Town with no sun

Sunlight at last for the residents of this small town in Norway.  a) The council has placed giant mirrors on top of the hills surrounding the town centre to beam light into it during the dark winter months .

The sides of the valley are so steep and the mountain so high that the town of Rjukan was in shadow for almost half the year until the new invention was added.

“It’s important to have the sun in wintertime, and in this town we didn’t have the sun six months a year in wintertime and the people up here, they want to have the sun down. We have made a cable car to get up to the mountains, take people quickly up to the mountains, but now we also have an older, 100 years old idea, to make them realistic, we take the mirror and reflect the sun down to us. So it’s a crazy idea, but it’s funny and I think the people like it.”

b) The mirrors are controlled by a computer that follows the path of the sun, adjusting to the best angle to catch the rays and reflect them onto the town centre.

In the past, local residents only got sunshine by taking a cable car to the top of the mountain. But this new invention has been so popular, it’s thought other remote towns in the country will follow suit and build similar projects. http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/town-with-no-sun-level-3/

Analysis Grammar :

   a) The council has placed giant mirrors on top of the hills surrounding the town centre   to beam light into it during the dark winter months .

sentence( a) using present perfect tense (has placed). the form of present perfect tense is :

S + have/has + past participle

Besides, the words into is prepositions . In the a sentence prepositions show the relation of one word to another word. Prepositions require an object to complete them, typically a noun or a pronoun. A preposition and its object is called a prepositional phrase.

Notice that the prepositional phrase contains no verbs. Generally, they contain an adjective, a noun or pronoun and they can also contain a gerund. The noun or pronoun is the object of the   preposition. Prepositional phrases can also contain conjunctions to join two nouns or pronouns as in this example: - underneath sand and rock

b    

b     b)     The mirrors are controlled by a computer that follows the path of the sun.

Sentence (b) using Passive sentence in Present Tense (are controlled). In passive sentences, the thing receiving the action is the subject of the sentence and the thing doing the action is optionally included near the end of the sentence. You can use the passive form if you think that the thing receiving the action is more important or should be emphasized. You can also use the passive form if you do not know who is doing the action or if you do not want to mention who is doing the action. The form is:

[Thing receiving action] + [be] + [past participle of verb] + [by] + [thing doing action]

Subjunctive

The subjunctive is a verb form in English that is relatively rare, but is structurally very simple. It is a special kind of present tense; for all verbs except the past tense of ‘be’ (‘were’), the subjunctive is the same as the infinitive without ‘to’. Therefore, the subjunctive is simply the basic verb form (For example, do, work, demand, hire), with the difference that no ‘s’ is added to the verb when it is used with the third person singular. For example in the sentence I suggested that he take the matter to the proper authorities, ‘take’ is the subjunctive.
The subjunctive is generally used when talking about something that may or may not happen; it could be something that the speaker wants, hopes for, expects, or imagines. The following are more examples of subjunctives:

- If I were king, there would be no more famines.
- The chairman requests that all members of the board be present at the meeting.
- I demand that he provide us with a full explanation.

As you can see, the structure that the subjunctive takes is generally as follows: [subject] (I) [verb] (demand) ‘that’ [object] (he) [subjunctive] (provide)... The verbs that are commonly used before subjunctives are advise, ask, beg, decide, decree, desire, dictate, insist, intend, move, order, petition, propose, recommend, request, require, resolve, suggest, urge,and vote.
Another pattern exists as well, in which ‘that’ is preceded by an expression rather than the verb. For example in the sentence It is essential that the goods be delivered on time, ‘it is essential’ is the expression. The expressions that are commonly used with subjunctives are it is desirable/imperative/essential/necessary/important, etc.

Now, in the example If I were king..., there seems to be a slight problem, which is that ‘king’ is a singular noun, so the verb preceding it should normally be ‘was’, not ‘were’. However, this construction does not use ‘was’. ‘Were’ is the ‘past subjunctive’ of ‘be’, and is formally always with ‘if’, and certain other words/phrases, such as ‘I wish’ and ‘as if’; it is simply a quirk of the language. The following are more examples of the same:

- If I were you, I would take a stand on the issue.
- If he were not so intelligent, I would have fired him for his insolence.
- I wish she weren’t so dull. You act as if you were king.

http://www.englishleap.com/grammar/subjunctive