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More Level 3 Exercises

Aesops' Fable # 6: The Shepherd's Boy
Answer Key for Level 3
     Subordinate clauses are in brackets [ ]. / represents the vertical line at the end of a main clause.  The font size of words aleady analyzed has been decreased. The color codes for adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases have been deleted because too many colors seemed distracting. Words which remain to be analyzed are still in 14-point black

Spaces Missing between Words? (Click here for an explanation.)

 
       There was once a young Shepherd Boy [Adjectival to "Boy"] 

who tended his sheep {at the foot} {of a mountain} {near a dark 

forest}.] /  It was rather lonely {for him} all day, [Adverbial to 

"was"] soNote #1 he thought upon a plan [Adjectival to "plan"] 

{by which} he could get a little company and some

excitement.]] / He rushed down {towards the village} calling

out "Wolf, Wolf,"  and the villagers came out to meet 

him,  and some {of them} stopped {with him} {for a 

considerable time}.  This pleased the boy so much [Adverbial

to "so"] that a few days afterwards he tried the same trick,] / 

and again the villagers came {to his help}. / ButNote shortly

{after this} a Wolf actually did come out {from the forest}, and

began to worry the sheep,  and the boy {of course}cried

out "Wolf, Wolf," still louder [Adverbial to "louder"] thanNote #2 

before.] /  ButNote this time the villagers, [Adjectival to

"villagers"] who had been fooled twice before,] thought 

[DO of "thought"]  the boy was again deceiving them,] /  and

nobody stirred to come {to his help}. /   SoNote the Wolf

made a good meal {off the boy's flock}, and [Adverbial to

"said"] when the boy complained,] the wise man {of the

village} saidNote #3: /

      "A liar will not be believed, evenNote # 4 [Adverbial to "not"]

when he speaks the truth."] /
 

Gutenberg Project
Aesopa10.txt

Notes:

1. If someone wanted to argue that this "so" joins main clauses, I would say "fine," even though I view this clause as the result of the preceding statement, "It wa lonely."  See the discussion of "so."

2. I have no problem in considering "than before" as a prepositional phrase, but it can equally validly be considered a semi-reduced subordinate clause -- "than *he had cried it out* before." See the discussion of "than."

3. Because of the semicolon and paragraph break, I have considered this as a main clause break, but the next sentence can equally validly be considered as a noun clause, the DO of "said."

4. "Even" functions as an adverb, modifying the entire adverbial clause.
 
 

Progress
Total Words = 192 Words %
L1: In Prep Phrases  45  23
L1: + Adj & Adverbs 52 51
+ L2: S / V / C 69 86
+ L3: Clauses 15 94

 
Some Basic Statistics on Style
# of Sentences: 8 Words per: 24.0
# of Main Clauses: 14 Words per 13.7
# of Sub Clauses: 9 SC / MC .64

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