🔄 C1 Activity: Analyzing Complex Authentic Texts
Welcome to your final C1 consolidation activity! You have mastered a wide range of advanced grammatical and stylistic structures. The ultimate skill is not just to use them, but to identify and understand them in real-world texts. This is the core of discourse analysis1. Today, you will act as a language analyst, examining an authentic text2 to see how grammar shapes meaning and tone.
The Analytical Task
Read the following short paragraph about the challenges of tourism in Siem Reap. The text uses several advanced grammatical structures to create a formal and persuasive tone. After the text, your task will be to analyze the bolded sections.
Heritage at a Crossroads
(A) It is often argued that the massive influx of tourism is the lifeblood of modern Siem Reap. (B) Nevertheless, a more critical examination is required. (C) Having seen the crowds at Angkor Wat firsthand, one must ask a difficult question: how can this irreplaceable3 heritage be protected? (D) Not only is there physical pressure on the ancient stone, but there is also an erosion of the site's serene atmosphere. (E) Under no circumstances should we prioritize short-term profit over long-term preservation.
Your Task: Identify the Device & Its Effect
For each bolded section in the text above, identify the grammatical or stylistic device4 being used and briefly explain its purpose or effect on the text's meaning and tone. An example for the first one is provided below.
(A) "It is often argued that..."
Device: Impersonal Passive Voice.
Effect: It introduces a common viewpoint in an objective, academic way without naming who is arguing. It sets up a point that the author intends to challenge or add nuance to.
🧠 Practice & Analysis
Think about your analysis for the remaining items (B-E) before checking the sample answers below.
(B) "Nevertheless,"
Device: Advanced Cohesive Device (Linking Word).
Effect: To signal a strong contrast with the previous statement. It tells the reader that a counter-argument is coming.
(C) "Having seen..."
Device: Perfect Participle Clause.
Effect: It concisely connects a past action (seeing the crowds) to the present thought (asking the question), showing the reason for the question.
(D) "Not only is there... but there is also..."
Device: Stylistic Inversion.
Effect: It adds strong emphasis and a formal, balanced structure to present two related problems (physical pressure and atmospheric erosion), suggesting they are of equal importance.
(E) "Under no circumstances should we..."
Device: Stylistic Inversion.
Effect: This creates a very strong, formal prohibition. It is much more powerful and emphatic than saying "We should not..."
📝 Homework: Your Own Analysis
Find a short paragraph (3-5 sentences) in English from a quality news source (e.g., The New York Times, BBC News, The Guardian) or an academic journal. Copy the paragraph here and then, like our main task, identify and explain 2-3 advanced grammatical or stylistic choices the author made.
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Vocabulary Glossary
- Discourse Analysis: (Noun Phrase) - ការវិភាគអំពីរបៀបប្រើប្រាស់ភាសា (kaa vĭ'phéak âm'pi rô'biəp prae'prah phéa'saa) - The study of how language is used in real-life texts to create meaning and tone. ↩
- Authentic Text: (Noun Phrase) - អត្ថបទពិត (ât'thâ'bât pĭt) - A text written by native speakers for a real-world purpose, not for language learners. ↩
- Irreplaceable: (Adjective) - ដែលមិនអាចជំនួសបាន (dael mĭn aach chŭm'nuəh'baan) - Too special, valuable, or unusual to be replaced by anything else. ↩
- Stylistic Device: (Noun Phrase) - ឧបករណ៍សម្រាប់តែងនិពន្ធ (ŏb'bâ'kao sâm'răp taeng ni'pŏn) - A technique used by a writer to create a particular effect in their writing. ↩
- Cohesion: (Noun) - ភាពស្អិតរមួត (phéap s'ăt'rŭm'muət) - The way in which different parts of a text are linked together to create a unified whole. ↩