English Grammar for the Utterly Confused - Laurie Rozakis 2003

Answer key
Chapter 9 Sentence Coordination and Subordination
Part 3 Sentence Sense

True-False Questions

1. T 2. T 3. F 4. T 5. F 6. F 7. T 8. F 9. T 10. F 11. T 12. F 13. F 14. T 15. T

Completion Questions

1. but 2. because 3. since 4. nor 5. and 6. Subordinating 7. Parallel structure 8. after 9. to go swimming 10. Unanimously decided to ignore it

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. d 2. a 3. c 4. c 5. b 6. d 7. a 8. a 9. d 10. d

Further Exercises

Answers will vary; here are some sample answers.

1. Not only does lightning often strike twice in the same place, but it is also more likely to do so. Why is this so? Lightning is an electric current. As with all electric currents or dis­charges, lightning will follow the path of least resistance, so it will take the route that is easiest for it to travel on. Since air is a very poor conductor of electricity, almost anything else that helps to bridge the gap between the ground and a cloud—a high tree, a building (especially one with a metal framework), a tall hill—will offer a more convenient path and thus “attract” the lightning.

2. In 1866, John Styth Pemberton came up with a headache medicine he called “Coca-Cola.” He had taken the wine out of the French Wine Coca and added some caffeine, but the medicine tasted so terrible that at the last minute he added some extract of kola nut and a few other oils. He sold it to soda fountains in used bottles. A few weeks later, a man with a terrible headache hauled himself into a drugstore and asked for a spoonful of Coca­Cola. The druggist was too lazy to stir the headache remedy into a glass of water, so he mixed the syrup in some seltzer water because it was closer to where he was standing. The customer liked the carbonated version better than the uncarbonated one; other customers agreed. From then on, Coca-Cola was served as a carbonated drink.

3. Some time near the beginning of the seventh century, a monk formed some leftover dough into a looped twist. Some sources claim that the twists were meant to represent the folded arms of children at prayer. Even by a considerable stretch of the imagination it is hard to match a pretzel’s shape with the usual position of arms at prayer. The pretzels soon became popular. The pretzels were often given to children who were faithful in their religious observations. As a result, the baked and salted dough came to be called pretiola, the Latin for “little reward.” From pretiola to pretzel is only a small step.