Is it correct to ask, 'What happens to the doctor in 1884?'

Question

Hi teachers,This is the text:My name is Dr. Frederick Treves. I am a doctor at the London Hospital. One day in 1884, I see a picture in the window of a shop near the hospital. Is it correct to ask, 'What happens to the doctor in 1884?'Additional information: this is part of a text that the students had in the simple past and they have changed into the simple present. What puzzles me is the year!Thanks in advance.

Fivejedjon · Accepted Answer

Thinking SpainWhat puzzles me is the year!

Try 1885. Is that any better?

Tenacious Learner · Answer

fivejedjonTry 1885. Is that any better?

Hi,
What I meant was that the year is in the past, quite a long distance past, in fact.
Though I have to admit that your question is a good sarcastic one, thanks to my fruiful mistake.

TS

CalifJim · Answer

Thinking SpainIs it correct to ask, 'What happens to the doctor in 1884?'

No. It doesn't really make complete sense because nothing happened to the doctor. He wasn't assaulted by a thief; he wasn't pushed around roughly by passers-by; he wasn't approached by a stranger asking directions; he wasn't struck by a car. In cases like that, you can say that something happened to the doctor.

You can't ask, "What did the doctor do?" very comfortably either. He didn't do anything by having a name, by being a doctor, or by seeing a picture in a window. He doesn't need to lift a finger for any of those things to be true.

The most likely question is "What did the doctor see?", following up with, "Where was it?" You can also combine the two as "What did the doctor see and where was it?"

CJ

Tenacious Learner · Answer

CalifJimThe most likely question is "What did the doctor see?", following up with, "Where was it?" You can also combine the two as "What did the doctor see and where was it?"

Hi Jim,
Thank you so much for your detailed reply. I do understand it now.

This is the original text:
My name is Dr. Frederick Treves. I am a doctor at the London Hospital. One day in 1884, I saw a picture in the window of a shop near the hospital.

Is there any problem if i ask the students to change the above text into the simple present. Does it make sense?
My name is Dr. Frederick Treves. I am a doctor at the London Hospital. One day in 1884, I see a picture in the window of a shop near the hospital.
Of course the question will be the one you suggest, either in the simple past or the simple present.

TS

Fivejedjon · Answer

Thinking SpainIs there any problem if i ask the students to change the above text into the simple present

Yes, there is.

If you begin 'One day in 1884', you are locating your story clearly in the past. To continue in a present tense is perverse.

It is possible to use a 'historic' or 'dramatic' present for past events but there need to be good reasons for this. You have said elsewhere that your students are at an elementary level. Getting them to change past tense forms to present tense forms while throwing in past-time markers seems to me to be complicating life unnecessarily for them

Tenacious Learner · Answer

fivejedjonIf you begin 'One day in 1884', you are locating your story clearly in the past. To continue in a present tense is perverse.

Hi fivejedjon,
Thank you very much for your explanation.
What if in the following text I erase 'in 1884', will that make a big difference then?
My name is Dr. Frederick Treves. I am a doctor at the London Hospital. One day in 1884, I saw a picture in the window of a shop near the Hospital. I stopped in front of the shop and looked at the picture. At first I felt interested, then I felt angry, then afraid. It was a horrible, ugly picture. There was a man in the picture, but he did not look like you and me. He did not look like a man. He looked like an elephant.

CalifJim · Answer

Thinking SpainIs there any problem if I ask the students to change the above text into the simple present? Does it make sense?

It won't make complete sense, so you'll have to explain to your students that you are using this change-of-tenses problem as an exercise so it won't necessarily make sense in every detail when the tenses are changed. You can tell them that you could give them a long list of sentences to transform this way, but that you think it's more interesting to do the same with the sentences in a story. You can even make the oddities that result from the change of tenses a topic for discussion.

You might note that many stories that are written for beginners are necessarily artificial. They are not stellar examples of idiomatic English. In a few years, once they've become more fluent, your students will have forgotten the peculiar details of these simplified stories, so in the long run these points are really not worth agonizing over.

CJ

Tenacious Learner · Answer

CalifJimIt won't make complete sense, so you'll have to explain to your students that you are using this change-of-tenses problem as an exercise so it won't necessarily make sense in every detail when the tenses are changed. You can tell them that you could give them a long list of sentences to transform this way, but that you think it's more interesting to do the same with the sentences in a story. That's a very good explanation.

You can even make the oddities that result from the change of tenses a topic for discussion. OK. Obviously this is one of them, 'One day in 1884, I see a picture in the window of a shop near the hospital'.

You might note that many stories that are written for beginners are necessarily artificial. Yes, I have seen them.
They are not stellar examples of idiomatic English. In a few years, once they've become more fluent, your students will have forgotten the peculiar details of these simplified stories, so in the long run these points are really not worth agonizing over. Sure, I'll take this advive, 'In the long run ... we're all ...'

Hi Jim,
Thank you for your comments and for the corrections.
Is there any problem if I (this one is a typo) ask the students to change the above text into the simple present? (this one is my mistake) Does it make sense?

TS

Tenacious Learner · Answer

Thinking SpainSure, I'll take this advice, 'In the long run ... we're all ...'

Sorry. Another typo!

It was too late for me.TS

Is it correct to ask, 'What happens to the doctor in 1884?'

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