REVIEW AND DRILL-II

1. Drill in Correct Usage 27

Oral Exercise. 1. Read the following sentences several times. Speak distinctly in order that the correct expressions in them may not escape your attention.

1. He does n't know what you were reading yesterday.

2. They don't know that he does n't like to go to the country.

3. How are your Uncle Fred and your Aunt Helen? How is your Aunt Martha ?

4. The scenery of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is beautiful.

5. I don't see it, you don't see it, he does n't see it, not one of us sees it.

6. One of the girls studies drawing, another of them studies music. 7. It is n't what he does but what he does n't do that makes him fail. 8. Neither my father nor my mother is at home to-day.

9. The captain, together with the rest of the players, is in the field. 10. The study of all these animals is interesting.

2. Read the following sentences, noticing every word in italics :

1. Do you see those tall trees? Don't you see them?

2. Have you ever seen this kind of leaves before? Look at them. 3. Are those your trees? Who owns them? See those boys climbing them.

4. We told those boys not to climb those trees.

5. These are our books. Are those yours? Who brought them here?

3. Use in sentences of your own the words italicized in the preceding two drill exercises. Ask your classmates questions that contain these words.

2. Words sometimes Mispronounced

Oral Exercise. 1. Repeat the words below, slowly and distinctly, as your teacher pronounces them to you. Then read the list rapidly, being sure to speak each word clearly and correctly.

2. Use in sentences each of the words above. Make sentences

that will interest your classmates.

3. Game. Making Sentences

One pupil proposes a word or a group of words as the subject or the predicate of a sentence that he asks a classmate to complete. Thus, the following words or groups of words might be proposed for subjects of sentences:

John

The winding path through the meadow
Many old-fashioned buildings

The following might be proposed for predicates of sentences:

wandered aimlessly in the woods

invited us to take a walk

stood on both sides of the deserted street

If the classmate makes a sentence, correctly using the words given, he in turn may propose the subject or the predicate for a sentence to be made by another pupil; and so on, until every pupil has both called for and made a sentence. Interesting and sensible suggestions and sentences should be made.

CHAPTER THREE 29

THE PARTS OF SPEECH

some

In our study of sentences we learned that the principal word of the subject is usually a word that names something, person, place, or thing, as boy, city, house, wagon. All words that name things we put in a class by themselves. The principal word of the predicate, on the other hand, we found to be usually some word that asserts action, as runs, sings. All words that assert action we put in another class by themselves. So we have already learned something of two of the classes into which words are divided.

There are several of these classes, and they are called the parts of speech. We must now stop to learn something about each, in order that we may go on with our study of sentences.

1. Nouns

In the passage that follows, the words that are names of persons, places, or things are printed in italics. These words, and all words like them, are called nouns.

even

On a day in September, long ago, a ship sailed out of the harbor of Plymouth, in England. On board were men, women, children some dogs and cats and they were all starting on the long voyage across the ocean to find a home on the strange, wild shores of America.

Exercise. Name things that you have in or on your desk. Name things you can see in the schoolroom. Name things you can feel with your finger tips. Name things you saw or heard on your way to school.

All these words, and thousands of others, are alike in being names of things. They are called nouns.

Not only "things" that we can see or hear or touch are named by nouns, but also such things as joy, sadness, hope, fear, companionship.

Exercise. I. Point out all the nouns that you can find in these sentences. There are eighteen in all.

1. Once a tailor and a goldsmith were traveling together.

2. At evening the sun sank behind the mountains.

3. The men heard the sound of far-away music.

4. The moon had risen when they came to a hill.

5. Here they saw a crowd of little men and women.

6. An old man wore a coat of many colors.

7. His gray beard hung down over his breast.

2. Write five sentences, using at least ten of the nouns you found in the sentences above.

A noun is a word used as the name of something.

2. Pronouns

1. George is playing with George's brother. 2. The old man carried the old man's bundle on the old man's shoulder. 3. A woman saw the old man. 4. The woman called to the old man. 5. The old man turned and went toward the woman.

Exercise. Can you improve the sentences above? What did

you do?

It is convenient to have words that we can use instead of nouns. It saves repeating the nouns. A number of little words, among which are he, she, his, her, they, perform this important work of taking the place of nouns. They are called pronouns, which means " for nouns."

Some of the pronouns that we use all the time are:

Exercise. 1. Point out the pronouns in these sentences and

tell what noun or nouns each one stands for:

1. Tom, Mary, and Fred (Fred is my name) went to the river. 2. We had a canoe there.

3. I knew exactly where we had hidden it.

4. They helped me get it into the water.

5. Tom is my brother and Mary is his sister.

6. She knows how to paddle a canoe.

7. The current of the river is strong, but still we made good headway against it.

8. Some boys on the bank watched us.

9. They shouted to us, but we paddled right on until their shouts died away.

10. We saw no more of them.

2. Write five sentences containing pronouns used as subjects.30 Write five sentences containing pronouns not used as subjects.

3. Verbs

Exercise. Read each of the following incomplete sentences as it stands. Does it make sense? Is it a sentence? Now supply what is needed to give it life; that is, supply a suitable verb.