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2. Have you ever

"The Merchant of Venice" played?

them come out.

3. Were they — as they entered the building?

No one

5. We

them there; but five witnesses

the comet through the telescope; and since then I have

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Fill the blanks with did or done. Notice that done is never a verb — always a verbal.

1. He

Did is always a verb

never a verbal.

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it; none

2. Have you

3. We

the work assigned? Has she

the task almost as quickly as he.

4. They have not 5. I had

6. The dog

this so often as I.

my work as if I expected to have the whole day for it.

the shepherd's work.

7. If you have not — the cooking for a large family, you cannot imagine what Mary with her morning.

8. I

it with my little hatchet; but I would not have

it if my

father had been looking.

Exercise J

Make ten sensible sentences, using saw and did; also ten, using seen and done with has, have, or had. Read them aloud.

SUGGESTED THEME TOPICS

1. Planting Corn (a Garden, a Flower Bed).

2. A Day in the Hay Field.

3. A Trip on the River.

4. My First Ride in an Automobile.

5. Forty Miles an Hour.

6. An Unhappy New Year.

7. A Visit to a Mine (or Factory).

8. Going for the Doctor.

9. How a Ship is Loaded.

10. A Glimpse of New York Harbor.
11. Views from the Tower.
12. Along the Lake Front.
13. Waiting for the Dentist.
14. A (Florida) Picnic.

15. From Snow to Roses.

16. A Trip in a Balloon (or on a Kite). 17. Flying across the Channel.

18. My Neighbor's Dog (Cat, etc.). 19. A Horse That Balked.

20. Distributing Papers.

21. The Right Kind of Chum.

22. "The Dogs All Bark at Me."

23. Waiting for the Second Table.

24. A Trip to the Museum.

25. Getting Ready for the Fair (or a Trip). 26. A Contract.

27. Dry.

28. Wet.

29. Lonesome.

30. Awkward.

31. Happy.

32. A Night in a Sleeping Car.

33. The Kind of Home I Should Like.

34. At the Ticket Window.

35. The Street Beggar.

CHAPTER V

UNITY

A. UNITY OF PARAGRAPHS

It is queer how the birds come back to their old homes in the spring. The love of "home, sweet home" is strong in every one. They sometimes fly more than a thousand miles from their winter homes in foreign countries. More than anything else I hope to travel when I am grown. Then, like the birds, I can see how other people live. These foreigners often kill the birds for their feathers. I think it is wrong for women to wear feathers in their hats, for it makes the men kill so many birds. And yet the birds keep on going back.

What was the writer trying to tell in the preceding paragraph? Is he definite in the whole paragraph? Is he definite in each sentence? What should be done with the paragraph to make it seem that the writer was sincere in trying to say something to his readers?

It not infrequently happens that a person says so much about so many different things that when he is through we do not have any clear impression of what he has been talking about. It is all a jumble of details which center about nothing. We say that the talk lacks unity. If the talk has unity, it is all about one thing and is expressed in such a way as to give one impression. In the paragraph quoted above the speaker is talking about too many things; and even if the sentences that are directly about the migration of birds be preserved, they do not give a single impression.

The writer might have said something interesting in a few sentences about the mystery of migration, about the apparent stupidity of the birds in returning to dangerous places, or about man's inhumanity toward migrating birds. But in none of these topics is there room for remarks about man's love for home or the writer's hope to travel.

EXERCISE 124 - Oral

STUDYING PARAGRAPH UNITY

What was the writer trying to tell in each of the following paragraphs? Is each paragraph about one thing? Are the thoughts so expressed that we get one impression from each ? If so, what? Did the writer tell enough, in other words, did he stay by a single idea until he made you thoroughly understand it?

1. Going with a box of honey to a field some distance from domesticated hives, the hunter gathers up from flowers several bees and imprisons them, and after they have been sufficiently gorged lets them out to return home. Waiting patiently, he scarcely ever fails to see the bees return accompanied by fellow workers, which are imprisoned till they in turn are filled. Then one at a time the bees are let out at places distant from one another, and the direction in which each one flies is noted. Thus, by a kind of triangulation, the position of the bee-tree is approximately ascertained. — Adapted

2. The boys of Kansas used to rob the bumblebees' nest more from excitement caused by the danger of being stung than to secure the honey. They would take a one- or two-gallon jug, such as is commonly used to carry water to haymakers, fill it partly with water, and place it, with the cork removed, within two or three feet of the nest. The bees were then thoroughly aroused by the breaking of their nest, immediately after which the venturesome boys removed themselves hurriedly to a safe distance. The enraged bees, swarming out and flying in widening circles to discover the enemy, would be attracted by the jug, and numbers of them

would naturally fly over its open mouth, which, by reason of the air set in motion by their wings, would give an answering roar to their angry humming. Excited beyond measure by this noise, the bees would fly at the mouth of the jug and one after another would pop into it, the noise produced by those within still further attracting those without until all had entered. A second disturbance of the nest would serve to draw out or dispose of any of the remaining worker-bees; and then the robbing of the nest was easy. After robbing the nest, the boys emptied the jug on the ground, and the bees, although apparently drowned, would soon recover.

Adapted from HOWARD, "The Insect Book"

EXERCISE 125 - Oral

FINDING TOPICS THAT BELONG TOGETHER

Select a subject about which you can talk for one or two minutes. Place on the board a number of topics that fall under your subject, and discuss which should be used to make an interesting paragraph. In this discussion it may be found wise, as you learned in Chapter I, to make the subject smaller. It is easier to talk well for two minutes on "My Experience with a Snake," for instance, than on "Snakes." Place the topics in a natural order.

Here is an outline of the last paragraph in Exercise 124: Robbing bumblebees' nests in Kansas.

1. Purpose of robbing the nests.

2. The means used.

3. Arousing the bees.

4. Response of the bees.

5. Drawing out the remaining bees.

6. Robbing the nest.

7. Disposal of the bees.

Keep in your notebooks for future use several of these

completed outlines.

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