Higher Lessons in English Part 9

[Footnote: "1607" may be treated as a noun, and "six hundred" as one adjective.]

5. The breezy morning died into silent noon.

6. The Delta of the Mississippi was once at St. Louis.

7. Coal of all kinds has originated from the decay of plants.

8. Genius can breathe freely only in the atmosphere of freedom.

in _____below atmosphere just ___________ Falls ______ only the

+Explanation+.----_Only_ modifies the whole phrase, and _just_ modifies the preposition.

9. The Suspension Bridge is stretched across the Niagara river just below the Falls.

10. In Mother Goose the cow jumps clear over the moon.

11. The first standing army was formed in the middle of the fifteenth century.

12. The first astronomical observatory in Europe was erected at Seville by the Saracens.

13. The tails of some comets stretch to the distance of 100,000,000 miles.

14. The body of the great Napoleon was carried back from St. Helena to France.

LESSON 18.

COMPOSITION-PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES.

+COMMA-RULE.--Phrases that are placed out of their usual order [Footnote: For the usual order of words and phrases, see Lesson 51.] and made emphatic, or that are loosely connected with the rest of the sentence, should be set off by the comma.+ [Footnote: An expression in the body of a sentence is set off by two commas; at the beginning or at the end, by one comma.]

+Remark.+--This rule must be applied with caution. Unless it is desired to make the phrase emphatic, or to break the continuity of the thought, the growing usage among writers is not to set it off.

+Direction.+--_Tell why the comma is, or is not, used in these sentences_:--

1. Between the two mountains lies a fertile valley.

2. Of the scenery along the Rhine, many travelers speak with enthusiasm.

3. He went, at the urgent request of the stranger, for the doctor.

4. He went from New York to Philadelphia on Monday.

5. In the dead of night, with a chosen band, under the cover of a truce, he approached.

+Direction+.--_Punctuate such of these sentences as need punctuation_:--

1. England in the eleventh century was conquered by the Normans.

2. Amid the angry yells of the spectators he died.

3. For the sake of emphasis a word or a phrase may be placed out of its natural order.

4. In the Pickwick Papers the conversation of Sam Weller is spiced with wit.

5. New York on the contrary abounds in men of wealth.

6. It has come down by uninterrupted tradition from the earliest times to the present day.

+Direction+.--_See in how many places the phrases in the sentences above may stand without obscuring the thought._

+Caution+.--So place phrase modifiers that there can be no doubt as to what yon intend them to modify. Have regard to the sound also.

+Direction+.--_Correct these errors in position, and use the comma when needed_:--

1. The honorable member was reproved for being intoxicated by the president.

2. That small man is speaking with red whiskers.

3. A message was read from the President in the Senate.

4. With his gun toward the woods he started in the morning.

5. On Monday evening on temperance by Mr. Gough a lecture at the old brick church was delivered.

+Direction+.--_Form a sentence out of each of these groups of words_:--

(Look sharply to the arrangement and the punctuation.)

1. Of mind of splendor under the garb often is concealed poverty.

2. Of affectation of the young fop in the face impertinent an was seen smile.

3. Has been scattered Bible English the of millions by hundreds of the earth over the face.

4. To the end with no small difficulty of the journey at last through deep roads we after much fatigue came.

5. At the distance a flood of flame from the line from thirty iron mouths of twelve hundred yards of the enemy poured forth.

+Direction+.--_See into how many good, clear sentences you can convert these by transposing the phrases_:--

1. He went over the mountains on a certain day in early boyhood.

2. Ticonderoga was taken from the British by Ethan Allen on the tenth of May in 1775.

LESSON 19.

COMPOSITION--PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES.

+Direction+.--_Rewrite these sentences, changing the italicized words into equivalent phrases_:--

+Model+.--The sentence was _carefully_ written. The sentence was written _with_ care.

1. A _brazen_ image was _then_ set up.

2. Those _homeless_ children were _kindly_ treated.

3. Much has been said about the _Swiss_ scenery.

4. An _aerial_ trip to Europe was _rashly_ planned.

5. The _American_ Continent was _probably_ discovered by Cabot.

+Direction+.--_Change these adjectives and adverbs into equivalent phrases; and then, attending carefully to the punctuation, use these phrases in sentences of your own_:--

1. Bostonian 2. why 3. incautiously 4. nowhere 5. there 6. hence 7. northerly 8. national 9. whence 10. here 11. Arabian 12. lengthy 13. historical 14. lucidly 15. earthward

+Direction+.--_Compose sentences, using these phrases as modifiers_:--

Of copper; in Pennsylvania; from the West Indies; around the world; between the tropics; toward the Pacific; on the 22d of February; during the reign of Elizabeth; before the application of steam to machinery; at the Centennial Exposition of 1876.

LESSON 20.

COMPOUND SUBJECT AND COMPOUND PREDICATE.