Complex
sentences are sentences that have several parts, each with a verb, and these
parts are joined by ‘joining words’ (连词).For example, here are two simplesentences: “I know a man. He has
five children.” If you join these two sentences by using the relative
pronoun (联系代名词)
‘who’,
it now becomes a complexsentence: “I
know a man who has five children.” (By the way, ‘who’
is not pronounced with extra word stress here. You only stress this word when it
means ‘
谁?’,
which is not the case here.)
It
is important to show the examiner that you can use a variety of words to join
sentence parts in order to make longer, more complex sentences. Examiners are
looking at this and if you don’t show it well enough, you won’t get a 6 (or
above) for
grammar. This is a strict rule that the examiners
must follow, even if other aspects of your grammar are very good.
Below
are some suggestions about making complex sentences:
Don’t
unnecessarily repeat the same noun – use pronouns such as he, she it,
we, they, the one, the ones and 联系代名词.
Show
that you can use 联系代名词–that, which,
who, whom, where, when.
Show that you
can use:if, although (= though), even though, as well (as), at the
moment, even, while, whereas, either, neither (+ nor), unless, rather than,
instead of, as soon as, when, once, after, while, meanwhile, besides, in
spite of, despite, yet, still, provided (providing) that, except, in order
to, in case, depending on, because, but, and, as, or, for example,
for instance, like,
such as, by …
There
are probably more linking words that I have forgotten but this is a good
list to study.
How can you learn to use these
words correctly? Firstly, don’t guess at the meaning or usage of these words
and phrases – use a good dictionary that has both English and Chinese to see
the exact meaning and usage. For example, the ‘Oxford Advanced Learner’s
English-Chinese Dictionary’ is a good one.
After
you read the Chinese meaning and see the example sentence in the dictionary,
write about 5 similar examples yourself and then speak these sentences (after
all, you are studying for the Speaking test, not just the Writing test).
The
following adverbs are also used to link ideas within a sentence: mainly,
chieflyespecially,
particularly,
predominantly, primarily, specially
, especially, specifically,
mostly.
These
adverbs can be found, HERE,
in Table B3 but not all the words in Table B3 are classified as linking
words.
In
English, the word ‘although’ is not followed by the word
‘but’. For example, don’t say, “Although he’s not very tall, but
he’s a good basketball player.” The correct sentence is, “Although
he’s not very tall, he’s a good basketball player.”
When
you want to say, ‘因为’use ‘because’
not, ‘for’, or ‘as’. These two words sound too formal in everyday spoken
English. For example, don’t say, “I’m sitting for the IELTS exam as
I want to study in Britain.” It’s more natural to say, “I’m sitting
for the IELTS exam because I want to study in Britain.”
The
word ‘since’ can be used instead of the word, ‘because’, especially at
the beginning of a sentence. For example: “Since I’m just a
student, I don’t have enough money to rent my own flat.” But if you use
‘since’ in the middle of a sentence, it also sounds too formal, although
not as formal as ‘for’, or ‘as’.
Notice
that, in Chinese you say “
因为。。。所以”
but in English, we don't say the 所以.
For example:
“Because I’m just a student,
so I don’t have
enough money to rent my own flat” is
not correct English. The correct sentence is: “Because I’m just a
student, I don’t have enough money to rent my own flat.” ( But that sentence
is usually much better if it is written or spoken this way: “I don’t have
enough money to rent my own flat because I’m just a student.”)
In addition to not saying
“so”,
there is another important point to remember about this type of sentence.
Although it is possible in English to begin sentences with “because”, most
English speakers don't do it very often, certainly not as often as Chinese
people speaking English. Instead, most English speakers would re-phrase the
sentence above to: “I don’t have enough money to rent my own flat because
I'm just a student.” On the other hand, if you said, “Because I’m just a
student, I don’t have enough money to rent my own flat” in Part 2 or in an
extended answer in Part 3, it would not sound wrong. The problem arises when
the examiner asks you a question such as, “Do you rent your own flat?” It
would be unsuitable to answer by beginning with the “Because” phrase
because that answer would not be a direct answer and English speakers
do not speak that way. Instead, you should say: “No, I don't because I'm
just a student so I don't have enough money to rent my own flat.”
Of course, English speakers do often begin
sentences with
“Because” in answer to a “Why....?” question and if you speak that way to begin an answer once or twice in the test it will help your
speech sound natural. But I suggest you don't begin many answers to a “Why
....?” question that way because, by speaking that way, you might be losing
the opportunity to impress the examiner with better English. The best
example of this is the answer to the question, “Why did you choose to study
that subject?” If you begin this way: “I
chose that because ...” you will impress the examiner by using the
past tense and secondly, you will impress the examiner with your knowledge
of the word, “chose”, which is the irregular past form of “choose” and which
is not well known or not often used by candidates below Band 6.
Notes
on the use of the relative pronouns ‘that’, ‘which’ and ‘who’
(This grammar,
written as Item 7, is quite complex! Don't spend too much time studying this
if it is too difficult for you. Just try to learn a few of the points
mentioned here.)
The
group of words that follows the words,
‘that’, ‘which’ or ‘who’
is called a “relative clause”.
There
are two types of relative clauses, Defining Relative Clauses and
Non-Defining Relative Clauses.
7.1Defining relative clauses explain which person or thing you
are talking about. For example, if you say, “I spoke to the man” it might be
unclear who you mean but if you say, “I spoke to the man who
lives upstairs” then you have defined which man.
When
defining a thing, we can use either ‘that’ or ‘which’.
For example, “I’ve finished reading the book that you gave
me” = “I’ve finished reading the book which you gave me”. (American English usually only uses
‘that’ in this
situation but British English allows for either
‘that’ or ‘which’
to be used here.)
When writing
defining relative clauses, the relative pronoun is never preceded by a
comma.
Defining relative clauses can be further divided into two types:
Type 1
Relative
pronouns representing the object (宾语)
of their clause. For example,
“I’ve finished reading the book that you gave me” (“that
you gave me” means, “you gave it to me”).
The relative clause is, “you gave
me”, the subject of the verb is “you” and the relative pronoun is “that”,
representing the object, “it”.
When the
relative pronoun represents an object, it can be omitted,
especially in informal language such as everyday speech.
For example, the sentence above can be spoken as, “I’ve finished reading the
book you gave me”.
Type 2
Relative
pronouns representing the subject (主语)
of their clause. For example, “I spoke to the man who
lives upstairs” (“who lives”means, “he
lives”).
When the relative pronoun is the
subject, it cannot be omitted.
If the
sentence above was changed to this: “I spoke to the man who I helped last year”
then is becomes a Type 1. You can see this because, “Who I
helped” means, “I helped him” so “who” now is an object and the
sentence could be spoken as, “I spoke to the man I helped last year.”
7.2Non-Defining relative clauses give extra information which
is notnecessary to say in order to define who or what you are talking
about. For example, “I saw Mr. Wang, who looked a
little tired.”
In
non-defining clauses, just as in defining clauses, the relative pronoun
can be either a subject or an object.
In both cases, you cannot omit the relative pronoun.
Since the relative pronoun is never omitted in a non-defining clause, it is
not necessary to analyse examples of the relative pronoun to see if it
represents the object or the subject of the relative clause. Nevertheless,
some examples are shown below.
Examples of Relative Pronoun as Subject of the Clause:
“I saw Mr. Wang, who looked a
little tired.” Here, “who looked a
little tired” means, “he looked a
little tired.”
“She bought a new car, which
was quite expensive.” Here, “which was quite expensive”
means, “it was quite expensive”.
Examples of Relative Pronoun as Object of the Clause
“I gave my old computer to my
neighbour, who I have known all my life.” Here,
“who I have known all my life” means, “I have
known him all my life.”
“He's very proud of his doctorate
(= PhD), which he put on his office wall, for everyone to
see.” Here, “which he put on his office wall”
means, “he
put it on his office wall”.
When
giving extra information about a thing, i.e., in a non-defining clause, you can
only use the word, ‘which’.
For example, “I read your essay, which was very
interesting.” You cannot replace ‘which’ in that sentence with
the word, ‘that’.
When writing
non-defining relative clauses, the relative pronoun must have a comma
before it.
Try to use,
‘which’ quite a lot in the Speaking test (and the Writing
test). This word is one of the most common of the linking words and by using
it often, you will be adding lots of extra information, which is an
important part of good communication. Remember, the
Speaking test is a test of communication. If the
examiner never (or rarely) hears you use that word, he or she will have a
strong impression that you are not a 6 (or above) for grammar and probably
not a 6 or above for Speaking, overall. But if you do use it a lot, the
impression that the examiner gets is that you are at least a 6, although
just using that word a lot is no guarantee that you will get a 6 or more!
Here is an example of how to use, ‘which’.
(You should also try to find exercises on this topic in grammar books.)
“This is my electronic dictionary. I find it very useful.” --> “This
is my electronic dictionary, which I find very useful.”
We
do not say, “This is my
electronic dictionary, which I find it very useful.” The word ‘which’ already represents
‘my electronic dictionary’ so we don't need to use a second pronoun.
The word, ‘and’
is, of course, very often used but it is rather simple and you won't really
score many points by simply using this word a lot. However, some candidates
do use it a lot, instead of just saying many short, simple sentences and
they do this because they have not practiced a larger range of linking
words. Doing
this is certainly better than habitually making many short sentencesand
it does give an impression that you are making complex
sentences. Not only that, it does help you to speak more fluently. But to
really impress
the examiner, you need to show a
range of linking words and use them frequently.
Examiners
sometimes ask you to name some different types of something, such as the
different types of films that people watch. A similar question is to ask you
to name some examples of something, such as, “Can
you think of any examples of leisure activities that people do in a place
that has a lot of water?” These questions are
basically testing your vocabulary but especially if the question is in Part
3, you should also consider these questions to be ‘invitations to speak
rather broadly’, not just a request for a list of words. But many
candidates just speak a list of words or names of different types of
something, without adding any extra comments. That kind of answer, although
satisfying the vocabulary requirements of the question, does not score very
highly in the grammar or coherence requirements –basically,
that kind of answer is a Band 5.0 or 5.5 level of English. You should try
to add comments, i.e., extra information, not just speak a list of
words.
Probably
the most common example of this question is this: “What
subjects do you (or, did you) study in high school?” Most candidates
just say, “I studied Maths, Physics, Chemistry, History, English and
Chinese.” To speak just a list of words does not require a very high
level of English and is only worth Band 5.0 or 5.5. Not only that, it's rather
boring to listen to. Here's an example of a better answer that is a Band 6.0,
6.5 (or 7.0) level:
“Well,
I studied Maths, which was my
favourite subject because I always got a high score in my exams for that
subject,
Physics, Chemistry, History, which
I found a little boring because I don't enjoy just memorizing a lot of dates, English and, of course, Chinese, which
is a compulsory subject for all students in China.”
A
candidate who knows how to show the intonation used when speaking a list would
score the highest for this answer. As you can see, you should use ‘which’
a few times in such an answer but to use ‘which’ after
saying every item in the list is a little unnatural and repetitious. It's
unnatural because the examiner asked, "What subjects did you study in
school?", not, "Tell me about the subjects you studied in school". The
question, "What subjects did you study in school?" is asking you to list the
subjects, not give extra information about them. But when giving such a list
in a conversational situation, it is natural to add a little information
about one or two of the examples in the list.
Then
read the complex sentence(s) and try to guess what words go in the blank
spaces.
Click
on 'Answer' to see if you are correct.
It
is possible to simply use the word, 'and' in many of the blank spaces but you should
try to use better words than that, although using 'and' is better than
nothing.
“I
need to learn English. English is very important. English will help me get a
good job. I want to work in international trade. I'm studying international
trade right now.”
“I
need to learn English_________ is
very important__________ it’ll
help me get a good job in international trade________ I'm studying right now.”
“I work in a software company. I’m a computer programmer.
My work is quite challenging. Our clients usually want us to write programs in a
short period of time.”
“I
work in a software company ______ a computer programmer______ is quite a challenging job ______________ our clients usually want
us to write programs in a short period of time.”
“Yes, Chinese people do like growing flowers. Many people
live in apartments in cities. It’s not easy to grow flowers in an apartment.
Some people have a balcony. People sometimes grow flowers on their balcony.
Retired people sometimes grow flowers on their balcony.”
“Yes,
Chinese people do
like growing flowers ________ _________
many people live in apartments in cities,it’s
not easy to grow flowers, ____________ people
________ have a balcony, ____________ retired people, sometimes grow flowers on
their balcony.”
Question:
“Would you say the place where you live is good for families with
children?”
Answer:
“Well, not really, no, because_______________
the apartments are all modern and clean, there are very few places for children
to play outside.”
“When
I was in Second Year of high school, I had a maths teacher. His name was Mr.
Wang. He really changed my life. He inspired me to love mathematics.”
“When
I was in Second Year of high school, I had a maths teacher named Mr. Wang______ really changed my life ______ inspiring me to love
mathematics.”
“To
tell you the truth, I don't play much sport. I don't walk much. I drive my car
everywhere. I drive my car to my office. My office is near my home. I sometimes
play table tennis. I'm quite good at table tennis. I know more exercise would
give me more energy. I just don't seem to find the time for exercise. I'm too
busy with my work.”
“To
tell you the truth, I don't play much sport _____ do I walk much _________ I
drive my car everywhere, ______ to my office, ________ is near my home
__________ I sometimes play table tennis, _________ I'm quite good at. I know
I'd have more energy _____ I did more exercise ______ I just don't seem to find
the time for exercise__________ I'm too busy with my work.”
