Serendipity
Unit 5, Activity 7Index Activity 8
Reading: The Big Picture
1 “His wife, a bit more savvy in matters of consumerism, spotted straight away that the watch was a cheap counterfeit”
Notice the sentence structure here - we can drop the phrase ‘who was’ from ‘his wife,who was a bit more savvy...’
2 ‘Complaining about your boss is a time-honored tradition’
What are some other ‘time-honored traditions’ at work?
3 Little stories such as the ones in the article are called ’anecdotes’. Do you have any workplace anecdotes to share?
4 ‘Keep a bullying boss at bay.’
Note the repetition of the b sound. Repeating a sound on purpose is called alliteration and is often used in news headlines or stories.Can you think of any other examples?
5 “For years, his raises had been pathetic and he was never given a bonus.”
The first part of this sentence is in the Past Perfect Tense. What is the difference between ’have been pathetic’ and ‘had been pathetic’?