Language Awareness 1

Questions
Direct Questions
Grammar in the Real World

116 Years Old: Life Lessons From the World's Oldest Living Person
Besse Cooper died peacefully earlier this week. At 116 years old, she was the oldest living person in the world. She
was also one of the five oldest Americans in history. Cooper was born in 1896. She married her husband, Luther
Cooper, in 1924. He died half a century ago in 1963, but she never remarried. She has four children, 11
grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren, and two great-great grandchildren. During an interview with the Guinness
Book of World Records, Cooper was asked about the keys to living a long life. She offered two pieces of advice: “I
mind my own business. And I don't eat junk food.” Let's talk about the wisdom in those two simple statements and
how you can use it to live better.

“I Mind My Own Business”

Stress is a silent killer. It can take years off of your life, and in some cases, it can end it altogether.
There's no doubt that Besse's mantra of minding her own business helped her avoid unnecessary drama, useless
comparisons, and unwanted stress. That's a good lesson to learn and it's a deeper wisdom than it appears on the
surface. Because we focus a lot on our own lives, it is easy to convince ourselves that we're minding our own
business when in fact we are doing exactly the opposite. We care about the job we have, the house we live in, the
clothes we wear, and the car we drive. And there's nothing wrong with that. Except that in many cases we think we
are minding our own business, but really we are comparing our lives to our peers, our neighbors, and our
community. Truly minding your own business has nothing to do with comparison. It means distancing yourself from
the unimportant and unnecessary drama, and living your life for the people around you instead of comparing it to
the people around you.

“I Don't Eat Junk Food”

Besse didn't eat junk food and I suggest that you don't either. But this piece of advice is about a lot more than what
you put on your plate. If it's not a good idea to fill your stomach with junk food, then it's probably not a good idea to
fill your mind with “junk” thoughts or your day with “junk” energy or your life with “junk” people. The work you do,
the enthusiasm you bring to life, the people you hang out with — these aren't just life decisions, these are health
decisions. Fill your plate with real food instead of processed junk and you'll go from overweight to overjoyed.
Trade watching TV for going on a photography adventure and you'll go from consuming what someone else created
to contributing your own work to the world. Surround yourself with people who are doing amazing things and you'll
go from “How could I ever do that?” to “How could I not?” Your health and happiness are an expression of how you
live your life. Dedicating yourself to fulfilling work, exploring life with curiosity and enthusiasm, contributing to the
world around you, and surrounding yourself with people who are inspiring and exciting are great ways to not just live
a wonderful life, but to live a healthy one as well.

When she was asked what advice she would give to high school graduates, Besse said, “You can do almost anything
you set as a goal in life.”

Adapted from: "116 Years Old: Life Lessons From The World's Oldest Living Person." James Clear. N. p., 2012. Web. 4
Sept. 2018. https://jamesclear.com/116-years-old-lessons-oldest-living-person

Grammar presentation

YES/NO QUESTIONS:

Subject and verb ‘’BE’’ change their position in statement and question.

 Sentence: You are from Turkey.

 Question: Are you from Turkey?

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Subject and the auxiliary verb change their position in statement and question.

 Sentence: You have been to Turkey.

 Question: have you been to Turkey?

An auxiliary (Do/Does/Did) is added to the question, if the main verb is NOT verb ‘’BE’’.

 Sentence: You work in Turkey.

 Question: Do you work in Turkey?

The auxiliary takes the subject-verb agreement.

 Sentence: She works in Turkey.

 Question: Does she work in Turkey?

The auxiliary takes the tense. The main verb is used in the infinitive form.

 Sentence: You worked in Turkey.

 Question: Did you work in Turkey?

WH-QUESTIONS

WH-word + YES/NO question.

 Sentence: You taught in Turkey.

 YES/NO Question: Did you teach in Turkey?

 WH Question: Where did you teach?

What time are you taking the exam?
What were you doing last week?
How much have you spent so far?
When will you be able to come?

An easy way to remember the word order in question is using a formula. This formula is called QUASM:
QU estion word
A uxiliary verb
S ubject
M ain verb

OBJECT QUESTIONS
The formula used above applies for the object or rest questions
 Sentence: Shakespeare wrote Midsummer Night’s Dream.
 Question: What did Shakespeare write?

 Sentence: He called Hatice.

 Question: Who did he call?

SUBJECT QUESTIONS
In subject questions, we only replace the subject with an appropriate question word.

 Sentence: Shakespeare wrote Midsummer Night’s Dream.

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 Question: Who wrote Midsummer Night’s Dream?
 Question: Which writer wrote Midsummer Night’s Dream?

 Sentence: A tragedy happened yesterday.

 Question: What happened yesterday?

 Sentence: He called Hatice.

 Question: Who called Hatice?

VERB QUESTIONS

In (action) verb questions we use the question word WHAT and replace the verb with ‘’do’’ taking its form. Usually
the rest of the sentence is deleted.

 Sentence: He watered the plants.

 Question: What did he do?

 Sentence: She has written the report.

 Question: What has she done?

 Sentence: The manager is changing the system.

 Question: What is the manager doing?

 Sentence: I will call her soon.

 Question: What will you do?

When the rest of the sentence contains clause (a purpose, conditional, time clause clause, etc.) you should keep it
in the question.

 Sentence: You should call this number to get the information.

 Question: What should I/one do to get the information

 Sentence: She must write her number correctly, if she wants her requested to be handled in time.
 Question: What must she do, if she wants her requested to be handled in time.

Grammar in application
Task 1: Write questions to the underlined words in the following sentences
1. Ceren is reading a book.
___________________________________________
2. Tuba walks to school every day.
___________________________________________
3. The students are sitting in the cafeteria.
___________________________________________
4. She has an exam tomorrow.
___________________________________________
5. Eren likes music because it relaxes him.
___________________________________________
6. He shouted at him.
___________________________________________

7. They may go to Bali on Holiday.

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___________________________________________
8. Daryl asked David to write the report.
___________________________________________
9. Faith wrote a letter last week.
___________________________________________
10. He cooked a meal.
___________________________________________

Task 2: Write the questions to the answers highlighted in the following paragraphs.
Text 1: Most Interesting Animal Facts
1. Giraffes:
1. Giraffes and humans have the same number of bones in their neck.
___________________________________________
2. Giraffe age can be calculated from its spots. The darker the spots, the older the giraffe.
___________________________________________
3. A giraffe’s tongue is so long that it uses it to clean its ears. The color of the tongue is black.
___________________________________________
4. They rarely lay down; they even sleep and give birth standing up.
___________________________________________
5. Giraffes are the only animals born with horns.
___________________________________________
2. Sun Bear:
1. The Sun Bear has the longest tongue of all bear species – 8 to 10 inches long.
___________________________________________
2. Sun bear is also known as “Dog Bear” due to its glossy fur, short snout, and small size.
___________________________________________
3. They bark to scare away predators and to declare territory.
___________________________________________
4. A sun bear claws grow throughout its lifetime and the length of its claws can show the age of sun
bears.
___________________________________________
Adapted from: John David. "Most Interesting Animal Facts." Words I Seek. N. p., 1533. Web. 4 Sept. 2018.
http://www.wordsiseek.com/interesting-cool-animal-facts/

Text 2: Interesting Facts About World’s Different Countries

1. Africa:
Africa is the only continent with the extremely crowded population of mostly young generation. In Africa, you will
enjoy (1)spectacular places, meet the variety of people and face different climate situations. There are much
known and interesting fun facts about Africa, but there are much more unknown facts about Africa that are worth
mentioning.
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1. (1)41% of the children in Africa are engaged in child labor aged between 5 and 14.
2. There are (2) 54 countries in Africa.
3. South Africa is also called (3)the “Rainbow Nation” (4) because it has eleven official languages.
4. In Swaziland, (5)Africa, 1 out of 4 adults are infected with (6) HIV.
5. Despite of (7) having natural resources, Africa is the poorest and underdeveloped continent.
6. (8)Almost a third of world’s languages are spoken in Africa.
7. Almost one-half of world’s diamonds come from (9)central and southern Africa.
8. (10)Over 50% of Africans are under the age of 25.
9. (11)Lake Victoria in Africa is the largest lake and second largest freshwater lake in the world.
10. Sudan has (12) more than 200 pyramids, more than the number of pyramids found in Egypt.
1. ___________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________
4. ___________________________________________
5. ___________________________________________
6. ___________________________________________
7. ___________________________________________
8. ___________________________________________
9. ___________________________________________
10. ___________________________________________
11. ___________________________________________
12. ___________________________________________

2. US:
Do you know that about one-fourth of the entire global prison population is in the USA?
USA is somehow a weird place that is not always considered as a bad. Sometimes, “weird” can keep things
fascinating. But, no doubt, (1)America is a unique nation in the page of history. Some of the interesting facts about
United States of America and US history facts are listed below that might be difficult for you to believe.
1. Hawaii is the only place in the United States where coffee is grown (1)commercially.
2. In 1867, the U.S. owned Alaska for just (2)$72 millions from Russia.
3. (3) Apple has more money than the U.S. treasury.
4. The US Air force had only 18 pilots and 5 to 12 airplanes (4)when the world war l started.
5. More people have been identified with (5) mental disorders in America as compared to any other
nation.
6. (6)The U.S. has the highest divorce rates in the world.
7. Approximately 200 million people in America live (7) in mobile homes.
8. The U.S. has no (8) official language.

Adapted from: John David. "Interesting Facts About World’S Different Countries." Words I Seek. N. p., 1533. Web. 4
Sept. 2018. http://www.wordsiseek.com/facts-about-worlds-different-countries/
1. ___________________________________________

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2. ___________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________
4. ___________________________________________
5. ___________________________________________
6. ___________________________________________
7. ___________________________________________
8. ___________________________________________

Text 3: The Best 5 Inspirational Short Stories About Life

1. Shake off Your Problems
(1) A man’s favorite donkey falls into a deep large hole. He can’t pull it out no matter how hard he tries. He
therefore decides to bury (2)it alive.
Soil is poured onto the donkey from above. The donkey feels the load, shakes it off, and steps on it. (3)More soil is
poured.
It shakes it off and steps up. The more the load was poured, the higher it rose. By noon, the donkey was grazing (4)
in green fields.
(5)After much shaking off (of problems) and stepping up (learning from them), one will graze in GREEN FIELD.

1. ___________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________
4. ___________________________________________
5. ___________________________________________

2. The Elephant Rope

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were
being held (1) by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious (2)that the elephants
could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.
He saw (3)a trainer nearby and asked (4) why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.
“Well,” trainer said, “(5) when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at
that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are made to believe they cannot break away. (6) They
believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”
(7)The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed
they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.
Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply
because we failed at it once before?
(8) Failure is part of learning; we should never (9) give up the struggle in life.

1. ___________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________
4. ___________________________________________
5. ___________________________________________
6. ___________________________________________
7. ___________________________________________
8. ___________________________________________

3. The Dean Schooled Them

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One night four college kids stayed out late, partying and having a good time. They paid no mind to the test
they had scheduled for the next day and didn’t study. In the morning, they (1) hatched a plan to get out of taking
their test. They covered themselves with (2) grease and dirt and went to the Dean’s office. Once there, they said (3)
they had been to a wedding the previous night and on the way back they got a flat tire and had to push the car
back to campus.
The Dean listened to their tale. He offered them a retest three days later. They thanked him and accepted his offer.
(4)When the test day arrived, they went to the Dean. The Dean put them all in separate rooms for the test. They
were fine with this (5)since they had all studied hard. Then they saw the test. (6) It had 2 questions.
1) Your Name __________ (1 Points)
2) Which tire burst? __________ (99 Points)
Options – (a) Front Left (b) Front Right (c) Back Left (d) Back Right
The lesson: always be responsible and make wise decisions.

1. ___________________________________________
2. ___________________________________________
3. ___________________________________________
4. ___________________________________________
5. ___________________________________________
6. ___________________________________________
Adapted from: "15 Best Inspirational Short Stories That Will Motivate You." Livin3. N. p., 2015. Web. 5 Sept. 2018.
https://www.livin3.com/5-motivational-and-inspiring-short-stories

Indirect Questions
Grammar presentation
Embedded/Indirect questions:

Polite/indirect phrase + WH word + the original sentence – the information asked.

 Sentence: The bank opens at 09.00.

 Direct Question: When does the bank open?

 Indirect question: Do you know when the bank opens?
 Indirect question: I wanted to know when the bank opens.

PHRASES FOR INDIRECT QUESTIONS

 Could you tell me…
 Do you know…
 I was wondering…
 Do you have any idea…
 I’d like to know…
 Would it be possible…
 Is there any chance…

Rules for embedded/indirect questions:

1. If the Polite/indirect phrase is a YES/NO question, you end the sentence with a question mark. But if
the Polite/indirect phrase is NOT a YES/NO question, you end the sentence with a period.
 Direct question: What did he say?
 Indirect question: Can you tell me tell me what he said?
 Indirect question: I wonder what he said.

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2. Reverse the positions of the verb and subject. Delete does/do/did if used and revert the tense
to the main verb.
 Direct question: What did he say?
 Indirect question: Can you tell me tell me what he said?
 Indirect question: I wonder what he said.

3. No contraction in indirect questions.

 Direct question: Where is he?
 Correct indirect question: Do you know where he is?
 Incorrect indirect question: Do you know where he’s?

4. Use WHETHER, WHETHER OR NOT, or IF when the direct question is a YES/NO question.
 Direct question: Will he be there?
 Indirect question: Do you know if he will be there?
 Indirect question: Do you know whether or not he will be there?
 Indirect question: Do you know whether he will be there or not?

5. Use TO + INFINITIVE after the question word or whether.

 Direct question: What should I do?
 Indirect question: Please tell me what I should do.
 Indirect question: Please tell me what to do.

Grammar in application
Task 1: Write indirect questions using the phrases provided

Who built that enormous bridge? (I wonder...)

___________________________________________

1. What's Brazil like? (I want to find out...)

___________________________________________

2. Did Benjamin Franklin write 'Poor Richard's Almanac'? (I can't remember ....)
___________________________________________

3. How do you do it? (Can you tell me ...)

___________________________________________

4. Who did you meet at the party? (I'd like to know ...)
___________________________________________

5. How long have you been waiting for me? (I wonder ...)
___________________________________________

6. What happened to them? (Nobody cares ...)

___________________________________________

7. How important is that meeting to the company? (Can you tell me ...)

__________________________________________
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8. When was the film produced? (Nobody remembers ...)

__________________________________________

9. Have they flown an ultralight too? (I don't know ...)

__________________________________________

10. What is it called in English? (I can't remember ....)

__________________________________________

11. Should people be allowed to smoke in public places? (I'd like to know ....)
__________________________________________

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