Practical Grammar and Composition Part 34

9. Women (and Christian American women, too) frequently try to evade the customs laws.

10. My aunt has some of Jefferson's silver spoons, so she says.

11. He graduated from college (I think it was Harvard, though I am not sure) and then taught for three years.

12. This is one of Hugo's novels, it is very good.

13. He accomplishes everything he undertakes, if it is at all possible.

14. Washington was president of the United States. But Hamilton guided its financial policy.

15. Every year they sell three hundred sets, and Mr. West helps to write the letters.

16. The country people were the chief patrons of the store. Although no small amount of trade came from the town.

17. The box sat under a tree, and the dog, which was a collie, would go when he was told and sit on it, and no one could call him away but his master who was very often cruelly slow in doing so, but the dog never lost patience.

18. He was one of those persons (of whom there are so painfully many) who never do what they promise.

19. He then went to his room, which was in the back of the house, to sleep, and his books were found there the next day.

20. He was the man that I had mentioned, who had been recommended for the position. Who had been refused because of his deficiencies in English.

21. I can't go, I don't think.

22. He was a very big and very strong man. And, he should have made a great football player.

23. He will surely be elected, I haven't any fear.

24. The food was good, and the service was fine, but we did not care to stay on account of the weather, which was rainy most of the time, and because it was an out-of-the-way place.

25. He converses intelligently and pleasantly, and never gossips, hence he is an agreeable companion.

26. He died of smallpox, and was ninety years old.

27. There were twenty boys in the cla.s.s. Each past twenty-five years of age.

28. He is in every way honorable, at least so far as money matters are concerned.

29. I had not previously thought of going to college, but now I was enthusiastic on the matter, and all my time (at least most of it) was devoted to poring over catalogues, of which I had a great number, and many of which I knew by heart from having gone over them so often, and finally a college was selected which seemed to suit me, so I went there in the fall to study chemistry.

30. He was very sensitive. So that we could tease him very little without making him angry.

31. There are a great number of stations along this short line of railroad, these, however, do little business.

32. They stopped and asked us the road to Milton, and it was discovered that they were going in the wrong direction, as Milton lay south of Williamsport, and we were camping twenty miles north.

33. He will most likely be suspended, it may perhaps be.

34. That day my cousin went home, and the next day John came to spend a few hours with me, and in the afternoon we drove all over the valley, but neither of us grew tired, because there were so many things to converse about, and so many long treasured questions to ask, and John left in the evening, and then I went to bed.

35. He has been proved a gambler, there you have it all.

36. Mrs. Smith (whose husband had been killed by a falling beam in one of the buildings he was constructing) consented to give us a room and board.

37. He read his lesson carefully, then he closed the book to think it over.

38. He is the most peculiar person I ever met--in the last few years at least.

39. I am reading a book, it is very interesting.

40. They get a great deal of amus.e.m.e.nt when he is walking (which he does every nice day) by whistling in time with his steps.

41. He gave me this book which you see, and I have been able to get a vast amount of information out of it.

42. It was noticed by everyone that he always behaved well. When he was in school.

43. The magician was present. And pleased everybody with his performances.

44. Because he liked music, John was considered an odd fellow, and his father was dead.

92. COHERENCE. Coherence in the sentence demands that the arrangement and the construction of the sentence be clear and free from ambiguity.

1. Frame the sentence so that it can have but one possible meaning.

Wrong: He owned several dogs and was greatly troubled with the mange.

Right: He owned several dogs and was greatly troubled _because they had_ the mange.

Right: He was greatly troubled because several of _his dogs had_ the mange.

2. See that the antecedent of every p.r.o.noun is clear and explicit.

Wrong: The dog was bitten on the front _foot which_ has since died.

Right: The _dog, which_ has since died, was bitten on the front foot.

Right: The dog was bitten on the front foot and has since died.

3. See that the word to which each modifier refers is unmistakable.

a. Place every modifying element as near as possible to the word which it modifies.

Wrong: He was sitting in a chair reading a _book made_ in the mission style.

Right: He was sitting in a _chair made_ in the mission style and was reading a book.

Right: He was sitting reading a book in a chair made in the mission style.