An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises

EXERCISES

EXERCISE 1
(§§ 1–5, pp. 1–3)

1. Tell whether each of the following sentences is declarative, interrogative, imperative, or exclamatory. If a sentence is both declarative and exclamatory, mention the fact. Mention the subject and the predicate of each sentence. Note all instances of the inverted order (§ 5).

1. You need not answer this letter. 2. Many surmises of evil alarm the hearts of the people.—Longfellow. 3. Here I am again in the land of old Bunyan. 4. Me this uncharter’d freedom tires.—Wordsworth. 5. Twilight’s soft dews steal o’er the village green.—Rogers. 6. Were there many robbers in the band? 7. How will posterity the deed proclaim!—Byron. 8. At dawn the towers of Stirling rang.—Scott. 9. You cannot recall the spoken word.—Emerson. 10. The boughs over my head seemed shadowy with solemn thoughts as well as with rustling leaves.—Hawthorne. 11. So you don’t like Raphael! 12. All around lay a frightful wilderness. 13. Why does the sea moan evermore?—Rossetti. 14. What lonely straggler looks along the wave?—Byron. 15. Off went his wig! 16. For some minutes he continued to scrutinize the drawing minutely. 17. Our strength grows out of our weakness.—Emerson. 18. Rudely carved was the porch. 19. What hopes the prince to gain by Lacy’s death? 20. Trust thyself.

21. The rest of the men were morose and silent. 22. Here are the ruins of the emperor’s palace. 23. Now rumbles along the carriage of some magnate of the city. 24. Wild was the life we led. 25. How poor, and dull, and sleepy, and squalid it seemed! 26. Built are the house and the barn. 27. With what tenderness he sings! 28. Marked ye the younger stranger’s eye? 29. One or two idlers, of forbidding aspect, hung about in the murky gaslight. 30. Several mountains crowned with snow shone brilliantly in the distance. 31. Follow me through this passage. 32. Stop me not at your peril. 33. Carry thou this scroll to the castle.

2. Write ten interrogative sentences concerning each topic. Reply in declarative sentences.

• (1) The American Revolution;
• (2) the Pilgrim Fathers;
• (3) the history of your own state;
• (4) the government of the United States;
• (5) hygiene;
• (6) the manufactures (or other industries) of your town or city.

3. Write ten imperative sentences, each giving an order concerning—

• (1) the playing of a game;
• (2) the building or sailing of a boat;
• (3) the care of the health;
• (4) the manufacture of some article of common use;
• (5) the writing of a business letter.

4. Write ten exclamatory sentences. Tell whether each is declarative, interrogative, or imperative.

EXERCISE 2
(§§ 6–25, pp. 3–11)

1. Tell the parts of speech (including verb-phrases).

1. The rain pattered upon the roof and the sky gloomed through the dusty garret windows.—Hawthorne. 2. Make yourself necessary to somebody.—Emerson. 3. I have a regard for every man on board that ship, from the captain down to the crew. 4. “An artist,” said Michael Angelo, “must have his measuring tools not in the hand, but in the eye.”—Emerson. 5. Time had wintered o’er his locks. 6. Must we in all things look for the how, and the why, and the wherefore? 7. Power dwells with cheerfulness.—Emerson. 8. What hurrahs rang out! 9. He sneaked about with a gallows air. 10. So! you see things go on as when you were with us.

11. Rigby and his brother hirelings frightened them with hideous fables and ugly words.—Disraeli. 12. These are prize peaches. 13. Ha ha! how vilely doth this cynic rhyme! 14. O Antony, beg not your death of us. 45. Wordsworth was praised to me in Westmoreland because he afforded to his country neighbors an example of a modest household where comfort and culture were secured without display.

16. Shake hands with this knot of good fellows. 17. He had been deserted by the Moderates. 18. The moderate Liberals held a meeting very early in the struggle. 19. After a dreadful night of anxiety, perplexity, and peril, the darkness, which I thought had lasted an eternity, slowly disappeared.—Trelawny.

2. Use the following words in sentences of your own:—

• Sleep (noun, verb);
• dry (adjective, verb, noun);
• very (adverb, adjective);
• express (noun, verb, adjective);
• bellow (verb, noun);
• American (adjective, noun);
• future (adjective, noun);
• to-morrow (noun, adverb);
• flower (noun, verb);
• sovereign (noun, adjective);
• summer (noun, verb, adjective);
• double (adjective, adverb, verb);
• well (adjective, adverb);
• fast (adjective, adverb, noun, verb);
• content (noun, adjective, verb);
• last (adjective, adverb, verb, noun);
• down (adverb, preposition);
• for (preposition, conjunction);
• downright (adjective, adverb);
• home (noun, adjective, adverb);
• lower (adjective, adverb, verb);
• iron (noun, adjective, verb);
• off (adverb, preposition, adjective);
• up (adverb, preposition);
• high (adjective, adverb, noun);
• except (verb, preposition);
• inside (adjective, adverb, preposition, noun);
• past (noun, adjective, preposition);
• what (adjective, pronoun, interjection);
• round (noun, adjective, verb, preposition, adverb);
• sound (noun, verb, adjective, adverb);
• black (noun, verb, adjective);
• all (noun, adjective, adverb);
• open (noun, adjective, verb);
• while (noun, verb).

EXERCISE 3
(§§ 26–33, pp. 11–13)

Point out the infinitives and the participles. Tell when they occur in verb-phrases. Use them in sentences.

1. I did wrong to smile. 2. Luttrell adjured me with mock pathos to spare his blushes. 3. I begged my friend Sir Roger to go with me into her hovel. 4. I was wonderfully pleased to see the workings of instinct in a hen followed by a brood of ducks. 5. A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.—Addison. 6. I was highly entertained to see the gentlemen of the county gathering about my old friend, and striving who should compliment him most. 7. He was let loose among the woods as soon as he was able to ride on horseback. 8. Plutarch says very finely that a man should not allow himself to hate even his enemies. 9. It gives me a serious concern to see such a spirit of dissension in the country.

10. It was his intention to remain there for two or three days. 11. Every part of every carriage had been cleaned, every horse had been groomed. 12. Liberated from the embarrassments of the city, and issuing into the broad uncrowded avenues of the northern suburbs, we soon begin to enter upon our natural pace of ten miles an hour. 13. The beggar, rearing himself against the wall, forgets his lameness. 14. Three miles beyond Barnet, we see approaching another private carriage. 15. We saw many lights moving about as we drew near.

EXERCISE 4
(§§ 34–39, pp. 13–15)

1. Mention the simple subject and the simple predicate of each sentence in Exercise 1 (p. 227). Tell whether the simple subject is a noun or a pronoun, and whether the simple predicate is a verb or a verb-phrase.

2. Study in the same way your own sentences in Exercise 1.

3. Divide each sentence into the complete subject and the complete predicate. If the sentence has a compound subject, mention the substantives that compose it; if the sentence has a compound predicate, mention the verbs (or verb-phrases).

1. The Queen and Prince Albert came to London from Windsor on Saturday morning. 2. You and Lockhart must not abandon the good cause. 3. I saw that he was weak, and took advantage of a pause to remind him not to forget his drive. 4. Two or three of my English biographies have something of the same historical character. 5. Lord Grey, Clanricarde, Labouchere, Vernon Smith, and Seymour will fill up the places. 6. Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains.—Irving. 7. He looked round, and could see nothing but a crow winging its solitary flight across the mountain. 8. They suddenly desisted from their play and stared at him. 9. The sea flashes along the pebbly margin of its silver beach, forming a thousand little bays and inlets, or comes tumbling in among the cliffs of a rock-bound coast, and beats against its massive barriers with a distant, hollow, continual roar.—Longfellow.

10. A wide gateway ushered the traveller into the interior of the building, and conducted him to a low-roofed apartment, paved with round stones. 11. The strange visitant gruffly saluted me, and, after making several ineffectual efforts to urge his horse in at the door, dismounted and followed me into the room.—Whittier. 12. The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinion.—Lowell. 13. They will slink into their kennels in disgrace, or perchance run wild and strike a league with the wolf and the fox.—Thoreau. 14. Strong will and keen perception overpower old manners and create new.—Emerson. 15. Neither Aristotle, nor Leibnitz, nor Junius, nor Champollion has set down the grammar-rules of this dialect. 16. His mantle and hood were of the best Flanders cloth, and fell in ample and not ungraceful folds. 17. A deep fosse or ditch was drawn round the whole building.

EXERCISE 5
(§§ 40–42, p. 16)

1. Point out the noun-phrases, verb-phrases, adjective phrases, and adverbial phrases. Which of these phrases are prepositional?

1. Sometimes he spent hours together in the great libraries of Paris. 2. He assumed the garb of a common sailor, and in this disguise reached the Dutch coast in safety. 3. Some of the frigate’s men were still endeavoring to escape. 4. Was Milton rich or at his ease when he composed “Paradise Lost”? 5. It was a cold-blooded exhibition of marksmanship. 6. He then continued on to the place of rendezvous at Speedwell’s Iron Works on Troublesome Creek.—Irving. 7. The gates of Amsterdam had been barred against him. 8. They heard his confession with suspicion and disdain. 9. The stagecoach always drew up before the door of the cottage. 10. The wind moaned through the silent streets. 11. The clouds are scudding across the moon. 12. Steele had known Addison from childhood. 13. A broad ray of light fell into the garret.—Dickens. 14. The fate of his insulted and broken-hearted brother still rankled in his mind. 15. All day with fruitless strife they toiled.—Scott.

2. Fill each blank with a single word. Substitute for the word a phrase with the same meaning. Mention in each instance (1) the part of speech, (2) the kind of phrase.

• 1. He spoke to me ——.
• 2. The grounds were shut in by a high —— wall.
• 3. The fire engine —— past.
• 4. The three girls were laughing ——.
• 5. The poor child looked —— at the toys.
• 6. Harold —— the bunch of grapes.
• 7. The proprietor is a —— man.
• 8. The archbishop placed upon the king’s head a —— crown.
• 9. The book which I hold in my hand is ——.
• 10. The —— ordered the Conqueror to open fire.
• 11. The enemy retreated ——.
• 12. The rain —— heavily all day.
• 13. The rain came down —— all day.
• 14. The —— is in his office.
• 15. A —— boy came to the door.
• 16. My brother is president of ——.

EXERCISE 6
(§§ 43–51, pp. 16–21)

1. Tell whether each sentence is simple, compound, or complex. If the sentence is compound, divide it into its independent clauses, and mention the simple subject (noun or pronoun) and the simple predicate (verb or verb-phrase) of each clause.

If the sentence is complex, divide it into the main (independent) and the subordinate clause, and tell whether the latter is used as an adjective or as an adverb.

1. The great gate slowly opened, and a steward and several serving-men appeared. 2. The victors set fire to the wigwams and the fort; the whole was soon in a blaze; many of the old men, the women, and the children perished in the flames. 3. Night closed in, but still no guest arrived. 4. The black waves rolled by them, and the light at the horizon began to fade, and the stars were coming out one by one.—William Black. 5. Mr. Nickleby closed an account book which lay on his desk. 6. By ceaseless action all that is subsists.—Cowper. 7. When the morning broke, the Moorish army had vanished. 8. At midnight, when the town was hushed in sleep, they all went quietly on board. 9. Fortune had cast him into a cavern, and he was groping darkly round. 10. I paced the deserted chambers where he had composed his poem. 11. I strove to speak; my voice utterly failed me. 12. The only avenue by which the town could be easily approached, was protected by a stone wall more than twenty feet high and of great thickness.

13. The night fell tempestuous and wild, and no vestige of the hapless sloop was ever after seen. 14. The simple majesty of this anecdote can gain nothing from any comment which we might make on it. 15. Raleigh speaks the language of the heart of his country when he urges the English statesmen to colonize Guiana.—Froude. 16. Men, in their youth, go to push their fortune in the colony; they succeed; they acquire property there; they return to their native land; they continue to draw the income from their colonial estates.—Brougham. 17. The moonlight glistened upon traces of the gilding which had once covered both rider and steed. 18. While this brief conversation passed, Donatello had once or twice glanced aside with a watchful air. 19. Pray for us, Hilda; we need it.

2. Divide the compound complex sentences into their coördinate clauses. Tell whether each of these clauses, when standing alone, is a simple or a complex sentence.

1. It would be dark before he could reach the village, and he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of encountering the terrors of Dame Van Winkle. 2. Language gradually varies, and with it fade away the writings of authors who have lived their allotted time. 3. The tallest and handsomest men whom England could produce guarded the passage from the palace gate to the river-side, and all seemed in readiness for the queen’s coming forth, although the hour was yet so early. 4. Edward the Confessor died on the fifth of January, 1066, and on the following day an assembly of the thanes and prelates present in London, and of the citizens of the metropolis, declared that Harold should be their king.

EXERCISE 7
(§§ 54–64, pp. 27–30)

1. Point out all the common nouns and all the proper nouns. Mention all the examples of personification.

1. There Guilt his anxious revel kept.—Scott. 2. The first vessel we fell in with was a schooner, which, after a long chase, we made out to be an American. 3. You will be sauntering in St. Peter’s perhaps, or standing on the Capitol while the sun sets. 4. I am very deep in my Aristophanes. 5. I saw a most lovely Sir Joshua at Christie’s a week ago.—Fitz Gerald. 6. I hear there is scarce a village in England that has not a Moll White in it.—Addison. 7. Such a spirit is Liberty. At times she takes the form of a hateful reptile. She grovels, she hisses, she stings. But woe to those who in disgust shall venture to crush her!—Macaulay. 8. Rough Wulfstane trimmed his shafts and bow.—Scott. 9. To-day we have been a delightful drive through Ettrick Forest, and to the ruins of Newark—the hall of Newark, where the ladies bent their necks of snow to hear “The Lay of the Last Minstrel.”—Maria Edgeworth.

10. The same waves wash the moles of the new-built Californian towns, and lave the faded but still gorgeous skirts of Asiatic lands, older than Abraham; while all between float milky-ways of coral isles, and low-lying, endless, unknown Archipelagoes and impenetrable Japans.—Melville. 11. The duchess said haughtily that she had done her best for the Esmonds. 12. To see with one’s own eyes men and countries is better than reading all the books of travel in the world.—Thackeray. 13. Defeat and mortification had only hardened the king’s heart. 14. Earth, Ocean, Air, beloved brotherhood!—Shelley. 15. The iron tongue of St. Paul’s has told twelve. 16. The Indians, brandishing their weapons, answered only with gestures of angry defiance.

2. Point out all the abstract, all the collective, and all the compound nouns.

1. The poet binds together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society.—Wordsworth. 2. The country is now showing symptoms of greenness and warmth. 3. When the public are gone, we at once put up the great iron shutters. 4. Washington returned to headquarters at Newbury. 5. The Bruce’s band moves swiftly on.—Scott. 6. He shall with speed to England.—Shakspere. 7. Soon were dismissed the courtly throng.—Scott. 8. Sickness, desertion, and the loss sustained at Guilford Courthouse had reduced his little army. 9. A detachment was sent against them. 10. Never before this summer have the kingbirds, handsomest of flycatchers, built in my orchard. 11. The young suddenly disperse on your approach, as if a whirlwind had swept them away.—Thoreau. 12. This lighthouse, known to our mariners as Cape Cod or Highland Light, is one of our “primary seacoast lights.” 13. We have some salt of our youth in us.—Shakspere. 14. Thou hast nor youth nor age.—Shakspere.

15. The passion for hunting had revived with Washington on returning to his old hunting grounds. 16. A circle there of merry listeners stand.—Byron. 17. The act of the Congress of Vienna remains the eternal monument of their diplomatic knowledge and political sagacity.—Disraeli. 18. Lee undertook the task with alacrity. 19. A row of surfboats and canoes lay along the beach. 20. The situation he had held as aide-de-camp to the commander-in-chief had given him an opportunity of observing the course of affairs. 21. The ground was frozen to a great depth. 22. He was aware of his unpopularity. 23. The stern old war-gods shook their heads.—Emerson.

24. Freckled nest eggs thou shalt see
Hatching in the hawthorn tree.—Keats.

25. Fair morn ascends, and sunny June has shed
Ambrosial odors o’er the garden-bed,
And wild bees seek the cherry’s sweet perfume
Or cluster round the full-blown apple-bloom.—Campbell.

26. For in their looks divine
The image of their glorious Maker shone,
Truth, wisdom, sanctitude severe and pure.—Milton.

27. Steer, helmsman, till you steer our way
By stars beyond the line.—Campbell.

28. Say I sent thee thither:
I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear.—Shakspere.

EXERCISE 8
(§§ 66–84, pp. 31–39)

1. Make a list containing thirty nouns, ten in each of the three genders. Use each of these nouns in a sentence.

2. Write ten sentences, each containing a noun of common gender.

3. Write sentences containing the masculine forms corresponding to the feminine forms in this list, and the feminine forms corresponding to the masculine:—

• earl,
• abbess,
• schoolmaster,
• porter,
• hind,
• mare,
• ram,
• sire,
• witch,
• sultan,
• czar,
• widow,
• marquis,
• executor,
• salesman,
• tailor,
• hero,
• bride,
• songster,
• great-uncle,
• nephew,
• buck,
• horseman,
• bachelor,
• belle.

4. Mention the gender and the number of each noun. Tell whether the gender is shown by the form, by the meaning, or by both. Whenever it is possible, give the plural of each noun that is singular, and the singular of each noun that is plural.

1. Oft Music changed, but never ceased her tone.—Byron. 2. Grace Crawley was at this time living with the two Miss Prettymans.—Trollope. 3. The Catos and the Scipios of the village had gathered in front of the hotel. 4. This gunner was an excellent mathematician, a good scholar, and a complete sailor.—Defoe. 5. I was, in fact, in the chapel of the Knights Templars.—Irving. 6. The luckless culprit was brought in, forlorn and chapfallen, in the custody of gamekeepers, huntsmen, and whippers-in, and followed by a rabble rout of country clowns.—Irving. 7. The hare now came still nearer to the place where she was at first started.—Budgell. 8. The Fairfaxes were no longer at hand.—Irving. 9. All the peers and peeresses put on their coronets. 10. Time is no longer slow; his sickle mows quickly in this age.—Disraeli. 11. Under the humblest roof, the commonest person in plain clothes sits there massive, cheerful, yet formidable, like the Egyptian colossi.—Emerson.

12. Within forty-eight hours, hundreds of horse and foot came by various roads to the city. 13. The hart and hind wandered in a wilderness abounding in ferny coverts and green and stately trees.—Disraeli. 14. The ship had received a great deal of damage, and it required some time to repair her.—Defoe. 15. When Mary, the nurse, returns with the little Miss Smiths from Master Brown’s birthday party, she is narrowly questioned as to their behavior. 16. Of all our fleet, consisting of a hundred and fifty sail, scarce twelve appeared.—Smollett. 17. Hindoos, Russians, Chinese, Spaniards, Portuguese, Englishmen, Frenchmen, Genoese, Neapolitans, Venetians, Greeks, Turks, descendants from all the builders of Babel, come to trade at Marseilles, sought the shade alike.—Dickens. 18. There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail.—Tennyson. 19. I had desire to see the old family seat of the Lucys.—Irving.

20. The Miss Lambs were the belles of little Britain.—Irving. 21. Lord Culloden at length appeared with his daughters, Ladies Flora and Grizell.—Disraeli. 22. Still his honied wealth Hymettus yields.—Byron. 23. Josephine has been made executrix of her father’s estate. 24. Georgette crouched by the fire, reading a wonderful tale of kings, princesses, enchanted castles, knights and ladies, monks and nuns, wizards and witches. 25. She was a vixen when she went to school.—Shakspere. 26. Keep a gamester from the dice and a good student from his book.—Shakspere. 27. They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that.—Shakspere. 28. A score of good ewes may be worth ten pounds.—Shakspere. 29. Let ay’s seem no’s and no’s seem ay’s.—Gay.

30. She clasps a bright child on her upgathered knee;
It laughs at the lightning, it mocks the mixed thunder
Of the air and the sea.—Shelley.

EXERCISE 9
(§§ 71–84, pp. 34–39)

1. Write sentences in which the following words, letters, or figures are used in the plural number:—

• German,
• radius,
• lens,
• moose,
• wharf,
• index,
• piano,
• thesis,
• 4,
• 500,
• p,
• q,
• and,
• syllabus,
• staff,
• die,
• s,
• t,
• seraph,
• hero,
• stimulus,
• crisis,
• elf,
• heathen,
• brother-in-law,
• July,
• March,
• spoonful,
• memorandum,
• Miss Allen,
• Master
• Allen,
• Mr. Hayes,
• General Raymond,
• Knight Templar,
• head (of cattle),
• animalcule,
• potato,
• valley,
• formula,
• penny,
• curriculum,
• dwarf,
• man-child.

2. Write sentences in which the following nouns are used in the singular number:—

• strata,
• phenomena,
• alumnæ,
• alumni,
• candelabra,
• species,
• cherubim,
• errata,
• bacteria,
• Japanese,
• beaux,
• vertebræ,
• Messrs.,
• theses,
• oases.

EXERCISE 10
(§ 88, pp. 41–42)

Mention all the nouns that are in the nominative case, and give the construction (or syntax) of each,—as subject, predicate nominative, vocative (or nominative of direct address), exclamatory nominative, or nominative in apposition.⁵⁰

1. A weary lot is thine, fair maid.—Scott. 2. At last, our small acquaintance, Ned Higgins, trudged up the street, on his way to school.—Hawthorne. 3. The soil is in general a moist and retentive clay. 4. Rumors alone were their guides through a wild and desolate country.—Longfellow. 5. Young man, have you challenged Charles the wrestler?—Shakspere. 6. Ralph was an Eton boy, and hence, being robust and shrewd, a swimmer and a cricketer. 7. Here Harold was received a welcome guest.—Scott. 8. The tall Highlander remained obdurate. 9. The beams and rafters, roughly hewn and with strips of bark still on them, and the rude masonry of the chimneys, made the garret look wild and uncivilized. 10. Deathlike the silence seemed. 11. Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is godlike.—Longfellow. 12. Fly, fly, detested thoughts, forever from my view!—Beattie. 13. Time must not be counted by calendars, but by sensation, by thought.—Disraeli.

14. This is the history of Charlotte Corday. 15. The nabobs soon became a most unpopular class of men. 16. Before him stretched the long, laborious road, dry, empty, and white.—Hardy. 17. With the great mass of mankind, the test of integrity in a public man is consistency.—Macaulay. 18. These are trifles, Mr. Premium. 19. My thanks are due to you for your trouble and care. 20. Here’s my great uncle, Sir Richard Ravelin. 21. Rowley, my old friend, I am sure you congratulate me. 22. David, you are a coward! 23. Here come other Pyncheons, the whole tribe, in their half-a-dozen generations. 24. Uncle Venner, trundling a wheelbarrow, was the earliest person stirring in the neighborhood. 25. Up the chimney roared the fire, and brightened the room with its broad blaze. 26. Liberty! freedom! tyranny is dead!—Shakspere. 27. The hostess’s daughter, a plump Flanders lass, with long gold pendants in her ears, was at a side window.—Irving.

28. Horses! can these be horses that bound off with the action and gesture of leopards?—De Quincey. 29. Peace! silence! Brutus speaks. 30. The rains, frosts, and tempests splinter the chalk above and the waves gnaw it away below.—Geikie.

EXERCISE 11
(§§ 89–96, pp. 43–47)

1. Point out all the nouns in the possessive case, and parse them according to the model in § 112.

1. James’s parliament contained a most unusual proportion of new ministers. 2. I live in general quietly at my brother-in-law’s in Norfolk (see § 96). 3. There is a small cottage of my father’s close to the lawn gates. 4. We had found, in that day’s heap of earth, about fifty pounds’ weight of gold dust.—Defoe. 5. Much the most striking incident in Burns’s life is his journey to Edinburgh. 6. As to freaks like this of Miss Brooke’s, Mrs. Cadwallader had no patience with them.—George Eliot. 7. Homeward they bore him through the dark woods’ gloom.—Morris. 8. The eye travels down to Oxford’s towers.—Arnold. 9. I obeyed all my brother’s military commands with the utmost docility. 10. Tellson’s wanted not elbowroom, Tellson’s wanted no light, Tellson’s wanted no embellishment. Noakes & Co.’s might, or Snooks Brothers’ might; but Tellson’s—thank heaven!—Dickens.

2. Examine the nouns in the possessive case in 1 (above), and tell which of the possessives might be replaced by an of-phrase. Mention particularly those passages in which the possessive would not be used in modern prose.

3. Write sentences containing the possessive singular of—

• Henry,
• James,
• Thomas,
• Mr. Fox,
• child,
• Charles Price,
• Mrs. Gibbs,
• Edward,
• General Edwards,
• horse,
• Hortense,
• Miss Bellows,
• father-in-law,
• Major Ellis,
• commander-in-chief,
• Thompson and Howard (a firm),
• Eustis and Morris (a firm),
• Messrs. Cartwright and Robbins,
• Apollo,
• Brutus,
• Ulysses.

4. Write sentences containing the possessive plural of—

• Englishman,
• fireman,
• washerwoman,
• fox,
• sheep,
• horse,
• ox,
• child,
• emperor,
• empress,
• robin,
• Norman,
• German,
• hawk,
• Knight Templar,
• lady,
• sailor,
• heir,
• heiress,
• teacher,
• whale,
• walrus,
• critic,
• poet,
• vireo.

5. In which of the sentences that you have written (under 3 and 4) would it be possible to substitute an of-phrase for the possessive? In which of them (if any) would this phrase be preferable? Why?

EXERCISE 12
(§§ 97–110, pp. 47–53)

Parse the nouns in the objective case, according to the model in § 112. Tell the particular construction in each instance,—direct object, predicate objective, indirect object, etc.

1. Such was the narrative of Jack Grant, the mate. 2. Rippling waters made a pleasant moan.—Byron. 3. Swiftly they hurried away to the forge of Basil the blacksmith.—Longfellow. 4. A pale fog hung over London. 5. So like a shattered column lay the king.—Tennyson. 6. Then sing, ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song.—Wordsworth. 7. A blighted spring makes a barren year.—Johnson. 8. Dark and neglected locks overshadowed his brow. 9. Imagine the wind howling, the sea roaring, the rain beating. 10. Lay these vain regrets aside. 11. Birds of passage sailed through the leaden air. 12. Authority forgets a dying king.—Tennyson. 13. Three years she grew in sun and shower.—Wordsworth. 14. The sound of horns came floating from the valley, prolonged by the mountain echoes. 15. Hours had passed away like minutes. 16. Your mistrust cannot make me a traitor.—Shakspere.

17. She halted a moment before speaking. 18. The room opened on a terrace adorned with statues and orange trees. 19. The sun is coming down to earth, and the fields and the waters shout to him golden shouts.—Meredith. 20. England is unrivalled for two things—sports and politics.—Disraeli. 21. Thus we lived several years in a state of much happiness. 22. The old gentleman’s whole countenance beamed with a serene look of indwelling delight. 23. I am reading Selwyn’s “Correspondence,” a remarkable book. 24. I have lived my life.—Tennyson. 25. My heart is like a singing bird.—Christina Rossetti. 26. How like a winter hath my absence been.—Shakspere. 27. Three weeks we westward bore.—Longfellow. 28. It rains pitchforks.—Fitz Gerald. 29. The sublimer and more passionate poets I still read, by snatches and occasionally.—De Quincey. 30. Coningsby slept the deep sleep of youth and health.—Disraeli.

31. Thou mightst call him a goodly person. 32. My father named me Autolycus. 33. A country fellow brought him a huge fish. 34. I’ll make you the queen of Naples. 35. You call honorable boldness impudent sauciness.—Shakspere. 36. Sir Roger generally goes two or three miles from his house before he beats about in search of a hare or partridge. 37. This misconception caused Washington some embarrassment. 38. I now thank you for Beattie, the most agreeable and amiable writer I ever met with.—Cowper.

EXERCISE 13
(§§ 97–110, pp. 47–53)

1. Write fifteen sentences, each containing a transitive verb and its direct object (§§ 99–100).

2. Substitute a pronoun for each noun in the objective case.

3. Write ten sentences containing both a direct object and a predicate objective (§ 104).

4. Use in sentences fifteen of the verbs in the list in § 105, each with both a direct and an indirect object.

5. For each indirect object, substitute to with an object. Change the order, if necessary.

6. Write ten sentences, each containing a cognate object (§ 108).

7. Write ten sentences, each containing an adverbial objective (§ 109).

8. Write ten sentences, each containing a noun in apposition with a noun in the objective case (§ 110).

EXERCISE 14
(§§ 54–112, pp. 27–54)

Parse every noun, according to the models in § 112.

1. Pennon and banner wave no more. 2. They soon gained the utmost verge of the forest, and entered the country inhabited by men without vice.—Goldsmith. 3. Our avenue is strewn with the whole crop of autumn’s withered leaves.—Hawthorne. 4. He is the rich man who can avail himself of all men’s faculties.—Emerson. 5. Like an awakened conscience, the sea was moaning and tossing.—Longfellow. 6. He again called and whistled after his dog. 7. She wrote and addressed a hurried note. 8. The light and warmth of that long-vanished day live with me still. 9. Violet and primrose girls, and organ boys with military monkeys, and systematic bands very determined in tone if not in tune, filled the atmosphere.—Meredith. 10. The blood left Wilfrid’s ashen cheek. 11. Give us manners, virtue, freedom, power!—Wordsworth. 12. A great deal of shrubbery clusters along the base of the stone wall, and takes away the hardness of its outline.

13. I travelled the whole four hundred miles between this and Madras on men’s shoulders. 14. Here we set up twelve little huts like soldiers’ tents. 15. Swiftly they glided away, like the shade of a cloud on the prairie. 16. Athens, even long after the decline of the Roman empire, still continued the seat of learning, politeness, and wisdom.—Goldsmith. 17. Four times the sun had risen and set. 18. Speak! speak! thou fearful guest! 19. The oak rose before me like a pillar of darkness. 20. Another long blast filled the old courts of the castle with its echoes, and was answered by the warder from the walls. 21. Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife!—Scott. 22. Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while? 23. Sounds of a horn they heard, and the distant lowing of cattle. 24. Homer was always his companion now. 25. Forgive me these injurious suspicions. 26. O, pride! pride! it deceives me with the subtlety of a serpent. 27. I made Mr. Wright’s gardener a present of fifty sorts of plant seeds. 28. Your mother and I last week made a trip to Gayhurst, the seat of Mr. Wright, about four miles off. 29. Beneath the shelter of one hut, in the bright blaze of the same fire, sat this varied group of adventurers. 30. The cares of to-day are seldom the cares of to-morrow.—Cowper.

EXERCISE 15
(§§ 115–129, pp. 55–62)

1. Parse the personal pronouns, using the models in § 168.

1. She peeped from the window into the garden. 2. The little marquis immediately threw himself into the attitude of a man about to tell a long story. 3. It pours and it thunders, it lightens amain.—Scott. 4. Master, master, look about you! 5. Leontine, with his own and his wife’s fortune, bought a farm of three hundred a year.—Addison. 6. The Tories carry it among the new members six to one.—Swift. 7. I wrote to him, but could tell him nothing. 8. On the next morning after breakfast the major went out for a walk by himself. 9. Their hearts quaked within them, at the idea of taking one step farther. 10. Mrs. Forrester’s surprise was equal to ours. 11. It’s twenty years since he went away from home. 12. I seated myself in a recess of a large bow window. 13. At the last moment his heart failed him, and he looked round him for some mode of escape. 14. A friend of mine has been spending some time at Sir Walter Scott’s.

15. Send me a letter directed to me at Mr. Watcham’s. 16. I have lately received from my bookseller a copy of my subscribers’ names. 17. We came in our first morning’s march to very good springs of fresh water. 18. We are both of us inclined to be a little too positive. 19. Heyne’s best teacher was himself.—Carlyle.

20. Aspasia, you have lived but few years in the world, and with only one philosopher—yourself. 21. I got to the side in time to see a huge liner’s dim shape slide by like a street at night; she would have been invisible but for her row of lights. 22. The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep.—Wordsworth. 23. I am he they call Old Care.—Peacock. 24. The sharp and peevish tinkle of the shop-bell made itself audible. 25. The heroes themselves say, as often as not, that fame is their object. 26. He seems to himself to touch things with muffled hands. 27. She took counsel with herself what must be done. 28. The head of the Pyncheons found himself involved in serious financial difficulties. 29. Ha! here is Hepzibah herself!

2. Write sentences in which the personal pronoun of the first person is used as direct object, as indirect object, as predicate nominative; in the possessive singular with a noun; in the possessive singular without a noun.

3. Fill the blanks with personal pronouns of the first or the third person.

• 1. He thought the burglars were ——.
• 2. He mistook the burglars for ——.
• 3. William is better at his lessons than ——.
• 4. It is ——.
• 5. These are ——.
• 6. Nobody volunteered except Edward and ——.
• 7. —— boys have formed a debating club.
• 8. Mr. Jones is going to give —— boys a baseball field.
• 9. Who is there? ——.
• 10. Between you and ——, I am not sorry that he has resigned.
• 11. If I were —— I would study art.
• 12. Arthur likes you better than ——.
• 13. Behind Ruth and —— came the guest of honor.
• 14. Automobiles are not for such as ——.
• 15. It was —— that Joseph meant.
• 16. —— two are always together.
• 17. Richard dislikes everybody, —— most of all.

4. Write sentences in which myself, yourself, ourselves, himself, herself, themselves are used (1) intensively, (2) reflexively as direct object, (3) reflexively as indirect object.

EXERCISE 16
(§§ 131–142, pp. 62–65)

1. Parse the demonstratives and the indefinites. In parsing the word, tell whether it is used as a pronoun or as an adjective. If it is used as a pronoun, tell the number and the case and give the reason for the case. If it is used as an adjective, mention the substantive which it modifies.

1. What is the meaning of all this? 2. On either side extended a ruinous wooden fence. 3. You have seen that picture, then! 4. This very Judge Pyncheon was the original of the miniature. 5. Twenty years ago this man was equally capable of crime or heroism; now he is fit for neither.—Stevenson. 6. None are all evil. 7. Solitude has many a dreary hour. 8. Every science has its hitherto undiscovered mysteries.—Goldsmith. 9. The same day we visited the shores of the isle in the ship’s boats. 10. None but picked recruits were enlisted. 11. A longing for the brightness and silence of fallen snow seizes him at such times. 12. Such were Addison’s talents for conversation. 13. Nicholas Vedder! why, he is dead and gone these eighteen years! 14. What a lamentable situation was that of the poor baron! 15. Several houses were pillaged and destroyed.

16. Each warrior was a chosen man. 17. See how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief!—Shakspere. 18. Our naval annals owe some of their interest to the fantastic and beautiful appearance of old warships.—Stevenson. 19. Some are too indolent to read anything till its reputation is established.—Johnson. 20. In both sexes, occasionally, this lifelong croak, accompanying each word of joy or sorrow, is one of the symptoms of settled melancholy.—Hawthorne. 21. Such voices have put on mourning for dead hopes. 22. Another phenomenon was a package of lucifer matches. 23. How few appear in those streets which but some few hours ago were crowded! 24. This was a very different camp from that of the night before.

25. Alternations of wild hope and cold despair succeeded each other. 26. The poor know best how to console each other’s sorrows. 27. Everybody has his own interpretation for that picture. 28. I strove with none, for none was worth my strife.—Landor. 29. Scarcely any of the items in the above-drawn parallel occurred to Phœbe. 30. He went about moping. None spake to him. No one would play with him.—Lamb. 31. Ah, that good Kent! He said it would be thus. 32. How easy is the explanation to those who know! 33. There has been a quarrel between him and Hepzibah this many a day.

2. Fill each blank with a personal pronoun (§ 141).

• 1. Each of us should do —— best.
• 2. Everybody thinks —— own way is wise.
• 3. If anybody has a better plan, now is the time for —— to speak.
• 4. It was an old-fashioned picnic, every person furnishing —— share of the provisions.
• 5. When anybody is talking, it is bad manners to interrupt ——.

EXERCISE 17
(§§ 143–156, pp. 66–71)

1. Parse the relative pronouns, using the models in § 168.

1. The lights in the shops could hardly struggle through the heavy mist, which thickened every moment. 2. I shall not budge from the position that I have taken up. 3. The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance.—Irving. 4. I hate people who meet Time half-way.—Lamb. 5. The weather, which had been stormy and unsettled, moderated toward the evening. 6. He that once indulges idle fears will never be at rest.—Johnson. 7. The only ford by which the travellers could cross was guarded by a party of militia. 8. One dark unruly night she issued secretly out of a small postern gate of the castle, which the enemy had neglected to guard. 9. I paused to contemplate a tomb on which lay the effigy of a knight in complete armor. 10. He who loves the sea loves also the ship’s routine.—Conrad. 11. There were two or three indefatigable men among them, by whose courage and industry all the rest were upheld.—Defoe.

12. Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea.—Wordsworth. 13. They slander thee sorely who say thy vows are frail.—Moore. 14. The first great poet whose works have come down to us, sang of war long before war became a science or a trade.—-Macaulay. 15. The gusts that drove against the high house seemed ready to tear it from its foothold of rock. 16. At its western side is a deep ravine or valley, through which a small stream rushes. 17. A weak mother, who perpetually threatens and never performs, is laying up miseries both for herself and for her children.—Spencer. 18. As they approached, a raven, who sat upon the topmost stone, black against the bright blue sky, flapped lazily away.—Kingsley. 19. To such of her neighbors as needed other attention, she would give her time, her assistance, her skill. 20. It was such a battle-axe as Rustum may have wielded in fight upon the banks of Oxus. 21. I may neither choose whom I would, nor refuse whom I dislike.

2. Point out the descriptive and the restrictive relatives in 1 (above).

3. Write ten sentences, each containing a descriptive relative; ten sentences, each containing a restrictive relative.

4. Fill the blanks with relatives. In the first eight sentences, at least, use who or whom.

• 1. This is the boy —— I recommended.
• 2. The boy —— I recommended is a Swede.
• 3. The boy —— brought the letter is not the one —— I recommended.
• 4. I told Anna, —— I knew would keep my secret.
• 5. I told Anna, —— I knew I could trust.
• 6. I told Anna, —— I knew to be trustworthy.
• 7. I told Anna, —— I knew intimately.
• 8. No one —— you know lives in this street.
• 9. All —— I can say is, I am sorry.
• 10. Give me the same horse —— I had yesterday.
• 11. A dog, —— showed his teeth and growled, blocked the way.
• 12. Choose the partner —— you like best.
• 13. The policeman was leading a little child —— had lost its mother.
• 14. Take such measures —— you deem necessary.
• 15. Take —— measures seem necessary.
• 16. Take the measures —— seem to you necessary.
• 17. My hat is of the same size —— yours.
• 18. This is the picture —— I am so proud of.
• 19. This is the picture of —— I am so proud.
• 20. The man —— is talking to Henry is the one —— owns this house.

5. Supply the relatives that are “understood” (§ 151).

• 1. It was a bold step she had taken.
• 2. I am not altogether unqualified for the business I have in hand.
• 3. His taste of books is a little too just for the age he lives in.
• 4. Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.
• 5. Who is the wittiest man you know?
• 6. Morton was the only friend I had.
• 7. That sonata was the first piece I learned.
• 8. Ten dollars is the price he asks.
• 9. Are you the man I bought the coat of?
• 10. This is the book we are reading evenings.
• 11. Take any seat you like.
• 12. “Faust” is the only opera I care for.
• 13. I have done all I can.

EXERCISE 18
(§§ 157–162, pp. 71–73)

Parse the relatives.

1. Whatever wisdom and energy could do William did. 2. Whatever is done skilfully appears to be done with ease. 3. We must suspect what we see, distrust what we hear, and doubt even what we feel!—Miss Burney. 4. Whoever has been in a state of nervous agitation, must know that the longer it continues the more uncontrollable it grows.—Irving. 5. Time hath reft whate’er my soul enjoyed.—Byron. 6. The gallant major showed no hesitation whatever. 7. Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill Mountains. 8. A recollection of what I had seen and felt the preceding night still haunted my mind. 9. Hard work was what he needed now. 10. Whatever regrets Mrs. Thorverton might indulge in secret, she had had the strength of mind to hide them. 11. Like all weak men, they had recourse to what they called strong measures. 12. We see in him a freer, purer development of whatever is noblest in ourselves. 13. Sir Roger was what you call a fine gentleman. 14. Sweet princes, what I did, I did in honor.—Shakspere. 15. He was really interested in what Coningsby had seen and what he had felt. 16. What was to be seen at Naples, Addison saw.

EXERCISE 19
(§§ 163–168, pp. 73–74)

Parse the interrogative pronouns, mentioning gender, number, person, and case. If the interrogative word is an adjective, tell what noun it limits.

1. Who would not sing for Lycidas? 2. What that sigh meant I cannot say. 3. Columns, arches, pyramids, what are they but heaps of sand? 4. Which of the two was daughter to the duke? 5. Whom next shall we summon from the dusty dead?—Lamb. 6. Why! Peggy, what have you brought us? 7. What’s fame? A fancied life in others’ breath.—Pope. 8. To what shall I compare it? 9. And what art thou, O melancholy voice?—Shelley. 10. Proud sufferer, who art thou? 11. What were Swigby’s former pursuits I can’t tell. What need we care? Hadn’t he five hundred a year? Ay, that he had.—Thackeray. 12. What does it matter? 13. Which way have you looked for Master Caius? 14. What business had they in Prussia?

EXERCISE 20
(§§ 163–168, pp. 73–74)

Fill each blank with who or whom, as the construction may require.

• 1. He asked me —— was elected.
• 2. From —— did she hear this news?
• 3. To —— did you apply for assistance?
• 4. —— do you regard as the better scholar of the two?
• 5. —— shall I ask for the key?
• 6. —— did you see when you called?
• 7. —— do you think is the best physician in town?
• 8. —— can I trust in such an emergency?
• 9. With —— have you discussed this affair?
• 10. —— do you suppose this letter is from?
• 11. —— do you suppose I am?
• 12. —— do you suppose I saw?
• 13. —— do you think will help us?

EXERCISE 21
(§§ 113–168, pp. 55–74)

Point out each pronoun; tell to what class it belongs, and give its construction.

1. His mind now misgave him. 2. Under the dark and haunted garret were attic chambers which themselves had histories. 3. Passion itself is very figurative, and often bursts out into metaphors.—Goldsmith. 4. He had a wiry, well-trained, elastic figure, a stiff military throw-back of his head, and a springing step, which made him appear much younger than he was. 5. It was the owl that shrieked. 6. Slowly, slowly, slowly the days succeeded each other. 7. Say nothing to the men, but have all your wits about you. 8. He saw that it would be dark long before he could reach the village. 9. I must do myself the justice to open the work with my own history. 10. Economy in our affairs has the same effect upon our fortunes which good breeding has upon our conversations.—Steele. 11. It was a cloudy night, with frequent showers of rain. 12. “Fair sirs,” said Arthur, “wherefore sit ye here?” 13. Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.—Byron. 14. This is my son, mine own Telemachus.—Tennyson.

15. Richard bade them adieu. 16. Ye men of Kent, ’tis victory or death!—Wordsworth. 17. We dined yesterday with your friend and mine, the most companionable and domestic Mr. C. 18. Great is the power of the man who has nothing to lose.—Doyle. 19. Each hamlet started at the sound. 20. Look on me with thine own calm look. 21. Mr. Rigby was not a man who ever confessed himself at fault. 22. They were conversing with much earnestness among themselves. 23. He heard the deep behind him, and a cry before. 24. When Deerslayer reached the fire, he found himself surrounded by no less than eight grim savages. 25. Mine hostess, indeed, gave me a long history how the goblet had been handed down from generation to generation. 26. The uncle and nephew looked at each other for some seconds without speaking. 27. We had yet seen no wild beasts, or, at least, none that came very near us.—Defoe. 28. We envy you your sea-breezes. 29. Which is he that killed the deer? 30. There was the choice, and it was still open to him to take which side he pleased. 31. There is always something to worry you. It comes as regularly as sunrise.