Higher Lessons in English by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg (small books to read TXT) 📖

fully the Rule for quotation marks. Illustrate and explain fully the distinction between direct and indirect quotations, and the distinction between direct and indirect questions introduced into a sentence. Tell all about their capitalization and punctuation.

 

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LESSON 84.

REVIEW.

Illustrate and explain the distinction between a dependent and an independent clause. Illustrate and explain the different ways in which independent clauses connected by and, but, or, and hence are related in sense. Show how independent clauses may be joined in sense without a connecting word. Define a clause. Define the different kinds of clauses. Define the different classes of sentences with regard to form. Give the Rule for the punctuation of independent clauses, and illustrate fully. Illustrate the different ways of contracting independent clauses. Illustrate and explain the difference between compound and complex word modifiers; between compound and complex phrases; between compound and complex clauses. Give participle phrases, absolute phrases, and infinitive phrases, and expand them into different kinds of clauses. What three parts of speech may connect clauses?

GENERAL REVIEW.

TO THE TEACHER.—This scheme will be found very helpful in a general review. The pupils should be able to reproduce it except the Lesson numbers.

Scheme for the Sentence.

(_The numbers refer to Lessons_.)

+PARTS.+

+Subject.+ Noun or Pronoun (8). Phrase (38, 40). Clause (71).

+Predicate.+ Verb (11).

+Complements.+ +Object.+ Noun or Pronoun (28). Phrase (38, 40). Clause (71). +Attribute.+ Adjective (29, 30). Participle (37). Noun or Pronoun (29, 30). Phrase (37, 40). Clause (72). +Objective.+ Adjective (31). Participle (37). Noun (or Pronoun) (31). Phrase (37, 41).

+Modifiers.+ Adjectives (12). Adverbs (14). Participles (37). Nouns and Pronouns (33, 35). Phrases (17, 37, 38, 40, 41). Clauses (59, 60, 63, 64, 65).

+Connectives.+ Conjunctions (20, 64, 65, 71, 76). Pronouns (59, 60). Adverbs (60, 63, 64).

+Independent Parts+ (44).

+Classes.+ +Meaning.+ Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative, Exclamatory (46). +Form.+ Simple, Complex, Compound (76).

Additional Selections.

TO THE TEACHER.—We believe that you will find the preceding pages unusually full and rich in illustrative selections; but, should additional work be needed for reviews or for maturer classes, the following selections will afford profitable study. Let the pupils discuss the thought and the poetic form, as well as the logical construction of these passages. We do not advise putting them in diagram.

 

Speak clearly, if you speak at all; Carve every word before you let it fall.—_Holmes_.

The robin and the blue-bird, piping loud, Filled all the blossoming orchards with their glee; The sparrows chirped as if they still were proud Their race in Holy Writ should mentioned be; And hungry crows, assembled in a crowd, Clamored their piteous prayer incessantly, Knowing who hears the ravens cry, and said, “Give us, O Lord, this day, our daily bread!” —Longfellow,

Better to stem with heart and hand The roaring tide of life than lie, Unmindful, on its flowery strand, Of God’s occasions drifting by. Better with naked nerve to bear The needles of this goading air Than, in the lap of sensual ease, forego The godlike power to do, the godlike aim to know. —_Whittier_.

Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust, Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ‘t is prosperous to be just; Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside, Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified.—_Lowell_.

 

Exercises on the Composition of the Sentence and the Paragraph.

TO THE TEACHER.—These and similar “Exercises” are entirely outside of the regular lessons. They are offered to those teachers who may not, from lack of time or of material, find it convenient to prepare extra or miscellaneous work better suited to their own needs.

The questions appended to the following sentences are made easy of answer, but in continuing such exercises the teacher will, of course, so frame the questions as more and more to throw responsibility on the pupil.

It will be evident that this work aims not only to enforce instruction given before Lesson 17, but, by an easy and familiar examination of words and groups of words, to prepare the way for what is afterwards presented more formally and scientifically. ADAPTED FROM IRVING’S “SKETCH BOOK.”

1. From this piazza the wondering Ichabod entered the hall. 2. This hall formed the center of the mansion and the place of usual residence. 3. Here, rows of resplendent pewter, ranged on a long dresser, dazzled his eyes. 4. In one corner stood a huge bag of wool ready to be spun. 5. In another corner stood a quantity of linsey-woolsey just from the loom. 6. Ears of Indian corn and strings of dried apples and peaches hung in gay festoons along the walls. 7. These were mingled with the gaud of red peppers. 8. A door left ajar gave him a peep into the best parlor. 9. In this parlor claw-footed chairs and dark mahogany tables shone like mirrors. 10. Andirons, with their accompanying shovel and tongs, glistened from their covert of asparagus tops. [Footnote: Asparagus tops were commonly used to ornament the old-fashioned fireplace in summer.] 11. Mock-oranges and conch-shells decorated the mantelpiece. 12. Strings of various-colored birds’ eggs were suspended above it. 13. A corner-cupboard, knowingly left open, displayed immense treasures of old silver and well-mended china.

+The Uses of Words and Groups of Words+.—Find the two chief words in each of the first three sentences. As a part of the sentence what is each of these words called? To what class of words, or part of speech, does each belong? Notice that in the fourth and the fifth sentence the subject is put after the predicate. Change the order of words and read these sentences. Read in their regular order the two chief words of each. In the sixth sentence what word says, or asserts, something about both ears and strings? In the ninth sentence put what before the predicate shone and find two nouns that answer the question. In the eleventh sentence what two things does decorated tell something about? In the seventh sentence these stands for what two nouns, or names, found in the preceding sentence? Find the subject and the predicate of each sentence from the sixth to the thirteenth inclusive. To what class of words does each of these chief parts belong? Find in these sentences nouns that are not subjects. Find several compound nouns the parts of which are joined with the hyphen.

The and wondering in the first sentence go with what noun? The group of words from this piazza goes with what word? In the second sentence put what before, and then after, formed, and find the names that answer these questions. What does of the mansion go with? What does of usual residence describe? In the third sentence what word tells where the dazzling occurred? Find a group of three words telling what the rows were composed of. What group of words tells the position of the rows? In the fourth sentence what group of words shows where the bag stood? Of wool ready to be spun describes what? A and huge are attached to what?

TO THE TEACHER.—We have here suggested some of the devices by which pupils may be led to see the functions of words and phrases. We recommend that this work be varied and continued through the selection above and through others that may easily be made. Such exercises, together with the more formal and searching work of the regular lessons, will be found of incalculable value to the pupil. They will not only afford the best mental discipline but will aid greatly in getting thought and in expressing thought.

+The Force and the Beauty of the Description above.—+ Can you find any reason why we are invited to see this picture through the eyes of the interested and wondering Ichabod? Do you think the word wondering well chosen and suggestive? Look through this picture carefully and tell what there is that indicates thrift, industry, and prosperity. Find more common expressions for center of the mansion and place of usual residence. Notice in the third sentence the effect of resplendent and dazzled. How is a similar effect produced in the ninth and the tenth sentence? You see that this great artist in words does not here need to repeat his language. We can easily imagine that he could produce the same effect in a great variety of ways. In the fourth sentence does the expression ready to be spun tell what is actually seen, or what is only suggested? What is gained by this expression and by just from the loom in the next sentence? Do you think an unskillful artist would have used in gay festoons? Read the seventh and make it more common but less quaint. Do you think the picture gains, or loses, by representing the door as “ajar” instead of wide open? Why? Can you see any similar effect from introducing their covert in the tenth sentence? What does the expression knowingly left open suggest to you? This selection from Irving illustrates the +Descriptive+ style of writing.

SUGGESTIONS FOR COMPOSITION WORK.

In the description above we have taken some liberties with the original, for we have broken it up into single sentences. The parts of this picture as made by Irving were smoothly and delicately blended together.

You may rewrite this description; and, where it can be done to advantage, you may join the sentences neatly together. Perhaps some of these sentences may be changed to become parts of other sentences,

TO THE TEACHER.—It will be found profitable for pupils to break up for themselves into short sentences model selections from classic English, and, after examining the structure and style as suggested above, to note and, so far as possible, explain how these were blended together in the original. A written reproduction of the selection may then be made from memory.

This study of the thought, the structure, and the style of the great masters in language must lead to a discriminating taste for literature; and the effect upon the pupil’s own habits of thought and expression will necessarily be to lift him above the insipid, commonplace matter and language that characterize much of the so-called “original” composition work.

In the study of these selections, especially in the work of copying, the rules for punctuation, and other rules, formally stated further on, may easily be anticipated informally.

For composition work more nearly original the class might read together or discuss, descriptions of home scenes; then, drawing from imagination or experience, they might make descriptions of their own. In these descriptions different persons might be introduced, with their attitudes, employments, and acts of hospitality.

For exercises in narration pupils might write about trips to these homes, telling about the preparation, the start, the journey, and the reception. (For studies on narrative style, see pages 157-162.)

To insure thoroughness, all such compositions should he short.

 

Exercises on the Composition of the Sentence and the Paragraph.

ADAPTED FROM IRVING’S “SKETCH BOOK.”

1. Every window and crevice of the vast barn seemed bursting forth with the treasures of the farm. 2. The flail was busily resounding within from morning till night. 3. Swallows and martins skimmed twittering about the eaves. 4. Rows of pigeons were enjoying the sunshine on the roof. 5. Some sat with one eye turned up as if watching the weather. 6. Some sat with their heads under their wings or buried in their bosoms. 7. Others were swelling and cooing and bowing about their dames. 8. Sleek, unwieldy porkers were grunting in the repose and abundance of their pens. 9. From these pens sallied forth, now and then, troops of sucking pigs, as if to snuff the air. 10. A stately squadron of