Creator Hands - Topic for English Discussion - Grammar - Conjunction

Creator’s hands

Everything is good
when it leaves the Creator’s hands;
Everything degenerates
while in the hands of man.

Do you agree with this saying?

If yes, how do things degenerate in the hands of man?

If no, why not?

THEME FOCUS

Do you know?

1. A female mouse is ready to have babies when she is seven weeks old.
2. The swift (a bird) sleeps, feeds and even mates while it is flying.
3. The male penguin incubates the eggs laid by the female until it hatches about two months later.
4. Whenever a stick insect is attacked it falls to the ground and lies stills so that it cannot be seen by its enemy.
5.A sperm whale can spend over an hour under water before it comes to the surface to breathe.
6. An orb spider weaves its web after it fixes threads in a box shape.
7. As soon as a lizard flicks out its tongue it can pick up signals about food.


GRAMMAR FOCUS


In all the sentences above each has a main clause and an
adverbial clause of time, having one of the following as
conjunction: when, while, until, whenever, before, as soon as,
after.

In sentence 1, ‘when’ is used to talk about two events that happen
at the same time, sometimes if one causes the other.

e.g. When you press the button, the door opens automatically.

In sentence 2, ‘while’ is used to show two longer actions that go
on at the same time.


e.g. While I was reading my lesson, all others at home were
watching TV.


In sentence 3, ‘until’ is used to say how far away a future event is.


e.g. I was reading the newspaper in the library until my friend
joined me.

In sentence 4, ‘whenever’ is used to denote the action repeatedly
occurring.

e.g. Whenever my friend called me over phone, I was not able to
be at home to receive it.

In sentence 5, ‘before’ is used when the action in the main clause
continues until the time represented in the adverbial clause.

e.g. My friend used to live with me before he got a transfer to
Madurai.

In sentence 6, ‘after’ is used to denote two separate actions taking
place one after the other.

e.g. After you switch on the computer, press ENTER key.

In sentence 7, ‘as soon as’ is used to mean ‘immediately after’.

e.g. As soon as I turned the ignition key, the engine started.


Caution

In the use of ‘before’ and ‘until’, depending upon the context (a)
both may be interchangeably used (b) only ‘before’ can be used or (c)
only ‘until’ can be used.

‘until’ or ‘before’


e.g. I didn’t like yoga until/before I tried.
Only ‘before’ (at some time before)


e.g. I left home before my father arrived.
Only ‘until’ (upto the time)

e.g.Wait here until the bus number 72 comes.


TASK 1: Match the sentence parts from A with their
corresponding parts in B:


TASK 2: Underline the appropriate conjunction from the two
printed in bold letters:

1. While / Whenever I go in the rain I catch cold.
2. Immediately after / before I get up in the morning I sneeze
many times.
3. While / when I take the medicines prescribed by the doctor they
cause side effects.
4. Sneezing stops until / soon after I take the medicines.
5. Until / Once I stop taking the medicines, cold relapses.

TASK 3: Fill in the blanks with the conjunctions given below:


before, until, while, when, after


Sometimes it rains ……… the sun shines. We call this a sun
shower. ……… strong winds blow it rains from the clouds that
are far away. Sometimes ……... the sun shines it may rain from
very high clouds. The clouds disappear ……... the rain can reach
the ground. Children enjoy these showers jumping in the open air
……... these rains stop.