English for Chemists

 
 

---

68 
6. Fill the gaps with a or the. 
 
There’s _____ town in Italy called Pompeii. It stands near _____ volcano. In 79 AD _____ volcano 
erupted and it destroyed _____ town and killed nearly all _____ people who lived there. 
My friends live in _____ old house in _____ small town. There is _____ beautiful garden behind 
_____ house. I would like to have _____ garden like that. 
There are two cars parked outside: _____ blue one and _____ gray one. _____ blue one belongs to 
my neighbours; I don’t know who _____ owner of _____ gray one is. 

Exercises: 
 
Exercise 1 Fill the gaps with a or the. 
 
One day _____ young prince arrived at _____ castle of King Ottar and fell in love with _____ 
king’s youngest daughter, who was very beautiful. ‘You can only marry my daughter,’ said _____ 
king, ‘if you can recognize her, and you must marry the woman you choose.’ ‘That’s easy,’ said the 
prince, and King Ottar put all his daughters behind _____ wall that had _____ space at _____ 
bottom, so _____ prince could only see seven pairs of feet, and _____ feet all looked _____ same. 
Suddenly, one of _____ feet moved and so _____ prince said ‘That is _____ woman I love.’ 
Unfortunately, it was not; it was King Ottar’s eldest daughter, who was not at all beautiful, but 
_____ prince had to marry her. In fact, she was extremely intelligent and had a good sense of 
humour, so that very soon _____ prince did fall in love with her and they lived happily ever after. 
_____ moral of this story is that love is _____ very unreliable thing.
Adapted from: 
FORSYTH, W., LAVANDER, S. 1994. Grammar Activities. Intermediate. Oxford: Heineman, 
1994, pp. 5-6. 
MURPHY, Raymond. 2002. Grammar in Use. Intermediate. 2
nd
edition. Cambridge: Cambridge 
University Press, 2002, p. 139.