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Cf. We had some success in our attempts to raise money.
I never had any success at games.
Alan made a success of the taxi business.
A + prep
fond of, good at, late for, crowded with
Many adjectives followed by prepositions express feelings:
afraid/frightened/scared/terrified of the dark, ashamed of myself, confident of the victory, crazy about,
eager for news, excited at/ about the prospect, interested in, proud of, tired of, etc.
The choice of preposition depends on the meaning.
We're pleased with our new flat.
We're pleased at/about the election result. Polly was annoyed at/about the mix-up over her ticket. She
was annoyed with the travel agent. I'm sorry about the delay. I felt sorry for Daniel. I'm anxious about my
health. I'm anxious for the results of the tests. good at skating, brilliant at maths, hopeless at languages;
good for sth, good/kind/polite to me.
The use of prepositions after verbs may be given a detailed description in the section about phrasal
verbs.
In teaching the use of prepositions after nouns and adjectives (as well as after verbs) specific attention
should be paid to the problem of different use of prepositions in similar lexical Russian surrounding. E.g.
Interest in art — интерес к искусству, time for lunch — время на обед, proud of— горд_чем-то,
confident of victory — уверен в победе, etc.
Prepositions may be followed by nouns, pronouns, gerunds, infinitival and gerundial phrases, by noun
clauses.
The woman next to the magazine counter is buying something.
There's a large dog behind you.
I feel nervous about living away from home.
We waited for them to arrive.
He had counted on our finishing this before Friday.
The woman you gave the book to is my aunt.
Prepositions occur in idiomatic phrases:
She turned this place inside out looking for her key.
He hesitated whether to stay or not; he was betwixt and between.
Are you still in bed? Up and out of bed now.
He'll come by and by; we don't have to watch for him.
We won't stay long at the party; just a quick in and out.
The dog ran to and fro across the lawn.
The reader may safely deduce his/her own rules from these examples.
Fill the gaps in this newspaper article with suitable prepositions.
Hay Fever Hits Opera
The star 1 ... the largest scale opera performance ever staged 2 ... Britain pulled out 3 ... its opening
night 4 ... Sunday. Verdi's Aida is being performed 5 ... London's Earl's Court Arena 6 ... a cast of 600
singers, dancers and actors. American soprano Grace Bumbry 7 ... the title role was suffering 8 ... hay
fever, but had promised to be "all right on the night even if my nose drips like the Nile." Half-way 9 ... the
performance she was unable to continue and was replaced 10 ... mid-performance 11 ... Bulgarian soprano
Ghena Dimitrova who was sitting 12 ... the audience watching the show. She was taken 13 ... a dressing
room where she put on Ms Bumbry's costume and was made up. She was ready to go 14 ... the stage 15 ...
a longer-than-usual interval.
Tuesday's performance 16 ... the presence 17 ... the Prince and Princess of Wales will go ahead 18 ...
Ms Bumbry — her role will be taken 19 ... Martina Arroyo 20 ... Italy.