Today’s short blog is a fiction story about an English schoolboy named John. Learn some new words and grammar!
John had a passion to ride his skateboard. One morning whilst his mother prepared the family’s Sunday roast, he went out to play with friends. Going down a hill he lost his balance and ended up having a really bad accident. His knee was grazed badly, so he cleaned it with antiseptic and wrapped a bandage around it. A week later it hadn’t healed and was painful.
John, the patient was rushed to hospital by his mum because he had a “worsening problem”. He had been patient with his inflamed knee injury, but it wasn’t getting any better. Once there, he received attention from an older doctor, one that seemed to recognize the damaged area as somewhere that could be excruciatingly painful, as it was. The experienced physician prescribed a new antibiotic and ointment to rub over it three times a day.
Fortunately, John had had a lot of patience while suffering from his acute while tricky situation. The new medicine prescribed helped resolve his dilemma. Just a week later he went out to a park with his mates. There, they had a great time skating up and down the hills.
Have a wonderful day!
Prof. Carl Boniface
Vocabulary builder:
Worsening (n) = deterioration, aggravation, degeneration, decline, (ant) improvement
“Worsening problem” Can two nouns be together? The "yes" part is that you can put two nouns together, and then the first one acts a lot like an adjective, in that it is used to describe or specify the second noun. Nouns used in this way are typically called "attributive nouns" or, more generally, "noun adjuncts". Not "adjectives".
Patient (n) = the noun "patients" is the plural form of "patient"—someone who receives medical care. Patient (adj) enduring, tolerant, long-suffering
Patience (n) = endurance, staying power, tolerance, persistence
Acute (adj) = sharp, sensitive, severe, intense, dire
Tricky (adj) difficult, complicated, delicate, awkward, (ant) simple
PRESENT & PAST PERFECT (grammar)
Present Perfect = Have (has) + Past Participle
Present Perfect is used to describe something that ‘has occurred’ in the past but without clarifying when it happened which means it ‘has happened’ and could happen again. It concerns the present situation you are in.
For example: I have been to Israel. In this case you now know that I ‘have been’ but you don’t know when. It is different to simple past: I went to Israel in 2007.
Past Perfect = Had + Past Participle
Past Perfect describes something relevant to the present subject, but an action that has already finished. It the article ‘had had’ is a type of grammar that expresses Past Perfect as ‘had been’ and ‘hadn’t healed’ as seen in the previous paragraphs.
For example: John ‘had had’ a lot of patience while suffering. In other words, we are talking about something that happened during the time he was injured. It is over a period of time. During the period of suffering John managed to endure the pain.