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of water." Give a definition of isthmus, of subtrahend, of quotient. What does a definition do?

To define is to set limits or boundaries around one idea in order to separate it distinctly in our minds from all other ideas. (The Latin word finis means "limit" or "end," as you may know.) Many common things we know by experience without defining; a chair, a table, a mouse, for instance. If we attempt to define one of them, however, we find it difficult to do so. Generally we do not need to make exact definitions for common things; but if we have occasion to think, for example, "Just what do we mean by a chair, anyway? How does a chair differ from other pieces of furniture? we find that we must make our vague notions much more sharp and clear to form a good definition.

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Without looking in a dictionary see if you can define a chair so as to include all chairs and exclude everything else. Define a city; a school. After discussing your definitions in class, compare with those in the dictionary the definitions that you finally make.

You will find that a definition does two things: First, it puts the thing defined into a group or class with other similar things; for example, " An island is a body of land." Secondly, it points out the difference between this particular thing and the others in its class; for example, “entirely surrounded by water." In the definition of a cape, what is the part that classifies the cape? What part differentiates (tells the difference between it and others) the cape from other points of land? What are the two parts in your definition of a chair? If you think of every definition you make or learn as doing these two things, you will find such definitions much clearer and more full of meaning to you. A definition that you really understand is very helpful

in thinking; one that you merely memorize by rote is practically worthless. Understand, memorize, and use!

A good definition must (1) tell the truth, (2) tell it clearly, (3) tell it as briefly as possible.

You have known sentences all your life from experience, just as you know chairs and tables without defining them. Perhaps you have already learned several different definitions of a sentence. If so, discuss some of them in the light of what you have just learned about defining. Below is a good definition of a sentence. Why is it good? What are its two parts? Learn it. (Can you spell sentence?)

A sentence is the expression of a complete thought in words.

EXERCISE 3

TESTING SENTENCES BY MEANS OF THE DEFINITION

A. Make sentences out of the parts of sentences in Exercise I. By means of the definition prove that they

are sentences.

B. Write out and bring to class twenty groups of words, some of them sentences and others only pieces of sentences. Let the class, by applying the definition, tell which groups are sentences. You can make several kinds of games of this exercise. Each of you may choose one of your classmates to test; or you may divide into two groups and have a match in recognizing sentences; or one may dictate his list with the idea that only the sentences are to be written, and anybody who starts to write a group that is not a sentence loses ten from his score of a hundred1; or one may read aloud his list, letting the class say instantly and

1 One pupil may keep tally for each row.

distinctly "Yes" to every sentence and "No" to every group of words that is not a sentence.

At the end of the recitation hand in your original paper to the teacher. Be sure that every sentence has the beginning and the end properly marked and that every group of words not a sentence has neither capital nor period.

EXERCISE 4

FINDING TWO OR MORE SENTENCES WRITTEN TOGETHER

Show that each of the following groups of words contains two or more sentences. In which are the sentences not joined by some connecting word? In which are they joined? In which, then, have the two sentences been made into one? In which are they really separate? What are words called that can join two or more sentences into one?

1. Once upon a time there was a little chimney sweep, his name was Tom.

2. That is a short name, and it ought to be easy to remember. 3. Long John had only one leg, the other was cut off close by the hip.

4. Tommy reached out to seize the cake, but his little hand trembled so that he could hardly clasp the sweet morsel.

5. She was not in a hurry, she just played along.

6. Silver, when they arrived at a port in Spanish America, had got some of the money and gone, he was never seen after this. 7. The train started, we were not more than two rods from the station, but we missed it.

8. Nobody ever caught a fairy that is no proof that fairies do not exist, however.

9. On the top of the cliff stands a very large lighthouse, it is made of bricks, which are painted white.

10. The Polyphemus is an interesting kind of caterpillar to study, it has the largest head of all the caterpillars, the head is the size of one's little-finger nail.

11. The firemen worked hard, and in a few minutes the hose was pouring a stream of water on the blazing barn.

12. The men and boys that came to the station to get the papers and bundles had to hurry home because it was so cold, just a few minutes later I heard the whistle.

13. The bell in the station began to ring, and I saw the train just taking the curve, when it reached the station, all the people were glad to go in and get warm.

EXERCISE 5

CORRECTING THE ERROR OF RUNNING TWO OR MORE SEPARATE SENTENCES INTO ONE

As you know, it is very bad form not to put the proper mark of punctuation at the end of each separate sentence. Show how each error in Exercise 4 should be corrected. In some cases you will find the resulting sentences too short and disjointed to sound well. Can you combine them into one really good sentence? For the present, however, in your own work prefer short sentences, since they are more likely to be clear.

EXERCISE 6

FINDING AND CORRECTING RUN-ON SENTENCES

Sentences run together without connectives, when they should be separated, are called run-on sentences. (Sentences held together by connectives are called compound. See p. 269.) What run-on sentences do you find in this paragraph? Tell what simple corrections should be made.

THE FISHERMAN AND THE GENIE

An old fisherman and his wife had three children, they were almost starving. Every morning the old man went out to fish. He never cast his net more than four times a day one day at the fourth cast he pulled in his net which was very heavy. Instead of the fish he had expected to find, the fisherman drew out a copper jar, the mouth of the jar was covered with a lid and sealed with lead. He shook the jar but he could hear nothing. Then he thought he would open it. Cutting the lid with his knife, he was disappointed to see nothing inside, he then turned the jar upside down and tapped it on the bottom. But nothing came out. He set the jar upright again and sat and looked at it. Suddenly he saw a light smoke coming slowly forth, the smoke spread like a great fog. Then it gathered itself together into a solid mass, there before the fisherman stood a great genie.

If anyone knows what happened next, he may wish to tell the rest of the class, but be careful to avoid stringing sentences together with and's. What book is this story taken from?

Show that the story of the fisherman and the genie is well planned. In the following exercise plan yours as well.

EXERCISE 7

TESTING YOURSELVES IN AVOIDING RUN-ON SENTENCES

Write some little incident, one that you have read if you wish. You may like to take one incident from a story in the Arabian Nights. How can you make the story interesting to those who will read it? How can you make it clear? What shall you keep in mind when you proofread your composition before taking it to class?

What is proofreading? Why is it done? In what business is it important? Sometime, perhaps, your teacher will

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