Sentence, Clause, Phrase Manipulation is a subcategory of Language in Context in which respondents are working with and manipulating full phrases, clauses, and sentences within a text. Students will be required to change either all or part of the phrase, clause or sentence. This type of activity may involve the addition or deletion of information according to directions, correction of the phrase, clause or sentence, alteration of the form of the phrase, clause or sentence (e.g., restating passive sentences as active sentences), or the combination/separation of the phrases, clauses or sentences.
ACTIVITIES
1. Work with a partner. Divide the following passage into correct sentences. Use the correct punctuation. Check your answers with the class.
THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND ROMANS WERE WORLD-CIASS POLLUTERS
the lead and silver smelters in ancient Greece and Rome produced enough lead
to pollute the whole planet this pollution was as bad as modern-day unleaded gasoline it
contaminated the entire northern part of the world scientists discovered these facts by studying the
lead in Greenland's ice they found that there was a great deal of lead preserved deep in the ice
when they analyzed it, they found that the levels of lead increased hundreds of times above natural
levels about 2,500 years ago the levels stayed that high for the next 800 years this was the time of
Greco-Roman civilization silver smelting started about 5000 years ago it grew quickly with the
introduction of coins and the rise of the Greek civilization.
McKay, I. (1996). Grammar Strand 1.
2. Rewrite this passage. Use and or but as necessary to join the short sentences. Exchange your paper with a partner. Check to make sure your partner has used and or but correctly. (It's possible to have different answers. Ask your teacher if you aren't sure.)
SAVE THE APES
Gorillas and chimpanzees are man's closest relatives. They are dying out in Africa.
There are hunters who kill them. They sell them for their meat. An international group for the
protection of animals wants to draw public attention to these cruel practices.
The World Society For the Protection of Animals is fighting to save the apes. It
has powerful opponents: hunger and poverty. In the Congo Republic alone, hunters kill 300
chimpanzees each year. They slaughter 600 gorillas each year. If this hunting continues, the great
apes of Africa will become extinct.
There are only between 100,000 and 200,000 chimpanzees left in Africa. There
are fewer than 50,000 gorillas. All of these are on the endangered list. They need protection.
Hunting the apes for food is an ancient practice. The killings increased when
logging opened up the rainforests. The hunters followed the loggers into the previously safe
rainforests. The threat to the apes is much greater now because there is a great deal of hunger. The
bullets necessary to kill the apes are easier to get. They are cheap. A gorilla carcass sells for about
$40. This is not very much money. For an African hunter it is a small fortune.
McKay, I. (1996). Grammar Strand 1.
3. Edit the following paragraph to correct verb form errors.
(1) Neurons, or nerve cells, often referred to as the building blocks of the nervous system.
(2) They are not shape like blocks, though, but more like snowflakes. The human brain estimated
to contain about one hundred billion neurons. (3) The neuron composes of three main parts: a cell
body, dendrites, and an axon. (4) The cell body is shape like a sphere. (5) The dendrites, which
look like branches of a tree, receive messages from other nerve cells. (6) The axon may regard as
the tree's trunk; it sends messages away from the cell. (7) the larger axons found outside the brain.
Thewlis, S. (1993). Grammar Dimensions, Book Three.
4. Read a student's composition about his or her teacher. Find the mistakes with present tense verbs (including spelling) and frequency words. Add the verb be where necessary.
My English teacher is Barbara Nowak. She teachs (teaches) grammar and
composition at City College. She very nice, but she's very strict. She give a lot of homework, and
we take a lot of tests. If I pass the test, I very happy. English's hard for me.
Every day, at the beginning of the class, she takes attendance and we hand in our
homework. Then she's explains the grammar. We do exercises in the book. The book have a lot
of exercises. Most exercises is easy, but some hard. Sometimes we says the answers out loud, but
sometimes we write the answers. Sometimes the teacher askes a student to write the answers on
the blackboard.
Everybody like Barbara because she make the class interesting. She brings often
songs to class, and we learn the words. Sometimes we watch a movie in class. Always I enjoy her
lessons.
After class I sometimes going to her office if I want more help. She very kind and
always trys to help me. Barbara dresses very informally. Sometimes she wear a skirt, but
usually she wears jeans. She about 35 years old, but she's looks like a teenager. (In my country,
never a teacher wear jeans.)
Elbaum, S. (1996). Grammar in Context, Book 1, 2nd ed.
5. The following is the response Mr. Green made when he talked with Denise. Change his direct quotation to reported speech. Start your paragraph with: Mr. Green said that ... Add Mr. Green suggested that... and Mr. Green thought that... in other places in the paragraph.
Mr. Green said, "The personnel officer will be asked to speak to Peter. If Peter can't get to the
office on time, he will just have to take an earlier bus. He may not be crazy about getting up at
5:30, but he will have to do it if he wants to keep his job. Personnel won't talk to Peter about the
other problems he may be having, though. One of Peter's friends in the office can deal with him
directly about his lack of responsibility. Peter probably won't change much, but he may be more
willing to listen to the complaints if he can get the information from someone he likes and respects."
Thewlis, S. (1993). Grammar Dimensions, Book Three
6. Here are reports of two scientific experiments. Change them into the Present Time Frame so that they serve as statements of general scientific principles, rather than as accounts of specific experiments.
EXAMPLE: When baking soda is added to vinegar, a chemical reaction occurs....
EXPERIMENT 1:
(1) When baking soda was added to vinegar, a chemical reaction occurred.(2) The baking soda bubbled, and CO2 was produced by the combination of elements. (3) When a candle was put next to the container while the chemical reaction was taking place, the flame on the candle went out.
EXPERIMENT 2:
(4) We wanted to determine whether weight affected the rate of acceleration of objects falling through space. (5) Two objects of similar size and shape, but substantially different weights - a cannonball and a volleyball - were dropped from the same height. (6) We found that both objects hit the ground at the same time. (7) This indicated that the acceleration due to gravity was constant.
Thewlis, S. (1993). Grammar Dimensions, Book Three.
7. Read the following passage. Use personal pronouns or possessive determiners to replace the underlined nouns. Discuss your work with a partner. Report to the class about any differences.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, INVENTOR OF THE TELEPHONE.
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland on March 3, 1847. Bell's mother
had a serious hearing disability. Bell's mother's disability led to Bell's interest in hearing. Bell's
father was interested in speech therapy. Bell's father trained Bell to teach the deaf to speak. In
those days the young Bell was also interested in music, anatomy, and physiology. These studies
helped Bell to develop Bell's invention.
Bell was at risk from tuberculosis. In 1870 Bell's family moved to Brantford,
Ontario, Canada. The Bell family thought this location was better for Bell's health. Canadians say
that Bell was a Canadian because of this. Americans, on the other hand, do not agree with
Canadians. Americans say that Bell was an American because Bell lived in the United States and
worked at Boston University.
When Bell arrived at Boston University, Bell already had the idea of sending
speech signals through electrical wires. On March 10, 1876, Bell sent the first message by
telephone. Bell called Bell's assistant and said, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want to speak to Mr.
Watson." Later other inventors contributed too. The other inventors' ideas helped develop the
modern telephone. Bell's ideas were the most important because Bell saw the telephone
as a means of immediate communication over long distances.
McKay, I. (1996). Grammar Strand 1.
8. Delete the relative pronouns where possible and make the other necessary changes. (You cannot delete all the relative pronouns in this passage.) Prepare to explain your choices. The first paragraph has been done for you as an example.
(1) The kind of people that I like are usually people who have a good sense of
humor. I like people who take other people's feelings into account, and people who are actively
ivolved in making the world a better place.
(2) I like people who don't take themselves too seriously. (3) I find people who
are lacking a sense of humor often tend to be pessimistic about many things. (4) A person who
can't laugh at himself may not be able to distinguish between the things that are really important in
life and the things in life that only seem important at the moment.
(5) I dislike people who strive to be important and powerful without also trying to
be kind, fair, and helpful. (6) I dislike people who intentionally try to hurt other people's feelings.
(7) People who are too concerned with their own power and position often try to take power from
other people by making them appear or feel bad.
(8) I like people who think about important issues, such as the purpose of life and
death or how to increase cooperation between different countries and people. (9) I prefer them to
people who are only worried about the color that they want to paint their living room, or the kind
of clothes that they would like to wear to a party that a friend is having next weekend. (10) But
I guess most of all I like people who are like me, and who also like me in return.
Thewlis. S. (1993). Grammar Dimensions, Book Three.
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