madrid.
- The thing that causes the trouble is the fact that nearly all the planes leave from
Madrid.

B Statements referring to places

1 - It’s in New York that the real action takes place.
- The place where the real action takes place is New York.
2 - The place where he made his name was London.
- It was in London that he made his name.
3 - It’s in Ireland that they breed the best racehorses.
- The place where they breed the best racehorces is Ireland.
4 - It was only in his native village that he was truly content.
- The only place where he was truly content was in his native village.
5 - The place where it becomes a great river is at Khartoum.
- It is in Khartoum that it becomes a great river.

C Statements referring to time

1 It’s in autumn that we have to be on the watch. 2 It’s in August that most of them
come. 3 It was in middle age that he wrote them. 4 It was on 14th July, 1789 that the
storming of the Bastille took place. 5 It is on July 4th that they celebrate Independence
Day.