The Elements of Style · Chapter VII

Exercises on Chapters II and III

I. Punctuate:

• 1. In 1788 the King's advisers warned him that the nation was facing bankruptcy therefore he summoned a body called the States-General believing that it would authorize him to levy new taxes. The people of France however were suffering from burdensome taxation oppressive social injustice and acute scarcity of food and their representatives refused to consider projects of taxation until social and economic reforms should be granted. The King who did not realize the gravity of the situation tried to overawe them collecting soldiers in and about Versailles where the sessions were being held. The people of Paris seeing the danger organized militia companies to defend their representatives. In order to supply themselves with arms they attacked the Invalides and the Bastille which contained the principal supplies of arms and munitions in Paris.
• 2. On his first continental tour begun in 1809 Byron visited Portugal Spain Albania Greece and Turkey. Of this tour he composed a poetical journal Childe Harold's Pilgrimage in which he ascribed his experiences and reflections not to himself but to a fictitious character Childe Harold described as a melancholy young nobleman prematurely familiar with evil sated with pleasures and embittered against humanity. The substantial merits of the work however lay not in this shadowy and somewhat theatrical figure but in Byron's spirited descriptions of wild or picturesque scenes and in his eloquent championing of Spain and Greece against their oppressors. On his return to England in 1811 he was persuaded rather against his own judgment into allowing the work to be published. Its success was almost unprecedented in his own words he awoke and found himself famous.

II. Explain the difference in meaning:

• 3. 'God save thee, ancyent Marinere!
  'From the fiends that plague thee thus -
• Lyrical Ballads, 1798.
• 'God save thee, ancient Mariner!
  From the fiends, that plague thee thus! -
• Lyrical Ballads, 1800.

III. Explain and correct the errors in punctuation:

• 4. This course is intended for Freshmen, who in the opinion of the Department are not qualified for military drill.
• 5. A restaurant, not a cafeteria where good meals are served at popular prices. - Advt.
• 6. The poets of The Nation, for all their intensity of patriotic feeling, followed the English rather than the Celtic tradition, their work has a political rather than a literary value and bears little upon the development of modern Irish verse.
• 7. We were in one of the strangest places imaginable. A long and narrow passage overhung on either side by a stupendous barrier of black and threatening rocks.
• 8. Only a few years ago after a snow storm in the passes not far north of Jerusalem no less than twenty-six Russian pilgrims perished amidst the snow. One cannot help thinking largely because they made little attempt to save themselves.

IV. Point out and correct the faults in the following sentences:

• 9. During childhood his mother had died.
• 10. Any language study is good mind training while acquiring vocabulary.
• 11. My farm consisted of about twenty acres of excellent land, having given a hundred pounds for my predecessor's lease.
• 12. Prepared to encounter a woman of disordered mind, the appearance presented by Mrs. Taylor at his entrance greatly astonished him.
• 13. Pale and swooning, with two broken legs, they carried him into the house.
• 14. Count Cassini, the Russian plenipotentiary, had several long and intimate conversations during the tedious weeks of the conference with his British colleague, Sir Arthur Nicholson.
• 15. But though they had been victorious in the land engagements, they were so little decisive as to lead to no important results.
• 16. Knowing nothing of the rules of the college or of its customs, it was with the greatest difficulty that the Dean could make me comprehend wherein my wrong-doing lay.
• 17. Fire, therefore, was the first object of my search. Happily, some embers were found upon the hearth, together with potato-stalks and dry chips. Of these, with much difficulty, I kindled a fire, by which some warmth was imparted to our shivering limbs.
• 18. In this connection a great deal of historic fact is introduced into the novel about the past history of the cathedral and of Spain.
• 19. Over the whole scene hung the haze of twilight that is so peaceful.
• 20. Compared with Italy, living is more expensive.
• 21. It is a fundamental principle of law to believe a man innocent until he is proved guilty, and once proved guilty, to remain so until proved to the contrary.
• 22. Not only had the writer entree to the titled families of Italy in whose villas she was hospitably entertained, but by royalty also.
• 23. It is not a strange sight to catch a glimpse of deer along the shore.
• 24. Earnings from other sources are of such a favorable character as to enable a splendid showing to be made by the company.
• 25. But while earnings have mounted amazingly, the status of affairs is such as to make it impossible to predict the course events may take, with any degree of accuracy.