Your goal is to be able to explain how every word in any English sentence is syntactically related to the subject and verb of a main clause. We can fairly easily estimate your progress toward that goal by calculating the total number of words in a passage that you can explain as a percentage of the total number of words in that passage. Suppose, for example, that a passage has five words: "She was in a hurry." If you know that "She" is the main subject, and that "was" is the main verb, then you can explain two of the five words, or 2/5 = 40%. Or suppose that you did not know that "She" is the subject, or that "was" is the main verb, but you knew that "in a hurry" is a prepositional phrase that modifies "was." Then you would be able to explain three of the five words, or 60%. At the bottom of each answer key, you will find a table which estimates the progress you have made if you got everything correct.

       Because we will start with prepositional phrases, the table for Level One looks like this:
 

This table would mean that there are 40 words in the passage. Ten are in prepositional phrases, so 10/40 = 25%. Coordinating conjunctions  -- "and," "or," and "but" -- will be counted in this total if they join prepositional phrases, such as "{in the air} and {on the sea.}"

     Although we are not really concerned with normal adjectives and adverbs, I have added a set of Answer Keys after Level One to indicate (and comment on) the number of such words. On these keys, the tables look like this:
 

This table means that simple adjectives and adverbs account for nineteen additional words, so you are now at 29/40 or 73% of the goal. (Coordinating conjunctions  -- "and," "or," and "but" -- will be counted in this total if they join simple adjectives or adverbs, such as "the long and winding road.") The yellow background indicates that you have reach the half-way point.

     In Level Two, we will add the words in any subject, finite verb, and/or complement position:
 

This indicates that you have reached 90%  (36/40) of the goal. The green background means that you are now more than 75% of the way.

     Although clauses are very important, Level Three only adds a few conjunctions to the wordcount:
 

In some passages, you may be surprised to find yourself at 100% in Level Three, but for our passageless example, we'll add a verbal at Level Four:
 

Extremely rare will be the passage in which you have not reached 100% at the end of Level Five:
 

My example may be a little optimistic, but you'll soon be able to see for yourself.