B. Make sentences of the simple type discussed above, predicating the following characteristics of anything to which you think they may belong. Point out the three elements of each sentence that you make.

STUDYING SENTENCES: THE PREDICATE ELEMENT

The most important question to ask about every sentence is "What is predicated of what?" Since the predicate element stands for what is predicated, it is easily found if you have answered this question correctly. But because it may take a number of different forms, it needs some further study. The understanding of it is the key to all the rest of the sentence and to all other grammatical matters that have to do with the predicate.

It is evident that every sentence must have a predicate element of some kind, to stand for the characteristic predicated. Most grammars do not give the general name predicate element to the different forms in which our words express this characteristic; they simply name the different words, as you will do later. But the general name is true, and it is helpful in thinking, because it fits every kind of sentence. Let us see some of the different forms in which the predicated characteristic may be expressed in words.

I

1. The parade is coming.

2. The parade is long and interesting.
3. The parade is on Sixth Street now.
4. The parade passes slowly.

In the first sentence the coming is predicated; the word coming" represents this and is therefore the predicate element. In the second sentence the length and the interest of the parade are predicated; the words "long" and "interesting" represent these characteristics and are therefore the predicate elements. (Here, you see, the predicate element is compound.) In the third sentence the place of the parade is predicated; the group of words "on Sixth Street" represents this and is therefore the predicate element. In the fourth sentence the passing is predicated ; the word passes " represents this and is therefore the predicate element. In the first three sentences here the predicate element is expressed in words separate from the linking or asserting element, but in the word "passes the predicate element is combined with the linking or asserting element. Note that the word "passes " has two duties, as a boy has who is both captain and quarterback on the team.

Show from the above sentences that the predicate element may be (1) a single word, (2) compound, (3) a group of words taken together, or (4) combined with the asserting element in a single word.

Make two sentences illustrating each of the four types of predicate element described above and tell what characteristic is predicated in each sentence.

EXERCISE 4

ANALYZING SENTENCES: FINDING SUBJECT AND
PREDICATE ELEMENTS

Imagine that in some connection you say each of the sentences below. Point out (1) what you are talking about, (2) what characteristic of it you predicate, (3) what word or words in the sentence are the subject element and why,

(4) what word or words in the sentence are the predicate element and why. Later you will study the linking element in greater detail, but if you find it easily now you may point it out last. For further practice find the subject and predicate elements in the sentences that you made for Exercises 6 and 7, Problem X.

1. The dandelions were thick on our lawn.

2. We have been grubbing them up for the past week.

3. You and John are altogether too late.

4. The dinner was bountiful and well cooked.

5. A savings stamp is a good investment.

6. I worked hard at that problem.

7. The smallest children were lifted over the wall.

8. The rest of us scrambled over.

9. Swimming on your back is easy enough.

10. The pigs squealed delightedly.

11. The softest chair in the room is always reserved for our cat.

12. He was kept in after school to study.

13. The kitten crept stealthily up to the leaf.

14. She must have swept up my pattern with the scraps. 15. The children heaped coals over their potatoes.

16. They were heaping coals of fire on my head.

17. My best dress was in a heap on the floor of my closet. 18. Nobody saw them come in.

19. The milk was clean and wholesome.

20. The oldest boy in the room was crying like a baby.

PROBLEM XII

BEGINNING WELL

John began: "It was the middle of the night. I woke up listening with both ears and both eyes and every muscle of my body. After about a minute of black silence that I seemed to be pushing against . . ." Everybody in the class was listening too, with eager quietness. Susan began: 'One day last summer it was very warm. The thermometer stood at ninety-five degrees in the shade. It was one of the hottest days I ever remember to have lived through. That night was just about as bad. The next morning . . ." Ben covered up a big yawn; Jane was arranging her hairribbons; most of the class were stirring restlessly or looking politely bored. What made the difference?

There are two contradictory proverbs, each of which you probably quote as true on different occasions: "A bad beginning makes a good ending" and "Well begun is half done." Mr. Snell, the landlord in "Silas Marner," might say, as he always said to quarreling customers: Come, come, you're both right and you're both wrong. The truth lies atween you!" In compositions, however, a bad beginning is hard to live down.

What makes a beginning good? First, a good beginning begins; it does not merely prepare to begin. It does not fumble about with day before yesterday or the middle of last week, but takes hold of the story, or the explanation, or

whatever it may be, at an interesting part. Second, a good beginning catches attention because it is individual, different, sincere, and not a mere echo of what everybody says. Third, a good beginning promises something and so makes us want to go on reading or listening to get what is promised. Especially in a short story do not waste your opening sentence on when, where, and who. Notice the kind of beginnings you like best in the stories you read, and learn from them.

EXERCISE 1

JUDGING BEGINNINGS

Apply the three tests to each of the following beginnings. Tell which you think are good, fair, poor, giving your reasons. Why, for instance, is the sixth a poor beginning and the seventh a good one for a brief story?

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1. Go fishing?" Of course I was perfectly wild to go. I ran to tell mother and grandma that grandpa said he would take us fishing. 2. The room is twenty feet long and sixteen feet wide. A door leading out of the dining-room into the room is in the middle of the north wall.

3. It is miserable to have a sore throat at any time, but it is the worst ever to have it on the first warm spring day.

4. One evening about a month and a half ago the girls where I stay and I were having supper. We were talking and laughing and having a good time.

5. The hardest thing for me to do when mother is away is to prepare dinner.

6. One Sunday we started to the woods to get some nuts.

7. Just a few rods ahead of us in the woods we saw half a dozen trees loaded with nuts.

8. We were going down a steep hill when the car skidded, and a loud report echoed directly under us.