Graded Lessons in English Part 13

5. The little brook ran swiftly under the bridge.

6. Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga.

7. The steeples of the village pierced through the dense fog.

8. The gloom of winter settled down on everything.

9. A gentle breeze blows from the south.

10. The temple of Solomon was destroyed.

11. The top of the mountain is covered with snow.

12. The second Continental Congress convened at Philadelphia.

LESSON 32.

SENTENCE-BUILDING.

Build sentences, employing the following phrases as modifiers.

To Europe, of oak, from Albany, at the station, through the fields, for vacation, among the Indians, of the United States.

Supply to the following predicates subjects modified by phrases.

---- is situated on the Thames.

---- has arrived.

---- was destroyed by an earthquake.

---- was received.

---- has just been completed.

---- may be enjoyed.

Supply to the following subjects predicates modified by phrases.

Iron ----.

The trees ----.

Squirrels ----.

The Bible ----.

Sugar ----.

Cheese ----.

Paul ----.

Strawberries ----.

The mountain ----.

Write five sentences, each of which shall contain one or more phrases used as modifiers.

LESSON 33.

SENTENCE-BUILDING.

Re-write the following sentences, changing the italicized words into equivalent phrases.

+Model+.--A _golden_ image was made.

An image _of gold_ was made.

You will notice that the adjective _golden_ was placed before the subject, but, when changed to a phrase, it followed the subject.

1. The book was _carefully_ read.

2. The old soldiers fought _courageously_.

3. A group of children were strolling _homeward_.

4. No season of life should be spent _idly_.

5. The _English_ amba.s.sador has just arrived.

6. That _generous_ act was liberally rewarded.

Change the following adjectives and adverbs into equivalent phrases, and employ the phrases in sentences of your own building.

Wooden, penniless, eastward, somewhere, here, evening, everywhere, yonder, joyfully, wintry.

Make a sentence out of the words in each line below.

Boat, waves, glides, the, the, over.

He, Sunday, church, goes, the, on, to.

Year, night, is dying, the, the, in.

Qualities, Charlemagne, vices, were alloyed, the, great, of, with.

Indians, America, intemperance, are thinned, the, out, of, by.

LESSON 34.

PREPOSITIONS.

+Hints for Oral Instruction+.--In the preceding Lessons, the little words that were placed before nouns, thus forming phrases, belong to a, cla.s.s of words called +Prepositions+. You noticed that these words, which you have now learned to call prepositions, served to introduce phrases. The preposition shows the relation of the _idea_ expressed by the princ.i.p.al word of the phrase to that of the word which the phrase modifies. It serves also to connect these words.

In the sentence, _The squirrel ran up a tree_, what word shows the relation of the act of running, to the tree? Ans. _Up_.

Other words may be used to express different relations. Repeat, nine times, the sentence above given, supplying, in the place of _up_, each of the following prepositions: _Around, behind, down, into, over, through, to, under, from_.

Let this exercise be continued, using such sentences as, _The man went into the house; The ship sailed toward the bay_.

+DEFINITION.--A _Preposition_ is a word that introduces a phrase modifier, and shows the relation, in sense, of its princ.i.p.al word to the word modified+.

+a.n.a.lysis and Parsing+.

+Model+.--_Flowers preach to us_.

For +a.n.a.lysis+ and +Diagram+, see Lesson 31.