Practical Grammar and Composition Part 37

Bad: The darkness was absolutely impenetrable, and not a thing could be seen.

Good: The darkness was absolutely impenetrable.

Bad: Mr. Smith bids me say that he regrets that a slight indisposition in health precludes his granting himself the pleasure of accepting your invitation to come to your house to dine.

Good: Mr. Smith bids me say that he regrets that sickness prevents his accepting your invitation to dine.

EXERCISE 69

_Reconstruct all of the following sentences that violate the principles of emphasis:_

1. Children, women, and men were slain without pity.

2. I'll prove his guilt by means of marked money, if I can.

3. Most of the students have done good work, although some have not.

4. Will you please start up the machine.

5. Where ignorance leads to a condition of blissful happiness, it would be folly to seek a condition of great wisdom.

6. A man having foolishly tried to board a moving train yesterday, was killed by being run over.

7. As a maker of violins he has never had an equal before nor since.

8. All his friends were collected together.

9. The field was so wet that we could not play on it, except occasionally.

10. Few were superior to him as a sculptor.

11. Railway companies, trolley companies, cable companies, and even hack lines were affected by the change.

12. Books were his constant companions, and he was with them always.

13. That great, gaunt ma.s.s of stones, rock, and earth, which falls upon your vision at the edge of the horizon of your view, is known by the appellation of Maxon Mountain.

14. The noise of trains is heard ceaselessly from morning till night, without stopping at all.

15. He tried to do right so far as we know.

16. That knowledge is the important thing to gain beyond all else.

94. EUPHONY. Euphony demands that the sentence be of pleasing sound.

1. Avoid repeating the same word in a sentence.

Bad: He _commanded_ his son to obey his _commands_.

2. Avoid words and combinations of words that are hard to p.r.o.nounce.

Bad: He seized quickly a thick stick.

3. Avoid a rhyme and the repet.i.tion of a similar syllable.

Bad: They went for a _walk_ in order to _talk_.

EXERCISE 70

_Correct such of the following sentences as lack euphony:_

1. In the problems, he solved one once.

2. Most of the time he does the most he can.

3. She worries about what to wear wherever she goes.

4. It is impossible for one to believe that one so changeable can be capable of such work.

5. Those are our books.

6. Every time there was a chance for error, error was made.

7. It is true that the man spoke truly when he said, "Truth is stranger than fiction."

8. The well must have been well made, else it would not have served so well.

9. Everything he said was audible throughout the auditorium.

10. He acted very sillily.

11. He is still worried over the ill fulfillment of John's promise.

12. In his letters there is something fine in every line.

13. They ordered the members of the order to pay their dues.

EXERCISE 71. A GENERAL EXERCISE ON SENTENCES

_Revise the following sentences. In parentheses after each sentence is the number of the paragraph in which the error involved is set forth:_

1. Not only should we go to church, but also prayer-meeting. (92-4.)

2. In the East, just above the horizon, Mars may be readily seen in the evenings. (93-1.)

3. There is nothing distinctive about the style of the book, and it tells the story of a young Russian couple. (91-1.)

4. The nasal noise in his enunciation was displeasing. (94-2.)

5. Books, papers, records, money, checks, and receipts, were burned.