English Grammar Drills

36 Noun Phrases
Nouns are defined in four ways:
1. The noun has been previously mentioned.
2. The noun is uniquely defined by its modifiers.
3. The noun has a unique reference.
4. The noun is defined by normal expectations.
Exercise 3.5
In the following paragraphs, fill in the blank spaces with the appropriate article. If the noun is
defined in one or more of the four ways mentioned above, use the definite article the. Otherwise,
fill in the blank with the indefinite article a (singular noun) or some (plural nouns).
During the Christmas holidays, I flew to Los Angeles to visit with friends. They
picked me up at airport in old car one of them was leasing. Since
company my friend was working for required him to have car, he got reimbursed for
most of his driving expenses. It was first car any of them had ever had. Not having
car in Los Angeles is not really option since there is no public transportation
system to speak of. As result, traffic is just awful.
They were renting apartment in Santa Monica, really nice town on
beach about twenty miles from center of city. apartment building
they lived in even had swimming pool. We went in pool every day. It was
fine as long as pool was in sun. From apartment we could walk to
most of stores we needed. The only thing that we had to take car for was
going to grocery store. There was simply no place to buy groceries in
neighborhood.
I had hoped to go swimming in ocean, but I quickly discovered that water
was too cold. My friends said that if I wanted to go swimming, I would have to get
wet suit. There is current of icy-cold water that comes down coast
from Alaska. Even in summer, water is pretty cold.
Indefinite articles
English has two indefinite articles, a/an, which is used with singular nouns, and some, which is
used with plural nouns and with noncount nouns.
The indefinite articles a/an and some are used in two situations: