Grammar and Style: Sentence Fragments

Date
Name
'I
"Heading West" by Miriam Davis Colt
Will Fight No More Forever" by Chief Joseph
Grammar and Style: Sentence Fragments
Many of the entries in Miriam Colt's journal are sentence fra$ments-incomplete sentences
that lack a subject, verb, or both. Although sentence fragments are acceptable for taking notes
or making quick, informal journal entries, they are not acceptable in finished writing.
Sentence fragment missing subjech Have driven 1B miles today.
Sentence fragment missing verb: The lovely day.
Sentence fragment missing subject and verb: ln the far west.
A. Practice: These sentences and sentence fragments are from "Heading West." Read each one.
If a sentence is complete, write "correct" in blank following it. If it is a fragment, rewrite it as a
complete sentence.
I
"We are making every necessary preparation for our journey, and our home
in Kansas."
2. "Go up, up, up, and upstairs to our lodging rooms."
3. "On board steamer'Cataract,'bound for Kansas City."
4. "Large droves of cattle are driven into town to be sold to emigrants, who like us,
are going
into the Territory."
5. "Think Mrs. Voorhees will
get walking enough crossing this prairie."
B. \lrriting Application: Rewrite each of these passages from "Heading West" to eliminate all
sentence fragments.
l.
"Found ourselves in this miserable hotel before we knew it. Miserable fare-herring boiled
with cabbage-miserable, dirty beds, and an odor pervading the house that is not at all
agreeable. Mistress gone."
2.
"One mile from the city, and Dr. Thorn has broke his wagon tongue; it must be sent back
to Kansas City to be mended. Fires kindled-women cooking-supper eaten sitting around
on logs, stones, and wagon tongues."
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Heading West/Fight No
More 143
"Heading TVest" by Miriam Davis Colt
'I Will fight No More Forever"
by Chief Joseph
Build Vocabulary Q.1421
A. Sample responses:
I. The archaeologist dug up many bowls
and pots made of terra cotta.
2. The astronaut jumped up and down
happily on terra firma after climbing out
of the space shuttle.
3. To the Nez Perc6, who came from farther
west, Oklahoma was terra incognita.
B. l. emigrants
2. profusion
3. genial
4. pervading
5. terra firma
6. nonplused
7. depredations
Grammar and Style: Sentence
Fragments (p. 1431
A. Sample responses:
1. correct
2. We go up, up, up, and upstairs to our
lodging rooms.
3. We are traveling on board the steamer
"Cataract," bound for Kansas City.
4. correct
5. I think Mrs. Voorhees will get walking
enough crossing this prairie.
B. Sample responses:
I. We found ourselves in this miserable hotel
before we knew it. The fare is miserable. It
consists of herring boiled with cabbage.
The beds are miserable and dirty, and art
odor pervades the house that is not at all
agreeable. The mistress is gone.
2. We are one mile from the city, and Dr.
Thorn has broke his wagon tongue; it must
be sent back to Kansas City to be mended.
Fires are kindled; the women begin cooking;we eat supper sitting around on logs,
stones, and wagon tongues.
Reading Strategy: Respond (p. 144)
Possible response:
Students may mention that "freezing to death"
and "find them dead" evoke powerful images,
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which help them understand the motivation of
Chief Joseph's speech.
Literary Analysis: Tone (p. 145)
A.
l. b 2.d 3.b 4.a
B. Students should identi$r the adjective they
choose. The entry should reflect the tone
through descriptive words and details.
"To Build a Fire" by Jack l,ondon
Build Vocabulary (p. 146)
A. Sample answers:
l. Ejecting mearls to be thrown out. The
pilot threw himself or-tt of Ut. plan".
2. To object is to throw your opinion against
something. We were sure the coach
would be against our missing practice.
3. When you are sad or disappointed, your
spirits cold be described as thrown
down. Jillian's spirits were down when
fu.it.a the test.
"n
4. An injection is a substance thrown into
the body. Paul received his mearci.re
through a hypodermic needle.
5. Subjects are thrown under or controlled
by a ruler. The emperor inflicts pain on
his people.
B.
l.c2.d3.d4.d
Grammar and Style (p.1a7)
A. t. If he fell down tells under wtnt circumstances it would shatter itself.
2. none
3. So long as he walked four miles an hour
tells to what extent he pumped blood to
the surface.
4. for he would be forced to stop and butld
5. where the ice jams of the freeze-up had
formed tells uhere it was all pure white.
6. As he turned to go on tells rohen he spat.
7. as well as he could tells hou he bit them
B. Sample answers:
1. The man tried to avoid walking where
spring water lay hidden under the snow.
2. Because the man built a fire right under
tinguished the flame.
Answers 357
Date
Name
Walt Whitman's Poetry
Grammar and Style: Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
A pronoun must agree in number and gender with its antecedent, the word to which
it
refers.
Singular masculine pronoun and antecedent: The boatman sings as he sails his boat.
Singular feminine pronoun and antecedent: The young wife sings as she does herwork.
Singular neuter pronoun and antecedent: The spider reached a high promontory where it
made its web.
Plural pronoun and antecedent: lheard many astronomers, and theyall brought theircharts
with them.
A. Practice: Circle the pronoun in parentheses that correctly completes each sentence, and
underline the antecedent to which the pronoun refers.
l.
Mrs. Pell likes poetry, and (his, her, its) favorite poet is Walt Whitman.
2. Mrs.
3.
Pell's volume of Whitman's poems has {its, her, their) cover damaged.
TWo pictures of Whitman
in (his, her, their) hat appear on the cover.
4. The book is published by a company in Boston; (it, he, they) also published Whitman's
original volumes of verse in the late nineteenth century.
5. Mrs. Pell bought her edition when (he, she, it) was in college
6. Several
poems
fift5r years ago.
in the book have (her, its, their) words underlined.
B. Writing Application: On the lines provided, rewrite these sentences by replacing each italicized term with a pronoun that agrees with its antecedent in number and gender.
l.
Whitman leans and loafs at Whttman's ease, observing a spear of summer grass.
2. Whitman notes thatWttitman's ancestors include Whitman's parents and Whitman's parents'parents.
3. When Whitman listened to the lecture, Whitman became tired and sick from looking at the
charts and diagrams and measuring the charts and dtagrams.
4. Whitman's noiseless, patient spider explores a large area, and the spider spins filaments
out of the spider's body, tirelessly unreeling thefitaments.
5. In "I Hear America Singing," the mother sings what belongs to the mother and no one
else.
6. As Whitman lifted Whitman's eyes to look at the shrubs and trees, Whitman thought that
tlrc shrttbs andtrees were watchingWhitman.
104 Selection Support
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Emtly Dlcklnson's Poetry
(continued)
Reading Strategy: Analyze lmages (p. 101)
Sample responses:
1. The image of the soul shutting the door,
which appeals to tl:e senses of both sound
and sight, helps us visualize the privacy of
the soul and understand the abruptness
with which it shuts out the world.
2. The images of the chariots at the low gate
and the emperor kneeling upon the mat,
Which appeal to the senses of sight and
touch, help us understand the soul's indifference to even the magnificent and
powerful.
3. The images of closing the valves and of the
stone, which appeal to the senses of sight
and touch, help us visualize the way in
which the soul operates and the absolute
isolation that it imposes.
Literary Analysis: Slant Rhyme (p. 102)
l. see/me, exact 2. chill/Tulle, slant
3. Despair/Air, exact 4. pnvacy/Infinity,
slant 5. thirst/passed, slant; throe/Snow,
exact; told/Mold, exact
Walt Whitman's Poetry
Build Vocabulary (p. 103)
A.
l.b 2.d 3.a 4.a
B. Possible responses:
1. I depart as air, I shake my white locks at
the runaway sun, I spread my flesh out
in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
2. Creeds and school in suspension, retiring back a while sufficed at what they
are, but never forgotten.
C. l.b2.a
Grammar and Style: Pronoun-Antecedent
Agreement (p. 10a)
,d Students should circle each correct pronoun and underline its antecedent.
l. her; antecedent: Mrs. Pell
2. its; antecedent: volume
3. his; antecedent: Whitman
4. it; antecedent: company
5. she; antecedent: Mrs. Pell
6. their; antecedent: poems
350
Selection Support
B.
l.
Whitman leans and loafs at his ease,
observing a spear of summer grass.
Whitman
notes that his ancestors in2.
clude his parents and their parents.
Whitman listened to the lecture,
When
3.
he became tired and sick from looking
at the charts and diagrams and measuring them.
4. Whitman's noiseless, patient spider
explores a large area, and it spins filaments out of its body, tirelessly unreeling them.
5. In "I HearAmerica Singing," the mother
sings what belongs to her and no one else.
6. As Whitman lifted his eyes to look at the
shrubs and trees, he thought that they
were watching him.
Reading Strategy: lnfer the Poet's Attitude
(p. 10s)
L.b 2. a 3.a 4.b 5. c 6.c
Literary Analysis: Free Verse (p. 106)
Students'responses will vary. Some students
may say that the free-verse version is a better
reflection of the spider's spinning and the soul's
freedom, ttrat the short first line identildng the
spider captures the idea of the spider alone on a
promontory, and that the picked-up rhythm toward the final lines echoes the spider's tireless
unreeling and speeding described in those lines.
Other students may prefer a metrical version (if
not the one provided), pointing out that while a
spider may send out filament somewhat randomly to explore an area, the final web that it
weaves is highly pattemed.
"f, Too" by l^angston Hughes
"To Walt Whitman"
by Angela de Hoyos
Thematic Connection: The Emerqence of an
American Voice (p. 107)
Possible responses:
Whitman: carpenter singing as he measures;
shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench;
each singing what belongs to him or her and
to none else
Hughes: darker brother, eating in the kitchen,
at the table when company comes
de Hoyos: prophet democratic; chicana guitar; open road
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