Unit 9 Grammar: Topic 1

Topic 1:

The original Fisherman story:

John is a fisherman. He hasn’t had much luck catching fish in the past few weeks. He is hoping to catch more fish tomorrow, but he doesn’t know if it will be any better. He has never been a very successful fisherman, even though it is the only job he’s ever had. If he is able to catch two nets full of fish, he will be able to pay off his debt; however, this hasn’t happened in the past four years.

John would have become a farmer if he could have, but he has never had the money to buy land.

His brother bought land last winter, but sold it to the neighbor when the economy crashed. John loves fishing, but longs to be more successful. When he was feeling down, he painted his boat, “Troubled Waters,” blue and shined it up. John asked his brother what he thought of the new look, but his brother just laughed and said, “You’re always fishing for compliments.”

If John had had more energy, he might have argued with his brother, but instead, he began making more nets, with the hopes of increasing his catch the next day.

1. The Fisherman story in Topic 1 had too many mixed verb tenses. The first part was re-written to use simple present and past. Rewrite the second part using only simple present and simple past and post it on the blog.

My edit:
His brother bought land last winter, but sold it to the neighbor when the economy became bad. John loves fishing, but wishes to be more successful. When he felt sad, he painted his boat. The boat is named “Troubled Waters,” and John polished it. John asked his brother what he thought of the boat’s new appearance, but his brother just laughed and said, “You always seek compliments.”

John almost argued with his brother but he did not have enough energy. Instead he made more nets, because he hoped to increase the amount of fish caught the next day.


2. Comment on what other parts of the story might be confusing to the students and might you address this?

There are many possibly confusing parts to this story, especially for those at the introductory and beginning levels of English study. It appears the most confusing is the use of advanced verb tenses. There were also a number of idioms and a play on words which would be lost on many ESL students.

In rewriting the story, I found it difficult to only use simple present and simple past without slightly changing the meaning. To make it easier to read, I also tried to remove idioms and other non-standard forms. For example, I changed “fishing for compliments” to the simple “seek,” although the play on words is lost. I would explain the idiom and the humor involved by saying that to a fisherman.