Practice on Articles (Provided by Prof. Patricia Andres)

LM-1234 Practice on Articles
Andres 1-2009

Write a, an, the, or Ø in the blanks to complete the paragraphs.

GARABITO, Puntarenas – Thomas Walker squints into _____ sun as he looks out over _____ Herradura Bay, _____ picturesque inlet on _____ central Pacific coast dotted with _____ million-dollar yachts. _____ crane towers overhead and a few construction workers survey _____ terraced hillside below, which sprouts rebar like tufts of _____ grass.
In his hand are laminated floor plans for _____ series of four-story condominium buildings to be built where he stands. Each 4,300-square-foot condo sells for between $1.6 million and $3 million.
“It's _____ sunset – _____ year-round sunsets right here,” Walker says, pointing out toward _____ horizon where _____ hazy blue contours of _____ Nicoya Peninsula take shape.
Walker represents _____ Punta Bocana, one of a few large-scale development projects still going forward in _____ Central Pacific, where _____ frenzied pace of _____ construction and real estate sales of recent years has been nearly stopped in its tracks by _____ financial troubles in _____ United States.
_____ Unofficial estimates from business owners and locals in Jacó, arguably _____ biggest tourist town on _____ central Pacific coast, say _____ tourism here has dropped by at least 20 percent. Real estate shoppers, once _____ large portion of those who visited _____ increasingly upscale surf village, are even fewer and farther between.
“There's definitely _____ lack of buyers out there, but we're still making sales,” said Lisle Head, _____ real estate agent with _____ Coldwell Bank.
Two years ago, his office was making 12 to 15 sales _____ month, he said. This year it has dropped to four or five per month.