1. The Basics of Cleft Sentences The pattern of cleft sentences ： “It + is/was + … + that + …” Why use this pattern? You might ask. Well, we use this pattern to emphasize a certain part of a sentence or a statement.

2. Look at the following sentence: Mary came across an old friend in the park yesterday. It’s only a statement. But if you say, “It was yesterday that Mary came across an old friend,” you emphasize “yesterday,” the day when Mary came across an old friend.

3. Maybe you want to draw people’s attention to the person whom Mary came across in the park yesterday. Then you’ll say, “It was an old friend that Mary came across in the park yesterday.”

4. Now you may wonder what other parts of the sentence you can put emphasis on. Now, take a look at the following two sentences: It was Mary that came across an old friend in the park yesterday. It was in the park that Mary came across an old friend yesterday.

5. As you have seen, in the sentence “Mary came across an old friend in the park yesterday, all but the verb phrase can be emphasized.

6. Now compare the following pairs of sentences: at 6 every morningPeter gets up at 6 every morning. It is at 6 every morning that Peter gets up. (time) I went to the concert with Jack. It was with jack that I went to the concert. (adv. phr.) Jane came home after I had left. It was after I had left that Jane came home. (adverbial clause)

7. When you want to make a statement a cleft sentence, all you have to do is put the part you want to emphasize before “that” and then leave the rest of the statement behind “that” without changing its word order. Also, if the statement is in the past tense, the cleft sentence will start with “It was…” If the statement is in the present tense, then use “It is…” to start the cleft sentence.

8. Now you try to make a cleft sentence out of each of the following statements. Mr. Chen makes contact with his friends by e-mail. When John comes here, I will tell him about the news. Jacob went home after midnight. I saw Mr. White on my way home. I am worried about your health.

9. 虛懸句造句練習： 我剛剛在地上發現的是一支手錶。 是在失去健康的時候我們才知其重要。 那場車禍是在 9 ： 30 發生的。 是我媽媽教我怎麼騎腳踏車的。 是因為你我早上才遲到的。