GENERAL REVIEW
Exercise 1
(1) The family of the Lambs had long been among the most thriving and popular in the neighborhood; the Miss Lambs were the belles of Little Britain, and everybody was pleased when old Lamb had made money enough to shut up shop, and put his name on a brass plate on his door. (2) In an evil hour, however, one of the Miss Lambs had the honor of being a lady in attendance on the Lady Mayoress, at her great annual ball, on which occasion she wore three towering ostrich feathers on her head. (3) The family never got over it; they were immediately smitten with a passion for high life; set up a one-horse carriage, put a bit of gold lace round the errand-boy’s hat, and have been the talk and detestation of the whole neighborhood ever since. (4) They could no longer be induced to play at Pope-Joan or blindman’s buff; they could endure no dances but quadrilles, which nobody had ever heard of in Little Britain; and they took to reading novels, talking bad French, and playing upon the piano. (5) Their brother, too, who had been articled to an attorney, set up for a dandy and a critic, characters hitherto unknown in these parts; and he confounded the worthy folks exceedingly by talking about Kean, the opera, and the “Edinburgh Review.”
—Washington Irving, Sketch Book.
1. Consult the dictionary for the meaning of all words in this paragraph that you do not understand.
2. Account for the capitalization and punctuation. Why is the term Edinburgh Review inclosed in quotation marks?
3. What kind of noun is family in sentence (1)? Use it in a sentence so as to reveal its number and its gender. What is its number in sentence (3)? How do you account for it?
4. What two plural forms has the term Miss Lamb? What is the plural of Lady Mayoress? What does the dictionary say about the plural form folks? What is the number of everybody in sentence (1)? What is the plural of attorney? of dandy?
5. Tell the part of speech and use of long, enough, sentence (1); however, one, which, sentence (2); ever, since, sentence (3); no, longer, no, but, sentence (4); too, up, hitherto, sentence (5). Which of these words can be used as other parts of speech? Illustrate in sentences.
6. Are thriving in sentence (1) and towering in sentence (2) participles or adjectives? How do you decide? Is pleased in sentence (1) a complement of was or a part of a passive verb was pleased? How do you decide? How is smitten used in sentence (3)? Find two passive verbs, and prove that they are passive.
7. Supply the ellipsis before and after popular in sentence (1); before put in sentence (1).
8. Tell the use of each of the following verbals: being (2); reading, talking, playing (4); talking (5). Tell how each of these verbals is modified or completed.
9. Select each prepositional phrase and tell what it modifies.
10. Select all the infinitives with to and tell the grammatical use of each.
11. Parse the relative pronouns in sentences (4) and (5). Are the clauses that they introduce restrictive or unrestrictive?
12. Tell the use and case of each of the following nouns: belles (1); talk, detestation (3); characters (5).
13. Tell the principal parts of each of these verbs: put (1); had, wore (2); got, set (3); took (4).
Exercise 2
(1) Ahem! Dry work, this speechifying, especially to an unpracticed orator. (2) I never conceived till now what toil the temperance lecturers undergo for my sake; hereafter they shall have the business to themselves. (3) Do, some kind Christian, pump a stroke or two, just to wet my whistle. (4) Thank you, sir! (5) My dear hearers, when the world shall have been regenerated by my instrumentality, you will collect your useless vats and liquor casks into one great pile and make a bonfire in honor of the town pump. (6) And when I shall have decayed like my predecessors, then, if you revere my memory, let a marble fountain, richly sculptured, take my place upon this spot. (7) Such monuments should be erected everywhere and inscribed with the names of the distinguished champions of my cause.
(8) One o’clock! (9) Nay, then, if the dinner bell begins to speak, I may as well hold my peace. (10) Here comes a pretty young girl of my acquaintance with a large stone pitcher for me to fill. (11) May she draw a husband while drawing her water, as Rachel did of old! (12) Hold out your vessel, my dear! (13) There it is, full to the brim; so now run home, peeping at your sweet image in the pitcher as you go, and forget not, in a glass of my own liquor, to drink “Success to the town pump.”
—Nathaniel Hawthorne, Twice Told Tales.
1. Consult the dictionary for the meaning of words in these paragraphs that you do not understand.
2. Classify each sentence both as to purpose and structure.
3. What part of speech is ahem? What feeling does it express in sentence (1)?
4. Supply the ellipsis in sentence (1). What part of speech is speechifying? What is its grammatical use?
5. What does the adverb especially in sentence (1) modify?
6. Account for the use of shall and will in these paragraphs.
7. Select all the dependent clauses. Tell the class and use of each, and the introductory word.
8. Select all the terms of address. What is the base word of each?
9. What is the use of now sentence (2)? old (11)? dinner (9)?
10. Parse each predicate verb in sentences (3), (5), (6), (7).
11. Tell the part of speech and use of themselves, sentence (2); stroke, two (3); there, full, peeping, glass, own (13).
12. Tell the use of all infinitive phrases in sentences (3), (6), (9), (10), (13).
Exercise 3
(1) Once upon a time there came to this earth a visitor from a neighboring planet. And he was met at the place of his descent by a great philosopher, who was to show him everything.
(2) First of all they came through a wood, and the stranger looked upon the trees. “Whom have we here?” said he.
(3) “These are only vegetables,” said the philosopher. “They are alive, but not at all interesting.”
(4) “I don’t know about that,” said the stranger. “They seem to have very good manners. Do they never speak?”
(5) “They lack the gift,” said the philosopher.
(6) “Yet I think I hear them sing,” said the other.
(7) “That is only the wind among the leaves,” said the philosopher. “I will explain to you the theory of winds; it is very interesting.”
(8) “Well,” said the stranger, “I wish I knew what they are thinking.”
(9) “They cannot think,” said the philosopher.
(10) “I don’t know about that,” returned the stranger; and then laying his hand upon a trunk: “I like these people,” said he.
(11) “They are not people at all,” said the philosopher. “Come along.”
(12) Next they came through a meadow where there were cows.
(13) “These are very dirty people,” said the stranger.
(14) “They are not people at all,” said the philosopher; and he explained what a cow is in scientific words which I have forgotten.
(15) “That is all one to me,” said the stranger. “But why do they never look up?”
(16) “Because they are graminivorous,” said the philosopher; “and to live upon grass, which is not highly nutritious, requires so close an attention to business that they have no time to think, or speak, or look at the scenery, or keep themselves clean.”
(17) “Well,” said the stranger, “that is one way to live, no doubt. But I prefer the people with the green heads.”
(18) Next they came into a city, and the streets were full of men and women.
(19) “These are very odd people,” said the stranger.
(20) “They are the people of the greatest nation in the world,” said the philosopher.
(21) “Are they indeed?” said the stranger. “They scarcely look so.”
—R. L. Stevenson, Fables.
1. Rewrite this selection, changing the direct to indirect discourse and noting the changes made in verbs, pronouns, and other words.
2. Fill out the elliptical sentences, and tell the grammatical use of each of the words that you supply.
3. Comment on the use of and (1), but (15), and but (17).
4. Explain how each of the following verbs and verbals is completed and modified: was, to show, paragraph (1); have (2); are, and are (3); seem (4); lack (5); think, hear, said (6); wish, knew, are thinking (8); laying (10); explained, is, have forgotten (14); is (15); keep (16).
5. Find the subject of came in the first sentence, and explain the use of there. Prove that was met in paragraph (1) is a true passive verb.
6. Tell the grammatical use of each infinitive in paragraphs (16) and (17).
7. Tell the part of speech and use of once, paragraph (1); first (2); highly, so (16); well (17); next (18); very (19); indeed, scarcely, so (21).
8. Parse all the adjective pronouns, interrogative pronouns, and relative pronouns.
9. Find all the prepositional phrases, and tell what each phrase modifies. Tell the object of each preposition, and if there is anything peculiar about any object, comment upon the peculiarity.
10. Select all the dependent clauses. Tell the kind and use of each clause, and its introductory word. Classify the adjective clauses as restrictive or unrestrictive, and tell what the adverbial clauses denote.
If a word is used in a peculiar or uncommon way, consult the dictionary for information regarding it.
Exercise 4
(1) There troop the three most roguish boys that ever made parents scold or laugh. (2) They have nothing to do but to set each other on to mischief. (3) They pull off buds from the unblossomed rose bushes; they pick cucumbers by the half bushel that were to have been let alone; they break down rare shrubbery to get whips, and instead get whippings; they kill the guinea-pigs; chase the chickens; break up hens’ nests; get into the carriages and wagons only to tumble out, and set all the nurses a-running; they study every means of getting under the horses’ feet, and, as the more dangerous act, they are fond of tickling their hind legs, and pulling at their tails; they fill the already fed horses with extra oats, causing the hostler to fear for his charges’ health, since they refuse oats at the next regular feeding; they paddle in all the mud on the premises; sit down in the street and fill their pockets with dirt; they wet their clothes in the brook, tear them in the woods, lose their caps a dozen times a day, and go bare-headed in the blazing sun; they cut up every imaginable prank with their long-suffering nurses when meals are served, or when bedtime comes, or when morning brings the washing and dressing. (4) They are little, nimble, compact skinfuls of ingenious, fertile, endless, untiring mischief. (5) They stub their toes, or cut their fingers, or get stung, or eat some poisonous berry, seed, or root, or make us think that they have, which is just as bad; they fall down stairs, or eat green fruit till they are as tight as a drum; and yet there is no peace to us without them, as there certainly is none with them. Mischievous darlings! Joyful plagues! Loving, rollicking, laughing rogues!
—Henry Ward Beecher, Star Papers.
1. Give the principal parts of each predicate verb in this selection; its tense. Read the selection with the predicate verbs in the past tense.
2. Explain how the following verbs are completed and modified: made, sentence (1); have (2); pull, were, lose, go, cut (3); are (4); get, make (5).
3. Select all the adjectives and tell what they modify. Classify them as limiting or descriptive. Compare them, if possible. If any of them do not admit of comparison, tell why.
4. Tell the use of there, sentence (1) and there (5).
5. Tell the use and case of each of the following nouns: boys, sentence (1); legs (3); hostler (3); times (3); day (3); drum (5); darlings (5).
6. Find three nouns in the possessive case, and tell what each of them modifies. Decline each of these nouns.
7. Select all the infinitives with to and tell the use of each.
8. Select and classify all the words in -ing.
9. Account for the punctuation of this selection.
10. Select all the dependent clauses. Tell the kind and use of each, and the introductory word.
11. Tell the part of speech and use of on (2); off, alone, down, up, already (3); just, down, certainly (5).
12. Select all the coördinate conjunctions in sentences (3) and (5) and tell what each conjunction joins.