江苏省高淳高级中学高中英语必修三：Unit 2 Language Empty subject It导学案 精品

Empty subject It

Revision:

1.It’s a book. (指代)

2.It’s eight o’clock. (时间)

3.It’s cold outside. (天气)

4.It’s a long way to the museum. (距离)

5.It was very quiet (noisy) at the moment. (环境情况)

Empty subject it

1.We can use it as an empty subject

A. when we use a noun clause as the subject of a sentence:

That we would not be able to understand Old English today is certain. ( correct) It is certain that we would not be able to understand Old English today. ( preferable)

Whether English will continue changing in the future is easy to answer. (correct)

It is easy to answer whether English will continue changing in the future. (preferable)

When we use certain words depends on the style of writing. ( correct) It depends on the style of writing when we use certain words. ( preferable)

It 作形式主语的句型:

1) It + be + adj. ( true, certain, possible, obvious, likely…) that…

2) It + be + noun phrase (no wonder, an honour, a pity,…) that…

3) It + be + p.p (said, reported, expected, announced…) that…

4) It + seems / appears that….

5) It doesn’t matter that…

B. When the subject is a to-infinitive:

To master a foreign language is hard. ( correct)

It is hard to master a foreign language. ( preferable)

To know how to use a computer is important. ( correct)

It is important to know how to use a computer. ( preferable)

C. When the subject is a v-ing form:

Smoking is difficult to stop. (preferable)

It is difficult to stop smoking. (correct)

Travelling to Beijing takes up a lot of my time. (preferable)

It takes up a lot of my time travelling to Beijing. ( correct) We usually use the empty subject it with a clause or to-infinitive (preferable), but with the v-ing form we prefer the real subject at the

beginning.

It + n. + v-ing:

no use

It is no good doing sth

a waste of time

It is no good talking.

It is no use crying over spilt milk.

It is a waste of time trying to persuade him.

2. It can also be used before seem, appear, happen, chance, turn out and prove

as the empty subject of a sentence.

a. He seems to speak two languages.

= It seems that he speaks two languages.

b. My new neighbour happens to come from my home town.

= It happens that my new neighbour comes from my home town.

3. We can emphasize the subject, object, or adverbial in a sentence by using:

It was last night that I read about the history of English. (not any other time) If we do not emphasize anything, the sentence is:

I read about the history of English last night.

强调句:

1. It is Prof. Li who teaches us English. (强调主语)