Exercise

Instructions: Read the following talk carefully, identify errors and correct them. Copy the corrected version of the talk.

Good morning, ladies and gentleman. It is a privilege for me to talk to you on the importance of self-employment. The focus of my talk are on the importance of self-employment.

Self-employment is important because it gives people an opportunity to create work for themselves. It is therefore important that attention are given to this issue. I wish to emphasise that people should not be discourage by challenges.

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that I have make my point clear. The importance of self-employment require attention. People should carefully give attention to the opportunities available to them.

I hope that the purpose of my talk have been made clear to you. Thank you for your kind attentions. I hope you have listened careful.

Thanks for listening.

 

Corrected Version

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is a privilege for me to talk to you on the importance of self-employment. The focus of my talk is on the importance of self-employment.

Self-employment is important because it gives people an opportunity to create work for themselves. It is therefore important that attention is given to this issue. I wish to emphasise that people should not be discouraged by challenges.

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that I have made my point clear. The importance of self-employment requires attention. People should give careful attention to the opportunities available to them.

I hope that the purpose of my talk has been made clear to you. Thank you for your kind attention. I hope you have listened carefully.

Thanks for listening.

 

Answers

  1. gentleman → gentlemen — The speaker is addressing several people.
  2. are → is — “Focus” is singular.
  3. are → is — “Attention” is singular.
  4. discourage → discouraged — “Be” is followed by the past participle.
  5. make → made — “Have” requires the past participle.
  6. require → requires — “Importance” is singular.
  7. carefully give attention to → give careful attention to — “Careful” is the appropriate adjective to describe “attention.”
  8. have → has — “Purpose” is singular.
  9. attentions → attention — “Attention” is uncountable in this expression.
  10. careful → carefully — An adverb is needed to modify “listened.”
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