The Century Handbook of Writing Part 24

5. These liberal terms should be taken advantage of by us.

6. The study of biology has proved very interesting, as far as I have gone.

7. Who is this that comes to the foot of the guillotine, crouching, trembling?

8. They must pay the penalty. Their death is necessary. They have caused harm enough.

9. I intend to get up fifteen minutes earlier, thereby giving myself time to eat a good breakfast.

10. The book was reread several times, for I never grew tired of it.

11. "What is the aim of a university education?" the speaker asked.

12. A bicycle is sometimes ridden when a tire contains no air, total ruin resulting from the weight of the rim upon the flat tire.

13. He sprang forward the instant the pistol cracked, since the start of a sprint is very important, and one cannot overdo the practicing of it.

14. Sometimes the fuses fail to burn, or burn too fast, causing an explosion before the workmen are prepared for it.

15. How father made soap was always a mystery to me. Cracklings saved from butchering time, lye, and water went into the kettle on a warm spring day and came out in the form of soap a few hours later, to my great astonishment.

=B. Loose or Unemphatic Structure=

Make the following sentences more emphatic by throwing them into periodic form.

1. It was Tom, as I had expected.

2. I will not tell, no matter how you beg.

3. The supremacy of the old river steamboat is gone forever, unless conditions should be utterly changed.

4. Across the desert he traveled alone, and over strange seas, and through quaint foreign villages.

5. The hot water dissolves the glue in the muresco, making the mixture more easily applied.

6. Visions of rich meadows and harvest-laden fields now pa.s.s before my eyes, as I sit by the fire.

7. Some of the women were weeping bitterly, thinking they would never see their homes again.

8. I splashed along on foot for three miles after night in a driving rain.

9. Very high rent is demanded, thus keeping the peasants constantly in debt.

10. Roderigo was in despair because he had been rejected by Desdemona, and was ready to end his life, by the time Iago entered.

11. Through storm and cold the open boat was brought to the sh.o.r.e at last, after toil and suffering, with great difficulty.

12. The car came to a violent stop against a rock pile, after it demolished two fences, upset a hen-house, and scared a pig out of his wits.

13. The Panama Ca.n.a.l is the fulfilment of the dreams of old Spanish adventurers, the desires of later merchant princes, and the demand of modern nations for free traffic on the seas.

14. The fiddle yelled, and the feet of the dancers beat the floor, and the spectators applauded, and the room fairly rang.

15. The man with the best character, not the man with most money, will come out on top in the end.

=C. Faulty Repet.i.tion=

Repet.i.tion in the following sentences is objectionable, because it attracts attention to words or constructions that do not need to be emphasized. Improve the sentences, avoiding unnecessary repet.i.tion.

1. He is a great friend of boys, and views things from the boys' point of view.

2. In the case of the strike at Lawrence, Ma.s.sachusetts, the real cause was low wages caused by immigration and child labor.

3. First, a subject must be chosen, and in choosing a subject, choose one that you know something about.

4. There are great opportunities in the field of science, and a scientist who makes a mark in the world of science makes a mark for himself everywhere.

5. While the practical man is learning skill in the practical world, the college man is attaining a development of mentality that will surpa.s.s that of the practical man when the college man learns the skill of the practical man.

6. The field is dragged and rolled. Dragging and rolling leaves the ground smooth and ready for planting.

7. A great number and variety of articles appears in every issue. There is a complete review of each subject. It is treated in a short, but thorough manner.

8. They gave me a hearty welcome. They stood back and looked at me. They wanted to see if three months in the city had made any changes in me. But they said it had not.

9. Engineering is looked upon by many students as an easy and uninteresting study, but to my knowledge it is not uninteresting and easy. Engineering is probably one of the hardest courses in college. To me it is also the most interesting.

10. A duck hunter should have a place to hunt where ducks are frequently found in duck season. Ducks often light in the backwater along a river, and in ponds. They are often found in small lakes. Corn fields are common feeding places for ducks.

Ducks make regular trips to cornfields within reach of a body of water such as a river or lake. It is their nature to spend the night in the water, and in the morning and in the evening they go out to the fields to feed.

GRAMMAR

=Case=

=50a. The subject of a verb is in the nominative case, even when the verb is remote, or understood (not expressed).=

Wrong: They are as old as us.

Right: They are as old as we [are].

Wrong: He is taller than her.

Right: He is taller than she [is].

Note.--_Than_ and _as_ are conjunctions, not prepositions. When they are followed by a p.r.o.noun merely, this p.r.o.noun is not their object, but part of a clause the rest of which may be understood. The case of this p.r.o.noun is determined by its relation to the rest of the unexpressed clause. Sometimes the understood clause calls for the objective: "I like his brother better than [I like] him." _Than whom_, though ungrammatical, is sanctioned by usage.