A useful phrase:
"To make matters worse..."

Let's start today with two short texts. The first is an extract from a book by Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl's parents were born in Norway but emigrated to Britain in the early 1900s. Roald was born in 1916. As a young man he started writing short stories and novels for children. His books for children include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach and The Big Friendly Giant.

TEXT ONE:
One of my favourite Roald Dahl books is called Boy. It is autobiographical and tells the story of his childhood. In this extract Roald describes the hardships his mother faced after his father and one of his sisters died:

My mother had now lost a daughter and a husband all in the space of a few weeks... Here she was, a young Norwegian in a foreign land, suddenly having to face all the gravest problems and responsibilities. She had five children to look after, three of her own and two by her husband's first wife, and to make matters worse, she herself was expecting another baby in two months' time.
(From Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl)

TEXT TWO:
Here's another text. This one is an extract from one of my own stories. Speaker 1 is telling Speaker 2 about his middle-aged uncle who started jogging, but had several problems:

S1:So, he jogs around the corner and there are two women standing there with a dog. Anyway, he was so busy running that he didn't even notice them and he tripped, ri:ght over the dog's lead and banged his knee.

S2: Hah

S1: So the dog got angry, turned around and bit him on the hand and the two women started shouting at him.

S2: Wow!

S1: So, there's my Uncle John, blood coming out of his hand and blood coming out of his knee. He starts limping home and then, just to make matters worse, it starts pouring with rain.

Did you notice how the phrase "to make matters worse" was used in these extracts? It is similar to the Japanese phrase ‹“‹å‚̉ʂĂÉ. This phrase can be very useful if you are telling a story about a series of unlucky events:

First, X happened, then Y happened and then, just to make matters worse, Z happened.

Exercise

Here are some short extracts from sites on the internet. The original extracts contained the phrase, to make matters worse, but I have removed it. Where do you think it should go?

Extract 1:
In addition to the human devastation, highways, bridges and utilities have been heavily damaged by the intense flooding. Many fear land mines (’n—‹) left over from the recent civil war may have shifted with the flood waters.
(From a CNN News report about floods in Mozambique, April 14 2000)

Extract 2:
It's the middle of summer. People are really hot and extremely irritated. The kids are crying about how hungry they are and the overbearing heat. The lines are long, people are pushing, and a bottle of water is so expensive that spending the money to buy one would irritate you even more.
(From Dig, the online magazine of California State University, Long Beach )

Extract 3:
The Great Fire of 1906 in San Francisco was preceded by the worst earthquake in U.S. history, estimated to measure 8.3 on the Richter Scale. The earthquake caused an enormous fire, which actually caused more damage to the City than did the earthquake.
(From a TOEFL reading exercise)

Extract 4:
On arrival we were given the key to our chalet and it was with great excitement that we opened the front door. I couldn't believe my eyes when we walked in, as the chalet comprised one small room and a toilet. You can imagine our shock as the only place we had room to put the travel cot was by the front door. There was a connecting door to the room next door and we could hear everything that they (the people in the next chalet)said...The next morning we complained and they moved us to a two bedroom chalet....
(Adapted from a report about a stay at a holiday camp)

Click here to check your answers and to read some further comments.

Click here if you want to try some of my other one-point lessons.

© Robert E. Jones, 2003