4th Nine
Weeks
Study Guide
1. A concrete noun names a thing that can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched.
Ex: desk, pencil, script, villain
2. An abstract noun names an idea, feeling, quality, or characteristic.
Ex: excitement, dishonesty, freedom, love
3. A singular noun names one person, place, thing, or idea.
Ex: One student had an interesting suggestion
4. A plural noun names more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
Ex: Several students had interesting suggestions.
5. The possessive form of a noun shows ownership or relationship. Use an apostrophe and –s to show possession. For example, wren’s nest (ownership); Mom’s friend (relationship).
Review pages 31-39 in your Grammar for writing workbook.
6. An appositive is a word or group of words that stands next to a noun. An appositive adds additional information.
Ex: Love Bug, my pet canary, is fed daily.
Ms. Tate, the lady who is by the pool, once won our local golf tournament.
Our bracelet is made of my favorite jewel, emeralds.
More than one appositive may appear in a sentence.
Ex: Lady Gray, my horse, and Duke, my cousin’s pony, son first place ribbons at the fair.
Desserts, peach cobbler and strawberry pie, were served to fifty guests, members
of a wildlife club.
Let’s practice. Underline the appositive(s) in the following sentences.
· We visited Philadelphia, a city in Pennsylvania.
· Popcorn, my favorite food, is prepared in many different ways.
· Snoopy, a famous cartoon character, makes many people laugh.
· Mike, my oldest brother, has given an engagement ring to Viola, the clerk at Minton’s Pharmacy.
· Jim Thorpe, a famous native American, went to school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
7. An antecedent is the noun or pronoun to which a possessive or a reflexive pronoun refers back in the sentence.
Ex: That dog lost its collar. The pronoun its refers back to dog.
Dog is the noun its refers back to in the sentence. Dog is the antecedent.
Let’s practice. Underline the antecedent in the following sentences.
· A monkey hurt its arm
· The little girl broke her foot on the slide.
· The furniture movers left their truck in the driveway.
· Will and I don’t want out meals.
· They handed in their final exams.
8. A verbal is a word that is formed from a verb but acts as a noun, an adjective, or
an adverb.
A gerund is a verbal that ends in –ing and acts as a noun. A gerund phrase
consists of the gerund with its modifiers and complements.
Ex: Allen enjoys singing more than acting.
Playing guitar well takes a great deal of skill.
A participle is a verb form that acts as an adjective. It modifies a noun or pronoun. There are two kinds of participle; present participle and past participles. The present participle always ends in –ing.
Ex: a cheering crowd distracts him. (The present participle cheering modifies crowd.)
The past participle of a regular verb ends in –ed. For irregular verbs such as steal, the past participle has a different ending.
Ex: Stunned, she didn’t know what to say.
(past participle of regular verb)
The stolen diamond was worth
millions. (past participle of irregular
verb)
An infinitive is a verb form that usually begins with the word to and acts as a noun, an
adjective, or an adverb. In each example below, the infinitive is to exercise. An
infinitive phrase consists of an infinitive plus its complements and modifiers. The entire phrase functions as a noun, adjective, or adverb.
· Noun- To exercise is essential for good health.
· Adjective- A plan to exercise is necessary.
· Adverb- To exercise regularly, John made a schedule.
Review pages 136-144 in your Grammar for Writing Workbook.
9. Every verb has four basic forms called its principal parts: the present, the present participle, the past, and the past participle. With helping verbs, these four parts make all the tenses and forms of the verb.
Ex: I admire that singer. (present)
I am admiring her high notes.
(present participle)
I admired her presentation. (past)
I have admired her for years. (past participle)
Review pages 85-86 in your Grammar for Writing Workbook.
10. A pronoun is a word that is used in place of a noun or another pronoun.
Ex: I, me, my mine, you, your, yours, he, she, it, him, her, it, his, her, hers, its, we, us, our, ours, they, them, their, theirs
Review pages 46-56 in your Grammar for Writing Workbook.
11. An adjective is a word that modifies, or describes, a noun or a pronoun
Ex: What kind? slow train, slow car
Which one or ones? last chance, second door
How many or how much? three rows, several passengers
An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
Ex: How? Slowly, quickly, quietly
When? Today, rarely, annually
Where? Nearby, there, around
To what extent? Rather, quite, extremely
A preposition is a word used to show a relationship between a noun or pronoun and some other word in the sentence. A preposition is always followed by an object, either a noun or a pronoun.
A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition, its object, and any modifiers of the object, The object of the preposition is the noun or pronoun following the preposition.
Review pages 103-105 for
adjectives, 112-114 for adverbs, 125-129 for prepositions and prepositional
phrases. These pages are in the Grammar for Writing Workbook.
12. A topic sentence introduces the topic or main idea of a paragraph. It tells what all the other sentences in the paragraph are about. The topic sentence is usually the first sentence in a paragraph, but it does not have to be in that position. A topic sentence should have focus. Focus means you have narrowed down the topic. The topic sentence states the main idea of a paragraph. For example, you might have the general topic of weather. You could focus on thunderstorms.
Ex: If you can hear thunder, then you are in danger of being struck by lightning. Find shelter inside a building or a car. A car is a safe place to go if the windows are closed. If you are inside a house, unplug any electrical appliances. You can leave your electric lights on, but unplug televisions, radios, and microwave ovens. Do not use the telephone. If you remain calm and use common sense, you can be safe during a thunderstorm.
Now you practice:
· Ex: Topic: Hurricanes: What is the focus? What is the topic sentence?
· Topic: earthquakes What is the focus? What is the topic sentence?
· Topic: Blizzards What is the focus? What is the topic sentence?
13. In writing, the audience is an important consideration. Before a writer puts
anything on paper, he or she should consider exactly who will be reading it.
These readers are the audience, and a writer may need to change writing styles
slightly to capture the interest of different ones.
14. A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses. Each independent clause in a compound sentence can stand alone as a separate sentence. The independent clauses are usually joined by and, but, so, or, for, or yet and a comma.
Ex: I like to dance, but Jim likes to sing. (there is a sentence before the conjunction
and after the conjunction.)
· Sometimes a semicolon (;) is used to join the independent clauses in a compound sentence.
Ex: I like to dance; Jim likes to sing.
A complex sentence consists of one
independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses.
Ex: When the fire alarm went off, everyone left
the building. (refer to your
subordinating conjunctions)
Review pages 148-156 in your
Grammar for Writing Workbook.
READING EXAM
A good reader is like a good detective in many ways. To succeed, the detective
must be able to gain an overall impression of the case, to recognize clues,
identify important details, put events in sequence, draw inferences, and distinguish fact from opinion. Similarly, the effective reader must be a “reading” detective- on the search for the main idea, for supporting details, clues, inferences, and so forth. In a word, the reader, like the
detective, must master the skills necessary to obtain successful results. You will also derive word meaning and identify the author’s purpose.
Your exam will be “Cold Comprehension” and will test your ability to use the skills learned in reading. You will read stories and answer questions using critical thinking.