Business English Part 69

27. In letter writing one should always be exact and arrange them in the customary form.

28. Those hooks are not rust-proof because the back of my dress is stained with it.

29. The telephone is a great convenience to all. They are now used in almost every house.

30. As we came down the road, it sounded like a train, which, as we approached, grew louder and louder.

=Exercise 204--Misplaced Modifiers=

Sometimes a sentence is not clear because a modifier does not stand close to the word it modifies.

_Wrong_: I can't _even_ do the first problem.

_Right_: I can't do _even_ the first problem.

Change the order of words in the following sentences, placing each modifier as closely as possible to the word which it modifies. Some of the sentences are incorrect because they contain split infinitives. (See Exercise 92.)

1. I only waited for him about ten minutes.

2. She stood at the window, trying to close it with a troubled face.

3. The city is supplied with water from cold springs which flow nearly a hundred million gallons of the purest liquid that ever burst from the earth, daily.

4. The famous S. F. ice cream is made in this factory containing fifty per cent pure cream.

5. A man should not be allowed to cast a vote, who cannot read and write.

6. After taking the medicine for a short time, the appet.i.te is improved, and a desire is created for food, that has not existed before.

7. In real value, this magazine towers head and shoulders over all others to the woman who is in charge of her home.

8. There are pages of fas.h.i.+on news and embroidery hints and news articles of the day that will appeal to the husband and father as the others do to the wife and daughter as well as departments for the children.

9. The number of the sewing machine is 37A with a drop head.

10. They neither are gentle nor well-mannered.

11. I only heard about the trouble yesterday.

12. He left the same station at which, thirty years before, he had arrived very humbly, in his own special car.

13. He urged his brother to buy a home in his letter.

14. The lighting system has been developed to a really remarkable degree of perfection for the trains.

15. The dynamo is so arranged that when the train is standing still or only traveling twenty miles an hour, the lamps are lighted from a storage battery.

16. The batteries must be large enough during the run to carry the entire lighting load.

17. Please send me 6 Dining Tables No. 46 that extend to ten feet as soon as possible.

18. Large trees grow on each side of the house which is a rambling affair shutting out the light.

19. They decided to give a bonus to the one doing the best work, amounting to fifty dollars.

20. We had almost got to the corner before we saw the fire.

21. I don't ever remember having seen so big a fire.

22. Remember to thoroughly oil the machine.

23. Do you need to in any way alter the machine?

24. If we expect to completely fill the order to-day, we need more help.

=Exercise 205--Omission of Necessary Words=

Sometimes a sentence is not clear because a word has been omitted that is necessary to the sense; as,

_Wrong_: The two officers that they elected are the president and secretary.

_Right_: The two officers that they elected are the president and _the_ secretary.

_Wrong_: His writing is as good or better than yours.

_Right_: His writing is as good _as_ or better than yours.

_Wrong_: The library is where we go to read.

_Right_: The library is _the place_ where we go to read.

State the difference between the following typewriter ribbons:

1. A red and blue and black ribbon.

2. A red and a blue and black ribbon.

3. A red and blue and a black ribbon.

4. A red and a blue and a black ribbon.

Supply the omitted part in each of the following:

1. I always have and I'm sure I always shall be considerate of others' feelings.

2. They have a stenographer and bookkeeper, who are kept busy all day.

3. I believe he has already or will soon begin the work.

4. The cus.h.i.+ons of the rocker are much softer than the armchair.