Task
The sentences below are taken from the same text. Read the sentences and then answer the questions below.
1. Since Australian citizenship was created in 1949, successive governments have chosen an inclusive approach to citizenship.
[0.5 marks each – 1.5 marks total]
a) What is the subject of the sentence?
b) What is the tense/aspect of the main clause?
c) In the main clause, does the head of the verb phrase take an object or a complement?
2. We are told that we need a tougher citizenship test because today Australia faces the unprecedented challenge posed by migrants coming from cultures far removed from our own, and from the cultures of European migrants.
[0.5 marks – 1 mark in total]
a) Is the verb ‘need’ in the present tense? How can you tell?
b) What tense is the verb ‘faces’?
3. The facts do not support this assertion.
[1 mark for each correct answer: 2 marks total]
a) Is this sentence a canonical clause? Why or why not?
b) Is the clause transitive or intransitive? How do you know?
4. The magnitude of the change from Europe to Asia in the 1980s created a perception that there was an ‘Asian immigration crisis’. Some believed that the cultural difference between Asians and Australia’s traditional migrant source cultures posed fundamental problems for Australia. There were calls to reduce the intake from Asia. Australia held its nerve.
[0.5 marks – 1.5 marks in total]
a) Which tense is used in these clauses?
b) Is the NP “an ‘Asian immigration crisis’” an object or complement?
c) In the text above, there is an example of an infinitive verb. What is it?
5. Apart from the shift from European to Asian sources of immigrants, there have been no other major changes in our migrant intake. The Middle Eastern component of our total migrant intake has remained a steady 5 per cent for 30 years. Over that same period, the proportion of New Zealanders has increased by 6 per cent, and so has the proportion of migrants from Africa. In the decade after the fall of Saigon, we took in 100,000 Indo-Chinese, 12 per cent of our migrant intake.
a) Is the underlined prepositional phrase an adjunct or complement? How do you know?
b) Identify two other prepositional phrases in this text (number 5 only).
c) What is the tense-aspect of the first three sentences? What is the tense-aspect in the last sentence?Explain the change in tense-aspect in the last sentence. To do this you need to explain the meaning expressed by the tense-aspect in the first three sentences and the meaning expressed by thetense-aspect in the last sentence