Descriptive Text

Descriptive text is available for a screen reader device to audibly describe a graph or map so a visually impaired user can understand the graphical information . Or to describe the characteristic of particular Person, thing , or place .

* Textstructure:

- Identification: Identifies thing, person, place, phenomenon to be described.

- Description: Gives the information of particular thing, person, or

Place being discussed or describes parts, qualities, or Characteristic.

* Language figures:

a. Topic is usually about the attributes of a think.

b. The use of think person pronoun forms is used.

c. The use of focus specific human and non human participants.

d. The use of reasoning expressed as verbs or noun.

e. The use of material.

f. The use of relation and mental process.

* Characteristic:

a. Use the simple present tense.

b. Using detailed noun phrases to provide information on the subject.

c. Uses relating verbs to provide information on the subject.

d. Use the thinking and feeling verbs to reveal personal views about the subject

author.

e. Use action verbs.

f. Use adverbials to provide additional information.

g. Use figurative language such as simile, metaphor.

* Grammatical features:

- Who? What?

- Using linking verb and simple present tense,

- Epithet: adjective or adjective phrase,

- Attributive (the)

- Use a attributive and identifying process,

- Focus an specific participants,

- Frequent use of epithets and classified in nominal groups

Example of Descriptive Text:

Paris

Paris is the capital city of France. It is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It is also one of the world's most crowded cities. Lovely gardens and parks are found throughout Paris. At night, many palaces and statues are lit up. For this reason, Paris is often called the City of Light.

Every year, millions of people visit Paris. The most popular place to visit is the Eiffel Tower. This huge structure has become the symbol of Paris. The Louvre, one of the world's largest art museums, draws many visitors. The Cathedral of Notre Dame, a famous church, is another favourite place to visit.

Introductory It

  When the subject is an infinitive phrase, the sentence often begins withit. Instead of saying ‘To find fault with others is easy’, we say, ‘It is easy to find fault with others’.

More examples are given below.

• It is easy to learn English. (More natural than ‘To learn English is easy’.)
• It was not easy to understand his motive.
• It may be advisable to consult a specialist.
• It could be dangerous to drive so fast.
• It was pleasant to sit on the beach.

However, when we want to emphasize the infinitive phrase, it may be put at the beginning especially if it is short.

• To err is human.
• To withdraw now will be sheer folly.

When the subject is a phrase that includes a gerund, it is used as a provisional subject to begin the sentence. Instead of saying ‘Your trying to deceive us is no good’, we may say ‘It is no good your trying to deceive us’.

• Will it be any good my talking to him about it?
• It is no use arguing with him.
• It won’t be much good complaining to the officer about it.

Note that the gerund can be changed into the infinitive.

• Will it be any good for me to talk to him about it?

     When the subject is a clause, the sentence usually begins with it. Instead of saying ‘That she was once a famous artist is true’, we may say, ‘It is true that she was once a famous artist’.

• It does not matter whether he comes or not. ( Whether he comes or not does not matter.)
• It is doubtful whether he can pay the dues. ( Whether he can pay the dues is doubtful.)
• It cannot be denied that the doctors did their best to save his life. (That the doctors did their best to save his life cannot be denied.)

Passive Voice

Use of Passive

Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important or not known, however, who or what is performing the action.

Example: My bike was stolen.

In the example above, the focus is on the fact that my bike was stolen. I do not know, however, who did it.

Sometimes a statement in passive is more polite than active voice, as the following example shows:

Example: A mistake was made.

In this case, I focus on the fact that a mistake was made, but I do not blame anyone (e.g. You have made a mistake.).

Form of Passive

Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle (3rd column of irregular verbs)

Example: A letter was written.

When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:

• the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
• the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
• the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is dropped)

Examples of Passive 

Tense		Subject	Verb	Object
Simple Present	Active:	Rita	writes	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	is written	by Rita.
Simple Past	Active:	Rita	wrote	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	was written	by Rita.
Present Perfect	Active:	Rita	has written	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	has been written	by Rita.
Future I	Active:	Rita	will write	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	will be written	by Rita.
Hilfsverben	Active:	Rita	can write	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	can be written	by Rita.

Examples of Passive 

Tense		Subject	Verb	Object
Present Progressive	Active:	Rita	is writing	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	is being written	by Rita.
Past Progressive	Active:	Rita	was writing	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	was being written	by Rita.
Past Perfect	Active:	Rita	had written	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	had been written	by Rita.
Future II	Active:	Rita	will have written	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	will have been written	by Rita.
Conditional I	Active:	Rita	would write	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	would be written	by Rita.
Conditional II	Active:	Rita	would have written	a letter.
	Passive:	A letter	would have been written	by Rita.

Passive Sentences with Two Objects 

Rewriting an active sentence with two objects in passive voice means that one of the two objects becomes the subject, the other one remains an object. Which object to transform into a subject depends on what you want to put the focus on.

	Subject	Verb	Object 1	Object 2
Active:	Rita	wrote	a letter	to me.
Passive:	A letter	was written	to me	by Rita.
Passive:	I	was written	a letter	by Rita.

.

As you can see in the examples, adding by Rita does not sound very elegant. That’s why it is usually dropped.

Personal and Impersonal Passive

Personal Passive simply means that the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. So every verb that needs an object (transitive verb) can form a personal passive.

Example: They build houses. – Houses are built.

Verbs without an object (intransitive verb) normally cannot form a personal passive sentence (as there is no object that can become the subject of the passive sentence). If you want to use an intransitive verb in passive voice, you need an impersonal construction – therefore this passive is called Impersonal Passive.

Example: he says – it is said

Impersonal Passive is not as common in English as in some other languages (e.g. German, Latin). In English, Impersonal Passive is only possible with verbs of perception (e. g. say, think, know).

Example: They say that women live longer than men. – It is said that women live longer than men.

Although Impersonal Passive is possible here, Personal Passive is more common.

Example: They say that women live longer than men. – Women are said to live longer than men.

The subject of the subordinate clause (women) goes to the beginning of the sentence; the verb of perception is put into passive voice. The rest of the sentence is added using an infinitive construction with 'to' (certain auxiliary verbs and that are dropped).

Sometimes the term Personal Passive is used in English lessons if the indirect object of an active sentence is to become the subject of the passive sentence.

Noun Phrase

Recognize a noun phrase when you see one.

A noun phrase includes a noun—a person, place, or thing—and the modifiers which distinguish it.

You can find the noun dog in a sentence, for example, but you don't know which canine the writer means until you consider the entire noun phrase: that dog, Aunt Audrey's dog, the dog on the sofa, the neighbor's dog that chases our cat, the dog digging in the new flower bed.

Modifiers can come before or after the noun. Ones that come before might include articles, possessive nouns, possessive pronouns,adjectives, and/or participles.

Articles: a dog, the dog

Possessive nouns: Aunt Audrey's dog, the neighbor'sdog, the police officer's dog

Possessive pronouns: Our dog, her dog, their dog

Adjectives: That dog, the big dog, the spotted dog

Participles: The drooling dog, the barking dog, the well trained dog

Modifiers that come after the noun might include prepositional phrases, adjective clauses, participle phrases, and/or infinitives.

Prepositional phrases: A dog on the loose, the dog in the front seat, the dog behind the fence

Adjective clauses: The dog that chases cats, the dogthat looks lost, the dog that won the championship

Participle phrases: The dog whining for a treat, the dog clipped at the grooming salon, the dog walked daily

Infinitives: The dog to catch, the dog to train, the dogto adopt

Less frequently, a noun phrase will have a pronoun as its base—a word like we, everybody, etc.—and the modifiers which distinguish it. Read these examples:

We who were green with envy

We = subject pronoun; who were green with envy = modifier.

Someone intelligent

Someone = indefinite pronoun; intelligent = modifier.

No one important

No one = indefinite pronoun; important = modifier.

Asking Information

We use question words to ask certain types of questions (question word questions). We often refer to them as WH words because they include the letters WH (for example WHy, HoW).

Question Word	Function	Example
what	asking for information about something	What is your name?
	asking for repetition or confirmation	What? I can't hear you. You did what?
what...for	asking for a reason, asking why	What did you do that for?
when	asking about time	When did he leave?
where	asking in or at what place or position	Where do they live?
which	asking about choice	Which colour do you want?
who	asking what or which person or people (subject)	Who opened the door?
whom	asking what or which person or people (object)	Whom did you see?
whose	asking about ownership	Whose are these keys? Whose turn is it?
why	asking for reason, asking what...for	Why do you say that?
why don't	making a suggestion	Why don't I help you?
how	asking about manner	How does this work?
	asking about condition or quality	How was your exam?
how + adj/adv	asking about extent or degree	see examples below
how far	distance	How far is Pattaya from Hongkong?
how long	length (time or space)	How long will it take?
how many	quantity (countable)	How many cars are there?
how much	quantity (uncountable)	How much money do you have?
how old	age	How old are you?
how come (informal)	asking for reason, asking why	How come I can't see her?

Preposition In, On, AT

In general, we use:

• at for a POINT
• in for an ENCLOSED SPACE
• on for a SURFACE

at	in	on
POINT	ENCLOSED SPACE	SURFACE
at the corner	in the garden	on the wall
at the bus stop	in London	on the ceiling
at the door	in France	on the floor
at the top of the page	in a box	on the cover
at the end of the road	in my pocket	on the floor
at the entrance	in my bag	on the carpet
at the crossroads	in a building	on the menu
at the front desk	in a car	on a page

Look at these examples:

• Yunho is waiting for you at the bus stop.
• The shop is at the end of the street.
• My plane stopped at Paris and Korea and arrived in Hongkong two hours late.
• When will you arrive at the office?
• Do you work in an office?
• I have a meeting in New York.
• Do you live in Bangkok?
• Mars is in the Solar System.
• The author's name is on the cover of the book.
• There are no prices on this menu.
• You are standing on my foot.
• There was a "no smoking" sign on the wall.
• I live on the 7th floor at 21 Oxford Street in USA.

Notice the use of the prepositions of place at, in and on in these standard expressions:

at	in	on
at home	in a car	on a bus
at work	in a taxi	on a train
at school	in a helicopter	on a car
at university	in a boat	on a ship
at college	in a lift	on a bicycle, on a motorbike
at the top	in the newspaper	on a horse, on an elephant
at the bottom	in the sky	on the radio, on television
at the side	in a row	on the left, on the right
at reception	in Oxford Street	on the way