http://www.uefap.net/188grammar/809grammarcleftsexercise 1/2UEfAP Grammar: Cleft Sentences Exercise Grammar in EAP Cleft Sentence A cleft sentence consists of two parts, often star
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UEfAP Grammar: Cleft Sentences Exercise
Grammar in EAP
Cleft Sentence
A cleft sentence consists of two parts, often starting with "it" or "wh". For example "It was the lecturer who started the experiment."Itclefts are relatively frequent in acdemic texts (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad & Finegan, 1999, p. 959). Whclefts "What I object to is violence on TV" are most common
ion conversation
Itcleft sentences are common in academic writing. For example
It was this government which ruled Britain until May 1940, when yet another coalition, governed
Britain until 1945
Both continued to develop; but it was the commemoration of the martyrs that came to swamp the Christian calendar during the fourth century
The purpose is to focus on one part of the clause
It was the conservative government that increased the taxes. (itcleft)
What the conservative government did was increase the taxes. (whcleft)
Identify the focussed element in these sentences:
1. For it was the general election of 1931 which so drastically altered the balance of parties in the
House of Commons
2. It was on the King's suggestion that the Cabinet considered including a plea to unite
3. It was generally believed that they were proposing to seek an electoral pact with the Conservatives
4. It was for this reason that he felt compelled to offer the Liberals the alternative vote
5. It was recognized by all concerned that it would take at least three for any of the Brabazon types to come into production
6. It was not until 1838 that there was general acceptance that the two diseases were distinct
7. But, though it was Euclid's method that first inspired him, the subjectmatter of geometry also
caught his interest and was something he worked on throughout his life
8. There is, however, one way in which A's intentions can be given validity at least in part, and it
was this route which was followed: the senate ruled that a provision of this sort could be interpreted
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as a trust on B to make over A's estate to C
9. It was in part to answer these questions that the California State Legislature in the Autumn of 1976 passed a law called the Natural Death Act
10. It was by stressing the chance element in destiny that he was led to the hedonistic philosophy of
"eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!"