Articles

Insert a or an if necessary.

1 My neighbour is . . . photographer; let's ask him for . . . advice about colour films.

2 We had . . . fish and . . . chips for . . . lunch. ~
That doesn't sound . . . very interesting lunch.

3 I had . . . very bad night; I didn't sleep . . . wink.

4 He is . . . vegetarian; you won't get . . . meat at his house. He'll give you . . . nut cutlet. ~Last time I had . . . nut cutlet I had . . . indigestion.

5 . . . travel agent would give you . . . information about . . . hotels.

6 We'd better go by . . . taxi—if we can get . . . taxi at such . . . hour as 2 a.m.

7 . . . person who suffers from . . . claustrophobia has . . . dread of being confined in . . . small space, and would always prefer . . . stairs to . . . lift.

8 Do you take . . . sugar in . . . coffee? ~
I used to, but now I'm on . . . diet. I'm trying to lose . . . weight.

9 . . . man suffering from . . . shock should not be given anything to drink.

10 You'll get . . . shock if you touch . . . live wire with that screwdriver.
Why don't you get . . . screwdriver with . . . insulated handle?

11 It costs fifty-five and . . . half pence and I've only got . . . fifty pence piece. ~

     You can pay by . . . cheque here. ~
     But can I write . . . cheque for . . . fifty-five and . . . half pence?

12 . . . Mr Smith is . . . old customer and . . . honest man. ~
Why do you say that? Has he been accused of . . . dishonesty?

13 I'm not . . . wage-earner; I'm . . . self-employed man. I have . . . business of my own. ~
Then you're not . . . worker; you're . . . capitalist!

14 When he was charged with . . . murder he said he had . . . alibi.

15 . . . friend of mine is expecting . . . baby. If it's . . . girl she's going to be called Etheldreda. ~
What . . . name to give . . . girl!

16 I have . . . hour and . . . half for lunch. ~
I only have . . . half . . . hour—barely . . . time for . . . smoke and ... cup of coffee.

17 I hope you have . . . lovely time and . . . good weather. ~
But I'm not going for . . . holiday; I'm going on . . . business.

18 He looked at me with . . . horror when I explained that I was . . . double agent.

19 I wouldn't climb . . . mountain for Ј1,000! I have . . . horror of . . . heights.

20 I have . . . headache and . . . sore throat. I think I've got . . . cold. ~
I think you're getting . . . flu.

21 . . . Mr Jones called while you were out (neither of us knows this man). He wants to make . . . complaint about . . . article in the paper. He was in . . . very bad temper.

22 If you go by . . . train you can have quite . . . comfortable journey, but make sure you get . . . express, not . . . train that stops at all the stations.

23 . . . few people know (hardly anyone knows) that there is . . . secret passage from this house to . . . old smugglers' cave in the cliffs.

24 I'm having . . . few friends in to . . . coffee tomorrow evening.

     Would you like to come? ~
I'd love to, but I'm afraid I'm going to . . . concert.

25 It's time you had . . . holiday. You haven't had . . . day off for . . . month.

26 He broke ...leg in... skiing accident. It's still in . . . plaster.

27 I want . . . assistant with . . . knowledge of French and . . . experience of . . . office routine.

28 I see that your house is built of . . . wood. Are you insured against ... fire?

29 The escaping prisoner camped in . . . wood but he didn't light . . . fire because . . . smoke rising from the wood might attract . . . attention.

30 I had . . . amazing experience last night. I saw . . . dinosaur eating . . . meat pie in . . . London park. ~

    You mean you had . . . nightmare. Anyway, dinosaurs didn't eat . . . meat.

31 I'll pay you . . . hundred . . . week. It's not . . . enormous salary but after all you are . . . completely  unskilled man.

32 If you kept . . . graph you could see at . . . glance whether you were making . . . profit or . . . loss.

33 . . . little (hardly anything) is known about the effect of this drug; yet . . . chemist will sell it to you without . . . prescription.

34 I have . . . little money left; let's have dinner in . . . restaurant.

35 Would it be . . . trouble to you to buy me . . . newspaper on your way home?

36 . . . man is . . . reasoning animal

 ANSWER

1 Articles

Exercise I (note that '-' indicates that no article is required.)
la,- 2-,-,-;a 3 a, a 4 a,-; a; a,- 5A,-,- 6-,a,an 7 A, -, a, a,-, a 8-,-;a,- 9A,- 10 a, a; a, an II a, a;-: a, -,a 12-, an, an;- 13 a, a; a; a, a 14-, an 15 A, a; a; a, a 16 an, a;-, an,-, a, a 17 a,-; a,- 18-,a 19 a; a,- 20 a, a; a; - 21 A; a, an; a 22-,a, an, a 23-,a, an 24 a,-; a 25 a: a, a 26 a, a:- 27 an, a,-,- 28-;- 29 a, a,-,- 30 an; a, a, a: a;-I 31 a, a; an, a 32 a, a, a, a 33-,a, a 34 a, a 35 a, a 36-,a