The Japanese Way of Bathing

For the Japanese, bathing is one of the pleasures of life. Every Japanese takes one if not two baths a day. At holiday time they'll look for an open-air hot spring pool to relax in and for the Japanese the bath can become a social occasion.

The traditional Japanese bath also saves on water. No Japa­nese ever gets into a bath until he has washed himself thor­oughly all over. He sits on a small stool in front of the taps and a bowl. He then soaps himself all over and washes his whole body. He then washes all the soap off with the help of bowls of water from the tap. Only then does he get in the bath. For the Japanese the western habit of taking a bath which involves washing in the bath water is vulgar and dirty. This even applies to the open-air hot springs in the country. So if you decide to join the Japanese in their favourite holiday pastime, make sure you remember to get yourself clean before you get in.

The Particle

1. The particle is a part of speech, which gives moral or emo­tional emphasis to other words or a phrase, or a clause in the sentence. Particles have no independent function in the sen­tence.

2. According to their meaning they may be divided into the fol­lowing groups:

a) limiting particles: only, but, alone, merely, solely, barely, etc.

Sorry, I only wanted to use your telephone. Her last call alone would have made me give up everything and go to her.

b) intensifying particles: just, even, simply, quite, still, yet, only, etc.

I just want to live and work here.

They didn 't even know where he lived.

Yet, you could have helped me if you only wanted.

c) connecting particles: too, also.

I didn't say a word. Mother, too, was silent. Mr Fox signed all the letters and also made some calls be­fore leaving.

d) Negative particles: not, no.

Are you going to tell him the truth? - Not I. Nothing, not a word was told to me about it. The truth was we had no information about the decision of the committee.

NOTE: Almost all particles are homonymous with other parts of the speech, chiefly with adverbs, but also with conjunctions, pronouns and adjectives. The particles else, solely, merely have no homonyms.

This is just the book I want, (particle)

He's just written a new novel, (adverb)

f have only one letter to answer, (particle)

This is the only way out. (adjective)

I can help you, too. (particle)

Your problem is that your are too lazy, (adverb)

I merely want you to listen to me. Just don't interrupt me please.

Practice

1. Read the following texts and analyze all the particles used in them. Discuss the contents of the texts using as many particles as possible to give emotional emphasis to your story.

The Hold-up

I have four small children, three girls and one boy. I don't go out very much because it's hard for me to find someone to look after them. When I do go out, I have to find a baby sitter. It's not easy for me to find a baby sitter because we have just moved here. Since we're new in town, I don't know very many people yet.

Well, one Friday morning I looked in my purse and found that I had only two pounds left. I still had to do that week's shopping. There was nothing else I could do; I merely had to go to the bank. Yet, I hoped that Rachel, my next-door neighbour, could come and baby-sit for me, but she wasn't at home. So after the children were all dressed, we went off to the bank.

After we were all in the car, I tried to relax a little as I drove to the bank. The children were very noisy from the start. They even were shouting and crying, and picking on each other. By the time we arrived at the bank, I was very angry too.

The bank was very crowded. I don't think since it was the end of the month, it was payday for most people.

Anyway, the children were still playing up, and I was still pretty angry with them. I turned around to try to keep them quiet and shouted, "Stand against the wall and don't say a word!" Everyone in the bank stopped talking. They thought it was a hold-up!

Too Good to be True

The man was always very polite. He always took off his hat and said, "Good afternoon" to the customs officer. The customs officer always asked him to open his bag, but the customs offi­cer couldn't find any whisky or perfume, or cigarettes or any­thing. When the customs officer had looked through the man's bag and couldn't find anything, the man always took off his hat and said, "Thank you. Good-bye!" He was very polite. Yet, the customs officer was sure the man was a smuggler.

After a month the customs officer was so unhappy that he left his job. The next day he watched the smuggler come up to the new customs officer.

"Good afternoon!" said the smuggler and took off his hat politely. "Good afternoon!" said the new customs officer. "Would you open your bag, please". So the man opened his bag again, but the new customs officer couldn't find anything either. "Thank you. Good-bye!" said the man and took off his hat po­litely.

Outside the customs the old customs officer, who had left his job, stopped him and said, "I'm not a customs officer any­more. I left my job. Would you please tell me what you're smuggling? I know you're smuggling something". The old cus­toms officer was almost crazy because he didn't know what it was.

"It's true", said the man. "I am smuggling something. I'm smuggling hats", and he took off his hat politely and said, "Good-bye!"

The Interjection

1. The interjection is a part of speech witch expresses surprise, anger, pleasure or some other emotions or feelings: oh, ah, ha, ho, hey, hum, alas, bravo, hello, etc.

2. Interjections usually have no grammatical connection with the sentences in which they are used. Hence, they are classed among the "independent elements" of a sentence or are treated as exclamatory phrases.

O!Oh-Ox! O!

Ah!-Ax! A!

Eh!-А!Как!

Well!-Ну! Дану! Вот тебе раз!

Well, well! - Ну, ну! Полноте!

Cheerio! - За ваше здоровье! Всего хорошего!

Why! - Неужели!

Now! - Ну!

Alas! – Увы!

Hi! Hey! - Эй!

Hush! - Тише!

3. Sometimes other parts of speech and even elliptical sentences are used as interjections; in this case they lose their meaning and serve to express only some emotions or feelings:

Practice

1. Practice the following exclamations. Use them in the situa­tions of your own.

Ah, I told you so! Good heavens! I'm late.

Ah, here you are! Well, well! I can't believe it.

Oh, I'm so sorry. Well, what next?

Oh, yes! Oh, no! Well? What can I do for you?

Oh, what a lovely Why, it's quite easy!

flower! Hey, wait a minute, will you?

Oh, what a surprise! Here goes!

Oh, you don't say (so)! Hurrah!

Oh, I see. Phew!

2. Read the following texts and analyze all the interjections used in them. Retell the texts using as many exclamations as possible to make your story more emotional.

Jim's Two Jobs

Jim's father was the only butcher in the little town of Whiterock. His mother used to help his father in the butcher's shop to serve the customers and cut up the meat. Then, one day just before Christmas, she dropped dead on the floor of the shop. Jim and his father had a terrible Christmas that year, and it was very difficult for the butcher to look after his shop by himself in the new year.

Luckily, Jim finished school the next summer and had to get a job. He wanted to buy a motorcycle, so he started helping his father at the butcher's shop. After a while, he was very good at cutting up the meat, so his father sometimes left him alone in the shop when there weren't many customers. Jim always liked to have his long, white coat nice and clean. It was a sort of uniform.

Winter came and went, and then it was spring, but Jim still did not have enough money to buy his motorcycle. So he took a

second job, working in a hospital during the evenings. This job was hard work, helping to lift people out of beds and take them from one part of the hospital to another, but Jim liked it because he could wear a long, white coat in the hospital, too. He still thought it was a sort of uniform and felt very important when he was wearing it.

One evening when Jim was working at the hospital, he had to take a woman from her bed to the operating room. This was the woman's first operation, and she was very scared. She thought of how the doctor would cut her up. It was terrible! Then she saw Jim in his long, white coat and remembered see­ing him at the butcher's shop.

"Oh, no!" she screamed. "Not the butcher! Don't let the butcher do the operation!"

A Famous Place

Well, yes, yes I have. I have been there but I'm afraid I ha­ven't seen it properly. Well, that may sound a bit strange, but when I was a student at Oxford, I was at a party one night and several of us who had had a little bit to drink were sitting round and we thought it would be rather a romantic thing to do to drive off in the early hours of the morning, and watch the sun rise there. So we all got into the car and drove off for about, I suppose, an hour and a half, and we wanted to see the sun come up behind the stones. Well, when we got there, it was still dark, but it was extremely cold and extremely wet and very foggy. We couldn't, when the sun began to come up, when it began to get a little bit light, we couldn't in fact see anything at all be­cause there was so much, so much fog around.

Yeah, it was a bit of a disaster because the worst thing was that we were all sitting shivering in the car when this great thump came on the window and a policeman shone his torch inside and said, "Oi, Oi, Oi, what are you doing here?" and told us to move on.

I think he thought we were going to paint pictures all over it because you know that has happened from time to time. Any­way, it was not the most successful of our trips.

Oh, goodness! However, I do still remember that trip! Why so?

List of Irregular Verbs

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