Correcting Run-on Sentences
Exercise
1. The St. Lawrence Seaway opened the Great
Lakes to large ocean vessels. A cruise up the
seaway makes a pleasant vacation.
2. Travelers may also take boat trips from Seattle
to Victoria, British Columbia,. Then they can
go on to Vancouver from Victoria.
3. C
4. Fine bone china cups and saucers are available.
Collecting these is a hobby for many people.
5. C
6. A trip through the Canadian Rockies is
memorable. Many of the rugged mountains
are covered with snow all summer.
7. C
8. The Calgary Stampede is a popular attraction.
It features bareback riding and other events.
9. The Canadian side of Niagara Falls is beautiful.
You can go right up to the Horseshoe Falls.
10. A trip to Ottawa, Ontario, should include a visit
to the stately buildings of Canada’s Parliament.
They are built in the Gothic style.
Correcting and Revising Run-on
Sentences
Exercise A
Today, when modern meteorologists
forecast the weather, they can count on the help of
an impressive battery of scientific devices.Weather
satellites, for example, relay photographs of cloud
formations from all over the world. These pictures
show where storms are beginning over oceans and
deserts. The paths of typhoons and hurricanes are
tracked in the same way.Weather information from
all sources is fed into powerful computers,. Thus
the weather can be evaluated with amazing speed.
Our ancestors had no complicated weather
instruments. They had to rely on their eyes and
ears and a few old proverbs and maxims.Their
methods were hardly scientific,. However, some
were founded on fact.Today, for example, no one
still believes the old superstition about the
groundhog, but we celebrate Groundhog Day just
the same. If the groundhog sees its shadow on the
second day of February, there will be six more
weeks of winter,. Watch for yourself and see! The
behavior of insects, on the other hand, is still a good
indicator of temperature because insects are coldblooded.
Grasshoppers cannot fly when the
temperature drops below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. If
you hear a cricket chirping, count the number of
chirps in fourteen seconds and add forty,. Then you
will have the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.
Today, weather forecasting is more accurate,
if less picturesque, than it was in the old days,.
However, the forecasters are not always right,
perhaps because there are so many factors to
consider.
Exercise B (Revisions may vary.)
1. He invited me to visit him. We went many
places around Miami.
2. We could go to the animal park, or we could
go to the aquarium, but we did not have
time to go to both.
3. We went to the animal park, and I saw a
Komodo dragon.
4. We also saw tree kangaroos. They are very
cute.
5. C
6. The animals are not in cages, but they
cannot get out.
7. The elephants live in big areas, and they are
able to live normal lives.
8. Different exhibits deal with the continents of
Asia,Africa, and Europe. The Asian exhibit
includes rare white Bengal tigers.
9. The African plains exhibit has giraffes, zebras,
and ostriches living together as they do in the
wild. A gorilla family also lives among them.
10. The animal park is the best one I ever visited.
I hope to go back again soon.
Combining Choppy Sentences by
Inserting Words
Exercise (Revisions of sentence 5 may vary.)
1. The Himalayas are the tallest mountains in Asia.
2. You can see a beautiful view of Mount Everest
from Darjeeling.
3. Tea bushes grow on the steep, fertile slopes of
the hills near Darjeeling.
4. The Sherpas are Tibetan people who live in
northeast Nepal.
Worksheet 3
Worksheet 2
Worksheet 1
Answer Key 31
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TX_L08LHAK 6/1/09 6:43 PM Page 31
5. Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay was one of the
first mountain climbers to reach the top of
Mount Everest.
6. The greatest danger in mountain climbing
comes from the high altitude and the bitter
cold.
7. The bright sun reflecting on the white snow
can cause temporary blindness.
8. The thin air at that high altitude makes
expensive oxygen masks necessary.
9. The penetrating cold can cause severe frostbite
on exposed fingers and toes.
10. Climbers need light, durable boots and
nutritious food for reaching high altitudes.
Combining Choppy Sentences by
Inserting Phrases
Exercise A (Word order may vary in
sentence 9.)
1. Alexander the Great’s father was the king of
Macedonia.
2. When Alexander was young, he saw some wild
horses in the marketplace.
3. One horse with a deep black coat threw
anyone who dared to ride it.
4. Alexander’s father, Philip, wanted to destroy the
black horse with the mean temper.
5. Alexander noticed the shadow in front of the
horse.
6. The horse’s shadow moved on the ground as
the horse jumped.
7. Alexander recognized the horse’s fear of its
own shadow.
8. He grabbed the reins on the horse and turned
the animal around.
9. In this direction the horse no longer saw its
frightening shadow on the ground.
10. The story about Alexander the Great taming the
black horse is an example of his intelligence
and compassion.
Exercise B (Revisions may vary.)
1. Employed by a large consulting firm, Nora is
one of the firm’s most successful consultants.
2. Carrying a mobile phone with her, she is able
to answer her clients’ questions at all times.
3. Known nationwide for her skill in solving
computer problems, she is often the first
person requested by a company in need.
4. Riding to the rescue, Nora is sometimes a
company’s last hope to save their computer
files.
5. Regarded as one of the best by other members
of her profession, last year she won an award
from a national association of computer
consultants.
Combining Choppy Sentences by
Using And, But, or Or
Exercise A (Revisions may vary slightly.)
1. They will hike in Rocky Mountain National Park
and pitch their tents in Hidden Valley.
2. Last year Marcy walked up Trail Ridge to the
alpine meadows and went fishing in the Fall
River.
3. Naomi and Marcy are interested in watching for
bighorn sheep.
4. Sheep usually graze on the high slopes or
wander down near Sheep Lake.
5. Marcy and Naomi have plenty of equipment for
camping.
6. The pair will eat freeze-dried food or enjoy fish
caught in the brooks and lakes.
7. Marcy or Naomi may clean the fish and cook
them.
8. Naomi’s father will drive out for the weekend
and take them hiking above the timberline.
9. Camping and hiking are among the girls’
favorite pastimes.
10. Both Marcy and Naomi are looking forward to
the trip and are excited about camping in the
mountains.
Exercise B (Choice of conjunctions may
vary.)
1. Benjamin Franklin was an apprentice printer
for his brother James, but he did not like
working for him.
2. Franklin read many books after work, and in his
writing he tried to copy the authors’ styles.
3. Franklin and his brother printed the
newspaper, and Franklin also had to sell the
paper on the street.
4. U
5. Franklin could stay in Boston to work for his
brother, or he could run away to seek his
fortune.
6. He first went to New York City, but there was
no work for printers in that city.
Worksheet 5
Worksheet 4
32 Language Handbook Answer Key
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Handbook
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7. He took a ferry to Perth Amboy, New Jersey,
and a storm drove the ferry onto the rocks.
8. U
9. Franklin finally started his own print shop, and
it became successful very quickly.
10. Benjamin Franklin started Poor Richard’s
Almanac, and this publication made him
famous.
Combining Choppy Sentences by
Using Subordinate Clauses
Exercise A (Revisions may vary slightly.)
1. A newer park, which is four times the size of
Yellowstone National Park, is called Gates of
the Arctic National Park.
2. Many national parks are crowded with visitors,
who may threaten the natural environment.
3. One national park in Hawaii contains active
volcanoes that sometimes spew fire and lava.
4. Forest rangers, whom most people never see,
work deep within the national forest.
5. At Mesa Verde National Park you can climb
down into kivas that were built by ancient cliff
dwellers.
6. My aunt Laura’s job, which is filled with danger,
is guiding rafts down the Colorado River.
7. In Virginia there is a national monument to
Booker T.Washington, who made many
contributions to education.
8. Dinosaur National Monument, which interests
me the most of all monuments, is in Colorado.
9. Terry, who loves to camp by the sea, will enjoy
Acadia National Park.
10. Rangers who live in tall watchtowers scan the
horizon for forest fires.
Exercise B (Order of clauses will vary.)
1. Many people want to be ballet dancers because
ballet dancing seems to be a glamorous
profession.
2. The United States Constitution will last another
two hundred years if we maintain our love for
freedom.
3. When we were seven or eight years old, we sat
through movie matinees every Saturday.
4. Since she won the election last year, Melinda is
not eligible to run again.
5. Preston wants to exercise every day so that he
can stay fit.
6. Wherever there are hungry bears and
unguarded campsites, there is trouble.
7. Although the choice of merchandise is limited,
we will do all our shopping in this store.
8. Unless he or she begins training very early, an
athlete has no chance to enter the Olympics.
9. While the batter took some practice swings, the
pitcher threw warm-up tosses.
10. Marsha had already received her prize in the
mail before Phil collected all thirty-three box
tops.
Revising Stringy and Wordy
Sentences
Exercise A (Revisions will vary.)
1. Tanmoor is an interesting character in a story
Jessica wrote. He is from a small town in
Argentina, but he wants to go to a big city.
2. The story about Tanmoor has an exciting
beginning. It opens with his father working on
a ranch.
3. Some rustlers come to the ranch, and a group
of bankers arrives. Some angry neighbors visit,
and tension mounts.
4. Tanmoor’s father is a vaquero, a cowboy.
Vaqueros have a lot of responsibility.
5. Tanmoor’s father, named Carlos but nicknamed
Coco, is trusted by the ranch owners.
6. Tanmoor helps his father and enjoys the work,
but he wants to own his own business in the
city.
7. A smart boy, he likes to figure out people, so he
watches their expressions and movements.
8. Tanmoor identifies the rustlers and tricks the
bankers.Then he calms the neighbors, restoring
peace to the ranch.
9. Jessica modeled the character Tanmoor after
her brother,Tom Andrew Moore.
10. Tom Moore reads a lot about South America
and can tell you all about its major cities.
Exercise B (Revisions will vary.)
1. I usually order a large salad when we eat out.
2. After the game ended, my voice was hoarse
from yelling.
3. With a quick movement of her fingers, Nana
turned the hot tortillas.
4. Mariah knows all of the state capitals.
5. We passed the pavilion as a woman yelled
loudly.
Worksheet 7
Worksheet 6
Answer Key 33
©HoughtonMifflinHarcourtPublishingCompany
11 Writing Effective SentencesLanguage
Handbook
TX_L08LHAK 6/1/09 6:43 PM Page 33