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KEY TO THE TASKS
a lot of evidence against it. Ihe company has/have" bought a lot of new eguip¬
ment. I have heard a lot of interesting news, but it is not good news. All the
information we have received has been proven wrong.
* GB: have, US: has
Task 2: The number of definite articles will depend to some extent on the
grammatical structure of particular sentences in the translation, but in the
original English text (see below) the correspondents of the following words
appear without an article:
a veszély, a hivatásos bokszolás , a sárkányrepülés, a gyaloglás, a bankrablók,
a tűzharcok, a biztonság, a lépcső, a konyha, a fürdőszoba, a csúszós padló, a
gyűrött szőnyeg, a kés, villa, olló, a gáz, a forró víz, az elektromos áram
Note that in some cases the indefinite article is used in English where the
Hungarian translation uses the definite article:
az őrült — only a fool; az ágy a bed; a földrengés — an earthquake
THE SITUATION IS HOPELESS, BUT NOT SERIOUS
Noone disagrees that many of our most routine activities contain some element
of © danger. How many dangers should we be willing to risk? Reason and
common sense suggest a minimum, or, if possible, none at all. Even the most
daring among us will consider @ professional boxing or © hang-gliding too
risky. Driving? Think of how many people are killed or maimed in traffic ac¬
cidents every day. But even © walking entails certain dangers that soon reveal
themselves to the searching view of © reason. © Pickpockets, © exhaust fumes,
© collapsing buildings, © shoot-outs between © bank robbers and the police,
© incandescents fragments of @ American or Soviet space satellites probes
— the list of dangers is endless and only a fool will blindly expose himself to
these © risks. It is certainly safer to stay home. But even there one’s safety is
relative. At home there are © stairs, the well-known assorted dangers of ©
kitchens and © bathrooms, @ slippery floors or @ crumpled carpets, © knives,
© forks, to say nothing of © gas, © hot water and @ electricity. The only rea¬
sonable conclusion would be to stay in ® bed. But what protection does a bed
offer in the event of an earthquake? And what if one develops © bedsores?!”
25 Watzlawick, Paul: The situation is hopeless, but not serious. W. W. Norton, 1993.
* 237 ¢