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More Level 4 Exercises

Joke # 5
Answer Key for Level 4
     Verbals are in 18-point bold, usually blue, with their functions indicated after them. (I can't easily draw boxes, ovals, and arrows on web documents.)  Other words counted in relation to them (such as conjunctions, complements, etc.) are also in 18-point bold. The font size of words aleady analyzed has been decreased. Words which remain to be analyzed are still in 14-point black

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

 

Why God Never Received  Tenure at the University

     He had only one major publication.

     It was {in obscure languages}.

     It had no references.

     It wasn't published {in a refereedNote PPG journal}.

     Some even doubt [he wrote it himself.]/ 

     It may be true [that he created the universe,]/

but what has he done{since then}? /

     His cooperative efforts have been quite limited.

     The scientific community has had a hard time replicating 

(Gerundive to "community"Note #1) his results (DO of

"replicating").

     He never applied {to the Ethics Board} {for permission} to use 

(Inf - Adjective to "permission") human subjects (DO of  "to use") .

     [When one experiment went awry] he tried to cover (Inf - 

DO of "tried") it  (DO of  "to cover") up {by drowning (Gerund

- Object of "by")  the subjects (DO of  "drowning")}.

     [When subjects didn't behave [as predicted,]] he deleted them 

{from the sample}.

     He rarely came{to class}, just told students to read (Inf - 

DO of  "told") the Book (DO of  "to read").

     Some say [he had his son (Subject of  "to teach") teach (Inf - 

DO of  "had") the class (DO of  "teach").]  /

     He expelled his first two students {for learning (Gerund

- Object of  "for")  too much  (DO of  "learning")}.

     [Although there were only ten requirements,] most students

failed his tests.

     His office hours were infrequent and usually held (Gerundive - 

PA to "hours were"Note #2 {on a remote mountaintop}.
 

Donna Kleiner, Internet e-mail 3/21/97

Notes

1. Some people feel uncomfortable in explaining "replicating" as a gerundive to "community" and prefer to consider it as a gerund, the object of an ellipsed preposition "in" -- "*in* replicating his results." Either answer should be considered correct.

2. If you haven't noticed already, you will observe that many finite verbs consist of "helping" verbs (also called "auxiliary") plus participles --  words that look like gerunds or gerundives. I could have considered "were held" here as a finite verb. I didn't because the "infrequent" sets up an S/V/PA pattern, and the "and," in this explanation, joins two "equals," the two predicate adjectives. 
 

Progress
Total Words = 157 Words %
L1: In Prep Phrases  32  20
L1: + Adj & Adverbs 34 42
+ L2: S / V / C 68 85
+ L3: Clauses 6 89
+ L4: Verbals 15 99

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