Understanding Hard Sentences

First, do you understand simple sentences? 

I:             Jack climbs up the hill. 

II:             Jack has a pail. 

III:             Jack gets his Mom a pail of water.

IV:             Jack is a good boy.

V:             Jack is hurt.

VI:             Jack’s Mom called the top of his head his crown.

VII:             Jack’s Mom declared his crown broken.

Infinitive and Gerund

This is the next or final entry on those wicked-ing forms of the verb (the Gerund).

Participles: B. Present Participles as Adjectives

B.  The Present Participle as an Adjective. 

1.  A present participle is used as an adjective to modify nouns:

a)  The stinging rebuke silenced the rowdy students.

b)  A rolling stone gathers no moss.

c)  Bring the milk to barely a rolling boil.

d)  Being a teacher, I note the use of ‘whom’ on the radio.

e)  Throwing a hay-maker punch, the big man knocked him down.

Participles: A. Past Participles as Adjectives

 First of all, let’s look at the dictionary entries of some irregular verbs.  These are verbs that are inflected with internal changes rather than just adding s, ed and ing: live lived lived living.  These words are among the Dolch Sight Words for Grade 1.

 

A.  The Past Participle as an Adjective. 

1.  A past participle is used as an adjective to modify nouns:

a)  A watched pot never boils.

b)  “There are known knowns; these are things we know that we know.
There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know.
But there are also unknown unknowns; these are things we do not know we don’t know.”

—United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

c)  United, we stand; divided, we fall.  
[If we are united, … if we are divided,]

d)  Stunned by disbelief, she could not respond.

***She, being stunned by disbelief, could not respond.

c) In times past, a passed master was one who had presented a masterpiece to the masters of his guild, which masterpiece having been approved or having passed their approval, had then been admitted as a master craftsman to the guild; now a past master is one who has had a lot of experience in his profession or one who was once, in the past, elected ‘master’ of his society or lodge.  Nowadays the rule is this: When it’s used as an adjective or noun, spell it the archaic way of ‘past’; when it is the used in the perfect tense with ‘have’ spell it ‘passed’.

2. In the Passive Voice, the subject is being described rather than taking an action.  It follows the Simple Sentence Pattern V: N+LV+Adj

a)  I saw the thief. >>> The thief was seen by me.

b)  The ship sank. >>> The ship was sunk by big waves.

c)  The kite flew. >>> The kite was flown by an expert.

 NOTES:
1.  Verbals, even when being used as nouns or adjectives, retain their ability to be modified by adverbs  or by adverb phrases (stunned by disbelief) or to take their own objects (Throwing a hay-maker punch) or subjective complements (Being a teacher).

2.  Nowadays:  I used 'nowadays' so that the reader would be certain that I mean 'now, that is in these days' rather than the transitional 'now' meaning 'meanwhile'.
3.  The Passive Voice begs the question "Who did that?".  Very often politicians, bureaucrats and other management types use the passive voice to avoid taking responsibility for unpopular or harmful decisions.   On the other hand, it is used a great deal in scientific and other professional reports and literature to show that the writer is unbiased and impartial and to avoid boring the reader with repeated statements beginning with 'I" or 'we' that may sound boastful.  Students are taught to use the Passive Voice in Grade 10 for the Literary Essay so that they will sound more like an impartial observer than an ordinary reader giving a book report; this is the stance of the literary critic.

 

Santa Claus is Real

Someone sent me this story.  I liked it, so I am passing it on to you.

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma…

***I was just a kid. I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her. On the way, my  big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," she jeered. "Even dummies know that!"

***My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her "world-famous" cinnamon buns. I knew they were world-famous, because Grandma said so. It had to be true.

***Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything.

***She was ready for me.

***"No Santa Claus?" she snorted..."Ridiculous! Don't you believe it! That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad!! Now, put on your coat, and let's go."

***"Go? Go where Grandma?" I asked. I hadn't even finished my second world famous cinnamon bun.

***"Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a  bundle in those days. "Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.

***I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.

***I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church.  I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock's grade-two class.

***Bobby Decker didn't have a coat. I knew that because he never went out at recess during the cold weather. His mother always wrote a note telling the teacher that he had a bad cough but all us kids knew Bobby Decker didn't have a cough; he didn't have a good coat.

***I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat! I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that.

***"Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down.

***"Yes ma'am," I replied shyly. "It's for Bobby." The nice lady smiled at me, as I told her about how Bobby really needed a good winter coat. I didn't get any change, but she put the coat in a bag, smiled again, and wished me a Merry Christmas.

***That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat (a little tag fell out of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible) in Christmas paper and ribbons and wrote, "To Bobby, From Santa Claus" on it.

***Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker's house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially, one of Santa's helpers.

***Grandma parked down the street from Bobby's house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then Grandma gave me a nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going."

***I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his door and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma.

***Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobby.

***Fifty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my Grandma, in Bobby Decker's bushes.

***That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were: ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team.

***I still have the Bible, with the coat tag tucked inside: $19.95.

**********************May you always have LOVE to share,

*************************HEALTH to spare and

***************************FRIENDS that care...

******************************and may you always believe in the magic of

*********************************SANTA CLAUS!

*******************Give back - what you can, where you can, whenever you can.

Reading Level Calculation by Word

Here's how your computer helps you to find the reading level of a passage.   First you have to type the passage into a document. 

Reading Level Calculation by Hand

This is how you figure out the reading level using the Fresch-Kincaid formula.  Rudolf Flesch admitted that it isn't really too accurate below Grade 4 or 5 level, because so much of a primary book story is told through the pictures.  Learning to "read" pictures is another reading skill.