Lesson 23   A new house

I had a letter from my sister yesterday. She lives in Nigeria. In her letter, she said that she would come to England next year. If she comes, she will get a surprise. We are now living in a beautiful new house in the country. Work on it had begun before my sister left. The house was completed five months ago. In my letter, I told her that she could stay with us. The house has many large rooms and there is a lovely garden. It is a very modern house, so it looks strange to some people. It must be the only modern house in the district.

中文释义:

昨天我收到了姐姐的一封信，她住在尼日利亚。在信中她说她明年将到英国来。如果她来了，她会感到非常惊奇了。我们现在住在乡间的一栋漂亮的新住宅里。这栋房子在我姐姐离开之前就已动工了，是在5个月以前竣工的。我在信中告诉她，她可以和我们住在一起。这栋房子里有许多房间，还有一个漂亮的花园。它是一栋非常现代化的住宅，因此在有些人看来很古怪。它肯定是这个地区唯一的一栋现代化住宅。

Grammar

1. 复习一般将来时态，过去完成时态，直接引语转为间接引语。

2. 复习动名词和情态动词。

过去完成时表示的是发在在过去某点之前的动作，对过去这一点产生的影响，可以理解为 “过去的过去”，通常在句中会有动作的前后关系，常用的时间提示词有：after, before, by +过去的时间点， no sooner …than,  hardly…when…等。

Exercises.

1. Bob told me that he__________ there for years before he moved out.

A. worked   B. work   C. had worked   D. would work

2. Hardly __________ home than the telephone __________.

A. I had got; rang     B. had I got; rang

C. I had got; had rung    D. had I got; has rung

1. 解析： 本题考查的是直接引语转为间接引语的时态变化，主句是一般过去时，所以直接引语中的现在完成时需要退格成过去完成时，故答案选C。

2. 解析： 本题考查的是hardly+过去完成时+when+一般过去时的句型，表示“一…，就…”，当hardly位于句首时，前半句需要部分倒装，故答案为B。