Unit 6: This is Jody’s Fawn

Look at these pairs of sentences.

Penny said to Jody, “Will you be back before dinner?”

Penny asked Jody if he would be back before dinner.

“How are you feeling, Pa?” asked Jody.

Jody asked his father how he was feeling.

Here are some questions in direct speech. Put them into reported speech.

(i) Penny said, “Do you really want it son?”

(ii) Mill-wheel said, “Will he ride back with me?”

(iii) He said to Mill-wheel, “Do you think the fawn is still there?”

(iv) He asked Mill-wheel, “Will you help me find him?”

(v) He said, “Was it up here that Pa got bitten by the snake?”

Look at these two sentences.

He tumbled backward.

It turned its head.

The first sentence has an intransitive verb, a verb without an object.

The second sentence has a transitive verb. It has a direct object. We can ask: “What did it turn?” You can answer: “Its head. It turned its head.”

Say whether the verb in each sentence below is transitive or intransitive. Ask yourself a ‘what’ question about the verb, as in the example above. (For some verbs, the object is a person, so ask the question ‘who’ instead of ‘what’).

(i) Jody then went to the kitchen.

(ii) The fawn wobbled after him.

(iii) You found him.

(iv) He picked it up.

(v) He dipped his fingers in the milk.

(vi) It bleated frantically and butted him.

(vii) The fawn sucked his fingers.

(viii) He lowered his fingers slowly into the milk.

(ix) It stamped its small hoofs impatiently.

(x) He held his fingers below the level of the milk.

(xi) The fawn followed him.

(xii) He walked all day.

(xiii) He stroked its sides.

(xiv) The fawn lifted its nose.

(xv) Its legs hung limply.

Here are some words from the lesson. Working in groups, arrange them in the order in which they would appear in the dictionary. Write down some idioms and phrasal verbs connected to these words. Use the dictionary for more idioms and phrasal verbs.