GRAMMAR: POSSIBILITY AND SUGGESTIONS: MAY and SHOULD in Present and Past
MAY is used to express POSSIBILITY; SHOULD is used for SUGGESTIONS and recommendations. Both can be used to refer to the present/future and to the past, although the form changes a little.
• For Present and/or Future, the form is very easy – MAY or SHOULD + VERB (Do NOT use “to!”)
He MAY GO to the movies this afternoon.
That man MAY BE sick; he looks very pale.
You SHOULD FINISH the report before you go to bed.
They SHOULDN’T BOTHER him while he’s working.
• For Past Tense, use MAY HAVE or SHOULD HAVE + PARTICIPLE
I’m not sure where Dan was yesterday. He MAY HAVE GONE to the beach.
I don’t know why she hasn’t called me. She MAY HAVE FORGOTTEN MY NUMBER.
Look how tired you are! You SHOULDN’T HAVE GONE to bed so late last night!
They SHOULD HAVE LISTENED to your advice; now they’re in a lot of trouble.
A. Change these sentences to the Past Tense:
1. You shouldn’t let the children do that!
2. Ilse may be too tired to go shopping.
3. Should she play tennis with that bad knee?
4. They shouldn’t drive the car without checking the oil.
5. I may be wrong.
B. Make a suggestion (More than one answer may be possible but be careful of the tense!)
Example: John stayed up till 2:00 A.M. He shouldn’t have stayed up so late OR He should have gone to bed earlier.
1. I ate too much pizza.
2. He wants to get a good grade on this report.
3. My brother bought a used car without taking it to a mechanic first.
4. You try to pet every strange dog you see on the street.
C. Give a possible explanation for these situations. (Again, more than one answer is possible, but watch the tense!)
Example: My daughter isn’t happy in her school. She may not like her teacher.
1. Mary didn’t come to work yesterday. __________________________________
2. No one likes that restaurant. ________________________________________
3. The dog started barking at 3:00 this morning.____________________________
4. He won’t return my calls! ___________________________________________
5. Look at all the water in the street! _____________________________________
VOCABULARY: ACCIDENTS CAN HAPPEN!
1. slip (V&N) Lose your balance, because of ice, snow, water, or anything slippery (like a banana peel!) on the street or floor. Mikey stepped in the water on the bathroom floor, slipped, and almost fell down.
2. trip (V) To step on something on the floor and almost lose your balance. I tripped over the cat in the dark.
3. stumble (V&N) The same as TRIP. While hiking, I stumbled over a rock and twisted my ankle.
4. walk/run/dance etc. into (V) To bump (or crash!) something by accident. They got too excited and danced right into the wall! .
5. Drop (V) When you are holding something, and you let it fall by accident. Oops! He dropped the Stradivarius violin out of the 10th floor window.
********************
TOP THREE MOVIES IN U.S. THIS WEEK (Reviews Compiled by Rottentomatoes.com):
AVATAR
Avatar is nearly a visual masterpiece.
It revels in the archetypal broadness of its story, hoping to become a pre-existing classic, even as it unfolds for the first time. For the most part, it works. Some of the dialog is dull and the attempts at humor are frequently embarrassing…but this is overwhelmed by the film’s emotional impact (the Na’Vi are as expressive as anything put on the screen since the original King Kong rampaged through New York). Avatar is a fine, if flawed, film, one that will remain in memory for its artistic and technical achievements.
PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME
Combine Stephen Sommers’ The Mummy (1999) with Disney’s Aladdin and you have the story, the plot and the action. A sacred object, the Dagger of Time, must be returned to its rightful place or the world will fall to ruin. This is a special dagger which has the ability to rewind time, conveniently enough for only one minute. Does it rewind time everywhere? Never mind. This isn’t the sort of film to inspire even shallow thoughts.
This is a forgettable entertainment that might be worth a matinee if you can’t think of anything else to do… laundry, for example.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
It’s by some distance director Tim Burton’s most disappointing outing since Planet Of The Apes.
Alice In Wonderland may look fantastic – even if the 3D comes across as disappointingly flat after Avatar’s immersive depth – but there’s little else going for it. A complete lack of story and the lack of key characters and moments from Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland provide little sustenance for heart or brain– it’s emotionally cold, utterly predictable and there’s never any sense of peril.
ANSWERS:
A.
1. You shouldn’t have let the children do that!
2. Ilse may have been too tired to go shopping.
3. Should she have played tennis with that bad knee?
4. They shouldn’t have driven the car without checking the oil.
5. I may have been wrong.
B.
1. You should have eaten less pizza.
2. He should do more research.
3. He should have taken it to a good mechanic.
4. You shouldn’t go near strange dogs!
C.
1. She may have been sick.
2. The service may be bad.
3. The dog may have heard strange noises.
4. He may be angry at you.
5. A pipe may have broken.
The CISL Lesson of the Month is written by Pam Mondragon.
