Stories for Reading Comprehension 4 Unit 15


1. abuse
2. acrid fumes
3. adopted
4. appropriate
5. blackened
6. campaign
7. campaigns
8. cancer
9. celebratory mood
10. deteriorating
11. directly
12. dispensing
13. disturbed
14. dramatic
15. earthworm
16. formaldehyde
17. hard-hitting approach
18. ineffectual
19. inhabitants
20. lay still
21. life expectancy
22. lung
23. nostrils
24. obese
25. packed
26. particularly
27. produced
28. reduced
29. rhetorically
30. riddled
31. screwed up
32. softly-softly
33. staple
34. stuffed
35. subsisted
36. tar
37. turned to
38. wriggled about


1. Transform the Voice of the sentences.

1) It was difficult to see the platform clearly.
2) The Ministry of Health in Great Britain was much disturbed by the series of reports.


2. Transform the sentences into Indirect Speech.

Dr. Feelgood turned to smoking. "And what does this prove to us, ladies and gentlemen?" After a few seconds of silence he added, "If you smoke, your life will be shorter." "


3. Transform the passage into Direct Speech.

He then showed a photograph of a group of very fat Japanese and explained that these Japanese had adopted western diets and ate a lot of cakes and chocolate.


4. Transform the sentence into 'there + to be' pattern.

Dr. Feelgood turned to smoking.


5. Transform the sentence into State pattern.

The Minister of Health introduced a hard-hitting approach to the problem.


6. Transform the sentence into Action pattern.

'More whisky - no worms.'


7. Transform the sentence from Complex Subject pattern.

The men appeared to be in a celebratory mood and passed bottles of whisky to each other.


8. Transform the sentence into Complex Subject pattern.

The village to the north of Glasgow was seen as the most appropriate place to start the campaign.


9. Transform the sentence from/into Complex Object pattern.

1) Dr. Feelgood said rhetorically, "And what does this prove to us, ladies and gentlemen?"
2) The Minister of Health wanted Dr. Feelgood to go to a small village just to the north of Glasgow in Scotland.


10. Transform the sentence into Cleft pattern.

For dramatic effect Dr. Feelgood took out a glass container with a pink organ and placed it in front of him.


11. Change the sentence into Conditional II and III patterns.

It was difficult to see the platform clearly as the air was thick with tobacco smoke.


12. Transform the sentence into inverted emphatic pattern.

After a few seconds of silence Dr. Feelgood added, "If you eat a lot of sugar, your health will suffer."


13. Transform the sentence into what + subject + predicate + to be + to inf pattern.

Dr. Feelgood then took out another glass container with a blackened object inside.


14. Change the verb from/into an analytical one.

"If you smoke, your life will be shorter."


15. Transform the sentence into Causative pattern.

The Minister of Health wanted Dr. Feelgood to go to a small village just to the north of Glasgow in Scotland to talk to the people directly.


16. Transform the sentences to use the bold parts as Attribute Subordinate Clauses.

On the day of the meeting the village hall was packed. Dr. Feelgood, the country's leading medical expert, entered and screwed up his face as the smoke fumes reached his nostrils.


17. Transform the sentence to use the bold part as Holophrasis.

Dr. Feelgood said rhetorically, "And what does this prove to us, ladies and gentlemen?"