EXERCISE: General Diagnostic or Review Exercise - Broadview ...

EXERCISES
The numbers in parentheses that accompany most exercises correspond to the reference numbers
used throughout The Broadview Guide to Writing, 5/e. This is intended to make many of the
exercises “self-correcting”; by reading the entry corresponding to the relevant number in the
body of the book, you can see if your answer is correct.
GENERAL DIAGNOSTIC AND REVIEW EXERCISES
EXERCISE: General Diagnostic or Review Exercise 1
Choose the correct alternatives.
1) Yesterday afternoon when he ___________ [ate/had eaten] his meal, he rushed outside.
(A8)
2) Not long ago much of the world was ruled by a few colonial powers. Most of Africa,
indeed, was under colonial rule ______________ [until/untill] the 1960s. Now,
_____________ [therefore/however], only a few countries, _________________ [for
example/such as] French Guiana and the Falkland Islands, are under colonial rule. (F38,
F1, C40)
3) How did his criticism [affect/effect] you? (A183)
4) He ran quickly ______________ [inorder/in order] to reach the bank before it closed.
(B12)
5) He is a fundamentalist __________________ [in that/in the way that] he
_________________ [thinks/is thinking] non-believers will be damned. (C41, A4)
6) The traffic is very heavy _________________ [everyday/every day] at this time. (B12)
7) Max invited me to his cottage, where he said we _______ [can/could] go fishing. (A8)
8) My cousin ____________ [may be/maybe] coming tonight, but I ___________ [can not/
cannot] be there. (B12, B11)
9) _____________ [May be/ Maybe] my friend will be ______________ [arriving to/
arriving at/arriving] O’Hare airport soon. (B11, A74)
10) __________ [They/There] are a number of stores ______________ [near by/nearby].
(B144, B259)
11) She ______________ [insisted/persisted] ______ [in/on] finishing her work before
watching television. (B93)
12) Mrs. Murphy told me that she preferred __________ [living/leaving] in DeKalb
__________ [than/to] ____________ [living/leaving] in a large city like Chicago. (F36,
A127, F36)
13) He was ___________ [quite/quiet] eager to ___________ [avenge/revenge] the terrible
things that had been done ______ [to/for] him. (F36, A181, A101)
14) One of the boys _____ [is/are] responsible ____________ [for keeping/to keep] this
______________ [domitory/dormitory] tidy. (A2, A64, F38)
15) If he ___________ [shoots/shot] an innocent man, the officer would be dismissed.
(A10)

16) It was _______________ [wet that/so wet that/too wet that/very wet that] ___________
[they/there] was mud everywhere. (C44-45, B209)
EXERCISE: General Diagnostic or Review Exercise 2
Correct the error(s) in each of the following.
1) They discussed about the bilateral agreement. (A99)
2) All the people who was their they were happy. (A2, F36, A174)
3) Businessmen create wealth just as surely as fishermen and farmers. (D58, B1, D58)
4) The police arrived at their house quiet unexpectedly, than they arrested Mr. Svoboda.
(F36, F1, F36)
5) I can not meet you later today, I have a prior engagement. (B11, F1)
6) In these circumstances moral and efficiency in the organization declines. (A2)
7) He had drank more than was good for him. (A28)
8) He assured me that he was capable to do the work. (A49)
9) Two other types of corporate concentration gives rise to concern. (A2)
10) She accepted to organize the activities for Parents Day. (A45, F20)
11) All of the students had good behaviors during the church service. (A153)
12) The complaints against the law by the business community suggests that it must have had
some affect. (A2, A183)
13) Prof. Curtis unhappy with her work because he gave her an ‘F’. (D45, C31)
14) In addition to the gun which was used to commit the crime, the police is also in possesion
of other evidence. (C46, A172, F38)
15) The airlines carry children at lower fairs than adults, even though they take up seats and
generally need more attention from airline staff. (F36, A178)
16) She wanted some advise on how to invest her money. (A182)
17) I had been told to try and not do any mistakes. (B205, B186)
18) People living in the Kalahari dessert are few, and food is short. (B2, F36, B195)
19) If one believes the rate of interest will rise, it is wise to keep ones’ asset’s in cash untill
the rise has taken place. (F18, F38)
20) For years the USSR refused to allow its satellite states to be independent. (B28)
21) Everything seem to be running satisfactory; let’s let sleeping dogs lie rather than
changing horses in mid-stream. (A2, A181, C59-60)
22) She asked me if I can loan her fourty cents. (A10, A196, F38)
23) Costa Rica is rather unique amoung Central American nations. (B149, F38)
24) Rebecca always want to try and succeed. (A2, B205)
25) Taking this into account, it becomes apparent that either this factor must be ignored or
significantly downplayed. (A13, B5)
26) In my opinion I think people with heavy jobs for example minors should be paid well.
(D31, C40, F36)
27) Instead of alternatively fighting inflation and unemployment, the goverment sometimes
find that they have to fight both at the same time. (B19, F38, A2, A165)

28) On the eighteenth, too, the Canadians captured Trun, the village proposed by
Montgomery for the meeting place with the Americans, who themselves were now
nearing the village of Chambois just a few miles away, and yet on the night of August the
nineteenth in a drizzly rain and early morning fog thousands of trapped German soldiers
made their way stealthily through the narrow gap, and when the fog lifted on the morning
of the twentieth the gap was still packed by the escaping army. (F1)
29) To be sure, the American economy has continued to be the greatest engine for the creation
of wealth and expansion of opportunity known to man, and Johnson’s last vignette
describes how women have conquered the professions and workplace and achieved
equality. But is that all the American civic religion, the noble experiment, comes to in
the end? Where does Paul Johnson come out on all this? [Walter A. McDougall, Book
Review, Times Literary Supplement] (D58)
EXERCISE: General Diagnostic or Review Exercise 3
Correct the error(s) in each of the following.
1) In Scott Fitzgeralds’ story “The Ice Palace,” which appear in the collection This Side of
Paradise Sally Carroll displays many sides to her charachter. (F18, A2, F9, F38)
2) Susan has two brothers, one of them is looking forward to start university next year, and
the other one is about to start high school. (F1, A57)
3) He lied that his friend had been trying to kill him. (B185)
4) It was there first time at the circus, and they were so excited. (B144, B197)
5) Coffee may be short this year if demand remains at it’s current high level. (B195, A195)
6) Tide is not more superior than any of the other detergents. (B154, A140)
7) All the students talked to each other. (A162)
8) None of the wheels on my bicycle turn properly. (A151)
9) The doctor told him not to drink and smoke for at least six months. (B158)
10) Jackson was a member of the university’s security force for close to four years at the time
of his death. (A8)
11) Neither of these books are very well-written. (A163)
12) Humanists tends to downplay the usefulness of statistics. Whereas, all too often, social
scientists ignore information which cannot be quantified. (A2, C22, C46)
13) Could you please meet me on rather than on Thursday? (D45)
14) Perhaps the comparison between the moon landing and the discovery of the Titanic
is valid, but for most of us the moon landing wins for sheer drama and technological
ingenuity. But then it cost billions of dollars more, so it should have had a bigger impact.
But in long-term benefits, the two achievments may not be so different. (C18, F38)
15) We have no plans to reintroduce the legislation, there’s a lot more important things to do.
(F1, A2)
16) The proposed movie would include Nesmith, who choose to remain at home rather than
join the current Monkees reunion tour. (A25)
17) The American administration wanted a free trade agreement and so did the Canadian
government, which would cover almost all goods and services. (A177)

18) Its important to always be careful about punctuation. (A195, A1)
19) When a corporation is expanding quickly, they often experience cash-flow problems.
(A2)
20) She visited a doctor with a bad case of the flu. (B1)
21) Traveling 1,800 feet upwards in a matter of seconds, the CN Tower seems very
impressive. (A13)
22) Her sister, who lives in a suburb of Buffalo has been visiting her this week. (F9)
STYLISTIC FLUENCY (WORD CHOICE, METAPHORS,
BALANCE AND PARALLELISM, ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE)
EXERCISE: Word Choice: Jargon, Abstraction, and Doublespeak (pages 53–56)
Translate each of the following into more easily understood English.
1) The new pen has negative vulnerability to water entry.
2) The building in which the reactor is situated was apparently constructed with a view to
structural rather than containment integrity.
3) The former aide to the President tries to help clients strategize whatever their objectives
may be vis-à-vis Washington, D.C., or the world.
4) Since data is central to the issue of implementation guidance we believe it is advisable
to examine the data that your organization is assembling, in order to maximize the
actualization of projects designated for implementation, and to preclude unintended
effects.
5) With regard to the staff members’ requests for supplements to the level of remuneration,
management is of the opinion that it would be injudicious to advocate an increment at the
present time.
6) The loss of Columbia put NASA into a temporary hiatus of shuttle flights. They regarded
it as certain that they would have a shortfall in the national launch capability in the near
term.
EXERCISE: Mixed Metaphors (pages 58–59)
Unmix the following metaphors.
[Note that there may be more than one correct answer.]
1) We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water before we check to see if the
coast is clear.
2) Unless every clause in the agreement is airtight the deal could come unglued and we’d be
left up the creek without a paddle.
3) The government’s scorched earth policy in response to the rebels has dampened hopes for
an early settlement of the war.
4) We were all swamped by an avalanche of paperwork.

EXERCISE: Balance and Parallelism (pages 59–63)
Rewrite the following sentences to have better rhythm and balance.
1) Some prefer Shakespeare’s comedies such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth
Night to Othello, Hamlet, and other tragedies, or to works such as Henry IV and Richard
III, which are both history plays.
2) Sir Ian McKellen is a well-respected actor in the movie industry and he has won
numerous awards and nominations for awards for plays and musicals as well.
3) In this situation they have only two possible alternatives: to either try fixing the car
themselves or call a mechanic.
4) It is significant to note that this doctor’s medical office has had a troubled history. He has
been sued for malpractice several times and his partner at the office has also been sued
more than once for the same sort of thing.
EXERCISE: Active and Passive (A12)
GRAMMAR (A1–A211)
In each of the following sentences, change the verb from the passive voice to the active.
1) Legislation has been passed by the government to ensure that the rights of individuals are
protected.
2) After careful deliberation, it has been decided that the application for residential zoning
of the building to be changed to commercial will be approved.
3) The economy was subjected to two serious oil price shocks in the 1970s; those with
cars were forced to line up for hours to obtain gasoline, and everyone was affected by
inflation.
4) Research in this area was first carried out by Samuel Smith in the 1990s, and was
completed after his death by a team directed by Marjorie Mullins.
5) My dress was made by my mother. She is a superb seamstress.
6) In the middle of the afternoon, a lizard was chased by a bird.
7) The painting was finished by the artist just two days before her exhibit began.

EXERCISE: Split Infinitives (A1)
Change the following split infinitives.
1) They did not want to quickly decide the issue.
2) We were asked to patiently await the decision.
3) The contractor said that they would have to carefully restore the house.
4) Their policy was to perpetually maintain a state of economic equilibrium.
5) The choir began to loudly sing the anthem.
6) The sun began to brightly shine into my eyes.
EXERCISE: Simple Present Tense (A2)
Add an s where necessary to plural nouns, third-person singular verbs, etc.
1) Train in Burma usually run on time, although it sometime take many hours to get from
one place to another. The trip from Belowa to Rangoon, for example, last about eleven
hour. The Railway Corporation use several different type of locomotive—steam, electric,
and diesel. The newest are the electric locomotive that travel between Rangoon and
Mutisa.
2) Most of the electricity that the State need come from the dam. When the water flow over
the large turbine, it turn them and this produce large amount of electricity.
3) When a debate start, the Chair alway introduce the topic and then three speaker from each
team argue for or against the resolution. Each speaker talk for several minute. At the end
of the debate the Chair give all those in the crowd who wish to comment a chance to do
so.
4) In politic as in everyday life the variation that interest us occur in two dimension.
Sometime political scientist are curious about variation over time. For instance, they
may ask why the number of vote received by the various parties fluctuate so much from
one election to the next. At other time political scientist concentrate their attention on
variation over space. They may be interested, for example, in why one nation government
seem to enjoy more success than it neighbor in combating inflation, or protecting human
right.

5) Christmas tree are usually raised on tree farm. Sometime people cut down their own, but
it take a lot of effort. There are many different style for decorating tree. One of my parent
prefer a style that is more traditional, with candle for light, while the other like to use
mini-light instead.
6) One of the most cherished feature of dinosaur—their gigantism—is also one of the most
mysterious. Why in the world were these animal so huge? Some specie of dinosaur may
have evolved to a larger stature as a way of escaping predator or gaining a competitive
advantage. A study of growth ring in dinosaur bone by Greg Erickson of Florida State
University and other show that baby dinosaur grew to maturity at dazzling speed.
(National Geographic)
EXERCISE: Subject-Verb Agreement (A2)
Correct the subject-verb agreement error in each of the following.
1) Fowler (1962) pointed out that concern about the dangers of premature cognitive
training and an overemphasis on personality development had delayed inordinately the
recognition that the ability to talk, read and compute increase the child’s self-respect and
independent functioning.
2) Idaho’s chances of making it to the televised finals, where the big payoff to sponsors
come, are not great. (Financial Post)
3) To make matters worse, none of the three in the Lakers’ training camp have much playoff
experience. (Toronto Star)
4) The technical aspect of the newspaper has also be re-evaluated. Typos, or mistakes in
spelling and grammar, which makes comprehension difficult, has been made almost a
thing of the past. (Editorial in the student newspaper of the State University of New York
at Stony Brook, as quoted in The New Yorker)
5) Even if it’s dark outside, she still wear her sunglasses!
6) Dr. Seuss’s story “The Sneeches” have a serious point.
7) Her often-ambiguous views on “clean coal” technology has alienated hard-line
environmentalists.
EXERCISE: Simple Present Tense (A2–A3)
Fill in the correct tense of the verb.
1) Every day the sun ___________ [to rise] in the east and __________ [to set] in the west.
Because of this, some people ___________ [to think] that the sun ______________
[to revolve] around the earth. In fact, the opposite _________ [to be] true; the earth
____________ [to circle] the sun once every day. While the sun ___________ [to shine]
on one side of the earth, it ________ [to be] night on the other side. (A3)

2) This year she ____________ [to follow] the same pattern of teaching in many lessons.
As soon as she __________ [to come] into the class she _____________ [to ask]
several questions on the previous day’s work. Then she usually _______________ [to
introduce] a new topic, and ____________ [to talk] to us about it for several minutes.
More often than not she then ____________ [to assign] a written exercise to do in class.
If the students ____________ [to finish] the exercise before the end of the class, she
_____________ [to correct] it on the board. Sometimes if there ___________ [to be] a
few minutes remaining she ________ [to tell] a story or asks a student to tell a story. (A3)
3) Shylock _________ [to be] the most important character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant
of Venice. We _____________ [to sympathize] with him despite his streak of cruelty,
because we_____________ [to be made] to understand his resentment against the
Christians. When Shylock _______________ [to accuse] Antonio in Act One of having
sworn at him and spat on him merely because of his religion, Antonio—far from denying
the charges—________ [to say] that he would do the same again. Moreover, Antonio’s
prejudice against Jews ____________ [to seem] to be shared by all the Christian
characters in the play. (D55)
4) The company’s new Seek and Find service __________ [to let] cellphone users zero in on
the location of kids or other Telus subscribers who don’t mind sharing their whereabouts.
For $5 a month parents ___________ [to be able] to have another link added to the
electronic leash to their children. Once the service is introduced, Telus _________ [to
say] its customers’ privacy still __________ [to be] protected.
EXERCISE: Conditional Sentences (A9, A10)
Complete the following sentences in any appropriate way.
1) If I wore no clothes at all…
2) If Congress reduces taxes…
3) He would buy a truck if…
4) He will buy a truck if…
5) If a decision is made next month…
6) She will win if…

7) She would win if…
8) If money were abolished…
9) Local farms would be more productive if…
10) If he sends me the money in time…
EXERCISE: The Conditional (A9, A10)
Fill in either the conditional tense or the simple future tense in the main clause.
Example: I ____________ [to help] him if I could.
I would help him if I could. (conditional)
1) If I found someone’s wallet lying on the ground, I ____________ [to return] it.
2) If I find the wallet that you have lost, I ____________ [to return] it.
3) You ____________ [to find] the weather extremely cold if you lived at the North Pole.
4) You ____________ [to find] the weather extremely cold when you come to Minnesota
this coming January.
5) If he gets here before three o’clock, I ____________ [to take] him to see the museum.
6) If you were the President, what ___________ you____ [to do] about the situation?
7) I ____________ [to be] very happy if the company hires me as an apprentice.
8) If I were very rich, I ____________ [to buy] a house in the Hamptons.
9) If I decide to go to the party, I ____________ [to bring] some food.
10) You ____________ [to be] very overweight if you ate only fast food.
11) I _____________ [to have] a lot of luck when I find a four-leaf clover.
12) I _____________ [to have] a lot of luck if I found a four-leaf clover.
13) If I knew the proper steps, I ___________ [to love] to try swing dancing.
14) If she stopped cheating, she _______ not _______ [to get] into trouble.
15) He _____________ [to make] more saves if he kept his eye on the puck.
Fill in either the simple past or the simple present tense in the subordinate clause.
16) I will ask him about it if I ________ [to see] him again later today.
17) If I _________ [to win] the lottery I will buy my parents a new car.
18) If I _________ [to win] the lottery I would buy my parents a new car.
19) He would do better if he _________ [to work] harder.
20) He will do better if he _________ [to work] harder next term.
21) If a burglar __________ [to come] into your room at night, what would you do?

22) I will lend you this CD if you ________ [to promise] to take good care of it.
23) He would look much better if he _________ [to arrange] his hair differently.
24) There can no longer be any doubt that people ____________ [to live] longer if they
_____________ [to smoke] less.
25) If we _________ [to go] swimming later, remember to bring your towel.
EXERCISE: Conditional Sentences (A9, A10)
Fill in the missing verbs.
1) He _____________ [to supply] our company with what we need if we _________ [to
pay] him $50,000. However, we only _________ [to have] $30,000 in liquid assets.
2) If he _________ [to reply] to me quickly, as I think he will, I ___________ [to be able] to
make reservations for our holiday.
3) If she ___________ [to believe] in God she ____________ [to pray]. However, she
______________ [to be] an atheist.
4) My friend and I are thinking of going to the game this afternoon. If we __________ [to
go] we probably ______________ [to take] our wives with us.
5) If we ____________ [to arrive] sooner, we would have been able to help him.
6) If Montcalm’s most important officer _____ not________ [to be hiding] away with his
mistress, the French troops ______________ [to be assembled] earlier and the British
_______________ [to lose] the battle on the Plains of Abraham.
7) We would have been better off if we ______________ [to plant] wheat instead of cotton.
8) If you had spoken to me about it, I ________________ [to do] something sooner.
9) I would have told them the truth if they ________________ [to ask] me.
10) The Titanic ___________ probably not ___________ [to sink] if it had struck the iceberg
head on.
EXERCISE: Conditional and Past Conditional (A11)
Correct the error in each of the following.
1) If we sent the check by special delivery now, it will reach her by Thursday.
2) If you would pay attention, you will understand a good deal more of what is said.
3) If they all had won prizes, I’m sure some of them will still be sullen and unhappy.
4) If you would have eaten anything poisonous, there would have been some indication of
trouble by now.
5) If they would have thought about it beforehand, they would not have acted so very
foolishly.
6) And if second baseman Manny Lee made a play on a Scott Bradley grounder in the
fourth, the Jays could have been out of the inning, trailing only 3–2. (Toronto Star)
7) Had he been with the last year’s Blue Jay team, his deficiencies may not have been all
that conspicuous. (The Globe and Mail)

8) If you would have come when I first called you, none of this would have happened.
9) If you do not water your plants, they would die.
10) I will have gone out to dinner with you, if I had not already made plans.
EXERCISE: Verb Tenses: General Review (A2–A11)
Fill in the correct tenses of the verbs.
1) This train always ____________ [to leave] at exactly five o’clock. (A3)
2) As he ___________ [to climb] the mountain he _________ [to lose] his grip and
____________ [to plunge] five hundred feet to his death.
3) After we __________ [to make] our way through the forest, we sat down to rest. (A8)
4) This machinery ________ [to be] very reliable. It almost never ____________ [to break]
down, and it ______________ [to need] very little maintenance. (A3)
5) He _________ [to tell] me before the meeting yesterday that they _______________ [to
reach] a decision already. (A8)
6) The Cleveland Indians _________________ [to improve] at the moment, but I
_______________ [to not think] that they ___________ [to be] as good as the Red Sox
yet. (A4)
7) The government _____________ [to oppress] the people of Zimbabwe for many years. I
____________ [to hope] that it soon _________ [to be] forced to change its ways. (A7)
8) _______ you ever _________ [to see] a flying saucer? (A7)
9) I ______________ [to tell] him what I knew if I __________ [to trust] him.
Unfortunately, I don’t trust him. (A10)
10) If he _____________ [to find out] about this he __________ [to be] very angry, but I am
sure he will not find out. (A10)
11) Greene’s novel ______________ [to recount] the story of an alcoholic Mexican priest
during a period in which the government _______________ [to suppress] organized
religion. (A6)
12) New research ____________ [to show] that there ___________ [to be] a sharp increase
in disfiguring skin cancers, particularly in women under the age of 40.
13) If I ___________ [to know] yesterday what I ___________ [to know] today, I would not
have gone to the concert. (A10, A6)
EXERCISE: Dangling Constructions and Misplaced Sentence Parts (A13–A16)
Correct the following sentences.
1) Riding the bus to work, his wife waved at him from the sidewalk.
2) When covered with aluminum siding, we will have a much more saleable house.

3) Regarding the fiscal requirements of the government, an increase in taxes will be required
if the deficit is to be reduced.
4) Looking for a moment at the implications of Smith’s argument, he allows us to justify our
selfish behavior.
5) Having covered the issue of stratification, the means of redistributing income will be
dealt with next.
6) To obtain a sense of the density of much postmodern theory, a few examples should
suffice.
7) We have asked for a survey of the attitudes of consumers carried out randomly.
8) Considering all of this evidence, there is no doubt that an increased awareness of the
usefulness of uniform and objectively defined time led to the spread of clocks, and not the
other way round.
9) Widely regarded as a failure by observers at the time, we can now see that Truman was a
remarkably successful president.
10) To begin this essay, Faulkner’s novel is written from several points of view.
11) To obtain a refund, any copies damaged in shipment must be returned promptly.
12) Having settled the issue of independence, questions of economic growth came to the fore
in the public consciousness.
13) Smothered in mushrooms and lashed with HP sauce, I enjoyed the steak immensely.
14) Although redundant, the company president said the 250 workers would be offered
alternative jobs.

15) To help reduce the beaver colonies, the Department of Natural Resources has even begun
allowing novice trappers to learn to trap in the comfort of their own living rooms.
(The Globe and Mail)
16) As reconstructed by police, Pfeiffer at first denied any knowledge of the Byrd murder.
(The New York Times, reprinted in Theodore Bernstein, Watch Your Language)
17) The woman had moved into an apartment where she was killed a few weeks before her
death. (quoted from a Montreal newspaper in Word Watching, a language newsletter)
18) Remy hit an RBI single off Hass’ leg, which rolled into right field.
(Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage)
19) When stewed, I like prunes.
20) Fond of reading, one of the selections on her reading list was the latest Ishiguro novel.
21) Far from showing great leadership on global trade, a more frequent question in
Washington is whether America can avoid slipping backwards.
22) After trudging back into position following the rain delay, play was stopped again only 16
minutes later.
[Note: Numbers 13–19 of the above exercise were quoted by Robertson Cochrane in a
column in The Globe and Mail.]
EXERCISE: Dangling Constructions (A13–A16)
For each of the following write a complete sentence that incorporates the phrase given but does
not allow it to dangle.
[There is no single correct answer to any of these questions.]
1) Turning to Margaret Atwood’s later novels…

2) Considering the developments of the past few years in Eastern Europe…
3) Looking at the connection between economic history and the history of ideas…
4) Regarding the claim that women and men are intrinsically different…
5) Having surveyed the four main theories of…
6) Watching the movie closely…
7) After examining all the clues the bank robber left behind…
8) Upon receiving the up-to-date statistics…
9) Once it was reviewed thoroughly, the report…
10) Cleaning up after everyone had left, the waitress…
EXERCISE: Sequence of Tenses (A17–A19)
Correct the following sentences.
1) The Vice President said that “We will have to improve our productivity.”
2) Tennyson’s Ulysses says that “I have suffered greatly, both with those/That loved me, and
alone.”

3) Churchill claimed in 1940 that “This is our finest hour.”
4) Johnson at first believed that the Vietnam war will be over before the 1968 election.
5) For the most part the story of Chopin’s The Awakening is narrated in a detached manner
that leaves the reader to make her own inferences about the characters involved.
Occasionally though, the narrative voice adopts a clear point of view. Such is the case,
for example, when Mr. Pointellier “could see plainly that she was not herself. That is,
he could not see that she was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious
self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.” Quite
clearly, the aside concerning the “fictitious self” comes from the narrator, not from Mr.
Pointellier.
6) The teacher was unhappy with her students’ test scores. She turned to them and said that
they will have to improve their study habits.
EXERCISE: Irregular Verbs (A20–A44)
Correct whichever of the following are incorrect.
1) She can do whatever she choses.
2) The book is well-written and beautifully layed out.
3) He says that he rung twice and got no answer.
4) They have stole everything I own.
5) This blouse shrunk when I washed it in hot water.
6) The ship sunk in three hundred feet of water.
7) He drunk the whole quart of milk in less than a minute.
8) We went out Christmas Eve and sung Christmas songs to seniors.
9) The dress was very lose on her.
10) We cot her sneaking out of the house last night.
Fill in the simple past tense of the verbs indicated.
1) She _________ [to choose] the material that _____ [to be] least expensive.
2) Samuel ____________ [to drink] too much beer last night.
3) All the pipes __________ [to burst] and water covered the floor.
4) The little baby _________ [to fall] asleep as soon as he ______ [to lie] down.
5) The soldiers ___________ [to flee] as soon as they _________ [to see] the size of the
opposing force.
6) As soon as I apologized, my parents __________ [to forgive] me.
7) We _________ [to grind] the seeds into a fine powder.
8) He _________ [to lay] his book down for a moment, and then he _________ [to forget]
where he had put it.
9) I __________ [to lend] him five dollars yesterday.
10) The letter carrier ________ [to ring] the bell four times.
11) His whole family ________ [to seek] refuge here after leaving Guatemala.
12) The moon ________ [to shine] very brightly last night.

13) The bandits _______ [to shoot] the policeman in the back.
14) This sweater ___________ [to shrink] when I washed it in hot water.
15) He ___________ [to sing] at the top of his voice all afternoon.
16) When the Titanic __________ [to sink], over 1,500 lives ________ [to be] lost.
17) All my food __________ [to slide] off my plate onto the floor.
18) He __________ [to spend] his entire wages on beer and cigarettes.
19) The car __________ [to spin] out of control as it __________ [to go] around the corner.
20) He _________ [to spit] in disgust on the pavement.
21) She __________ [to split] the log into two easily.
22) The cougar ___________ [to spring] out of the undergrowth at the deer.
23) We __________ [to swim] in the pool below the falls.
24) She ___________ [to weep] for hours when she ___________ [to hear] the sad news.
25) The python __________ [to wind] itself around his neck.
26) He ____________ [to wring] out the wet clothing, and put it on the line.
EXERCISE: Infinitive or Gerund? (A45–A68)
Fill in the correct choice.
1) Mr. Carruthers accused me _______________ [to have laughed/of laughing] at him
behind his back.
2) He has a tendency ________________ [to speak/of speaking] before he has thought about
what effect his words may have.
3) Mary is certainly capable _____________ [to get/of getting] an ‘A’ in this course.
4) He has often tried to discourage me ____________ [to try/from trying] to get into medical
school.
5) They seemed ____________ [as if they were/to be] about to attack us.
6) The press suspected the senator ______________________ [to have been involved/of
having been involved] in a conflict of interest.
7) The woman said she felt justified _____________ [in suing/to sue] her husband because
he had a history of infidelity.
8) They planned _____________ [on having/to have] her baby shower at the community
hall.
9) He was forbidden _____________ [from going into/to go into] the store for the next three
years because he had been caught shoplifting.
EXERCISE: Prepositions (A69–A148)
Fill in the correct preposition, or leave blank if no preposition is needed.
1) My father was very angry _______ me when I did not do what he had asked me to.
2) We should arrive ________ Denver in time for dinner.
3) The three of them were chased _______ from school.

4) The group departed _______ Paris in the early morning.
5) We discussed ________ the problem with him for a whole afternoon.
6) We were told to continue _______ our work.
7) We must refer _______ to the first chapter to find the most important clue to the
protagonist’s identity.
8) The geopolitical situation in late 1938 was different ______ what it had been only a few
months earlier.
9) He asked me what type ______ vehicle we wanted.
10) She is convinced that this brand of detergent is superior ________ that one.
11) The car collided ___________ a large truck.
Which of the following sentences are incorrect? Correct whatever preposition mistakes you find.
1) By the time troops arrived the Russian Parliament buildings, Yeltsin and his supporters
had built barricades and were prepared.
2) Sarkozy had intended to consult with his advisors before making a statement.
3) We must draw a different conclusion than the one we had expected.
4) Tyson departed from Las Vegas amidst a storm of controversy over the incident.
5) The controversy over whether or not special lanes for bicycles should be built along
major thoroughfares centers on the issue of safety.
6) At the state legislature today, a group of citizens protested against the government’s
decision.
7) He compared her with a wild rose, saying she was just as beautiful and unique.
8) My grandfather joined up with the army as soon as he turned 16.
9) Some say she has been suffering with bad arthritis since she was a teenager.
10) I was surprised at how well my daughter learned to speak Japanese.
11) We looked underneath of the table but we still couldn’t find her contact lens.
12) Melissa was homesick after her first week of college and wanted to return back to her
parents’ house.
13) We ran inside of the house so the bee couldn’t sting us.
14) My father graduated high school in 1975.
EXERCISE: Singular and Plural (A149–A173)
Make the changes necessary to ensure that the parts of the sentence are in agreement.
1) Either John or his brother are responsible for causing the disturbance. (A163)
2) None of the excuses we were given are satisfactory. (A170)
3) Each of the members feel that the application should be rejected. (A151)
Choose the correct alternative in each of the following.
4) The aurora borealis is still a largely unexplained ______________ [phenomenon/
phenomena]. (A171)

5) There appear to be at least two____________ [focuses/foci] in Bruegel’s Fall of Icarus.
(A149)
6) There were several ____________ [Attorney Generals / Attorneys General] during the
administration of George W. Bush. (A149)
7) Television is generally considered to be the most influential _____________ [media/
medium]. (A167)
Correct any mistakes in the following sentences.
1) The second criteria that Locke puts forward is closely connected to the first. (A159)
2) The data we were shown is not sufficient to convince us. (A161)
3) As the twentieth century began, the newspaper was the media that affected North
Americans most profoundly. (A167)
EXERCISE: Pronoun Referencing (A176, A178)
Correct the pronoun problem in each of the following.
1) A shopkeeper’s life is usually a very busy one. They often have to work at least twelve
hours a day.
2) Frank is not as good as Henry at the high jump. He usually jumps about five feet.
3) Larson argues that the sexual stereotypes of modern Western society will not be
eradicated until the economic system alters, whereas Myers feels that a degree of
stereotyping is an inevitable, if regrettable, result of genetic differences. This is important
to recognize.
4) Harvard must maintain the high standards that make people like Henry Rosovsky and I
work twice as hard. (from an address by former Harvard University president Derek Bok)
5) No one consulted Shannon and myself about the change in work shifts.
6) Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox were both on the TV show, Friends. Now, however,
she is pursuing a movie career.
7) My aunt and uncle drove to South Dakota to see the badlands. They’re really hot in the
summer.
8) There is no need to repay past debts between you and I; we’re friends!
Find and correct the pronoun problems.
1) Typically, a deconstructionist searches for structures that are deeply hidden, that even
the author may not have been aware of. Indeed, they are often uninterested in whatever
structure the author may have declared she has attempted to impose on the text.
2) Writing business letters is an important skill to learn. Normally, of course, it should begin
with a salutation.
3) Ownership rights certainly protect a sphere of liberty for the rights owners, but they
may also interfere with the rights of others who are no longer at liberty to use what they
previously could. If this were more widely realized we might be less likely to think of
liberty as an unqualified good.

EXERCISE: Who and Whom (A179)
Fill in who or whom, whichever is correct.
1) _________ will be waiting for you?
2) To _________ should I address the parcel?
3) She is a writer about __________ I know very little.
4) _________ should I say is calling?
5) Andrew Johnson was the President ___________ followed Lincoln.
6) Andrew Johnson was the President ___________ Lincoln preceded.
7) D’Arcy McGee was the leader ____________ was assassinated while John A. Macdonald
was Prime Minister of Canada.
8) It was John A. Macdonald ____________ said to D’Arcy McGee, “We can’t afford to
have two drunkards in the Cabinet; you’ve got to stop.”
9) It was D’Arcy McGee ______________ John A. Macdonald was speaking to when he
said, “We can’t afford to have two drunkards in this Cabinet; you’ve got to stop.”
10) If I could paint as well as Picasso, to ________ would I sell my paintings?
EXERCISE: Part of Speech Conversions (A180–A211)
Correct the mistake in each sentence.
1) He did not give me very good advise. (A182)
2) To some extend what you say is true, but I cannot agree with you completely. (A210)
3) There maybe a chance that you can still convince him to do what you want. (A199)
4) She was eager to revenge what they had done to her. (A210)
5) The team’s four starters voted unanimous to start on four days rest. (A181)
6) I loaned him the money to buy a car. (A210)
7) He was careful not to loose track of the argument. (A198)
8) The above quote illustrates just how short-sighted nineteenth-century educators could be.
(A208)
9) Whether we want to admit it or not, environmental issues effect us all. (A183)
10) There are two reasons why I would like to get the job. First and foremost, I love the
hours, and secondly, the pay is great. (A190)
11) Her beauty stole his breathe away. (A186)
12) He wasn’t sure if he wanted to buy the house. It’s windows were too small and the lawn
was covered in weeds. (A195)
13) The school’s main principal was a no-tolerance attitude towards violence. (A205)
14) The salesman assured me that the sofa was made with quality leather. (A207)
15) Dan Bern is an American songwriter who’s lyrics are often thought-provoking. (A211)

EXERCISE: Like and As (A194)
Choose the correct alternative in each of the following sentences.
1) We should meet at ten o’clock [like/as] we agreed.
2) [Like/As] she said when we began this discussion, we have to choose between the lesser
of two evils.
3) [Like/As] Russia, Canada is dominated geographically by vast areas of frozen wasteland.
4) In many ways copper behaves [like/as] silver does.
5) Many people think my sister looks [like/as] me.
6) “[Like/As] I already have told you a hundred times, you have to clean your room!” his
mother shouted.
EXERCISE: Word Order (B1–B10)
WORDS (B1–B208)
Improve the word order in the following sentences.
1) This could be the result either of natural events or human actions. (B5)
2) In the end, Hitler neither conquered Britain nor the Soviet Union. (B5)
3) We should first ask what are the conditions under which an electronics industry is likely
to flourish. (B9)
4) Passions can interfere either sporadically on particular occasions, or they can be a
continual influence on one’s actions. (B5)
5) The conclusions we draw will be largely determined by what are the assumptions we start
with. (B9)

EXERCISE: Word Order (B1–B10)
There is a word order mistake in each of the following. Correct it.
1) The Angels supporters in the crowd were few. (B2)
2) The books I lent to my friend, I need them back soon. (B4)
3) The men who are responsible for installing the joists, the supervisor wanted to see them.
(B4)
4) He neither wants pity nor charity. (B5)
5) They were given sentences of between one and three years all except those who had not
committed any violent offenses. (B6)
6) I and my friends usually spend holidays together. (B7)
7) In this class there are three students only. (B8)
8) I asked Faith how was she feeling. (B9)
9) My professor asked me what was I doing. (B9)
10) They asked us what was wrong? (B9)

11) I borrowed the young man’s truck, who had bought it only the day before. (B10)
12) You can order a personal computer system that will be delivered the next day by
telephone. (B10)
13) Greville is now represented by the best of both his love poems and of his sonorous
Calvinist laments. (B3) [poet Thom Gunn, writing in the Times Literary Supplement]
EXERCISE: One-Word/Two-Word Problems (B11–B12)
Correct the errors in the following sentences.
1) If any one wants to go out tonight, give me a call later.
2) I can’t believe you were late for the movie! By the time you came, alot had already
happened.
3) The artist was not all together happy with her latest work.
4) Inspite of the circumstances, she still wanted to go out with him.
5) We tried to organize the party, but noone had time to help.
6) We tried to organize the party our selves, but we didn’t have enough time.
7) The dish was still in tact even though it fell from the table.
8) The White House showed no sign of giving into Republican pressure.
EXERCISE: Difficulties with Meaning I (A183, B13–B153, F36)
(These various problems with the meanings of words are treated in “Word Meanings: Are Cars
Ever Stationery?”, beginning on p. 209.)
Choose the correct word or expression.
1) Do you think your action will have any _________ [effect/affect]? (A183)
2) The shopkeeper did not want to ___________ [accept/except] a credit card. (B13)
3) The tape recording ________________ [compliments/complements] the study guide.
(B43)
4) The ______________ [council/counsel] deliberated for seven hours before reaching a
decision. (F36)
5) One approach is to break down the questionnaire results by age and sex.
____________________ [Alternately/Alternatively], we may study the variations among
different income levels. (B19)

6) He is very conservative and would never wish to ______________ [flout/flaunt] the
college administration. (B76)
7) The stage can be _________________ [dissembled/disassembled] within two hours.
(B57)
8) The two elements must be seen as entirely ___________ [discreet/discrete]. (B54)
9) She told me __________________ [definitely/definitively] that she would not support the
motion. (B50)
10) The United States, Iran, and the People’s Republic of China resort to _____________
[capitol/capital] punishment frequently, whereas Canada, Australia, and the many nations
of Western Europe all abolished the practice many years ago. (B35)
11) The majority believe that theft is _____________ [amoral/immoral] in any
circumstances. (B22)
12) No politician is ___________ [adverse/averse] to publicity. (B15)
13) They were eager to declare the amount as a _____________ [capitol/capital] gain. (B35)
14) The company always purchases ________________ [stationary/stationery] in bulk.
(B140)
15) The book is laden with a preface, a ______________ [foreword/forward] and an
introduction. (B79)
16) The spokesperson _______________ [inferred/implied] that the withdrawal would be
made, but he would not state it ______________ [explicitly/implicitly]. (B88, B72)
17) The judge felt that the guilt of the accused was _____________ [mitigated/militated] by
the manner in which he had been provoked; the victim was his supervisor at work, and
had been ______________ [persecuting/prosecuting] him for years. (B106, B117)
18) The musician ____________ [adopted/adapted] the song to bring it within his vocal
range. (B15)
19) Receiving good news always ____________ [enervates/invigorates] me! (B68)
20) My friend says that his grandmother lost all her teeth during a thunder and ____________
[lightning/lightening] storm. The story is that his grandmother was talking on the phone
when the outside pole was struck. It supposedly caused an electric current to run through
the line and knock out her teeth. (B101)
EXERCISE: Difficulties with Meaning II (B13–B153)
In each of the following there is a mistake. Correct it.
(These various problems with the meanings of words are treated in “Word Meanings: Are Cars
Ever Stationery?”, beginning on p. 209.)
1) A lot of emigrants entered the United States last year. (B66)
2) Most sports stars who ‘write’ books do it by corroborating with a professional writer.
(B42)
3) The experiment would of worked if we had calculated the angles correctly. (B112)
4) Anyone can park here; there are no restrictions. (B34)
5) The Committee is made up of imminent people from all walks of life. (B67)
6) Like any intelligent and hard-working young person, she is liable to succeed. (B99)

7) The percent of the sample that responded to question 12 was very low. (B191)
8) The entire town was ravished by the violent storm. (B127)
9) There were to many people there; I felt claustrophobic. (B146)
10) He has little or no interest in sex, but he is otherwise a very sensual man. (B134)
11) Her writing is completely eligible; I can hardly make out a word. (B65)
12) Ms. Jenkins persuaded me to invest in her business, but I decided it would not be a good
idea. (B118)
13) My aunt is a very amicable person; she is always friendly and has a great sense of humor.
(B21)
14) Whether or not the criminal committed armed robbery in his past is besides the point. The
real question is if he committed the crime he was accused of last month. (B30)
15) Some of the styles of the 1970s (i.e., of clothing, of furniture) have become fashionable
again. (B62)
EXERCISE: Usage (B154–B207)
Each sentence contains one mistake. Correct it.
1) Please do not do any changes before you have asked me about them. (B167)
2) There are less people in Sweden than there are in the city of New York. (B184)
3) He did a lot of mistakes on his tax form. (B186)
4) Nadal does not want to go to Wimbledon nor the US Open this year. (B188)
5) He could not do nothing about the problems that he faced. (B189)
6) The college would like to increase the places available in residence. (B177)
7) A revolution is when the government changes hands as a result of a violent uprising.
(B181)
8) The reason the ozone layer is being destroyed is because of the effects of aerosol sprays.
(B195)
9) The plaintiff now intends to try and regain custody of the child. (B206)
10) We did not want to go on the hike, and anyways, it was raining. (B159)
11) She thinks her father can be able to fix her car by tomorrow morning. (B165)
12) My parents say that there use to be more snow when they were children. (B207)
13) I was very grateful that no one was hurt in the car accident. (B204)
14) I could not hand in my essay because I forgot it at home. (B173)
EXERCISE: Usage (B154–B207)
There is one mistake in each of the following sentences. Correct it.
1) According to science, it is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light. (B154)
2) As he had got into the car, he turned the key in the ignition. (B160)
3) The European powers wanted to colonize Africa because of the following reasons. (B163)
4) There are several birds (i.e., penguins, ostriches) that cannot fly. (B62)
5) He often forgets his office key at home. (B173)

6) The reason she likes him is because he is a well-known personality. (B195)
7) Students at this college will be substantially increased next year. (B177)
8) The police did a thorough investigation, and could find no evidence of wrongdoing.
(B179)
9) She lied that she had not stolen any money. (B185)
10) He is opposed against legalizing marijuana. (B191)
11) The dog can’t hardly walk anymore because of the arthritis in his legs. (B175)
12) There were a large amount of protestors at the rally yesterday. (B157)
13) She could not find the address in the phone book, on the Internet, and at the post office.
(B158)
14) The percent of people in Massachusetts that smoke is going down each year. (B192)
15) I always vote for the Republican party, irregardless of scandals. (B180)
EXERCISE: They, There, Their and Were, Where (B144, B153)
Fill in the correct choice.
1) The boys told __________ mother that they would be late.
2) ___________ were many people at the political rally.
3) ___________ are very happy to live in such a nice house.
4) ___________ are a great many machines in that factory.
5) ___________ car is old, but ____________ keep it in good condition.
6) ___________ are many students who have not yet handed in ____________ term papers.
7) __________ you pleased that the Tigers won yesterday?
8) He could not tell me ___________ the tools ___________ kept.
9) My brother and I ___________ walking to the store, ___________ we hoped to meet
several friends.
10) _________ ___________ a lot of people in the audience.
EXERCISE: Of and Have (B112)
Fill in the blanks with either of or have.
1) I would _______ come if I had been able to.
2) I should ______ done more work at the beginning _________ the term.
3) The tragedy could not ________ been prevented.
4) It was very kind _______ you to write.
5) We would ________ gone to the play if we had remembered the correct date.
6) He might ________ been nominated for an Oscar if he hadn’t offended the Academy in
the past.
7) Most __________ my friends are bilingual.
8) The groom must _________ escaped through the open window in the washroom.
9) If it hadn’t rained, the outdoor concert would _________ been a success.
10) He appeared at the door, out ______ the blue.

EXERCISE: Paragraphing (C1)
PUTTING IDEAS TOGETHER (C1–C47)
1) Organize the following passage concerning the ideas of Karl Marx into three paragraphs.
Marx is unusual among social theorists in that he is famous as much for his calls for
revolutionary change as for his analyses of society, or for the theoretical framework he
developed. The Communist Manifesto is the work that most vigorously and memorably
expresses his revolutionary rallying cry, and its ringing conclusion—translated most
frequently as “workers of the world unite!”—has continued to strike a chord among
many readers even into the twenty-first century. This famous short work originated at
the December 1847 congress of the new Communist League; Marx and Engels were
commissioned to write a manifesto to express in summary form the league’s principles,
and to act as a guide and an inspiration for the proletarian movement in their struggles
against capitalist authority. Interestingly, however, the emphasis in the Manifesto is more
on placing the revolutionary ferment of the time into a larger historical context than it
is on the struggle for immediate change. Even when the Manifesto presents something
resembling an agenda for change, it is couched as a prediction of developments that will
be historically necessary, rather than as a call for action. The revolutionary movements
of 1848 to which The Communist Manifesto had lent support all failed to achieve their
immediate objectives, and Marx continued to analyze more thoroughly the conditions
in relations he thought might eventually lead to the overcoming of capitalist relations of
production. In the longer term, however, his ideas turned out to be more influential than
those of any other social theorist. Governments based on Marxist principles (or at least
claiming to be claimed on Marxist principles) were in power for most of the twentieth
century in much of the world, with the Soviet Union and its satellite states for most of
this period one of the world’s two great powers. And even in liberal democratic states
during this period Marx’s ideas exerted some influence; it is noteworthy that several
of the “agenda items” in the above list came to be adopted as standard policy in most
liberal democratic capitalist societies during the twentieth century. The fall of the Soviet
Union and the communist states of Eastern Europe in 1989-90 was thought by many to
signal the death of Marxism, but in the years since then Marxist thought has proved to
be surprisingly resilient. No doubt such resilience is in part connected to the degree to
which inequality has persisted and indeed grown in many parts of what is now almost
exclusively a capitalist world economy. Today we can also witness the movement of
enterprises to countries with cheaper labor and the push also to expand markets to more
countries. Not a few observers are suggesting that there is a tendency towards crisis in the
current situation which will ultimately prove unmanageable for the capitalists. For Marx,
this meant the opportunity for revolutionary action on the part of the proletariat. This, of
course, has not happened, but social activism of a variety of sorts continues to be inspired
at least in part by the sort of social and economic analyses of class and inequality that
Karl Marx first provided.

2) Organize the following business report into seven paragraphs, as follows:
• general bookshops
• prices
• nature of Australian universities
• university bookshops
• booklists for university courses
• sales calls on academics at Australian universities
• issues for Australian academics regarding textbooks
Report: Broadview and the Australian Market
The Australian book market is in most respects closer to the UK model than it is to the
Canadian or American one. On the Trade or General bookselling side of things, chain
bookshops (with Angus & Robertson being somewhat down-market, Dymocks more upmarket,
and Borders also having a presence) are very strong, but do not seem to have
been able to ride roughshod over publishers to quite the same degree as in North
America. Even chain booksellers, for example, do not take credit for returns before the
returns have been acknowledged as received in good condition by the publisher. Discount
structures are also similar to those in the UK, with Trade books typically sold at discounts
of 40% or more and academic books or textbooks sold at a 33% discount off the list
price. There is no equivalent to the reverse discounting or “agency plans” that North
American publishers use to differentiate text and Trade sales on crossover titles, but a
distributor such as UNIREPS will class crossover titles as having a 40% discount to start,
dropping to 35% after one year. There seems to be a broad degree of acceptance of high
prices, though perhaps “acquiescence” is a better word—I did speak to a number of
students and former students who were somewhat resentful at the high prices charged for
textbooks. In most cases prices are perhaps 20% beyond what one would project from
bank conversion rates, which is quite bearable if one is looking at a paperback novel
costing $25 rather than $20, but starts to bite if an already somewhat overpriced textbook
from a North American multinational costs $120 rather than $95. Australian universities
are also broadly similar to those in the UK in many respects. The 19th-century buildings
at the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne, for example, are
remarkably similar to those of an old college at Oxford or Cambridge, and similarly the
physical layout of the University of New South Wales is not unlike that of a “redbrick”
such as the University of Reading. Like the UK, there are often undergraduate courses
co-taught by several people with one convener or coordinator. Australia seems to have
gone even farther down the route of courses on focused topics than have Canada, the
United States, and the UK; particularly in English Studies, there are surprisingly few
survey courses on, for example, Romantic or Victorian literature and conversely even
more courses focused on a special topic within Romantic or Victorian studies. In many
areas, though, the organization of courses is broadly similar. Courses in Medieval History,
International Relations, Anthropological Theory, Philosophy of Mind and many more of
the common categories found in North America and the UK are also common in
Australia. In English Studies too, many of the texts used are similar; Penguins and
Oxford Worlds Classics are ubiquitous. University bookshops tend to be arranged in a

similar way to those in the UK. As in the UK, university bookshops do not have separate
sections for textbooks, which are stacked everywhere at the beginning of term, with the
copies remaining after the first week or two simply shelved in the normal way among the
other titles. Though bookshop staff are sometimes not used to being asked for information
as to which academics have been recommending particular titles for their students, a
substantial number seem quite happy to try to provide the information when asked.
Similarly, departmental staff are generally quite friendly and forthcoming when asked for
information. Unlike either North America or the UK, many university bookshops are
under a cooperative umbrella; the co-op Bookshop (University Cooperative Ltd.) operates
shops at almost half the university campuses. (Their website, http://www.coop-bookshop.
com.au, includes textbook lists, often with lecturer notes for all these campuses.) In
contrast to the sort of marking-up of retail prices that is not uncommon in North America
in university shops, Australian co-op bookshops and some other university bookshops
typically offer a slight discount off the retail price. There has been some pressure at a few
departments to get booklists in extremely early—as early as August for the full academic
year beginning in February, and at some departments the booklists are “cast in stone”
early on by inclusion in the departmental handbook. In the majority of departments, however,
people do not have to focus on text choices for the coming year until October, and
the end of October seems to be a very common time for decisions having to be made. The
norm does seem to be for decisions to be made at this point for both terms. In September
directly before the mid-term break or in early October directly after the mid-term break is
thus an ideal time for academic calling, whereas calling in the middle of the first term
would probably have much less potential for immediate impact. As in the UK, academic
calling (sometimes called “corridor calling” in Australia) is not practiced by all firms.
Several people did mention to me that they had been called on at one time or another by
representatives from Norton (represented jointly with John Wiley in Australia). The
largest multinationals (Pearson, Thomson, McGraw Hill) have regular academic sales
representation much as they do in North America; David Levimalouf, the text buyer at
the ANU bookshop, told me that he would typically expect to see the reps from those
companies twice a year—once in September/October, and then again in April/May. One
academic I spoke of was particularly frank about the influence that even occasional inperson
contact from the Norton representative had had over the years; he acknowledged
that as a result he had been much more likely to recommend Norton Critical Editions. It
is also noteworthy that the Norton Anthology of English Literature seems to be used for a
variety of courses in all of the larger English departments in Australia. There was almost
no resistance that I experienced from academics to someone coming round to knock on
their door and let them know about new publications in their area—particularly if
complimentary copies were on offer! Indeed, academics on the whole were very
welcoming, and particularly if and when they discover that Broadview is a Canadian
press; there really does seem to be a strong sense of affinity—not surprisingly, no doubt,
given the shared British heritage. There is also among academics (at least in the
Humanities and Social Sciences) a high degree of sensitivity to issues of price and
availability. Given the frequent difficulties many have experienced in obtaining books
from North America or the UK and given the relatively high prices, it is not surprising
that course pack readers are used even more frequently in Australia than they are in North

America or the UK—a fair bit more frequently though this does vary considerably. (In the
History Dept. at the University of Sydney, for example, only one or two courses had
course packs as texts, whereas in the History Dept. at the University of Melbourne only
one or two courses did not have course packs as texts.) In the short term that makes it
more difficult to sell a reader such as First Philosophy or Readings in Medieval History.
But there do seem to be quite a number of academics who would prefer to use books
rather than course packs (also sometimes called “bricks”) in these situations, and if we
can establish something of a reputation for making our books available in Australia on a
reliable basis and at reasonable prices, I think we may be able to develop significant
markets for these sorts of titles before too long. In the meantime, substantial markets
seem to exist already for texts such as A Short History of the Middle Ages, books such as
Human Rights and Propaganda, and certainly for the Broadview Literary Texts series.
Though the latter is still not well known in Australia, academics respond very positively
to the editions—as have bookshops when contacted by UNIREPS.
3) Organize the following passage from an essay into six paragraphs, as follows:
• introduction: symbolic importance of skyscrapers
• skyscrapers in the history of painting
• skyscrapers in the modern imagination
• skyscrapers as works of art in themselves
• period in the history of painting and photography in which skyscrapers were important
subjects
Skyscraper Art
There is no image more symbolic of the twentieth century than the skyscraper, and the
attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993 and 2001 indelibly mark the century’s end.
The second of these in particular prompted considerable discussion of the degree to
which cities and skyscrapers act as symbols of the Western world, and as such become
focal points for distrust and hatred of the Western world. Skyscrapers are symbols of
capitalism; they are symbols of finance; and they are symbols of ambition. For all that
they have been central images in Western (and especially in North American) culture,
skyscrapers have a remarkably low profile in twentieth-century Western painting. A
number of important artists (Edward Hopper, L.S. Lowery, David Milne) focused on
portraying city life at street level, and on a human scale. A number (Fernand Léger,
Charles Demuth) focused on the stark or brutal lines of industrial forms; and a number
(Andre Derain, Raoul Dufy, Fred Varley, James Wilson Morrice) painted cityscapes
that had the feel of landscapes—views across water that are lovely but have to them
no sense of the urban, let alone anything resembling a skyscraper. Some of the finest
of twentieth century city painting has been characterized in one way or another with
disengagement. Edward Hopper’s city paintings (never from a vantage point that would
allow a skyscraper to be seen in its entirety) convey something essential of the feel of the
American city, and yet are eerily withdrawn from it; “I don’t think I ever tried to paint
the American scene,” he said; “I’m trying to paint myself.” Oskar Kokoschka, for his

part, withdrew from the art world in his later years, and upwards, into the air; his later
cityscapes of European centers, painted from a birds-eye view, are among the finest of
twentieth century expressionist works. But they evoke the city as a place of history and of
nature writ large, not the city that the skyscraper has come to symbolize and to dominate.
The ambition associated with skyscrapers is in part of course economic, but it is just as
fully an aesthetic ambition. And, as Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit have pointed out
in discussing why skyscrapers have been a target for ‘occidentalist’ terrorists, it is “an
explicitly secular ambition challenging the natural order of things. In the minds of the
occidentalists, these qualities are linked as well to the notions of cities as repositories of
“mixed populations, artistic freedom, sexual license.” But here lies a significant irony,
for within the Western urban world—and especially within the world of artists in the
city—artistic freedom and economic free enterprise are more often seen as antithetical
than as inextricably linked. Within the city, the group that has most often shared the
occidentalist distrust of economic freedom and its icons has been that which has flocked
to the city in order to enjoy and to exercise artistic freedom. (Not infrequently, of course,
these artistic communities have also comprised “mixed populations” and have enjoyed
a disproportionate share of whatever “sexual license” was in the offing.) But, however
much artists have flocked to the city of skyscrapers, they have never tended to feel
entirely comfortable with the world the skyscraper represents. No doubt largely for that
reason, the skyscraper’s place in the modern imagination as a whole is a good deal larger
than its place in the history of twentieth-century art. The ancient tensions between the
worlds of art and of commerce in the Western world, however, may not in themselves be
enough to explain why the most prominent symbol of Western society in the twentieth
and early twenty-first century has not been a more significant artistic presence. Robert
Hughes argues that “no American painting or sculpture between World War I and World
War II was able to accumulate, at least in the ordinary public’s eye, the kind of cultural
power that the skyscraper had,” and even if they were ambivalent as to what skyscrapers
symbolized, the artists themselves may have partaken of the general public’s shared
sense that skyscrapers were themselves works of art of the highest importance. To the
extent that such was the case, one may imagine a certain reluctance to “appropriate”
the extraordinary lines of, say, the Chrysler Building for the purposes of a painting. For
perhaps twenty years from the early teens through to the early 1930s, of course, the
skyscraper did have a significant presence in Western art, and American art in particular.
Photographers led the way, and the images of Steichen, of Steiglitz, of Berenice Abbott,
and of Lewis Hine have remained popular icons ever since. To a large extent it may be
that subsequent artists—painters at least as much as photographers—have been unable
to escape the shadow cast by those great images. Gone by the late thirties was the
extraordinary enthusiasm over the buildings themselves as something new and something
extraordinary in human history; such enthusiasm saturated New York and Chicago in the
early years of century, and through to the end of the twenties. And then too, there was the
Depression; it is no doubt not a coincidence that the great photographic images which
best convey the strength, grandeur, and excitement of New York skyscrapers almost all
date from the years before the Depression began to bite deepest.

EXERCISE: Summary
For each of the above three passages, write a summary of between 75 and 125 words.
EXERCISE: Joining Words (C14–C46)
Fill in appropriate joining words from the following list: but, however, though, although, despite,
whereas, yet, also, and, as well, indeed, in fact, further, moreover, not only…but also.
1) Surrey has been growing enormously in recent years; ___________, it now has twice the
population that it had only ten years ago.
2) The opening of the Coquihalla Highway in 1987 made it much easier for cars to travel
from Vancouver to Kamloops; ____________, it cut almost two hours off the journey.
Trucks, ___________, found it almost as slow as the old route via Cache Creek,
_____________ the very steep grades force them to slow down considerably.
3) ______________ the opening of the Coquihalla Highway in 1987 as a toll road made it
much easier for cars to travel from Vancouver to Kamloops, it was not much of a help
to heavy trucks. A fully-loaded transport truck could only climb the steep grades very
slowly. _______________, the toll charges levied made the journey more expensive than
travel via the Trans-Canada Highway. (Tolls on the route were removed in 2008.)
4) ______________ were fully-loaded transport trucks unable to climb the steep grades at
more than a snail’s pace, __________ they had to _________ pay for the privilege.
5) Deconstructionists followed Derrida’s lead in arguing that nothing but the text is
deserving of study—indeed, that there is nothing but the text. Some have argued that to
refer to an author’s life is to engage in idle speculation. Surely in at least some cases,
_____________, what the author intended to say is of more than passing interest. Surely
in at least some cases, _______________, information about the author’s life will help to
shed life on the text.
6) Deconstruction argues in favor of a separation between the text and the world when
it comes to any consideration of the author as an individual. Deconstruction is eager
to show, ______________, how a text is conditioned by the society in which it was
created—and the dominant ideology of that society. The bias is towards the collective
and the unconscious. The conscious motivations and intentions of the author are deemed
to be irrelevant, ______________ it is the job of the critic to reveal the unconscious
motivations.
7) _____________ the legal drinking age in Alberta is 18, it is 19 in most other Canadian
provinces.
8) Wearing yellow on camera can make a person appear larger than they are, __________
wearing green can make someone look smaller.
9) ____________ the apparent length of certain dreams, on average they last only between
5 and 20 minutes.

EXERCISE: Joining Words (C16–C20, C22)
Fill in but, however, though, although, despite or whereas—whichever is correct.
1) There is no question that the Padres have on balance lost run-scoring potential with the
replacement of Smith, Jones and Brown with Martinez, Womack and White. They have
gained better defense, ____________, and a more positive attitude. Whether or not these
will be enough to enable them to win the World Series championship that has so far
eluded them is not yet clear, ______________ most fans seem glad of the changes.
2) _____________ the Padres have on balance lost run-scoring potential with the
replacement of Smith, Jones and Brown with Martinez, Womack and White, they have
gained better defense and a more positive attitude.
3) _____________ the loss of the run-scoring potential of Smith, Jones and Brown, the
Padres should still produce a lot of runs from the bats of Martinez, Womack and White.
Moreover, they have gained better defense and a more positive attitude.
4) Some aspects of deconstruction proved easy to mock—none more so, perhaps, than its
emphasis on the text rather than the author. “Do deconstructionists think the text writes
itself?” skeptics sneered. _________________ it may well sometimes be a worthwhile
endeavor to act as if the text has no author.
5) Some aspects of deconstruction proved easy to mock—none more so, perhaps, than its
emphasis on the text rather than the author. “Do deconstructionists think the text writes
itself?” skeptics sneered. In fact, _____________, it may sometimes be an entirely
worthwhile endeavor to act as if the text has no author.
6) ____________ their skepticism, those opposed to deconstruction were sometimes
influenced by deconstructionist techniques of analysis.
7) In the beginning of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, it seems as though Elizabeth
Bennett and Mr. Darcy would be the last two people in the world to fall in love. As the
story progresses, ___________, things slowly start to change.
8) In general, cats are very independent and self-sufficient, ____________ dogs tend to be
more reliant on their owners.
9) _____________ driving a car is very convenient, riding the bus is better for the
environment.
10) ______________ seals and pandas appear to be gentle and docile, they can, in fact, be
very aggressive and violent if provoked.

EXERCISE: Putting Ideas Together—Cause and Effect (C31–C38)
List as many effects as you can of any two of the following events:
1) the aging of the North American population
2) the spread of social networking sites such as Facebook
3) the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1989–90
4) an increase in the value of the American dollar
5) the introduction of the shot-clock in basketball
Predict as many effects as you can for any one of the following:
1) a sudden downward revision in estimates of total world oil and gas reserves
2) a significantly increased percentage of the population coming to believe that modern
intensive farming practices entail widespread cruelty to animals
3) a change in the rules of basketball such that each team would play four players rather
than five
List as many causes as you can for any two of the following events:
1) Tiger Woods winning four consecutive major golf tournaments

2) Michelle Wie and some other women golfers occasionally filling “sponsor’s slots” at
men’s golf tournaments
3) the recent rise/fall in support for the federal government
4) 20th- and 21st-century American interventions in Central America
5) global warming
6) the rapid pace of economic growth in southeast Asia over the past thirty years
EXERCISE: Cause and Correlation (C31–C38)
What causal relationships (if any) do you think underlie the following correlations? In each case
one may be the cause of the other; it may be one of the causes of the other; or there may be no
causal relationship. If you think there is a causal connection, state if you think it likely to be the
only cause; if not, list as many other possible contributing causes as you can think of.
1) a rise in crime/a rise in unemployment
2) a rise in violent crimes (such as rape and murder)/a rise in unemployment
3) a reduction in the whale population off the Pacific coast of North America; a reduction in
the salmon population off the Pacific coast of North America
4) increases in government support for the performing arts/better plays being written and
performed

5) Korean children spending far more time in school than do North Americans/higher
productivity in the Korean economy
6) a large decrease in rain in Somalia/famine in Somalia
7) record potato crops in the 1840s in Ireland/the potato famine in the 1840s in Ireland
EXERCISE: Putting Ideas Together (C16–C20, C31–C32, C35)
Fill in but, although, however, despite, because or as a result. Pay close attention to the
punctuation.
1) ___________ he was sick, he could not come to work yesterday.
2) __________ he was sick, he came to work yesterday.
3) He was sick yesterday. _____________, he still came to work.
4) ___________ his sickness, he still came to work yesterday.
5) He was sick yesterday. _____________, he did not come to work.
6) He was sick yesterday, __________ he still came to work.
7) She has practiced for many long hours. ___________, she is now a good player.
8) She has practiced for many long hours,___________ she is still not a good player.
9) She is now a good player ______________ she has practiced for many long hours.
10) ____________ she has practiced for many long hours, she is not yet a good player.
11) She has practiced for many long hours. ____________, she is not yet a good player.
12) ____________ her long hours of practice, she is not yet a good player.
EXERCISE: But (C18)
Rephrase so that consecutive sentences do not include the word but.
1) There is no question that the Padres on balance have lost run-scoring potential with the
replacement of Smith, Jones and Brown with Martinez, Womack and White. But they
have gained better defense and a more positive attitude. But it is not at first clear whether
these will be enough to enable them to win the World Series championship that has so far
eluded them.

2) Having the right to own private property is generally considered an important liberty in
this society, but for many people there is more interference with liberty under a system of
private ownership than there would be under a system such as that of the native peoples
of North America (under which the land is held in common). But this does not show that
a system of common use or common ownership is necessarily right for Western society
today. But it should make us question our often unthinking allegiance to private property
rights.
3) I love cooking. There is nothing better in the world than sitting down to a homemade
meal, especially after it has been customized to include your favorite flavors. There are
some people who prefer to go out and eat. But this is very expensive and not always
healthy. But I prefer knowing what is going into my food and that it is being cooked
exactly how I like it.
4) My grandfather is Spanish and my grandmother is French. They met during WWII when
my grandfather was in the army. But it wasn’t easy for them in the beginning. It took
some time for my grandmother to learn how to communicate with my grandfather. But
they eventually got the hang of it after using a lot of hand gestures and dictionaries.
EXERCISE: Because (C31–C34)
In each of the following sentences because is used incorrectly. Explain why, and rephrase to
correct the problem. (You may replace because if you wish.)
1) The compound in the red beaker is lighter than the compound in the black beaker because
it weighs less.
2) Shakespeare mixes comedy with tragedy frequently because he includes comic material
such as the gravediggers’ scene in Hamlet and the Fool’s banter in King Lear.
3) The Danish family unit has broken down, because statistics show that the proportion of
Danish children born illegitimately has tripled over the past twenty years.
4) The fact that the proportion of Danish children born illegitimately has tripled over the
past twenty years does not in fact indicate any increase in the number of single parents,
because two-parent families are having fewer children.
5) Everyone had a good time because the party was a success.

EXERCISE: Because, So, As a Result (C31, C32, C36)
Fill in because, so or as a result.
1) _____________ he writes carefully and checks his work, he usually does well.
2) He writes carefully and checks his work, ____________ he usually does well.
3) He writes carefully and checks his work. ___________, he usually does well.
4) I think that party has done a good job in government, ____________ I will vote for it.
5) I will vote for that party, __________ I think it has done a good job governing.
6) I think that party has done a good job governing. ___________, I will vote for it.
7) In the past I used to eat a lot of take-out, but now I like to eat food that is healthy.
_____________, I have lost weight and have more energy.
8) I have lost weight and have more energy ____________ I now eat food that is healthy.
9) I eat food that is healthy __________ that I can have more energy.
10) I missed the bus and showed up late for my job interview. ____________, I didn’t get the
job!
11) I showed up late for my job interview, __________ I didn’t get the job.
12) I didn’t get the job _______________ I missed the bus and showed up late for my job
interview.
EXERCISE: Punctuation and Joining Words (C16, C18, C19, C36, C38)
Punctuate the following.
1) Jones was not even in the same city at the time hence he could not have committed the
murder
2) The team was heavily favored to win the division three of its best pitchers however were
injured for long periods hence it was unable to finish better than fourth
3) Gauthier’s proviso is a general principle hence it applies both to property owners and to
those whose land has been expropriated as we shall see however it is not a principle that
can successfully be used as a ground on which to base private property rights
4) George H. W. Bush was sometimes thought of as being too concerned with popularity
and unwilling to lead in his actions however he frequently went against the dictates of
public opinion the North American Free Trade Agreement for example was opposed by a
majority of Americans should politicians in fact always follow public opinion or do they
have a duty to do what they believe to be right regardless of what the majority feels if we
on the left try to deny conservative governments the right to make unpopular decisions
then in order to remain consistent we will also have to insist that liberal or social
democratic governments only put forward legislation that is popular

EXERCISE: For Example and Such As (C40, C42)
Fill in for example or such as.
1) A number of his friends, ____________ Frank Jones and Joshua Smith, have criminal
records.
2) A number of his friends have criminal records. Frank Jones and Joshua Smith,
____________, have each spent several years in jail.
3) At several points in the play, Antonio acts cruelly. ____________, he insults Shylock
even when the Jew is prepared to lend him money.
4) Christian characters _____________ Antonio and Gratiano act cruelly towards Jews
throughout The Merchant of Venice.
5) Certain forms of transportation, ____________ bicycles and canoes, cause no damage
whatsoever to the environment.
6) Certain forms of transportation are friendly to the environment. Bicycles and canoes,
______________, cause no damage whatsoever.
7) There is a connection here between literary tendencies and political ones. Just as
postmodern theorists are more alive to the collective influences at work upon the
creation of a text, so too they tend to be more concerned in the political sphere with
collective rights than with individual ones. The collective rights of women and of
minorities, ______________, tend to be given more weight than the individual rights
(_____________ freedom of speech) that have traditionally been the concern of the
British and North American tradition. This distinction lies close to the heart of the debate
over “political correctness.”
8) Many people believe that the age of the “sitcom” came to an end with the rise of
reality TV. Shows ___________ American Idol began to earn higher ratings than their
competition.
9) There are several surprising things that people with peanut allergies cannot eat. Ice cream
and candy, _____________, may have come in contact with nuts during their production
and are considered risky.
10) There are several surprising things that people with peanut allergies cannot eat. Foods
____________ ice cream and candy may have come in contact with nuts during their
production and are considered risky.
EXERCISE: So That, So…That or Such…That (C44, C45)
Fill in so that, so…that or such…that.
1) His prose is _______ convoluted ________ it is difficult to understand what he means.
2) It is _______ a convoluted prose style _________ it is difficult to understand what he
means.
3) He writes in an inaccessible way _________ the reader will sense the difficulty inherent
in the ideas themselves.
4) Her actions were __________ rude __________ I do not want to speak to her again.

5) It was __________ a fast car ___________ it spun out of control.
6) She was _________ rushed getting dressed __________ she forgot to tuck in her blouse.
7) The dog was __________ hungry __________ he started to eat the grass.
8) There was ________ a commotion __________ I could not study for my exam.
9) The show was ________ funny _________ I had tears in my eyes from laughing too
hard.
EXERCISE: Comparisons (C44, C45)
too so…that so that such…that very
From this list of expressions choose the one that fits into each of the sentences below.
1) After the birth of their first child they both felt ________ happy.
2) He was _________ late _________ the meeting was almost over.
3) She is now __________ a big girl ___________ none of her clothes fit properly.
4) The sun is ___________ bright today.
5) The sun is ___________ bright today ____________ you have to shield your eyes.
6) There is ____________ a bright sun today ____________ you have to shield your eyes.
7) I shielded my eyes ____________ I could see more clearly.
8) You should do your work now ____________ you will be able to enjoy yourself this
evening.
9) This table is _________ big; it will not fit through the door.
10) This table is __________ big _________ it will not fit through the door.
11) This table is _________ big to fit through the door.
12) The tea is __________ sweet for me. I can’t drink it.
13) The tea is __________ sweet _________ I can’t drink it.
14) This tea is __________ sweet. I can’t drink it.
15) He was ___________ a good-mannered person ___________ he impressed my mother
immediately.
EXERCISE: That or Which (C46)
Fill in that or which.
1) The essay ________ I wrote last week was eleven pages long.
2) The essay, ________ I wrote in only one night, was eleven pages long.
3) This comparison, ____________ Fitzgerald first makes in the book’s opening paragraph,
is repeated frequently throughout the text.
4) The comparison ________ Fitzgerald makes in the book’s opening paragraph is repeated
frequently throughout the text.
5) A button fell off the shirt __________ I had only worn once.
6) The movie, __________ was based on a true story, was filmed in Chicago.

7) In her diary, Anne Frank wrote __________ she wanted to become a famous journalist
one day.
8) There are still many people who believe ___________ Elvis is still alive.
9) When you are an amateur, the odds of hitting a hole-in-one are 1 in 12,750. These are
odds _________ my brother believes he can beat.
10) Some scientists believe _________ goose bumps, _________ occur when you’re cold
or frightened, evolved as part of a fight-or-flight reaction to attackers. This heightened
reaction increases your heart rate, causing blood to rush to your muscles, giving them
additional oxygen.
In which of the above could that or which be omitted?
EXERCISE: Putting Ideas Together (C14–C46)
In each of the following there is one mistake. Correct it.
1) He went away in the morning and he came home the same night and he told me that he
had had a good trip. (C26)
2) Although he has short legs, but he is a fast runner. (C16)
3) Despite that the professor marked hard, we all passed. (C19)
4) Mark was sick because he stayed in bed all day. (C32)
5) Because the players would not give up, so they achieved victory. (C37)
6) Michipicoten Island on Lake Superior is very beautiful, but it is also very inaccessible.
However, it is possible to reach it by private boat. (C18)

EXERCISE: Putting Ideas Together (C14–C46)
Fill in appropriate joining words or expressions, choosing from those in the lists provided.
For (1), choose from:
as well as a result however despite
and ; [semicolon] though
1) The idea of building a canal from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea is centuries
old_____________ it was considered even in the time of the Roman Empire.
______________, it was not until the late nineteenth century that the project was actually
begun. ______________many difficulties, the canal was finally completed early in this
century, ________________for many years most ships bypassed the Cape of Good Hope.
In the late 1960s and the 1970s, ________________, ships that were too large for the
canal began to be built. ________________, conflict between Israel and Egypt caused the
canal to be closed at various times. _________________, a great deal of sea traffic now
once again travels right around Africa, just as it did before the Suez Canal was built.
For (2), choose from:
despite although such as as a result
and moreover however
2) Uganda is again becoming one of Africa’s more developed countries. ___________ it
has certain natural disadvantages, ______________ having no sea port, it has a relatively
good infrastructure, ___________ its agricultural sector is increasingly productive.
___________, it exports more products than do most of its neighbors. _____________
political difficulties with rebels in the north of the country, the government remains
stable. _______________, many nearby nations look to Uganda for leadership.
_______________, Uganda is of course much less well-off than are most European
countries.
For (3), choose from:
such as and although
but despite
3) It’s not exactly a guilt-free pleasure, __________ food researchers say cocoa beans could
be good for you. Cocoa beans have natural compounds called flavanols, __________
a growing pile of scientific research suggests they do good things to blood vessels.
___________ the enthusiasm, flavanols are missing from much of the chocolate on store
shelves today. Flavanols make chocolate and cocoa taste bitter, _________ confectioners
have spent years trying to perfect ways to remove the pungent flavor. Flavanols are
found in other foods, ___________ red wine, grapes, apples __________ green tea,
__________ cocoa beans are a particularly rich source. (CNN.com)

For (4), choose from:
nevertheless because ; [semicolon]
even if as well and
4) Controversy usually surrounds Michael Moore. This is ___________ his documentaries
often challenge political leaders __________ right-wing organizations. He has a
reputation for going against the normal style of traditional documentary making.
____________, Moore has won many awards for his work. He has gained many
adversaries __________. Many of his critics feel that his films are biased and misleading.
____________ you do not agree with Moore’s opinions, his movies are worth
seeing___________ they are usually very entertaining.
EXERCISES: Sentence Combining (C47)
EXERCISE: Joining Whole Kernels (C47-a)
Using coordinating conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs, subordinating conjunctions, or marks
of punctuation alone, join the following groups of kernels into single sentences, eliminating
unnecessary repetition. Try out different variations for each group, and compare the results; be
prepared to justify your preferred arrangements.
Examples:
1) Peacocks are gorgeous.
2) Peacocks sure make a racket.
Peacocks are gorgeous, but they sure make a racket.
Although peacocks are gorgeous, they sure make a racket.
While they sure make a racket, peacocks are gorgeous.
1) He plugged in the flash drive.
2) The power went out.
After he plugged in the flash drive, the power went out.
He plugged in the flash drive—the power went out.
The power went out just as he plugged in the flash drive.
1) The barbecue was smoking.
2) The burgers were black.
3) The storm roared on.
4) Lulu hid under the bed.
5) Dinner was finished.
6) Darren showed up.

7) The ship docked.
8) Queasy people staggered off the ship.
9) The invitation specified formal dress.
10) Melvyn wore paisley.
11) Aunt Selma knitted a “Call of the Wild” sweater.
12) Franklin had to wear the “Call of the Wild” sweater.
13) The party really perked up.
14) Bob brought out the puppets.
15) The weather was bad.
16) The tent leaked.
17) The Plimleys went camping.
18) The party goers yelled, “Surprise!”
19) Felicity’s door burst open.
20) Felicity’s mouth was full of spinach.
21) Fluffy wouldn’t get out of the basket.
22) Fluffy was sulking.
23) No one would open a can of tuna.
24) Shirley is laundry-challenged.
25) Shirley washed lights and darks together.
26) All my underwear is purpley-brown.
EXERCISE: Embedding Kernels with Punctuation (C47-b)
For each pair, embed one kernel in another using punctuation (parentheses or dashes) only.
Example:
1) Abbey is such a geek.
2) Abbey wore Vulcan ears to the Star Trek movie.
Abbey (she is such a geek) wore Vulcan ears to the Star Trek movie.
1) The trees are very tall.
2) The trees loom over the little house.
3) The equations seemed unsolvable.
4) The math is fairly difficult.

5) Sherman’s personal life is terribly complicated.
6) Sherman’s personal life is a mess.
EXERCISE: Embedding Kernels as Relative Clauses (C47-c)
Convert one of each pair of kernels into a relative clause and combine it with the other. Try to
come up with a variety of different combinations, and evaluate the effectiveness of each. Choose
an appropriate relative pronoun from this list: who, which, that, where, and when. Remember that
who takes different forms: it is who if it takes the place of the subject of a verb, whom if it takes
the place of the object of a verb, and whose if it takes the place of a possessive noun. Before
choosing between which and that, review C46, and punctuate all completed sentences according
to the advice given in F8.
Example:
1) The chipmunk lobbed berries.
2) The berries landed on Tillie’s head.
The chipmunk lobbed berries, which landed on Tillie’s head.
The berries that the chipmunk lobbed landed on Tillie’s head.
Berries that were lobbed by the chipmunk landed on Tillie’s head.
Berries landed on Tillie’s head, which were lobbed by the chipmunk.
Note the awkward placement of the relative clause in the last combination. As such examples
illustrate, it is generally best to put relative clauses next to the words or phrases they modify.
1) Lloyd’s car is a clunker.
2) Lloyd’s car died on the way to Peoria.
3) Lloyd remembers the precise moment.
4) The car stalled at a precise moment.
5) Josie is a gourmet wannabe.
6) Josie subscribes to fifteen food magazines.
7) Perkins loves his dictionary.
8) Perkins says his dictionary is the only book worth having.
9) The coffee mug has a dancing pig on it.
10) The coffee mug stays in the cupboard.
11) Harlen is proud of the spice rack.
12) Harlen made the spice rack himself.

13) The workers just finished pouring the sidewalk.
14) Wanda couldn’t help scratching her initials into the sidewalk.
15) The customer always gives me a headache.
16) The customer just walked in the door.
17) Lucy tries to avoid the restaurant.
18) The Swainsons always go to the restaurant.
19) Sweeney’s socks were mismatched.
20) Sweeney kept crossing his ankles.
EXERCISE: Embedding Kernels as Present Participle Phrases (C47-d)
For each kernel pair, choose one to embed into the other as a present participle. Then change the
kernel order and see if the sentence still means the same thing. Finally, see if you can transform
the kernel that became the main clause into the participle; note the change of emphasis in each
combined sentence.
Example:
1) Patty pretended to listen to Bea.
2) Patty played computer solitaire.
Playing computer solitaire, Patty pretended to listen to Bea.
Patty pretended to listen to Bea playing computer solitaire.
Pretending to listen to Bea, Patty played computer solitaire.
Patty played computer solitaire, pretending to listen to Bea.
Patty, playing computer solitaire, pretended to listen to Bea.
Patty, pretending to listen to Bea, played computer solitaire.
Note that sentence two, which says that Bea is playing computer solitaire, does not mean the
same thing as the other sentences.
1) She wasted the day.
2) She waited for Sheldon.
3) The frying pan lay by the side of the road.
4) The frying pan filled with rain.
5) Ralph hovered over the menu.
6) Ralph agonized over his choice.
7) Tipsy flirted shamelessly.
8) Tipsy rolled on her back for a belly rub.

9) Sherilee fumed inside.
10) Sherilee calmly picked up the pieces of the vase.
11) Morton cheered Number Seven on.
12) Morton waved enthusiastically at Number Seven.
EXERCISE: Embedding Kernels as Past Participle Phrases (C47-e)
For each kernel pair, choose one to embed into the other as a past participle. Then change the
kernel order and see if the sentence still means the same thing. Finally, see if you can transform
the kernel that became the main clause into the participle; note the change of emphasis in each
combined sentence.
Example:
1) Millions saw the show.
2) A shy man wrote the show.
Seen by millions, the show was written by a shy man.
The show, seen by millions, was written by a shy man.
Seen by millions, a shy man wrote the show.
Written by a shy man, the show was seen by millions.
Written by a shy man, millions saw the show.
Millions saw the show written by a shy man.
The show, seen by millions, was written by a shy man.
The show was written by a shy man seen by millions.
The show was seen by millions written by a shy man.
Note that not all the sentences above mean the same thing; while most of the sentences say that
the show was seen by millions, sentences three and eight say that the man was seen by millions.
Also, whereas in most of the sentences the shy man wrote the show, in sentences five and nine,
the shy man wrote millions. Not only do the various rearrangements sometimes mean different
things, they also don’t all make good sense. Note these kinds of effects as you recombine each
pair of kernels.
1) The cat condo was shabbily maintained.
2) The cat condo hung in shreds.
3) The gnome lay partly buried in a dim corner of the yard.
4) The gnome lay face down.
5) Brad was cursed by powers of darkness.
6) Brad could never make can openers work.

7) The old movie house slumped across the street.
8) The old movie house was slated for demolition.
9) No one forgot Fran’s careless remark.
10) Fran’s careless remark lived on.
11) Erwin’s prank was spectacularly ill-timed.
12) Erwin’s prank fell flat.
13) Beulah’s neon afghan was made out of polyester.
14) No one fully appreciated Beulah’s neon afghan.
EXERCISE: Embedding Kernels as Noun, Verb, Infinitive, and Prepositional Phrases and
Single-Word Adjectives and Adverbs (C47-f)
For each of the following groups of kernels, choose one kernel to be a main clause, and then
shorten the others into an appropriate modifying word or phrase and combine all into a single
sentence. You will need to choose how to shorten the subordinate kernels; the examples below
will give you some guidelines. Combine each set of kernels into as many arrangements as you
can think of, and again judge whether all the resulting sentences for a given kernel group mean
the same thing or have the same stylistic effect.
Examples:
Verb phrase:
1) Bertha puts on sunglasses.
2) Bertha lurks by the water fountain.
Bertha puts on sunglasses and lurks by the water fountain.
Noun phrase:
1) A bucket of popcorn is never enough for a double bill.
2) A can of root beer is never enough for a double bill.
A bucket of popcorn and a can of root beer are never enough for a double bill.
Infinitive phrase:
1) Stewart likes something.
2) Stewart runs backward into the ocean.
Stewart likes to run backwards into the ocean.

Prepositional phrase:
1) The donut is on the left.
2) The donut looks especially appealing.
The donut on the left looks especially appealing.
Single-word adjective:
1) Opening more champagne is an idea.
2) The idea is fabulous.
Opening more champagne is a fabulous idea.
Single-word adverb:
1) The refrigerator rumbled.
2) The rumbling was ominous.
The refrigerator rumbled ominously.
Kernel groups for combining:
1) We have meetings.
2) The meetings are many.
3) The meetings are tedious.
4) We discuss policies.
5) Barb sleeps at a certain time.
6) Nolan sleeps at a certain time.
7) The time is through all our meetings.
8) Barb snores.
9) The snoring is gentle.
10) Barb’s head tilts back.
11) Barb’s head is heavy.
12) Barb’s mouth opens.
13) The opening is slight.
14) Nolan’s head falls.
15) The falling is forward.
16) Nolan’s head hits the table.
17) The hitting happens with a thunk.

18) Everyone pretends something.
19) No one notices.
20) Barb misses the muffins.
21) Barb misses the coffee.
22) Nolan misses the muffins.
23) Nolan misses the coffee.
24) We get goodies.
25) The goodies are extra.
26) Someone wakes Barb up.
27) Someone wakes Nolan up.
28) The waking happens at a certain time.
29) The meeting is over.
30) Barb pretends something.
31) Nolan pretends something.
32) Barb is thinking.
33) Nolan is thinking.
34) The thinking concerns policies.
EXERCISE: Spotting and Correcting Ambiguous Sentences (C47-g)
The meaning of each of the following sentences is ambiguous. “De-combine” each into two
different sets of kernels, and then recombine each set into a distinct sentence.
Example:
Louise has a fake alligator-skin purse.
1) Louise has a purse.
2) The purse is made of alligator skin.
3) The alligator skin is fake.
Louise has a purse made of fake alligator skin.
4) Louise has a purse.
5) The purse is made of alligator skin.
6) The purse is fake.
Louise has a fake purse made of alligator skin.

1) Entertaining children can be fun.
2) He’s too hairy to see.
3) I found a penny rollerblading.
4) Lester is a pedantic book lover.
5) Garth spotted a spider mite with his reading glasses.
6) Penelope bathes and cuts her hair monthly.
7) Passing cars should be allowed here.
8) The Web site sells colorful elephant paintings.
EXERCISE: Combining Several Kernels into a Single Sentence (C47-h)
Combine each set of kernels into a single sentence, then recombine them twice more. Add any
transitional words you feel are appropriate. Compare the recombinations for each set. What does
each arrangement emphasize? Which are stylistically more effective and why?
1) Jenkins was fascinated.
2) Earlobes fascinated him.
3) The earlobes were Vanessa’s.
4) The earlobes were uneven.
5) Jenkins tried not to stare.
6) Not staring was impossible.
7) The afternoon was sultry.
8) The afternoon was hot.
9) Bebe suggested watermelon.
10) Hubert harbored a desire.
11) The desire was secret.
12) Hubert wanted beef.
13) The beef was roasted.
14) Hubert wanted potatoes.
15) The potatoes were mashed.
16) Hubert was disappointed.
17) Grant was alarmed.
18) Eliot was alarming.
19) Eliot collected spiders.
20) The spiders lived in a room.
21) The room was Eliot’s.
22) The spiders crawled.
23) The spiders were loose.

EXERCISE: Combining Many Kernels into a Passage (C47-i)
Look carefully at the following list of kernels:
1) Mary Shelley wrote a novel.
2) The novel’s title is Frankenstein.
3) The Monster is a character in the novel.
4) The Monster has murdered people.
5) The victims are innocent.
6) The Monster feels justified.
7) Human society has rejected the Monster.
8) The Monster cannot be judged.
9) The judgment is not fair.
10) The judgment is done according to laws.
11) The human society made the laws.
12) The Monster believes these things.
13) This conclusion does not stop the Monster.
14) The Monster judges himself.
15) The Monster condemns himself.
16) The judgment has a basis.
17) The condemnation has a basis.
18) The basis is a moral standard.
19) The standard governs conduct.
20) The standard does not apply to the Monster.
21) The Monster argues this.
22) The Monster rationalizes his crimes.
23) The Monster is tormented.
24) The Monster loathes himself.
Below is one possible combination of these kernels.
The Monster of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein feels he murders the innocent
justifiably, because humans have rejected him from their society and so cannot
fairly judge him by their own laws. Coming to this conclusion, however, does
not stop him from using that same code of conduct to pass judgment on and
subsequently condemn himself, even as he argues that the code has no application
to him. He is torn between rationalizing his crimes and punishing himself with the
torment of self-loathing.
Write two more combinations, and compare all three. Which parts of which ones do you feel are
most effective, and why?

EXERCISE: “De-Combining” and Recombining Sentences (C47-j)
“De-combine” the following sentences into kernels, then recombine them into at least two more
arrangements each.
1) If Kathy had only paid enough attention to Roland, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
2) Slugs are definitely slimy and devastating in the vegetable garden, but they have a certain
scientific fascination, too.
3) Jonquil’s ballet career came to a sudden halt when she discovered the seductive pleasures
of the polka.
4) Everyone had high hopes for Julian’s innovative plumbing scheme, but the plan was
fraught with problems from the start.
5) No longer graced with software support, the once-expensive laser printer lay sadly on the
recycling pile.
6) During a sudden and prolonged downpour, my umbrella got soaked right through and
started raining on me.
7) Those cheap headphones cannot do justice to Wilma’s latest composition for accordion
and bassoon.
8) Jerry was skeptical, but Dora knew that the closet organizers would change their lives
forever.
EXERCISE: Analyzing Challenging Texts (C47-k)
Examine the following pieces of writing. Break each into a list of kernels, then recombine them
into a paraphrase to help you better understand the original. Make special note of places where
your paraphrase must supply material that is not explicit in the passage; can you justify your
inclusions? Are other readings possible? It will be illuminating to do this exercise with one or
two other people; discuss and compare your various readings.
1) Lines 1–8 from the poem “On Shakespeare,” by John Milton
What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones
The labor of an age in piled stones,
Or that his hallowed relics should be hid
Under a star-ypointing pyramid?
Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,
What need’st thou such weak witness of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonishment
Hast built thyself a livelong monument.

2) From Preface to Lyrical Ballads, with Pastoral and Other Poems, an essay on poetry
by William Wordsworth
I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes
its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity: the emotion is contemplated
till by a species of reaction the tranquillity gradually disappears, and an emotion,
kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually
produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind. In this mood successful
composition generally begins, and in a mood similar to this it is carried on; but
the emotion, of whatever kind and in whatever degree, from various causes is
qualified by various pleasures, so that in describing any passions whatsoever,
which are voluntarily described, the mind will upon the whole be in a state of
enjoyment.
3) Lines 1–9 of “Spring and Fall: To a Young Child,” by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leameal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
4) Choose another puzzling passage of writing, perhaps something you’ve been asked to
read for coursework. Follow the “de-combining” and recombining instructions above.
It would be helpful to do that exercise with another one or two people.
EXERCISE: Analyzing Style (C47-l)
Examine the following passages of writing. Break each into a list of kernels, and examine the
result carefully. What elements of structure make up the passage’s style? It will be helpful to do
this exercise with one or two other people.
1) From The Penelopiad, a novel by Margaret Atwood (Toronto: Knopf, 2005. Print.).
Here the speaker is the shade of Penelope, who is the wife of Odysseus in Homer’s
Odyssey, and who is now in Hades, the afterworld:
It’s dark here, as many have remarked. “Dark Death,” they used to say. “The
gloomy halls of Hades,” and so forth. Well, yes, it is dark, but there are
advantages—for instance, if you see someone you’d rather not speak to you can
always pretend you haven’t recognized them.

There are of course the fields of asphodel. You can walk around in them
if you want. It’s brighter there, and a certain amount of vapid dancing goes on,
though the region sounds better that it is—the fields of asphodel has a poetic lilt to
it. But just consider. Asphodel, asphodel, asphodel—pretty enough white flowers,
but a person gets tired of them after a while. (15)
2) From Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological
Time, a work of non-fiction by Stephen Jay Gould (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP,
1987. Print.):
We live embedded in the passage of time—a matrix marked by all possible
standards of judgment: by immanent things that do not appear to change;
by cosmic recurrences of days and seasons; by unique events of battles and
natural disasters; by an apparent directionality of life from birth and growth to
decrepitude, death, and decay. (10)
3) From Six Memos for the New Millennium, a work of non-fiction by Italo Calvino (New
York: Vintage, 1988. Print.):
We might say that throughout the centuries two opposite tendencies have
competed in literature: one tries to make language into a weightless element that
hovers above things like a cloud or better, perhaps, the finest dust or, better still,
a field of magnetic impulses. The other tries to give language the weight, density,
and concreteness of things, bodies, and sensations. (15)
4) From Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, a work
of non-fiction by Lynne Truss (New York: Gotham-Penguin, 2003. Print.). Here Truss
is describing the arguments about commas between writer James Thurber and Harold
Ross, his editor at The New Yorker magazine:
It is pleasant to picture the scene: two hard-drinking alpha males in serious trilbies
smacking a big desk and barking at each other over the niceties of punctuation.
According to Thurber’s account of the matter (in The Years with Ross [1959]),
Ross’s “clarification complex” tended to run somewhat to the extreme: he seemed
to believe there was no limit to the amount of clarification you could achieve if
you just kept adding commas. Thurber, by self-appointed virtuous contrast, saw
commas as so many upturned office chairs unhelpfully hurled down the wideopen
corridor of readability. (68)
5) From Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a play by Tom Stoppard (New York:
Grove, 1967. Print.). The play focuses on the two title characters, who are also minor
characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and are here explaining to a traveling player that
they have been charged with finding out what is wrong with Prince Hamlet:

Ros: Hamlet is not himself, outside or in. We have to glean what afflicts him.
Guil: He doesn’t give much away.
Player: Who does, nowadays?
Guil: He’s—melancholy.
Player: Melancholy?
Ros: Mad.
Player: How is he mad?
Ros: Ah. (To Guildenstern) How is he mad?
Guil: More morose than mad, perhaps.
Player: Melancholy.
Guil: Moody.
Ros: He has moods.
Player: Of moroseness?
Guil: Madness. And yet.
Ros: Quite.
Guil: For instance.
Ros: He talks to himself, which might be madness.
Guil: If he didn’t talk sense, which he does.
Ros: Which suggests the opposite. (67)
6) Lines 1-9 from the poem “Ancestors,” by P. K. Page (The Glass Air: Selected Poems.
Toronto: Oxford UP, 1985. 143-44. Print.):
The cavernous theatre filled with them,
going back
generation on generation,
dressed in the colours of power:
scarlet and purple and black,
plumed and surpliced and gowned.
Men with arrogant Roman faces,
women like thoroughbred horses
held in check.
7) Choose a passage of a text that you find admirable or intriguing, and use sentence “decombining”
to help you analyze its style.
STYLE (D1–D58)
EXERCISE: Slang and Informal English (D1–D14)
Rewrite each sentence to eliminate slang words or expressions.
1) She has five kids and fifteen grandchildren.
2) The work he handed in was truly awful.

3) It is kind of difficult to understand why public perceptions of British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown changed so quickly.
4) There is a bunch of reasons why the federal government’s debt became so large in the
1980s and early 1990s.
5) I was kind of disappointed that she did not join us for the outing.
6) Bill Gates became rich after he bought an 8086 operating system off Tim Patterson at
Seattle Computer Products. He then reworked it, and sold it to IBM as PC-DOS.
7) A bunch of people gathered around the band and started dancing.
EXERCISE: Too Many Words or Too Few Words (D15–D48)
In each of the following there are either too many or too few words. Improve each sentence.
1) I myself I think that it is not wise to have more than three or four children. (D32)
2) In my opinion I think men are just as intelligent as women. (D31)
3) It was the general consensus of opinion that no new projects of an expensive nature
should be embarked upon at that point in time. (D42, D45, D39)
4) The protagonist has fallen in love a girl he met at the fair the previous weekend. (D45)
5) She said that she did not to work at the factory, no matter how much she was paid. (D45)
6) Insects such as moths, butterflies, fruitflies, etc. can adapt very quickly to environmental
changes. (D27)
7) It is interesting to note that Harris and Rosenwein’s findings support this hypothesis. (D35)
8) Nob Hill is in close proximity to the San Francisco harbor. (D25)
9) Due to the fact that many people are not attending church anymore, many parishes have
had to close. (D29)
10) We decided to finish the conversation at a later date. (D20)
11) There are many parents who believe too much television is bad for their children. (D44)
EXERCISE: Choosing the Correct Tense (D55–D56)
Put the following sentences in the correct tense.
1) The Rolling Stones are the first rock group to blend American strands of music into a new
form of pop music. Their first recordings include covers of Hank Williams and Chuck
Berry. They were considered to encompass the true essence of rock and roll.
2) Yann Martel challenged the limits of your imagination and faith in his book, Life of Pi.
He left it up to readers to decide if they believed Pi’s first recollection of his journey to
the detectives or if they believed the second instead.
3) Rhett Butler’s decision to leave Scarlett at the end of Gone with the Wind was a very
famous scene. When Margaret Mitchell’s publishers first read the manuscript they ask her
to change the ending so that they ended up together. Mitchell, however, remains steadfast
and refuses. There was only one account of Mitchell commenting on Scarlett and Rhett’s
future. When writing to her publisher she writes, “I think she gets him in the end.”

4) Douglas Adams displayed his humorous writing style in the opening paragraphs of his
book, The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In the third paragraph, he wrote: “This
planet has—or rather had—a problem, which was this: most of the people living on
it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this
problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green
pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of
paper that were unhappy.” (15)
EXERCISE: Gender Bias in Language (D58)
Rewrite each of the following so as to make it gender-neutral.
1) Any doctor is obliged to put his patients’ concerns ahead of his own.
2) Simply increasing the number of policemen on the streets will not necessarily lead to a
decrease in crime.
3) The history of mankind forms only a short chapter in the history of the planet.
4) A majority of the freshmen at American universities are now women.
5) In short, except for his reproductive power, a child has a fully developed capacity for love
long before puberty. (Sigmund Freud, “The Sexual Enlightenment of Children”)
6) In most cases the genius has reached the height of his intellectual powers by his early
twenties.
7) Our Stone Age ancestors are often crudely characterized as cavemen.

EXERCISE: Biased and Bias-free Usage (D58, D59)
Each of the following sentences contains at least one example of language colored by gender,
ethnic or religious bias; rewrite each sentence using bias-free wording.
1) Man’s war-like behavior has often been linked to the effects of testosterone.
2) Man’s gestation period is nine months.
3) Early man walked upright, but had developed only rudimentary language skills.
4) California’s population now includes a large number of orientals.
5) There was no night watchman on duty that night at the warehouse.
6) Flutie, the quarterback, stands only 5 foot nine; Smith, the center, is a huge black man—6
foot ten, 330 pounds.
7) The first spaceman was the Russian, Yuri Gagarin.
8) She has been a keen fisherman since she was very young.
9) She is Jewish with her money.
10) He acts like a Christian towards panhandlers and beggars.

11) She has occupied the Chairman’s position in the organization for many years.
12) Of the eight policemen at the scene, six were men and two were women.
EXERCISE: Biased and Bias-free Usage (D58, D59)
For discussion: Of the following words or expressions, which (if any) seem to you to express
bias towards a particular group; which (if any) seem to you to entail euphemistic or unnecessary
concessions to “political correctness”; and which seem to you to express a proper concern for
appropriate language and for the feelings of those being referred to? (In some cases you may feel
that both or all terms in a grouping are appropriate or inappropriate.)
1) This new tax measure will help the rich and hurt poor people / help those with higher levels
of income and wealth, and hurt the economically disadvantaged.
2) Over 20% of the American population is fat / overweight / obese.
3) The young man was retarded. / The young man suffered from a mental disability. / The
young man was mentally challenged.
4) Both the husband and the wife should see a shrink / a counsellor / a facilitator.
EXERCISE: Articles (E1–E2)
ESL (E1–E18)
Fill in the appropriate article(s) where necessary; take them out when they are not needed.
1) Could you order ice cream cone for me?
2) My father painted fence last year, but color is already fading.
3) Book was really good; I couldn’t put it down.
4) The yogurt is a great source of calcium.
5) This weekend we’re going skiing. Weather is supposed to be nice and snow will be just
right.
6) In Canada, the hockey is a popular sport. In 1988, Windsor, Nova Scotia, declared itself
to be birthplace of the sport, but several other cities across country claim the same title.
7) Building the log homes can be long and complicated process.
8) It takes hour to get to my school on bus. The traffic is usually backed up in morning.
9) Riding unicycle is a lot harder than riding a bike. It requires lot more balance and the
focus.
10) What is in box? I think it is moving!

EXERCISE: Subjects and Predicates (E3–E4)
Fill in the appropriate article(s) or pronoun(s) where necessary; take them out when they are not
needed.
1) Is dangerous not to carry around an inhaler when you have asthma.
2) Currently, the moon it is approximately 225,745 miles from Earth; moves 1.5 inches
further away from our planet each year.
3) The cake we made for Ethan’s birthday it was coconut cream.
4) It will be easy to sell our house. My brother-in-law is real estate agent, and he will get
good price for quickly.
5) The pizza it is from Healthy Pies. The cook was gourmet chef at a high-end restaurant
in his youth, but he quit and decided to open his own pizza shop instead. He uses only
organic ingredients.
6) The Christmas tree it was too big for the house. Was blocking the window.
7) My first time skating was quite an adventure! I fell a few times because my skates they
were very slippery, but by the end I improved.
EXERCISE: Plurals (E5)
Correct the following sentences.
1) Digital watch are great because they tell you the exact time and they usually have added
feature.
2) Many person take the subway in this city; it’s more convenient than waiting in traffic.
3) Hawthorne Academy is a new high school in our community. Many of the student are
looking forward to the upcoming year because they will each be given a laptop computer.
4) My wife’s closet is overflowing with stuff. She has twenty-six pairs of shoe that she
claims she needs.
5) Canada’s Food Guide recommends eating 5–12 servings of grain product a day, despite
the new trend of low-carbohydrate diet.
6) How many blades of grasses do you think are on your lawn?
7) Wow, this meal comes with three pieces of fishes, a side salad, a piece of bread, and
french fries!
8) Some nutritionists are now saying that drinking eight glasses of waters is not necessary;
on average, people are able to meet their adequate hydration needs from juice, milk,
coffee, tea, soda, fruits, vegetables, and other foods and beverages.
9) You received a lot of mails today.
10) I went to three concert last month—a jazz concert, a rock show, and an acoustic
performance. I love listening to different types of musics.

EXERCISE: Gendered/Neutered Words and Possessives (E6–E7)
Correct the following sentences.
1) My sister is always taking mine clothes! Sometimes she tries to tell me they belong to
him, but I know the difference!
2) The house down the street is for sale. He has four bedrooms, new appliances and two
bathrooms.
3) Our children, which are very athletic, have a lot of sports equipment! Our shed is filled
with soccer balls, tennis rackets, and hockey sticks.
4) Dr. Maria Sanchez checked her watch and sighed. She was already late for her 9:00 a.m.
appointment and she was worried. The previous time she had been late, her office had
filled up with more clients than she had had time to see. By the time she walked in the
door, her office was as bad as she had anticipated; he was bursting with a mass of people.
5) My uncle, that I greatly admire, won a humanitarian award yesterday, for all the charity
work he does.
6) Even though it was raining when I first went to the Calgary Stampede, he was still
crowded.
7) After dining at the restaurant twice, they decided she did not have a nice atmosphere.
EXERCISE: Negatives and Double Negatives (E8–E9)
Correct the following sentences.
1) After my wife cheated on me, I not want to speak to her for a long time.
2) It is difficult to do well in a calculus class without no scientific calculator.
3) I never not eat greasy food twice in one week.
4) I enjoy going to the beach, but I not like swimming in water that is deeper than my waist.
5) She does not be a good enough actress to star in her own movie.
6) My baby sucks never not her thumb.
7) Massachusetts not allow capital punishment.
8) Information on the Internet is never not always reliable.
EXERCISE: Comparatives and Superlatives (E10)
Correct the following inaccurate comparatives/superlatives.
1) I wanted to have the most largest cake the store could make for my wedding.
2) That was the most bestest movie I have ever seen.
3) The sandwich store down the street makes the more largest sub in town.
4) Our daughter did not want the less smaller sized ice cream cone.
5) Shannon believes that her dog behaves more better than mine.
6) Last summer had the most worst weather our city has seen in 40 years.

7) Monet’s Water Lilies is the beautifullest painting in his collection.
8) The Eiffel Tower in Paris is more higher than the Space Needle in Seattle.
9) Mrs. Jenkins is the goodest teacher in the school.
10) The last apartment we saw had the lesser amount of new appliances.
EXERCISE: Compound Verb Formations and Phrasal Verbs (E11, E13)
Each sentence contains a mistake. Fill in the appropriate verb formations or infinitives.
1) The flowers blooming early this year.
2) She took the wrong crowd up in school, and her grades started suffering.
3) The robber broke the house in last night when everyone asleep.
4) No one in the neighborhood heard the noise, so the police not called.
5) My father ran my bike over because I left it in the driveway.
6) They not know how to sail, so they are nervous about the boat trip.
7) Could you please remember to take your shoes at the door off?
8) There is a store downtown where you can trade your recyclables for money in.
9) I mowing the grass when I noticed the bird’s nest.
10) The janitor not like picking the students’ garbage up because it was often disgusting.
EXERCISE: Infinitives and Gerunds (E12, E15)
Correct the following sentences.
1) She was just starting dancing when she was paged over the intercom.
2) The police officer was thinking of to run after the suspect after he heard his partner could
not keep up.
3) We realized that no one was going showing up for the performance ten minutes after the
curtain went up.
4) Sarah was discouraged from to help her blind daughter walk around the room so that her
daughter would learn how to do it herself.
5) I was looking forward to go on the camping trip, but I was called in to doing an extra
shift at work.
EXERCISE: Prepositions (E16)
Fill in the appropriate preposition.
1) My teacher was angry ______ me because I had not handed in my homework.
2) I believe this product is inferior ______ that one.
3) What could be worse ______ having a hurricane flood your home?
4) Janice argued ______ the hotel manager, who was falsely accusing her of making longdistance
calls from her room.

5) Sometimes people borrow food _______ their neighbors.
6) The lawyer was interested _______ the case because it seemed like a challenge.
7) President Barack Obama graduated _______ Columbia University in 1983.
8) This type _______ product irritates my skin.
9) I am worried _______ the rising price of gas.
10) Her boss congratulated her _______ finishing the project on time.
EXERCISE: Word Order (E17–E18)
Put the words in their correct order.
1) Ocean I enjoy swimming in.
2) For her birthday she received three old, beautiful necklaces.
3) The car I was driving very fast.
4) Fell apart the sandwich she was eating.
5) How many wooden homemade bookshelves do you have?
6) The assistant for the celebrity was holding her phone.
7) After he rejected the first set of documents, we the second set gave him.
8) These red, delicious strawberries will be a perfect topping for the cake.
9) That young, energetic worker is exactly what we need in this office.
10) Big piece of lemon pie for dessert I ate.
PUNCTUATION, FORMAT, AND SPELLING (F1–F38)
EXERCISE: Run-on and Incomplete Sentences (F1–F7)
Correct each of the following run-on or incomplete sentences.
1) “She’s miniature, her hands are about the size of my thumb,” he said.
2) How much influence the book might have, how it compares to other philosophical books,
how it fits in with the current trends in philosophy, these are all very hard to determine.
3) It had taken the best part of an hour to put the plan forward, it took another five minutes
before I got my answer. (F.H. Winterbotham, Ultra Secret)
4) The informant did not lie to us, he gave us his idea of what the people believed they were
doing.
5) Another positive element is that outside firms will bring new or substantially revitalized
agricultural resources into use, they will create new employment to operate the
production facilities.
6) Suppose an industry which is threatened by foreign competition is one which lies at the
very heart of your national defense, where are you then? (Economist W. Hewins, quoted
in The Atlantic)
7) Hydrochloric acid is a very dangerous substance. So always handle it very carefully.
8) The rookie sidearmer didn’t merely have a fine year in the team’s bullpen, his campaign
ranks as one of the very best seasons in baseball history.

9) In Heriot, Scotland, a run on the bank isn’t a sign of financial instability, it’s just the way
things always have been and still are, every Thursday from 3:30 to 4:30. The only time
the bank is open. The good things in life stay that way. (Advertisement)
10) The freedom fighter spun around just in time, then he fired quickly.
11) Getting the right price for your residence is not just good luck, it’s getting the right agent
to help you. (Advertisement)
12) At first Bauer had no trouble with the climbing. At 7.8 km he was second best, only
Delgado was faster.
13) A major breakthrough came in 1912, two BASF scientists made the world’s first synthetic
ammonia, which remains the key ingredient in most fertilizer. (Financial Post)
14) Jones argues that the world is overpopulated. This doesn’t make sense because Jones says
that the world has too many people but in some areas they don’t have enough. (Sociology
essay)
15) Television executives don’t really care if a show is good or not, so long as it is popular,
the larger the audience the better, TV is a mass medium. (Communications essay)
16) When Coca Cola altered its formula it forgot that the biggest ingredient in the brand’s
success was its traditional place in North American culture. They weren’t just tampering
with a recipe, they were changing a social institution.
17) Terry Fox was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma (bone cancer) when he was 18 years
old he was inspired to raise money for cancer research after seeing the plight of young
cancer victims while he was in the hospital he named his campaign the Marathon of
Hope.
18) White bread carries little nutritional value hence it is better to eat loaves that are either
whole wheat or multi-grain.
19) Some students have a difficult time making the transition from elementary school to
junior high and they may often feel intimidated by the older students. Who feel the need
to throw their weight around.
20) John Wilkes Booth had originally planned to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln in an
attempt to use the President as leverage for an exchange of imprisoned Confederate
soldiers his kidnapping plans failed however and after hearing President Lincoln speaking
at the White House declaring that he would give voting rights to former slaves Booth
became angry and swore that would be the last speech he would ever give and ultimately
this statement became true after Booth shot Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre.
EXERCISE: Common Comma Pairings (F9)
Punctuate the following.
1) she stepped gingerly over the fallen body then she screamed
2) harper’s argument then was that an elected senate would be both more representative and
more effective than an appointed one
3) however old you are you can still enjoy the outdoors
4) he would like to go skiing his age and infirmity however prevent him from doing so
5) the complex plot structure that byatt employs in her novel weaves together strands from
many literary traditions

6) byatts novel which employs a complex plot structure weaves together strands from many
literary traditions
7) my professor Dr. Hawthorne likes to give oral exams instead of written tests and he
believes oral exams are better for showcasing what students have learned
8) the ingredients for the pizza dough are the following cornmeal flour olive oil yeast and
sugar
9) cell phones are causing problems in schools some students, are using them for sending
test answers and messages to their friends in class
10) he walked outside and watered his plants then he pruned his shrubs
EXERCISE: Colon or Semicolon (F13, F14)
Add either a colon or a semicolon to each of the following sentences.
1) Images of air and sky occur repeatedly in the first three stanzas of Heaney’s poem__ “the
eye concedes to / Encroaching horizon,” “Between the sights of the sun,” “An astounding
crate full of air.”
2) The company is in disarray__ it filed for bankruptcy last week.
3) This was how the Governor phrased it__ “If he wants to choose Shreveport over New
Orleans, well then I guess he knows something about Shreveport that I don’t.”
4) A key feature in Locke’s justification of property is the famed Lockean Proviso__ the
claim that property rights can arise without consent “at least where there is enough, and
as good, left in common for others.”
5) David Phillips, Environment Canada’s Senior Climatologist, claims that Medicine Hat,
Alberta, is the sunniest city in the country with 2,512.85 hours of sunshine a year__
Estevan, Saskatchewan, is a close second with 2,434.75 hours.
6) No country in the world has an extradition treaty with all other nations__ America, for
example, does not have treaties with the following __ the People’s Republic of China,
Namibia, and North Korea. Canada does not allow extradition to countries that have the
death penalty unless they are assured capital punishment will not be imposed.
7) More than 100,000 people attended the concluding ceremony in Beijing___ London will
host the next summer Olympics in 2012.
8) Albert Einstein did not believe in Judaism even though he was raised Jewish. Instead,
he admired the beauty of nature and the universe. In 1954, Einstein wrote __ “I do not
believe in a personal God…. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is
the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal
it.”
9) Thomas Mann’s personal diaries were revealed to the world in 1975__ as the diaries
confirmed, the German novelist had difficulty coming to terms with his bisexuality.
10) Our new union contract states that we will receive pay for the following holidays__ New
Year’s Day, Easter, Labor Day, and Christmas.

EXERCISE: The Semicolon (F13)
The semicolon is one of the most useful—and one of the most underused—punctuation marks
(see pages 467–470). The following exercise should help to show its usefulness both as a means
to more concise writing (enabling the writer to eliminate joining words or expressions) and as a
way of eliminating the impression of jerkiness that short sentences create.
Rewrite each of the following, using a semicolon in each case.
1) “Liberal” can mean many things. The Oxford English Dictionary lists thirty-seven
definitions.
2) Great theater companies often have humble beginnings. New York’s Public Theater began
as a Shakespeare workshop.
3) This policy is an unwise one for the government to follow, because it would make the
poor even poorer.
4) Showing that the law has not been violated during this affair establishes at best that the
Minister is not a criminal, but it fails to show that he deserves to retain a place in the
Cabinet.
5) The law does not require you to compensate others for their loss if you are not at fault. It
only requires you to pay compensation if you have caused the damage.
6) These theories permit people to be treated as objects because of the way in which they
allow people to be used as material means for the production of morally good states of
affairs.
7) Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’ Diary is loosely based after Jane Austen’s Pride and
Prejudice. This is because Fielding was inspired to write the best-selling novel after
watching the BBC miniseries of Austen’s beloved classic.
8) The Halifax Explosion, one of the largest human-caused explosions in history until the
1945 atomic bomb, occurred on December 6, 1917 and it killed 1,632 people and injured
thousands more.
9) I always have smoothies for breakfast they are nutritional and easy to make.
10) My parents are very traditional when it comes to Christmas preparations and they always
cut down their own tree.
EXERCISE: Punctuation (F1–F21)
Correct the punctuation mistake in each of the following.
1) Mbabane which is the capital of Swaziland, is a small town encircled by hills. (F9)
2) “Why did you come here,” he asked me. (F12)
3) We all rode in my brothers car to Detroit. (F20)
4) Both Mandela and de Klerk believed that apartheid couldn’t last much longer. (F19)
5) “Help Wanted.” Full and part time positions available. (F15)
6) My parents who just recently had their 25th wedding anniversary do not believe in eating
sweets between meals. (F17)

7) The manager’s son said that he earned the job as assistant manager in his father’s company
because he was the most: qualified candidate. (F14)
8) She yelled to her two daughters time to come in. (F22)
9) William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, begins with the sentence, “The boy with the fair
hair……began to pick his way towards the lagoon.” (F8)
EXERCISE: Punctuation (F1–F23)
Punctuate the following passages.
[Note that it may be possible to correct the problem in more than one way.]
1) what did you think of the American election he asked me early in 2001 i was surprised
and disappointed that the supreme court ruled as it did i replied i felt the same way he
agreed i think they should abolish the electoral college so the same thing can never
happen again
2) i just dont know what to do said don i cant seem to punctuate properly in english so i
keep on writing incomplete sentences and run on sentences mary suggested several things
that might help first of all she said you should read each word out loud and notice when
you pause also she added remember that the words so and and should not begin sentences
remember too that the word because cannot begin a main clause finally the word that
should not be used to join two clauses together into one sentence don thanked her for this
advice then he began to write
3) for some time she was amused without thinking beyond the immediate cause but as she
came to understand the family better other feelings arose she had taken up a wrong idea
fancying it was a mother and daughter a son and sons wife who all lived together but
when it appeared that the Mr Martin who bore a part in the narrative and was always
mentioned with approbation for his great good nature in doing something or other was a
single man that there was no young mrs Martin no wife in the case she did suspect danger
to her poor little friend from all this hospitality and kindness and that if she were not
taken care of she might be required to sink herself forever (Emma 45)
4) she has 27 WTA singles titles and more than $10 million US in prize money but it is
whats missing from Kim Clijsters resume that gets the most attention despite reaching
four Grand Slam finals the Belgian has yet to hoist a winners trophy and shes getting a bit
tired of hearing about it a lot of people just focus on the things that I dont have she said I
know I havent won a Grand Slam but Ive won a lot of other things Ive been working very
hard and Im not stopping yet Im at least going to play for a couple or three more years
(The National Post)

5) students at Empire High School started class this year with no textbooks but it wasnt
because of a funding crisis instead the school issued iBooks laptop computers by Apple
Computer Inc to each of its 340 students becoming one of the first US public schools to
shun printed textbooks school officials believe the electronic materials will get students
more engaged in learning Empire High which opened for the first time this year was
designed specifically to have a textbook free environment weve always been pretty
aggressive in use of technology and we have a history of taking risks said Calvin Baker
superintendent of the Vail Unified School District which has 7000 students outside of
Tucson (CNN.com)
EXERCISE: Direct and Indirect Speech (F22–F27)
Rephrase the following so as to make each sentence grammatically correct.
1) The President asked if “Will the country accept double-digit inflation?”
2) Lentriccia argues: “Regardless of Byron’s intention, the meaning of the text is opaque.”
3) In the mid-1950s social scientists were concerned that perpetually increasing leisure time
“will lead to vast social changes by the year 2000.”
4) The detective turned to the suspect. He yelled, “Where were you on the night of October
12th”?
5) The doctor told me that he will try to arrange an operation date as soon as possible.
6) Professor Benson looked at his class and said, “I hope you’ve all studied. Then he passed
out the exams.
EXERCISE: Spelling (F35–F38)
Each sentence contains spelling errors. Correct them.
1) At the beggining of the year the commitee made its dicision. (3 errors)
2) The goverment of Malawi was long dorminated by President Banda. (2 errors)
3) A scene with over fourty charachters in it is a very unusual occurence in a Pinter play. (3
errors)
4) We have learned about garmetes, gemination, and photosinthesis. (3 errors)
5) They tried to leave serreptitiously so that the school principle would not notice their
departure. (2 errors)
6) The yeild on a stock like this is likely to be non-existant; one buys it only for the capitol
gain. (3 errors)
7) Socialist groups around the world often critacize the United States president.
(1 error)
8) I like to bath late at night when my children are in bed. During the day they are always
running around the house, weather or not they’re friends are over. (3 errors)
9) British humor is quiet diffrent from the comedy of other countries. (2 errors)
10) With thirty-six contending groups from accross the continent, the chior comptition was
tough. (3 errors)

11) Basiccally, the sponsers were not happy with the product we produced. They felt the
slogen was aimed towards a demographic they were not targeting. (3 errors)
12) My parents told me that it was a privelage to eat zuccinni bread. It is my favorite desert
and I am only allowed to have a piece when I behave well for my babysitter. (3 errors)
13) Jean’s birthday is the forth of May. She said she would like me to get her a medeval novel
for a present. (2 errors)
14) We ordered an expresso after dinner. The drinks at the resterant were extrordinary. (3
errors)
15) The meeting’s itinery for Febuary 12th was printed on recycled paper. (2 errors)