D-11.14 Shape Up Use of Verb-Related Sentence Elements in Contexts of “Current Issues”

Units 15-16 of the Original Scenario, Volume Three: English Grammar in Context: Gerunds & Verb Complements; Summary & Review: Verb Forms (“Current Issues,” “Languages”), pages 189-202, 203-204

16 pages

Who It’s For: (Self) Teachers & Helpers Through (High) Advanced Proficiency Levels Streamlining Their Grammar Usage While Revising Their Understanding & Messaging  

Why It’s Useful: So we’re / you’re still at it (or at it again)—improving our / your use of Grammar to return to contentious issues that grabbed us in the past—but have yet to be resolved for the common good.  Yes, the black & white of this vintage Unit is fading, but its core reality isn’t.  And anymore, almost nothing (in print, over the airwaves, or in our own thoughts) can be interpreted as black & white (unequivocal—without shades of gray).  So let’s try to “make it all better” by reinterpreting, modifying, rephrasing, formulating, delineating, and clarifying—together.

What You’ll Do: 

[1] With the page 189 mock write-ups of a Scenario: Gerunds & Verb Complements (“Current Issues”), relate to the ubiquity of headlines / articles outlining “issues” that raise controversy.  Notice that its topics—Smoking in Public, College Tuition, Drug Smuggling, Handguns—have long since ebbed behind more pressing concerns—such as pandemics / human rights, protests / repression, social / economic inequality, global health / education, poverty /  war, climate change / environmental destruction, ( religious / political ) conflicts, and many others. 

[2] Even so, the sentence structures or linguistic styles of these two Units—replicated in the Comprehension, Explanation, Practice Exercises, and Expressive Activities that fill them—make useful “templates” (models) for taking in and putting out info, thoughts, and opinions.  So in Sections 1a-6b on pages 189-202 and Sections 1-1a that end the excerpt, summarize and coordinate what you know, have learned, and can do with the grammar of Gerunds, Infinitives, Verb Complements & Forms—as well as other sentence elements that fit productively into any questions and/or answers you have about what’s going on in our uncertain world.