won the pig sweepstakes. 26. His prizes for two years sent him to the State College of Agriculture. 27. The cold-pack canning method was developed in the Four-H club work. 28. Consequently the girl members of the champion canning teams are the best experts in the use of the cold-pack method. 29. Women crowded into the demonstration booths, and took notes for their own benefit. 30. Many good ideas were spread by this great exhibition. EXERCISE 4 UNDERSTANDING SENTENCES: CLASSIFYING VERBS To classify anything you have to see the point about it the characteristics that make it what it is. Now the point about a verb is that it predicates. Define a verb. But perhaps you may have seen for yourselves that there are two kinds of verbs according to the number of sentence elements that they contain. Some verbs contain the linking element only; they predicate but do not express the characteristic predicated. Others contain the linking element and the predicate element besides; they express the predicated characteristic of whatever you are talking about. An example of a verb that contains the linking element only is the word was in "The White Knight was stupid." An example of a verb that expresses the predicated characteristic I is the word spoke in the sentence "The White Knight 2 and 3 spoke discontentedly." The speaking, which is predicated, is expressed in the same word that does the predicating. A verb that expresses a predicated characteristic is called a predicate verb1 A verb that does not express any 1 Some people call every verb a predicate verb because it does the predicating. According to this notion the linking verb is a special kind of predicate verb. predicated characteristic is called a linking verb. To be a predicate verb it is not necessary that the verb tell all that is predicated; often other words are needed also. But if it expresses anything about what the subject element stands for, it is a predicate verb; as in "He ran fast," or "He put the dish in the bag." A linking verb does not express any predicated characteristic. A. When you are certain that you have found the predicate element in each sentence in Exercise 3, classify the verb as linking or predicate. B. What pronoun forms follow linking verbs? (See Problem XII, Exercise 4, p. 123.) Why? Name the six forms that you have learned, and use each in a natural sentence as predicate element after a linking verb. C. Which kind of verb can give definite pictures without the help of any other word? Why cannot a linking verb do so? Name at least ten predicate verbs that give definite pictures, verbs which you might use instead of went in the following sentence: "He went down the street"; for example, "He hobbled down the street." D.1 See how many of the verbs in the paragraphs quoted in Exercise 5 you can find and classify. These sentences are much too hard for you at this stage, but probably you can find the predicate elements in the main parts of some of them. EXERCISE 5 STICKING TO THE POINT Study the following paragraphs and decide what is the point of each. Make a title for each of them, except the short paragraph that merely introduces the girl's speech. 1 For the best members of the class. What details are told to help make each point clear and interesting? How are the paragraphs connected? After you have discussed these paragraphs in class, prepare carefully either to write or to speak on a topic similar to that of the Maine boy or the New Jersey girl; that is, either tell your classmates how to do better something that most of them do, or prove to them that something is worth while. You may keep the best of these discussions for your magazine. I chanced to witness an open-air demonstration - three youthful Maine potato-growers showing how to mix and apply Bordeaux mixture to keep the potato plants free from disease. The lecturer of the group was, perhaps, the most interesting part of this demonstration, for he was a red-haired, freckled-faced, blue-eyed chap in knee trousers, perhaps thirteen or fourteen years of age. It was easy to see that this boy was more used to the brown soil and familiar animals of the farm than he was to city crowds, for he was embarrassed and uncomfortable as he spoke, occasionally stumbling over his words and digging the toes of his shoes into the ground. But his audience of farmers was not concerned with his rhetoric. This boy had been sent on the long journey to Springfield because he had demonstrated that he knows how to grow potatoes — and all New England wants to know how to grow better potatoes. As the red-cheeked lecturer recited his memorized talk, his two teammates slaked the steaming lime; and presently the mixture was made and was being sprayed through a barrel pump. The eager attention of the listening farmers never lagged for an instant. This is the way the fourteen-year-old girl lecturer of the New Jersey team began her talk: "We are from the Garden State, and there we produce everything that goes into canning - the fruits and vegetables, the can, and the girls to do the canning. Look at these carrots," holding up a prize jar packed by a New Jersey girl. "Isn't that worth while? Wouldn't it be good to have shelves filled with such jars and be able to say, 'Look at the product of my effort'? People are getting different ideas about canning nowadays. Families that used to put up one hundred jars now put up seven or eight hundred. In my own home, Mamma never thought of putting up more than one hundred jars. This fall we have eight hundred quarts. We will eat this food this winter and save the staple products, and they can go to the boys across the water." And then these three girls, their equipment a two-burner gas stove, a small kettle, three glass jars, and a basket of tomatoes, peaches, and carrots, proceeded to put up three pints of these food products within an hour, turning out three jars so beautifully packed that they would have been sure to capture first prizes in any ordinary exhibition of cookery, carefully explaining each step so that the dullest listener could understand perfectly. The simple words of the girls, speaking the familiar mother-daughter speech of any well-ordered home, were more impressive to those who were there to learn the mysteries of cold-pack canning than any remarks of a paid adult lecturer could have been. ROBERT FORREST WILSON, St. Nicholas. (Slightly adapted) PROBLEM XVI REVIEWING EXERCISE 1 SUMMING UP WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED THIS TERM Below are six topics about which you have learned a good many things this term. Divide the class into groups of six to report on these topics. Let each member of the group draw one topic and prepare to present in class a good oral paragraph on it, summing up clearly all that you have learned. Plan carefully to include all necessary details and to arrange these in the best order. Perhaps it would be well to have on a slip of paper the main points to be made under each topic; as, under "The Sentence": kinds, subject and predicate, essential elements, etc. Illustrate every point that can be illustrated without too much time; under the fifth topic the illustrations of some points might be too lengthy. Since the fourth topic applies to written work only, written illustrations on the board should be used. Shall you put these examples on the board as you talk or have them there beforehand? Be clear. Decide which group of the class presents on the whole the most accurate, clear, and complete summary of the term's work. 1. The Sentence. Punctuation, Capitalization, and Spelling. 2. Some Kinds of Words in the Sentence. 3. The Forms of Nouns and Pronouns. 4. 5. Composition-making. |