Participial Phrase
 We could see the lake and the mountains across the lake
on the French side.
 Sadao had his reward.
 The sun rose clear and bright.
 Spencer took half an hour.
 Sitting up in bed eating breakfast, we could see the lake and
the mountains across the lake on the French side.
• Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to
Arms
 Sadao, searching the spot of black in the twilight sea that
night, had his reward.
• Pearl S. Buck, “The Enemy”
 The sun rose clear and bright, tinging the foamy crests of the
waves with a reddish purple.
• Alexander Dumas, Count of
Monte Cristo
 Spencer took half an hour, swimming in one of the pools which
was filled with the seasonal rain, waiting for the pursuers to
catch up to him.
• Ray Bradbury, The Martian
Chronicles
The Participial Phrase
 Participles describe nouns or pronouns.
 Present participles always end in ing.
 Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, HANGING in a fine tangled webwork from the eaves.
• Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House
of Usher”
 He walked to the corner of the lot, then back again, STUDYING the simple
terrain as if deciding how best to effect an entry, FROWNING and SCRATCHING
his head.
• Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
 Past participles usually end in ed.
 In six months a dozen small towns had been laid upon the naked planet, FILLED
with sizzling neon tubes and yellow electric bulbs.
• Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
 The tent, ILLUMINED by candle, glowed warmly in the midst of the plain.
• Jack London, The Call of the Wild
Sentence Openers
 Whistling, he let the escalator waft him into the still night air.
• Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
 Looking over their troops, they saw mixed masses slowly
getting into regular form.
• Stephen Crane, The Red Badge
of Courage
 Amazed at the simplicity of it all, I understood everything as
never before.
• Alphonse Daudet, “The Last
Lesson”
Subject-Verb Splits
 My father, cautioning me not to work a horse till he had fed
fully, said I had plenty of time to eat myself.
• Lincoln Steffens, “A Boy on
Horseback”
 Eckels, balanced on the narrow path, aimed his rifle playfully.
• Ray Bradbury, “A Sound of Thunder”
 The sound of Mick’s exploring beam of light, flashing and
flickering through the submarine darkness a few yards away,
reminded him that he was not alone.
• Arthur C. Clarke, Dolphin Island
Sentence Closers
 The entire crowd in the saloon gathered about me now,
urging me to drink.
• Richard Wright, Black Boy
 She called to him, excited.
• Daphne du Maurier, “The
Birds”
 The magician patted the hand, holding it quietly with a
thumb on its blue veins, waiting for life to revive.
• T.S. White, Book of Merlyn
Unscramble
 was waiting on the landing outside
 Bernard
 wearing a black turtleneck sweater, dirty flannels, and
slippers
• Brian Moore, The Lonely Passion of
Judith Hearne
Unscramble
 lost his grip
 dropping helplessly straight down toward the far end of
the trailer
 and fell free
 Malcolm
• Michael Crichton, The Lost World
Unscramble
 coming down the pole
 with no control over my movements
 had a sense
 I
 of being whirled violently through the air
• Richard E. Byrd, Alone
Unscramble
 with the cautious, half-furtive effort of the sightless
 and thumping his way before him
 he was a blind beggar
 carrying the traditional battered cane
• MacKinlay Kantor, “A Man Who Had No
Eyes”
Unscramble
 all had the look of invalids crawling into the hospital on
their last legs
 the passengers
 blinking their eyes against the blinding sunlight
 emerging from the mildewed dimness of the customs
sheds
• Katherine Anne Porter, Ship of Fools
Imitate
 Model: As he ran away into the darkness, they repented of their
weakness and ran after him, swearing and throwing sticks and great balls
of soft mud at the figure that screamed and ran faster and faster into the
darkness.
• Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio
 Unscramble:






stretching
that beckoned but hid farther and farther from his reach
after Jo-Jo climbed higher onto the counter
but missing jars and boxes in the rear with bright colors
he pulled on the doors
and looked for the candy
 Imitate the model by writing your own sentence, making all of your
sentence parts like those in the model.
Combine
 Model: The horse found the entrance to the trail where it left the flat and
started up, stumbling and slipping on the rocks.
• John Steinbeck, “Flight”
 Combine the following sentences into one sentence that imitates the model:








The cycle hit something.
It hit a stretch.
The stretch was ice.
It happened as it rounded the bend.
In addition, it slide sideways.
Then it was tottering.
In addition, then it was veering.
It was veering toward the shoulder.
 Imitate the model by writing your own sentence, making all of your sentence
parts like those in the model.
Unscramble
 an old, bowlegged fellow in a pale-blue sweater
 the judge
 and was reading over some notes he had taken
 had stopped examining the animals
 on the back of a dirty envelope
• Jessamyn West, “The Lesson”
Unscramble
 gave Baselton a smell
 a long snuffling inhalation that fluttered Baselton’s trouser
legs
 with huge flaring nostrils
 the tyrannosaur
• Michael Crichton, The Lost
World
Unscramble
 and the jingle of trace chains
 was louder
 drag of brakes
 the sound of the approaching grain teams
 thud of big hooves on hard ground
• John Steinbeck, Of Mice and
Men