3. What question does the phrase during times of stress answer? What word does it modify? What part of speech is this phrase? Answer the same questions about each of the other phrases. A group of related words containing neither subject nor predicate, used as a single part of speech in a sentence, is called a phrase. A phrase may be used as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. II USING PHRASES IN RIME In the following stanzas finish each incomplete line by adding a phrase. Tell whether the phrase is used as an adjective or adverb. Be sure that the last word of the phrase rimes with the last word of the next line: A monkey once climbed, When he fell down, then down fell he. There was a crow sat When he was gone, then there was none. A horse was going When he went on, he stood not still. Study the following rime. Select the prepositional phrases. Tell what each phrase modifies: When the wind is in the east, 'Tis good for neither man nor beast; When the wind is in the north, It blows the bait in the fishes' mouth; Then it is the very best. -Old Rime Write sentences in which the phrases that follow modify nouns: 1. with the red cover 2. in the blue dress 3. on the river 4. under the tree 5. by the gate 6. at the piano Phrases that modify nouns or pronouns are called adjective or adjectival phrases, because they do the work of adjectives. Write sentences in which the phrases that follow modify verbs: 1. to the woods 2. over the fence 3. through the window 4. across the street 5. into the waste basket 6. over the radio Phrases that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs are called adverb or adverbial phrases. III FINDING PHRASES Find all of the phrases in the following story. Tell whether they are adjective (adjectival) or adverb (adverbial) phrases. To decide whether a phrase is used as an adjective or an adverb, therefore, it is necessary to find the word that it modifies. Read the following paragraphs, selecting the adverb and adjective phrases. Tell what word each phrase modifies: HERCULES AND THE DRIVER A man was driving a heavy load over a bad road. After a time, he came to a place where the wheels of the wagon sank halfway into the mud. He at once jumped from the wagon, and kneeling, prayed to Hercules for help in his difficulty. Hercules answered, "Put your shoulder to the wheel and help yourself." THE FLIES AND THE HONEY POT A jar of honey having been upset in a housekeeper's room, a number of flies were attracted by its sweetness, and placing their feet in it, ate it greedily. Their feet, however, became so smeared with the honey that they could not use their wings, nor release themselves, and were suffocated. Just as they were dying they exclaimed, "O foolish creatures that we are; for the sake of a little pleasure we have destroyed ourselves." THE OAK AND THE REEDS A very large oak was uprooted by the wind, and thrown across a stream. It fell among some reeds, which it thus addressed: "I wonder why you, who are so light and weak, are not entirely crushed by these strongs winds." They replied, "You fight and contend with the wind, and consequently you are destroyed; while we bend before the least breath of air, and therefore remain unbroken, and escape." 43. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Oliver Wendell Holmes was a little man with a great intellect. He worked hard and played hard. When his day's work was over, nothing pleased him better than a gay dinner party, for he was a great talker. Sometimes after a party he would remark, "I've talked too much." Dr. Holmes was a man of quiet tastes, preferring always the peace of his study to the applause of the crowd. Once James Russell Lowell tried to coax him to take a public interest in politics and go on the platform as a speaker, but Dr. Holmes refused to do so, saying that he was convinced that he could serve the public better by working quietly. It seems natural that a man of his habits should like books. Here is one of his sayings about books which we should study: "Some books are edifices, to stand as they are built; some are hewn stones, ready to form a part of future edifices; some are quarries, from which stones are to be split for shaping and after use." At another time he wrote: "I like books-I was born and bred among them, and have that easy feeling, when I get into their presence, that a stableboy has among horses." Books, however, were not his only hobby. He tells us that he was a great tinker, always pottering around with something. When the microscope was being much talked of, he invented the small hand stereoscope, an instrument which shows pictures in their true perspective. He did not take out a patent for his invention; therefore he realized no profit from it. He never seemed to regret the money loss, but was glad he had invented something to give us pleasure. His sense of humor was a source of pure joy to his friends. Once when he was asked about trees and plants he humorously replied that he ought to know, because he had excelled in raising "cabbages that did not head, rat-tail carrots, and ram's-horn radishes." On one occasion when he found himself rather uncomfortably situated at a small inn he said that the soup was involved in a "darker mystery than that of the Nile" and that the omelettes tasted as if they had "been carried in the waiter's hat and fried in an old boot." Again he remarked, "Better a hash at home, than a roast with strangers." Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in 1809 and died in 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the age of twenty he was graduated from Harvard and then went to Paris to study medicine and anatomy. He was a Professor at Dartmouth College and later lectured at Harvard. He became known as a poet when he wrote Old Ironsides as a protest against the dismantling of the historic old battleship, "Constitution." While he was a contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, he wrote The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. His best known poems are The Chambered Nautilus, and The Deacon's Masterpiece. Oral work. Be prepared to give before the class a few sentences about any one of the following topics on the life of Dr. Holmes: 1. Habits of Work 2. Inventions 3. Sense of Humor 4. Love of Fun 5. Regard for Books 44. POETRY TO ENJOY You have read of the gallant American sea captain John Paul Jones, and of his famous victories. His ship, the "Constitution," was about to be destroyed by the government because it was of no further use to our Navy when Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote his famous poem, Old Ironsides. In response to his protest, the old ship was saved. Do you wonder that the public sentiment of the country was aroused by this vigorous protest? Read the poem aloud. Look up any words you do not know. OLD IRONSIDES Ay, tear her tattered ensign down! And many an eye has danced to see Beneath it rung the battle shout, And burst the cannon's roar; The meteor of the ocean air Shall sweep the clouds no more. |