Курсовая работа: Teaching sentence structure

THE GREAT SUBWAY MYSTERY

A. 1. Can you imagine building a tunnel in secret beneath a busy city street?

2 A surprise events for New Yorkers in 1870 was the opening of a mysterious new subway.

3. Cars were propelled by blowing air through a tube.

4. The builder, Alfred Beach, had received permission for constructing a pneumatic dispatch service.

5. Instead he built a subway by enlarging the tube.

6. For privacy, the builder chose working during the quiet hours of the night.

B 1. For removing dirt quietly the workers muffled the wheels of the wagons.

2. Tunneling through the soil did not disturb the street traffic.

3. The goal was providing a new method of transportation for New Yorkers.

4. Opening the first small stretch might encourage extension of the line.

5. By killing a transit bill, the political opposition delayed further progress.

6. In digging a subway in 1912 workers broke through the old tunnel and found the little car on its rails.

POSSESSIVE WITH A GERUND Use the possessive form of a noun or a pronoun before a gerund.

People gasped at (him, his) performing meredible feats 190 feet above the water. (People did not gasp at him; they gasped at his performing incredible feats. Performing is a gerund, object of the preposition at. His modifies performing.)

PRACTICE 22 Modifiers of Gerunds

Select the preferred or never – questioned form in each pair of parentheses, and tell how it is used.

1. Curt’s mother disapproved (him, his) deciding to drop orchestra.

2. The parents enjoyed (our, us) singing the old songs for the special music program.

3. Sandy’s sister object to (him, his) playing records during her telephone calls.

4. My parents were delighted at (me, my) becoming sports editor on the Clarion.

5. Congratulations! I’ve just heard of (you your) winning a trip to Washington.

6. The teacher approved (Tom, Tom’s) using the Reader’s Guide for his project.

PARTICIPLE AND GERUND The possessive is not used with a participle.

The sense of the sentence will determine whether a participle or a gerund is required.

Participle: We found him walking in the park. (His would not make sense. Walking is a participle modifying him. He is the object of found.)

Gerund: We disapproved his walking in the park while he should be doing homework. (Walking is a gerund, the object of disapproved. His modifies walking.

PRACTICE 23 Studying Participles and Gerunds

Select the preferred alternative tell why you think it is correct.