1 third base coach
2 very-shallow water
3 sixth-grade math
406.
1 nine-year-old kid
2 constantly-changing world
3 nearly-enough candy
407.
1 tension-relieving exercise
2 a job well done
3 newly formed committee
408.
1 three-blind mice
2 very-happy puppy
3 less-valid argument
409.
1 elementary school desk
2 Yankees baseball team
3 book review section
410.
1 more interesting story
2 red haired doll
3 extremely difficult problem
411.
1 annual-dental exam
2 language-proficiency test
3 mostly-boring material
Chapter 9
Going Long: Descriptive Phrases and Clauses
Short descriptions — the adjectives and adverbs covered in Chapter 8 — add a lot of meaning to your sentences. Why stop there? Longer descriptive elements, also known as phrases and clauses, can really drive home your message. The good news is that long descriptions are fairly easy to construct. The not-so-good news is that slotting these descriptions into the proper spot can be tricky. The questions in this chapter hone your skill in correctly situating phrases and clauses, as well as a few slippery single-word descriptions.
The Questions You’ll Work On
In this chapter, you work on these concepts:
Recognizing the word or words described by phrases and clauses
Placing phrases and clauses so that they are clear and describe the appropriate word
What to Watch Out For
Keep these points in mind when you’re answering the questions in this chapter:
Prepositional phrases may function as an adjective, describing nouns or pronouns, or as an adverb, describing verbs.
Infinitives and participles may also act as descriptions. Infinitives (to + verb, such as to meet, to greet, to sleep) may describe nouns, pronouns, or verbs. Participles (the part of a verb you use with has, have, or had, such as given, driving, and the like) may describe nouns or pronouns.
Clauses (units of a sentence that contain a subject-verb pair) may describe nouns, pronouns, or verbs.
To find any sort of adjective, ask these questions: How many? Which one? What kind? To locate an adverb, ask the following: How? When? Where? Why? Under what conditions?
Every description, no matter how long or short, must be placed as near as possible to the word it describes. Only, just, almost, and nearly must be placed right before the word or words they apply to, not elsewhere in the sentence.
Steer clear of vague descriptions that may describe one or more words in the sentence. Your meaning must be clear.
When a verbal phrase begins a sentence, it must describe the subject of the sentence.
Identifying the Words Being Described
412–431 Identify the word(s) described by the underlined expression.
412. A zookeeper with a long broom stood outside the lions’ large, grassy enclosure.
413. Clara sneezed into her handkerchief and then paused before resuming her speech.
414.Above the clouds, the child’s green kite soared swiftly.
415. Mary Gould, the author of that mystery series, says that she will kill her detective in the next installment.
416. The red wool carpet lay over the scratched floor and made the room look much more attractive to the buyer.
417. Monica, sliding her finger around the bowl, did not realize that all the icing was gone.
418. These puppets, which belonged to my grandmother, played important roles in our show.
419.Before Dennis applied for a scholarship, he researched many possible awards and found several that seemed within his reach.
420. Sheltering beneath their mother’s arms, the twins smiled shyly at the doctor, who offered each of them a cherry lollipop.
421. Shirley visited France and took only one photo of the Eiffel Tower.
422. The boy who cried wolf is the subject of a famous fairy tale and an accurate depiction of human nature.
423. Nancy’s detective stories were always fun to read, although sometimes she seemed to benefit from too many coincidental clues.
424. No matter how many times he mopped the floor, Doug couldn’t keep up with the water flowing through the cracks in the foundation.
425. The team manager discussed the price of new uniforms at his meeting last night.
426. When Tom finally threw down his spoon, he had been stirring the sauce for nearly an hour.
427.While carrying wood, the lumberjack dropped a few logs on the lawn, and the birds quickly scattered in fear.
428. Conscientious assistants take notes of everything their supervisors say, regardless of how unimportant the comments seem.
429. David and his puppy, rolling together in a mock fight, knocked over a lamp and two tables before they were finished.
430. Last month I traveled to Seattle, a beautiful city, to see my family.
431.
