Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Sentence Composing # 5-Delayed Adjective Practice 1,2, and 3

A adjective place after the word described is a delayed adjective. A delayed adjective may be a single word or the first word in an adjective phrase.  An adjective phrase begins with an adjective and then continues the description.  

Commas punctuate a delayed adjective--one comma if it occurs at the end of the sentence, two if earlier in the sentence.

Sentences can contain single or multiple delayed adjectives.

Single delayed adjective: People under the helicopter ducked down, afraid, as if they were being visited by a plague or a god.
--Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

Multiple delayed adjectives: Each snowflake was different, Sister Zoe said, like a person, irreplaceable and beautiful.
--Julia Alvarez, "Snow"

Delayed adjective phrase: A dog came bounding among us with a loud volley of barks, and leapt round us, wild with glee at finding so many human beings together.

Practice 1: Matching

Match the delayed adjectives with the sentences.  Write out each sentences, inserting and underlining the delayed adjectives

1. Milk, ^, attracted every small flying thing from gnats to grasshoppers.
Toni Morrison, Beloved

 2. It seemed dreadful to see the great beat lying there in agony, ^.
George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant"

3. The water in this pool has a dark clarity, like smoked glass, ^.
Edward Abbey, "Aravaipa Canyon"

4. Picture poor old Alfy coming home from football practice every evening, bruised and aching agonizingly tired, ^.
Paul Roberts, Understanding English

5. I am an enthusiastic laudress, ^, but a terrible house keeper.
Nancy Mairs, Plaintext

a. scarcely able to shovel the mashed potatoes into his mouth

b. capable of sorting a hamper full of clothes into five subtly differentiated piles

c. sticky and sour on her dress

d. transparent but obscure

e. powerless to move move and yet powerless to die

Practice 2: Unscrambling to Imitate

In the model and the scrambled list, identify the delayed adjectives.  Next, unscramble and write out the sentence parts of imitate the model.  Finally write your own imitation of the model and identify the delayed adjectives.

Model: They ate like men, ravenous and intent
Toni Morrison, Beloved

a. They sang like angels.

b. The angel were pure.

c. And the angel were sweet

Own Sentence:

Practice 3: Combining to Imitate- In the model, identify the delayed adjective, Next, combine the list of sentences to imitate the model.  Finally, write your own imitation of the model and identify any delayed adjectives.

Model: He forgot that his Lesser Warders were watching, afraid to interfere.
--Stephen King, The Eyes of the Dragon

a. She knew something

b. What we knew is how her sister were feeling.

c. Her sisters were happy to help.

Own Sentence:

6 comments:

Joshua said...

Practice 1:
1. Milk, sticky and sour on her dress, attracted every small flying thing from gnats to grasshoppers.

2. It seemed dreadful to see the great beat lying there in agony, powerless to move on and yet powerless to die.

3. The water in this pool has a dark clarity, like smoked glass, transparent but obscure.

4. Picture poor old Alfy coming home from football practice every evening, bruised and aching agonizingly tired, scarcely able to shovel the mashed potatoes into his mouth.

5. I am an enthusiastic laundress, capable of sorting a hamper full of clothes int o five subtly differentiated piles.

Practice 2

They sang like angels, pure and sweet.

Mine: The apple pie tasted like heaven, cinnamon and apple heaven.

Practice 3

Delayed Adjective: Afraid to interfere.

Mine: Her sisters knew how she was feeling, happy to help

Unknown said...

PRACTICE 1
1.c
2.e
3.d
4.a
5.b

PRACTICE 2

pure
sweet
They sang like angels, pure and sweet.
They ran like gazelles, fast and hoping.

PRACTICE 3

afraid to interfere

She knew how her sisters were feeling, happy to help.
He said their words, afraid of dying.

brock reynoldson said...

1. Milk, sticky and sour on her dress , attracted every small flying thing from gnats to grasshoppers.

2. It seemed dreadful to see the great beat lying there in agony, powerless to move on and yet powerless to die.

3. The water in this pool has a dark clarity, like smoked glass, transparent but obscure.

4. Picture poor old alfy coming home from football practice every evening, bruised and aching agonizingly tired, scarcely able to shovel the mashed potatoes into his mouth.

5. I am an enthusiastic laundress, capable of sorting a hamper full of cloths into five subtly defferentiated piles.

Practice 2

They sang like angels, pure and sweet.

Brock: The kids like whirling durbishes, crazy and loud.

Practice 3

delayed adjective: Afraid to interfere.

Brock: I knew he was unhappy, eager to lift his spirits.

Brock Reynoldson

McKenna Moyes said...

Practice 1:
1. Milk, sticky and sour on her dress, attracted every small flying thing from gnats to grasshoppers.

2. It seemed dreadful to see the great beat lying there in agony, powerless to move on and yet powerless to die.

3. The water in this pool has a dark clarity, like smoked glass, transparent but obscure.

4. Picture poor old Alfy coming home from football practice every evening, bruised and aching agonizingly tired, scarcely able to shovel the mashed potatoes into his mouth.

5. I am an enthusiastic laundress, capable of sorting a hamper full of clothes int o five subtly differentiated piles.

Practice 2

They sang like angels, pure and sweet.

McKenna: The pear was sweet as candy, succulent and juicy.

Practice 3

Delayed Adjective: Afraid to interfere.

McKenna: The players knew the opponents were better, afraid of the outcome.

Maggie Hodgkin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

this quiz thing looks a lot like the stuff in "grammar for middle school A Sentence~Composing Approach A STUDENT WORKTEXT" by Don and Jenny Killagon.