Graded Lessons in English by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg (ebook reader with highlight function .txt) 📕

Each day and each hour bring their portion of duty. Every book and every paper were found in their place.

When a verb has two or more singular subjects connected by or or nor, it must agree with them in the singular. A similar rule applies to the agreement of the pronoun.

CORRECT THE FOLLOWING ERRORS.

One or the other have made a mistake in their statement. Neither the aster nor the dahlia are cultivated for their fragrance. Either the president or his secretary were responsible. Neither Ann, Jane, nor Sarah are at home.

To foretell, or to express future time simply, the auxiliary shall is used in the first person, and will in the second and third; but when a speaker determines or promises, he uses will in the first person and shall in the second and third.

CORRECT THE FOLLOWING ERRORS.

I will freeze, if I do not move about. You shall feel better soon, I think. She shall be fifteen years old to-morrow. I shall find it for you, if you shall bring the book to me. You will have it, if I can get it for you. He will have it, if he shall take the trouble to ask for it. He will not do it, if I can prevent him. I will drown, nobody shall help me. I will be obliged to you, if you shall attend to it. We will have gone by to-morrow morning. You shall disappoint your father, if you do not return. I do not think I will like the change. Next Tuesday shall be your birthday. You shall be late, if you do not hurry.

LESSON 96.

ERRORS IN THE FORM OF THE VERB.

CORRECT THE FOLLOWING ERRORS.

+Model+.—Those things have not came to-day.

Wrong, because the past came is here used for the past participle come. The present perfect tense is formed by prefixing have to the past participle.

I done all my work before breakfast. I come in a little late yesterday. He has went to my desk without permission. That stupid fellow set down on my new hat.

Set is generally transitive, and sit is intransitive. Lay is transitive, and lie is intransitive.

He sat the chair in the corner. Sit that plate on the table, and let it set. I have set in this position a long time. That child will not lay still or set still a minute. I laid down under the tree, and enjoyed the scenery. Lie that stick on the table, and let it lay. Those boys were drove out of the fort three times. I have rode through the park. I done what I could. He has not spoke to-day. The leaves have fell from the trees. This sentence is wrote badly. He throwed his pen down, and said that the point was broke. He teached me grammar. I seen him when he done it. My hat was took off my head, and throwed out of the window. The bird has flew into that tall tree. I was chose leader. I have began to do better. I begun this morning. My breakfast was ate in a hurry. Your dress sets well. That foolish old hen is setting on a wooden egg. He has tore it up and throwed it away. William has took my knife, and I am afraid he has stole it. This should be well shook. I begun to sing, before I knowed what I was doing. We drunk from a pure spring. I thought you had forsook us. His pencil is nearly wore up. He come, and tell me all he knowed about it.

LESSON 97.

REVIEW QUESTIONS.

+To the Teacher+.—See “Scheme,” p. 187.

How many modifications have verbs? Ans.—_Five; viz., voice, mode, tense, number, and person_. Define voice. How many voices are there? Define each. Illustrate. What is mode? How many modes are there? Define each. What is an infinitive? What is a participle? How many different kinds of participles are there? Define each. Illustrate. What is tense? How many tenses are there? Define each. Illustrate. What are the number and the person of a verb? Illustrate. What is conjugation? What is synopsis? What are auxiliaries? Name the auxiliaries. What are the principal parts of a verb? Why are they so called? How does a verb agree with its subject? When a verb has two or more subjects, how does it agree? Illustrate the uses of shall and will.

+To the Teacher+.—Select some of the preceding exercises, and require the pupils to write the parsing of all the verbs. See Lessons 34, 35, 48, 49, and 56.

+Model for Written Parsing—Verbs+.—_The Yankee, selling his farm, wanders away to seek new lands_.

CLASSIFICATION. MODIFICATIONS. SYNTAX.

Verbs. Kind. Voice. Mode. Tense. Num. Per.

selling Pr. Par., Ir., Tr. Ac. – – – – Mod. of Yankee. wanders Reg., Int. – Ind. Pres. Sing. 3d. Pred. of ” seek Inf, Ir., Tt, Ac. – ” – – Prin. word in phrase Mod. of wanders.

[Footnote *: Participles and Infinitives have no person or number.]

LESSON 98.

SENTENCE-BUILDING.

Participles sometimes partake of the nature of the noun, while they retain the nature of the verb.

Build each of the following phrases into a sentence, and explain the nature of the participle.

+Model+.— –-in building a snow fort. They were engaged in building a snow fort. The participle building, like a noun, follows the preposition in, as the principal word in the phrase; and, like a verb, it takes the object complement fort.

–- by foretelling storms. –- by helping others. –- on approaching the house. –— in catching fish.

Use the following phrases as subjects.

Walking in the garden –-. His writing that letter –-. Breaking a promise –-.

Use each of the following phrases in a complex sentence. Let some of the dependent clauses be used as adjectives, and some, as adverbs.

–- in sledges. –- up the Hudson. –- down the Rhine. –- through the Alps. –- with snow and ice. –- into New York Bay. –- on the prairie. –- at Saratoga.

Build a short sentence containing all the parts of speech.

Expand the following simple sentence into twelve sentences.

Astronomy teaches the size, form, nature, and motions of the sun, moon, and stars.

Contract the following awkward compound sentence into a neat simple sentence,

Hannibal passed through Gaul, and then he crossed the Alps, and then came down into Italy, and then he defeated several Roman generals.

Change the following complex sentences to compound sentences.

When he asked me the question, I answered him courteously. Morse, the man who invented the telegraph, was a public benefactor. When spring comes, the birds will return.

Contract the following complex sentences into simple sentences by changing the verb in the dependent clause to a participle. Notice all the other changes.

A ship which was gliding along the horizon attracted our attention. I saw a man who was plowing a field. When the shower had passed, we went on our way. I heard that he wrote that article. That he was a foreigner was well known. I am not sure that he did it. Every pupil who has an interest in this work will prepare for it.

Change the following compound sentences to complex sentences.

+Model+.—Morning dawns, and the clouds disperse. When morning dawns, the clouds disperse.

Avoid swearing; it is a wicked habit. Pearls are valuable, and they are found in oyster shells. Dickens wrote David Copperfield, and he died in 1870. Some animals are vertebrates, and they have a backbone.

Expand each of the following sentences as much as you can.

Indians dance. The clock struck. The world moves.

LESSON 99.

MISCELLANEOUS ERRORS.

CORRECT THE FOLLOWING ERRORS.

I have got that book at home.

+Model+.—Wrong, because have, alone, asserts possession. Got, used in the sense of obtained, is correct; as, I have just got the book.

Have you got time to help me? There is many mistakes in my composition.

+Model+.—Wrong, because is should agree with its plural subject mistakes. The adverb there is often used to introduce a sentence, that the subject may follow the predicate. This often makes the sentence sound smooth, and gives variety.

There goes my mother and sister. Here comes the soldiers. There was many friends to greet him. It ain’t there.

+Model+.—_Ain’t_ is a vulgar contraction. Correction—It is not there.

I have made up my mind that it ain’t no use. ‘Tain’t so bad as you think. Two years’ interest were due. Every one of his acts were criticised. I, Henry, and you have been chosen.

+Model+.—Wrong, for politeness requires that you should mention the one spoken to, first; the one spoken of, next; and yourself, last.

He invited you and I and Mary. Me and Jane are going to the fair. I only want a little piece. He is a handsome, tall man. Did you sleep good? How much trouble one has, don’t they? He inquired for some tinted ladies’ note-paper. You needn’t ask me nothing about it, for I haven’t got no time to answer. Him that is diligent will succeed. He found the place sooner than me. Who was that? It was me and him. If I was her, I would say less. Bring me them tongs. Us boys have a base-ball club. Whom did you say that it was? Who did you speak to just now? Who did you mean, when you said that? Where was you when I called? There’s twenty of us going. Circumstances alters cases. Tell them to set still. He laid down by the fire. She has lain her book aside. It takes him everlastingly. That was an elegant old rock.

LESSON 100.

ANALYSIS AND PARSING.

1. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 2. Strike! till the last armed foe expires! 3. You wrong me, Brutus. 4. Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? 5. Why stand we here idle? 6. Give me liberty, or give me death! 7. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. 8. The clouds poured out water, the skies sent out a sound, the voice of thy thunder was in the heaven. 9. The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory. 10. The verdant lawn, the shady grove, the variegated landscape, the boundless ocean, and the starry firmament are beautiful and magnificent objects. 11. When you grind your corn, give not the flour to the devil and the bran to God. 12. That which the fool does in the end, the wise man does at the beginning. 13. Xerxes commanded the largest army that was ever brought into the field. 14. Without oxygen, fires would cease to burn, and all animals would immediately die. 15. Liquids, when acted upon by gravity, press downward, upward, and sideways. 16. Matter exists in three states—the solid state, the liquid state, and the gaseous state. 17. The blending of the seven prismatic colors produces white light. 18. Soap-bubbles, when they are exposed to light, exhibit colored rings. 19. He who yields to temptation debases himself with a debasement from which he can never arise. 20. Young eyes that last year smiled in ours Now point the rifle’s barrel; And hands then stained with fruits and flowers Bear redder stains of quarrel.

CAPITAL LETTERS AND PUNCTUATION.

+Capital Letters+.—The first word of (1) a sentence, (2) a line of poetry, (3) a direct quotation making complete sense or a direct question introduced