Hi, Paul Quinn!   
   I read your message from  17.09.2014 15:03   
   about Cuckoo!.   
      
    ak>> A telephone is ringing in a mental hospital: "Please, tell me, is   
    ak>> anybody in the 10th ward?"   
      
    PQ> That's okay. I might have said, "Please, tell me, is anybody in   
    PQ> ward 10?".   
      
   Should I feel some remorse about the article "the" before "ward"? Although,   
   any determiner word theoretically should serve for clarification, not for   
   grammar. Here we probably don't need "the" because we say the ward number?   
   From another side, when somebody says that he is studying in the 10th grade he   
   uses "the" after all.   
      
    ak>> "No, there is no anybody"   
      
    PQ> More correctly, it _could_ be either: "No, there is no one." or   
    PQ> "No, there isn't anybody.".   
      
    ak>> "Gosh! It means I really manage to escape?"   
      
    PQ> 8-) I'm thinking that the question mark _could_ be an exclamation   
    PQ> mark, instead. That's just me thinking out aloud.   
      
   IMHO, he wasn't so sure so to say it with an exclamation mark. ;)   
      
    ak>> Alarm clocks don't play pleasant melodies.   
    PQ> Nor do door bell chimes.   
      
   A door bell chimes depends on its bells. Theoretically, you can steel good   
   chimes from some church, and you'll have a good sound. But an alarm clock   
   always wakes you up when you want to sleep -- that's the reason why its sound   
   is never pleasant.   
      
    ak>> There was a fashion for torn jeans. Now there is a fashion for   
    ak>> torn T-shirts. When, at last, will appear a fashion for torn   
    ak>> socks?   
      
    PQ> "Will it ever be fashionable to wear torn socks?" :)   
      
   IMHO, in my sentence there is a longing ;), but in your variant I hear only   
   wondering.   
      
   Bye, Paul!   
   Alexander Koryagin   
   ENGLISH_TUTOR 2014   
      
   --- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox   
    * Origin: Quinn's Post - Maryborough, Queensland, OZ (3:640/384)