The Beauty and The Beast

On Sunday, my sister, mother and I were supposed to see the movie, The Beauty and The Beast. Although we made plans a week in advance, a series of unfortunate events put our plans to a halt. Well really, my sister's phone troubles put our plans to a stop. As she commuted home from work, Danielle's phone failed to work. Angered and worried that she would not be able to reach her clients and fulfill her business obligations, Danielle found herself on the phone with the phone company for hours. A phone call was not enough. She found herself spending the last few hours of that Sunday evening inside of the Apple Store attempting to save her phone. The phone could not be saved and a new one was shipped the next day. I guess The Beauty and The Beast will have to wait until next week! 

Vocabulary 

1. advance (v.) move forward, typically in a purposeful way
2. series (n.) a number of things, events, or people of a similar kind or related nature coming one after another.
3. unfortunate (adj.) unlucky 
4. commuted (v.) travel some distance between one's home and place of work on a regular basis.
5. clients (n.) a customer or buyer in a professional setting
6. fulfill (v.) achieve or realize (something desired, promised, or predicted)
7. obligations (n.) a duty or commitment
8. attempting (v.) make an effort to achieve or complete something 
9. shipped (v.) transport (goods or people) 

Write your own sentence for each of the sentences below.  Use the definitions and the context in which each word is used in the above paragraph.  
1. advance ________________________________________________________
2. series ___________________________________________________________
3. unfortunate___________________________________________________________
4. commuted___________________________________________________________
5. clients ___________________________________________________________
6. fulfill___________________________________________________________
7. obligations ___________________________________________________________
8. shipped ___________________________________________________________

Grammar Point: Articles
An article is a kind of adjective which is always used with and gives some information about a noun. There are only two articles "a" and "the". English has two types of articles: definite and indefinite.  The article "the" is a definite article that refers to one specific thing.  The articles "a" and "an" are indefinite articles that do not refer to a particular thing.  "A" is used before a noun that starts with a consonant.  "An" is used before a word that starts with a vowel. Articles are used very frequently and are important for using English accurately as it helps make it clear what the noun refers to. The Beauty and The Beast gives meaning to each noun, referring to each noun individually and specifically. Another example in this paragraph is in the sentence, "Although we made plans a week in advance, a series of unfortunate events put our plans to a halt. The "a" before series suggest that there is no one particular thing being discussed. Another example using the phrases, "the phone" and "the phone company", gives particular meaning to those specific nouns individually and independently. 

Grammar Activity: 
Write a paragraph containing at least 5 sentences of which include the articles (a, an, the).

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