Education International School

Academic Year 2021-2022

Grammar Revision
Short Answer

Identifying Complete Subjects and Predicates and Simple Subjects and Verbs
In each of the following sentences, draw a vertical line between the complete subject and the complete
predicate. Then, underline the simple subject once and the verb twice. Some subjects and verbs are
compound.

1. James Marshall led a tragic life after his discovery of gold in California in 1848.
2. This skilled carpenter from New Jersey left home, headed west, and found work with the California land
developer John Sutter.
3. The ambitious Marshall later returned from fighting for California’s independence from Mexico and
convinced Sutter of the potential profit of a sawmill in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
4. Marshall, some local Indians, and several Mormon veterans of the Mexican War started construction of the
sawmill on the south fork of the American River near the village of Coloma.
5. Marshall’s early morning inspection of the site on January 24, 1848, changed the course of California’s
history and the path of his own life.
6. He saw a gleam in a ditch, scooped up some gravel, examined it, and, after a few crude tests, recognized
gold.
7. Marshall and the workers kept the discovery secret as long as possible.
8. News of the gold strike finally reached San Francisco and San Diego, sending thousands to Coloma.
9. The ornery, moody Marshall soon ran into trouble because of his demands for a commission for any gold
found on the site.
10. Angry miners at the site attacked the millhands and drove Marshall away from the mill and into a life of
poverty.

Revision Practice: Combining Sentences with Compound Subjects and Verbs

Combine each set of two sentences into one sentence with a compound subject or a compound verb. Write
your revised sentence, and then underline the compound subject or the compound verb.

11. Marshall hid out in the surrounding hills. He tried mining and other business ventures for the next few years.
12. His strange behavior alienated friends. His bitterness about his poverty alienated friends.
13. With money from his small pension, Marshall opened a blacksmith shop. Marshall worked there until his
death in 1885.
14. Marshall’s gravesite sits in the hills of Coloma. His gravesite features a statue of a man pointing to the site of
his discovery.

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15. Marshall discovery of gold prompted a rush of people to California. Marshall’s discovery had a significant
impact on the state’s growth.

Locating Hard-to-Find Subjects

In each of the following sentences, underline the subject once and the verb twice. If the subject is an
understood you, write it in parentheses.

16. There are many stories about Jane Addams’s social reform work in the city of Chicago during the early
1900’s.
17. Have you heard of Hull House?
18. In the East End of London among the poor and hungry, lived a young wealthy American woman.
19. Here began Jane Addams’s plan to relieve the suffering of the homeless, the aged, and the poor.
20. At the center of her plan was an idea for cooperative living by occupants in a settlement house located in a
poor urban neighborhood.
21. Services for the poor would the settlement house occupants provide.
22. How did Jane ever decide on Chicago?
23. Read her book Twenty Years at Hull House to learn more information.
24. Sitting in the midst of a neighborhood teeming with immigrants was Jane’s Hull House, a building large
enough to take in needy people and to hold a nursery for children of working women.
25. Imagine the effect on the neighborhood of Jane’s social reform work in Hull House!

Recognizing Direct and Indirect Objects

Label each underlined item as a DO for direct object, IO for indirect object, or OP for object of a
preposition.

26. ____ In 1977, NASA announced a campaign to recruit new astronauts.

27. ____ ____ Judith Resnik, an engineering student at the University of Maryland, showed the NASA
announcement to her father and discussed her hope of becoming an astronaut.
28. ____ ____ He gave her his blessing and told her she would make it.
29. ____ Resnik joined many other female candidates in applying to become an astronaut.
30. ____ ____ More than 1,000 women had sent the agency their applications.
31. ____ In preparation for the NASA tryouts, Judith followed a strenuous regimen of daily exercise.
32. ____ She studied for a pilot’s license and quickly received the certificate.
33. ____ She asked John Glenn many questions about what he thought NASA was looking for in new recruits.
34. ____ Meanwhile, Judith was hired as a senior systems engineer in Los Angeles.
35. ____ ____ In California, Judith continued her workouts and confided to a few friends her concerns about
being accepted by NASA.

Identifying All Types of Complements

Write all complements in the following sentences. Then label each one DO for direct object, IO for indirect
object, OC for object complement, PN for predicate nominative, or PA for predicate adjective.

36. During her childhood, Judith studied music and became an accomplished pianist.
37. Her favorite subjects, however, were math and science.
38. Judith’s father had taught his daughter the value of high achievement and challenge.

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39. NASA considered Judith Resnik an excellent candidate.
40. She had passed the rigorous NASA physical and successfully completed the interviews.
41. The brilliant scientist felt admired and respected by her fellow astronauts.
42. On her first space flight, Judith sent her beloved father a message from the shuttle Discovery.
43. On the Challenger flight, Judith was the mission specialist responsible for putting a communications satellite
into orbit.
44. Judith knew the dangers of space flight, but she was not afraid.
45. Though Judith died in the Challenger explosion, thousands of young women scientists still consider her an
outstanding role model.

Identifying Prepositional and Appositive Phrases

Identify the prepositional or appositive phrases in the following sentences. Then, Identify whether each is an
adjective phrase, adverb phrase, or appositive phrase.

46. Barbara Kingsolver, journalist, novelist, and essayist, has always been a storyteller.
47. At a very early age, she wrote stories and essays, kept a journal, and told her mother bedtime stories.
48. Kingsolver, a University of Arizona graduate student, studied biology and ecology and received a masters of
science degree.
49. She never imagined herself a writer, but the university offered her a position as a science writer.
50. Her numerous articles and essays were published in the 1995 collection High Tide in Tucson: Essays from
Now or Never.

Identifying Verbal Phrases

Identify the underlined verbal phrase as a participial phrase (PP), gerund phrase (GP), or infinitive phrase
(IP).

51. ____ John Muir, known as the Father of our National Park System, was born in Scotland in 1838.
52. ____ To seek a better life, Muir’s family emigrated to America in 1849 and settled in Wisconsin.
53. ____ As often as possible, John asked his father for permission to roam the fields and woods near their farm.
54. ____ Having suffered a severe accident and temporary blindness in 1867, John got the urge to travel and
enjoy nature.
55. ____ Walking 1,000 miles from Indianapolis to the Gulf of Mexico fed his appetite for the outdoor life.

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