Answers

Grammar Guide #4: Run-On Sentences

Use each of the methods to correct the following sentences and post how you do.

Here are some possible answers to the exercise. The corrections are marked in red.

1. In social studies this year, we are studying our major national problems. So far, we have covered poverty, violence, conservation, and education.


2. The West that the writer describes was a wild, lawless place; a man was not respected until he had killed someone.


3. Ynes Mexia, the botanical explorer, discovered rare tropical plants on her expeditions to Mexico and South America, and this was of great value to science.


4. Every young person should learn one important fact about life because you do not have to be beautiful to have an attractive personality.


5. Juan took an art elective and discovered he had talent. Now he spends his afternoons in the art room.

Grammar Guide #5: Negation Use

QUIZ: Rewrite any of the sentences that contain double negatives to eliminate the problem. Not every sentence is faulty.

Here are some possible answers to the exercise. Remove the words marked in red to make the sentence correct.

1. Americans are notorious for not knowing hardly any geography.


2. On an unlabeled map they can't barely find their own state, much less the countries they read about in the news.


3. More depressing, most people don't feel no need to improve their knowledge.


4. There can hardly be two places more talked about in the United States than Bosnia and the Persian Gulf.


5. Yet the majority of Americans couldn't no more tell you where those places are than they could fly.

Grammar Guide #6: Verb Tenses

Explain the difference in meaning between the sentences in the following pairs. The sentences are correct. Name the tense used in each sentence.

Here are the answers to the exercise. The differences are marked in red.

1. Katherine went to high school for two years. Past tense. Katherine is finished with high school.
   
   Katherine has gone to high school for two years. Present perfect tense. Katherine is still going to high school.


2. How long has she been here? Present perfect tense. She is still waiting.
   
   How long was she here? Past tense. She has left the building.


3. What has been going on here? Present perfect tense. The actions in question have continued into the present from a point in the past.
   
   What went on here? Past tense. The actions in question are finished.


4. Have the ballots been counted? Present Perfect tense. Should be done before any present action.
   
   Had the ballots been counted? Past Perfect tense. Should have been done before another past action.


5. We learned that he had been there for three hours. Past perfect tense. He waited and then left.
   
   We learned that he has been there for three hours. Present Perfect tense. He waited and met them.


6. I suppose Mary will have finished college when they return from abroad. Future Perfect tense. Finishing college will be completed before returning from abroad.
   
   I suppose Mary will finish college when they return from abroad. Future tense. Finishing college will be completed after returning from abroad.


7. Was she sleeping? Past tense. She's not sleeping now.
   
   Had she been sleeping? Past Perfect tense. Don't know is she was sleeping before something else happened.


8. After July 1, I will have been studying here a year. Future Perfect tense. The studying is happening now, but the year date hasn't arrived.
   
   After July 1, I will be studying here for a year. Future tense. It is before July 1st and studying will happen after July 1st.


9. We'll have given them more pay. Future perfect tense. They have gotten more pay already.
   
   We'll give them more pay. Future tense. They haven't gotten more pay yet.


10. What had she done? Past Perfect tense. Way back when.
    
    What has she done? Present Perfect tense. Just happened.

Grammar Guide #7: Verbals

Identify the numbered phrases and tell what word it modifies or how it is acting in the sentence.

Here are the answers to the exercise.

1. Reading the newspapers, Participial phrase modifying "I"
2. Writing fiction Gerund phrase acting as the subject
3. writing nonfiction. Gerund phrase acting as the object of the preposition "than"
4. Realizing they are likely Gerund phrase acting as the subject
5. to be sued Infinitive phrase modifying "are"
6. qualifying what they say Gerund phrase acting as the object of the preposition "about"
7. Rarely claiming any direct certainty, Participial phrase modifying "they"
8. to be fact, Infinitive phrase acting as object of the verb "claims"
9. distorting facts deliberately. Gerund phrase acting as the object of the preposition "at"
10. shaped by real experiences, Participial phrase modifying "writing"
11. to make them real. Infinitive phrase modifying "imagination"

Grammar Guide #11: Pronouns

Pick the pronouns out of these sentences.

The pronouns are highlighted in red.

• Solving the transportation problems of a major urban area challenges those who are responsible for it.
• Few of the experts who are studying the problems see private cars as part of their solution.
• Rather, they are a major part of the problem, to judge by most of what we read.
• The pollution, economic waste, and extreme overcrowding that now prevail are what experts question.
• As everybody can see, a five-passenger car occupied by only its driver wastes enough passenger space to remove four other cars from the streets.
• Convenient, efficient mass transportation is what most see as the solution, but even this has no lack of problems.
• Planners themselves would like to redesign the whole transportation system, but who can achieve that?
• How can anyone correct all of the drawbacks in a city whose transportation system is old?
• Only imaginative effort, combined with practical patience, will succeed—and many of us seen to have neither.
• We ourselves, wherever each of us travels, are the stakes in this problematic game.