CHAPTER 2 EXERCISES
1. Label each word in the following sentences according to its part of speech.
a. President Dwight D. Eisenhower promoted the idea of the interstate highway system.
b. Congress passed a law authorizing the road system.
c. That was in 1956.
d. During World War II, Eisenhower observed the eff ciency of the German autobahns built in
1935.
e. Stop! That is an exit ramp.
2. Identify the subject, verb, direct object or complement in each clause in the following sentences. Draw one
line under the subject, two lines under the verb, and three lines under the direct object or complement.
Mark whether the verb is completed by a direct object, predicate nominative or predicate adjective.
a. The FBI conducted raids across the country yesterday to break up movie piracy rings.
b. Agents arrested 13 people in raids across the country.
c. Using computer f le-sharing networks, the suspects distribute counterfeit films to countries
around the world, an official for the Motion Picture Association of America said.
d. If they are convicted of copyright infringement, suspects could face five years in prison.
e. A young woman wanted to tell the invading soldiers that they were unwelcome in her city.
f. Thinking they wouldn’t shoot a woman, she walked fearlessly toward their lines.
g. They fired. She fell. A bullet wound turned her white shirt scarlet.
h. Although some people buy three or four pairs of sunglasses at a clip, the average number of sunglasses purchased per person is 1.3 pairs, according to Ray-Ban research.
i. Thomas Edison had 400 species of plants in the garden of his winter home on the Caloosa-hatchee River in Fort Myers, Fla.
j. With intentions of revising his travel book annually, Arthur Frommer tells of travels that are politically oriented, vacations on campuses and digs with archaeologists.
3. Label each sentence in Exercise 2 according to sentence type: simple, compound, complex, compound-complex.
4. Circle the correct verb in these sentences. To show that you understand the rules of subject-verb agreement and are not relying only on what sounds right, write the number of the rule (as numbered in Chapter 2 of the textbook) that applies to each choice.
a. Five passengers on the plane and a farmer working in the field [was, were] killed.
b. Like other produce wholesalers on the three-block-long market, she [know, knows] the
ultimate follower of seasons [is, are] the farmer.
c. Each of the children [is, are] enrolled in music lessons.
d. Neither John nor his brothers [know, knows] what to expect when election day [come, comes].
e. The final hours of the legislative session [was, were] chaotic.
f. Two-thirds of the protesters [was, were] arrested before noon.
g. Club members [was, were] scheduled to vote for new officers.
h. The committee, composed of three members of the board of directors, [is, are] going to plan the annual convention.
i. A number of animals [was, were] trapped in the burning barn.
j. The majority [is, are] in favor of the legislation limiting immigration, which [is, are] to be voted on today.
k. Politics [was, were] interesting when I studied it in college, but the courses [has, had] little effect on my personal politics, which [was, were] firmly fixed.
l. Good manners [is, are] best learned when young.
m. The mayor’s delegation, as well as several Chamber of Commerce members, [was, were] scheduled to meet with the executives visiting from Japan.
n. Everyone [hope, hopes] that the contract will be awarded to this company.
o. The National Council of Churches [is, are] planning a convention in Washington, D.C., this year.
p. The company’s earnings [was, were] greater this year than last year because new products [was, were] popular.
q. The total sold [was, were] 450, but a total of 10 [was, were] returned because of faulty construction.
5. Mark each pronoun in the following sentences, and tell whether it is in the nominative, objective or possessive case.
a. The message of “Charlotte’s Web” has softened the heart of a farmer who has decided a piggy
who posed as Wilbur won’t be going to market after all.
b. The celebrity asked him not to take photographs of her children.
c. The searchers said they would resume the hunt after it became dry enough to use vehicles.
d. After thanking his doctors, whom he credits for his remarkable recovery, the injured auto
racer said it would be a long time before he races again, if at all.
e. Who do you think will become the next superstar?
6. Indicate correct noun and pronoun agreement and pronoun case by marking through the incorrect pronoun
choices in these sentences.
a. Jeff Mayer bills [hisself, himself, themselves] as the most expensive maid in the nation.
Business executives pay [his, him] $1,000 so [he, him] will tell [they, them, it] how to clean
off [they, them, their, there, its] cluttered desks.
b. Some financially strapped cities can’t make across-the-board purchases of semiautomatic pistols, [that, which] cost from $350 to $550. But police departments frequently permit officers
to buy [they, them, there, their] own sidearms.
c. Each male officer was required to buy [his, him, its, their, them] own uniforms.
d. Uniforms were expensive, but [they, them, it] lasted for several years if [they, them, their,
its] owners kept [their, its] weight constant so the uniforms fit properly.
e. Listen carefully to those [who, whom, whose] you have reason to believe know how to
express [theirselves, themselves] well.
f. I will exchange letters with [whoever, whomever] writes.
g. [Who, Whom] shall you choose as captain?
h. The company needs to know [who, whom] it is insuring.
i. I thought [she, her] to be my friend.
j. [Who, Whom] do you suppose [he, him] to be?
k. Between you and [I, me], I think [she, her] previous boyfriend was friendlier.
l. None but [I, me] was able to complete the work.
m. Some of [we, us] editors think students need to know much more about grammar.
n. The editors decided to hire the student [who, whom] scored highest on the English usage test.
o. The newly married couple went to a resort in the Smoky Mountains on [their, its] honeymoon. [They, It] will return home next week.
p. The women’s basketball team is in [their, its, it’s] first season of competition.
7. Circle the correct pronoun choices in the following sentences. Add commas where needed to set of nones-
sential clauses.
a. Three victims were members of a Delaware Army National Guard unit [that, which, who] had
just completed [their, its] first week of training.
b. Officer Glenda Jones [who, whom] has been coordinating police patrols in housing developments plagued by drugs, gangs and gambling, said most of the problems stem from
nonresidents.
c. Widely publicized safety breakdowns at the government’s nuclear weapons plants are rooted
in a perverse devotion to secrecy and poor management, congressional investigators said in
a report issued Sunday. The safety problems [that, which] came to light during the past two
years were aggravated by a lack of outside scrutiny and effective oversight from the Energy
Department [that, which] pays private companies to run the facilities, the report said.
d. He criticized the students [who, whom, that, which] led the demonstrations [that, which]
were crushed by army assaults.
e. Eight-year-old Chad Brenner said he would have liked to use the $39,541.55 tax refund
check [that, which] was mistakenly mailed to him to buy a new bicycle.
8. Complete this list of nouns and pronouns to show the plurals and possessives:
Singular / Singular possessive / Plural / Plural possessivea. Smith
b. girl
c. man
d. attorney general
e. church
f. Jones
g. army
h. monkey
i. mouse
j. piano
k. oasis
9. Use the correct verb and verb tense in each of the following sentences. Lie or lay
a. The gun in the street. (past tense)
b. The gun had in the street for several hours before police recovered it.
c. The police officer the gun on the table.
d. The officer thought that he had the gun on the table, but his supervisor
could not find it.
e. The woman on the beach to get a suntan. (past tense)
f. She had there for several hours before she noticed that she was getting
sunburned.
g. the soft drinks on top of the ice in the cooler.
h. Ten bottles were in the ice cooler.
i. her books aside, she spoke to him.
j. He his baby daughter on the table to change her wet diaper.
Sit or set
k. They had in the car for two hours.
l. She the silverware on the table.
m. The fat man on the chair and broke it.
n. She had the alarm clock for 6 a.m.
o. The sun was as we began our run.
Rise or raise
p. Please the flag.
q. He from the water and surprised me.
r. The dough has sufficiently.
s. The student her hand.
t. He had his hand several times, but the teacher did not call on him to respond.
u. The stage was designed to allow the orchestra to from the orchestra pit.
Your teacher may instruct you to use the electronic version of workbook exercises, available at the Web site for this textbook. Otherwise, use correct copy editing symbols to correct the remaining exercises in this chapter and throughout the workbook. The symbols are on the inside cover of this workbook section.
Before personal computers became widespread, copy for mass media was typed double- or triple-spaced. Copy editors used standard symbols to indicate changes in the copy, and typesetters then retyped each story into “printers’ type.” Other instructions:
• Use pencil instead of ink to make changes so erasures can be made if needed.
• Write changes parallel to and above the line that is being changed.
• Punctuation marks are written above or below the line, according to normal placement of the punctuation mark (above for apostrophes and quotation marks; below for commas and periods, for example).
• Draw attention to the punctuation mark by using carets (^) or an inverted caret ( ). Circle periods.
• Draw a heavy line through words to be eliminated, but do not make the original unreadable in case the material needs to be restored to the story or is needed for checking purposes.
10. Edit the following sentences to correct misplaced or dangling modifiers and double negatives.
a. Running the fastest time in Kentucky Derby history, more than $1 million was awarded to the owner of
the winning horse.
b. Originally snapped up by Warner Independent Pictures after it played at last year’s Sundance
Film Festival, the distributors canceled its fall release date and eventually discarded it.
c. A Manchester woman, on the pretense of searching for someone, allowed a man to enter her
home and was assaulted.
d. After training the tiger cub to walk on a leash, it could be used in the zoo director’s presentations to schoolchildren.
e. Still searching for an incinerator site, a previously rejected location is getting a second look
by the city council.
f. The baby kitten doesn’t have scarcely any hair.
g. The zoo doesn’t have but one gorilla, but the director says another one will be added next
year.
h. The jail is the first in the state to be operated by a private management firm that accommodates 100 inmates.
i. Police described the suspect as a burly, white, middle-aged male with brown hair and a beard, more than 6 feet tall.
j. Accused of making errors on telephone bills for the past four months, students living in residence halls will receive a refund from the phone company for long-distance calls.
k. The miners discovered that the place they excavated did not have none of the minerals they wanted.
11. Change the following sentences from passive voice to active voice. Be alert also for errors in the sentences.
a. The building was found to be energy inefficient by inspectors.______
______
b. Hemlock trees in the Great Smoky Mountains are being infested by woolly adelgid.______
c. The hemlock woolly adelgid infestation was discovered by park rangers last year. ______
d. A link between between students’ academic achievement and their socioeconomic status is
often cited by education researchers. ______
e. Labels on food at the grocery store are checked carefully by a majority of shoppers. ______
f. He was called the most unique quarterback to come into the NFL in a longtime by Sports
Illustrated that featured him on its cover last week. ______
12. Punctuate the following sentences. Do not rewrite or revise sentences. Use correct copy editing symbols if you are editing with pencil instead of on a computer.
a. In one area where officials ordered 200000 people to evacuate in and around Wilkes Barre
Pa a system of levees appears to have succeeded in holding back the surging Susquehanna
River.
b. In Conklin N Y on the banks of the Susquehanna near Binghamton John Jones 41 surveyed
his house and his auto sales lot behind it where all that could be seen in brown oil streaked
water were the tops of the vehicles that the flood had not carried away.
c. Honda also sells hybrid versions of its Civic and Accord and its developing a new lower cost
hybrid vehicle that will go on sale soon.
d. Nonetheless Ford was the first American auto company to sell a hybrid vehicle the small
Escape sport utility vehicle.
e. The law offered legal status to aliens who had lived in the United States continuously since
before Jan. 1 1982 and imposed penalties on employers who knowingly hired illegals.
f. Meanwhile the Immigration and Naturalization Service has proclaimed the law a clear success
but the current administration has yet to put it’s own stamp on immigration policy.
g. He said that he had but one thing on his mind sleeping.
h. Gardeners who wear broad brimmed hats, coveralls, and heavy duty gloves while using an electric hedge clipper to trim bushes are displaying common sense but not enough of it says the American Optometric Association.