Grammar exercises
I.
1. Complete each sentence with what you think the most appropriate of the four choices C (We use a singular verb when the subject involves each.) given.
2. D (Girl as she was = Though she was a girl. In this structure, the indefinite article is usually omitted.)
3. A
4. B (Inversion is used when there is a negative word at the beginning of a sentence.)
5. B (The antecedent of who is the brightest students.)
6. C
7. D
8. C
II. Emphasize the underlined part by moving it to the initial position of the clause.
1. Music Mary likes; sports she doesn't.
2. Growl you will, and go you must.
3. They have promised to finish the work, and finish it they will.
4. His face not many admired, while his character still fewer could praise.
5. A professor he was, but in name only.
6. He might have agreed under pressure; willingly he would never.
7. This question we have already discussed at some length.
8. Talent Mike has; capital Mike has not.
III. Improve the following sentences by changing the word order.
1. They pronounced guilty every one of the accused.
2. He had called an idiot the man on whose judgment he now had to rely.
3. We cannot set totally aside a whole system of rules devised by Congress itself.
4. The problem then arose of what contribution the public should make.
5. He gave the parcel to the sergeant who occupied the trench opposite.
6. Send the parcel to my father not to my mother.
7. I saw on my way home yesterday a man with a scar across his face trying to escape with a bag he had snatched from a lady.
8. It was my intention to produce a fairly short one-volume introduction to semantics which might serve the needs of students in several disciplines and might be of interest to the general reader.
IV. Convert the following positive statements and general questions into negative statements.
1.
I have never seen anyone as/so happy as Mary.